Getting the best from your hand brake

[BlackWidow]

Not the solution just yet.......but just a little foot note that I have discovered, the top return springs or Tension springs on mine are diferent colours and it makes a difference as to which shoe they atach to. Mine are Green and Black and the Green one goes to the none actuator shoe. If you fit them the other way round ie: The black spring to the none actuator spring it will pull the shoe away from the back plate and not allow the shoe to sit correctly on the inside of disc drum and results in a poor hand brake. I have tested the springs at work and one is stronger than the other....

Steve

 

[Chris]

Interesting discovery Steve. I wonder if they have different part numbers too.

Chris

 

[BlackWidow]

Thats the interesting thing, as far as I have found they have the same part number according to the Bible according to Toyota, I have not been able to check TOYODIY yet as my pass word has stopped working. I can't rule out that they have been fitted by someone else. But having said that both sides are indentical with one green and one black spring...I would be very interested if anyone else has the same fitted to their truck.

Steve

 

[BlackWidow]

Just managed to get onto TOYODIY....the part number is the same but once selected there is a choice of Front or Rear so the springs are diferent, one is priced at 3euros the other 5 euros.

Steve

 

[sae70]

That is very interesting & something the could easily be overlooked by the sounds of it When I eventually get around to doing Fiery's handbrake I'll let youknow what I find

 

[sae70]

Now my MOT is due on the 16th of next month but I'm planning on a day @ my local P+P 'Bures' before then on the 24th of this month So will be doing my handbrake between these two dates But I have a really silly question while I'm sat here thinking about it & that is I assume that I have to remove the rear brake caliper before I can remove the disc & do the handbrake service If so is this a relativly easy task

 

[Chris]

Yes you do and yes it is. But you don't have to take the caliper off just to adjust the hand brake, Only if you really want to take it all to bits.

C

 

[sae70]

 

[BobMurphy]

Has anyone else found this . .

I replaced my rear brake disks (and everything else) using Milner's disks. No matter which orientation I tried, I couldn't get the holes in the disk to line-up with the holes in the hub properly. I couldn't really adjust the handbrake shoes the way it was.

So I moved and enlarged the holes

I modified opposing holes to keep everything symetrical.

Much easier to adjust the handbrake now


Bob.

 

[Rob]

Bob did you try to get a refund, or at least let Milners know about this issue?

 

[Chris]

Dunno why you didn't just make your own discs Bob.

C

 

[BobMurphy]

Bob did you try to get a refund, or at least let Milners know about this issue?

No - I just looked on it as a challenge. These 'pattern' disks are cheap and I wasn't surprised that they weren't perfect.

Bob.

 

[BobMurphy]

Dunno why you didn't just make your own discs Bob.

C

(How I wish I had the resources to do that ).

Bob.

 

[sae70]

Ok so I've got my MOT on Monday so had a look @ adjusting the hand brake & although I found the near side to be very dirty after some advice & a bit of cleaning followed the adjusting procedure but to no avail really After speaking with a m8 of mine he suggested that new shoes would be the order of the day So I ordered a set from Milners but when they arrived I didn't think that they have very much more depth of pad compared to the ones currently fitted so this afternoon I had another go @ adjustment before giving in & fitting the new shoes When I adjusted them the first time around I followed all of Chris's procedure to the letter but when it came to backing off the cog I went 3/4 clicks as I thought the disc was binding to much so this time I fully undone the cable @ the lever then wound the shoes fully on using the cog then just backed them off one click-ish then back to tightening the cable Better but still not great Any other pointers would be much appreciated Maybe I'm being to optomistic with how I think the hand brake should feel

 

[Chris]

Steven, if they are a bit dirty like yours, follow the procedure as described, until the point where you tighten the shoes against the drum, then use something to try and work the hub round back and forth. You might find that it will suddenly turn. Give it turn or two then go back to the cog and take up the slack. Then try the wiggle again. Repeat until the hub is locked. Then back it off one click. Sometimes the shoes are not centered properly inside the disc. I presume that you cleaned the inside of the disc? I use the old wire brush on a drill routine. The plenty of spray brake cleaner. That's good stuff. If you don't have any, get a can for each side and go for it. It really shift the £$&* nicely.

Chris

 

[sae70]

Cheers for the extra advise Chris I'll give the tighten wiggle, tighten wiggle thing more of a chance tomorrow I have given both sides a good spray will the brake cleaner & I was gob smacked with how well that gear shifts the dirt it's amazing

I'll update you tomorrow

 

[Chris]

I'm sure that you have been through the whole line, but it's important that everything in there is in good order. The bell cranks must be free and the stupid one-sided pull mechanism must be lubed and slidey too. You can get something on the end of the bell crank and give it good wrestle from the back of the backing plate. Mixing alloy and steel with wet and salt was a sheer brainwave. WHEN I get that lathe that I am promising myself, I shall be turning stainless pins to go with the stainless bell cranks that I haven't made yet! Why they didn't have a rubber bung in the back of the plate to adjust the cog without having to take the wheels off, I'll never know. Mr T's great joke I think, that one.

Chris

 

[chris lc90]

chris is a very nice and important article.. really very helpful..
when i dismantled my rear broken diff i didnt noticed if had corossion the alloys

now iam going to open again and grease..
do you believe that the corrosion we saw in the previous pics coming from any leakage of the break liquid?

 

[Chris]

Kalaspera Chris. Hope you are well.

I don't think that you will get much corrosion of metal with brake fluid. It lives in metal pipes of course. But it is damaging to paintwork and possibly the lacquer on alloy wheels.

I am confused though. What are you going to open again and grease? Your diff or your brakes? Or did you mean corrosion in the end of the axle? I think that corrosion there is due to water pooling in the bottom of the seal.



Chris

 

[sae70]

Finally got the begger done

T'was outside in the rain from 14:00hrs Sunday till well past dark with water running down between my butt cheeks So wished I'd done 'em on Saturday in the dry

Decided to go the whole hog & fit the new shoes that I'd bought the from Milners the week prviouse to see if this gave me the extra bite I needed to get the adjustment required So pleased I did in the end as I discovered only then that the hand braks cable had become detached from the actuator lever No wonder I couldn't get the adjustment that I wanted I also noted that the main tension springs were green & black as described by BlackWidow on the previouse page but mine were fitted the oposite way around to how he described them to be fitted correctly It was also apparent that the actuator shoe had worn uneavenly with the inside edge having less than 1mm of wear material left compared to the outside edge looking almost as new I've now put it all back together with the springs as described by BlackWidow Done all of the adjustment as described by Chris Including the wiggle/adjust procedure
With the result that I now have a proper working hand brake

Thanks to all that have advised & helped