Getting the best from your hand brake

[Olazz]

Nous, de la Démocratique Rebublic du Congo, merci de nous rejoindre et de célébrer notre fête nationale de fil résurrection.


Vous êtes un héros national dans la Démocratique Repubic du Congo

J Kabila.

 

[silvercruiser]

sorry had to google it

We, the Democratic Rebublic of Congo, thank you to join us and celebrate our national holiday thread resurrection. You are a national hero in the Democratic Repubic of Congo Kabila J

 

[Chris]

Luckily, French is one of the only languages I have some grasp of. That and holiday Greek.

I would be honoured. It is a great day. Even better if you want to contribute something to a thread about handbrakes.

 

[MisterCruiser]

Andrew. Tighten shoes against the drum, then pull the bell crank away until it stops, then adjust the screw out to take up that slack. Then you back the cog off. This way, all of the slack has been taken out of the system. I then put a couple of click on the hand brake lever - maybe 3, then I screw the nut down by the lever until the brakes start to bite. So, when I fully release the lever, the brakes will be fully off.

C

On my cruiser, When I follow your steps of slackening everything off and starting with the stoppers against their back plates, and then winding out the cogs so the brakes start to bind,,,,, if I then push the crank lever away with my hand in order to screw the stopper bolts back to touch the backplate, the stopper bolts wouldnt be long enough.

Does what im describing make sense to you? Am I adjusting the crank lever correctly by just pushing it away as far as it will go by hand without using any major force, then wherever far it goes, you then screw the stopper bolts out so as they reach the back plate? Is this correct?

Why would it be the case that the stoppers arent then long enough to reach the back plate, Wear in the crank lever?

Thanks for your reply in the other thread by the way, very helpfull. Think I understand the procedure now allright, just could do with you clarifying if the way Im interpreting the crack lever adjustment regards the stoppers is correct? Cheers

 

[Chris]

You're nearly there. yes. You don't start with the stoppers. You start with the cog with the disc on. Effectively you can't get the shoes much tighter than this. Zero movement. You then adjust up the stopper to match. This sort of mimics full handbrake on position. Now both left and right brake are the same. But you only wind the stopper to take obvious mechanical slack. I do this without the cable attached usually. At this point, you have the wheels both locked which isn't any good, so that's why you drop one or two clicks off the cog to release the shoe. But the bell crank doesn't move as it's held in place on the backstop by the stopper bolt. Now you put the cable on. I then put three clicks on the lever and tighten the cable inside until I can just feel the wheel start to bind a tiny touch. This means that when I drop the lever back down, the shoes CANNOT be binding. Lock the cable off and you should be done. When you pull the lever now, the brake wil start to come on at click 3 and then by about click 7 or so the wheels should be solid. Because the DS wheel is slaved off the NS wheel, I do sometimes take one EXTRA click off the NS side so that the DS brake gets a head start. This allows for the slack in the slave cable.

OK so why is the little stopper bolt so often not long enough any more? Ah hah, now we're back to the other thread. We don't really know. Just general wear in the mechanism. Remember that the handbrake system operates on mechanical amplification. mechanical advantage. Big easy movement of the lever produces small strong effect at the wheels. So any bit of slack at the wheels, transposes into big extra movement at the lever. It's not linear.

 

[MisterCruiser]

I think im still a little confused regards the slack and the stopper bolt, excuse my thickness Generally speaking, when the handbrake is off; the stopper bolts should be resting against the backplate and when its engaged the stopper bolts should be away from the backplate, yeah? So, when you wind the cogs out to lock the brakes on, what do you mean by adjust the stoppers to match, do you mean screw the stoppers out to touch the backplate?

Think I get it now, then when you release the cog by 1 or 2 clicks, this slackens the shoes off the drum but the crank lever doesnt move because we're after screwing the stopper bolts right out to touch the backplate? At this stage now, it mimics the handbrake in the off position and and the shoes are released due to the cog being wound back 1 or 2 clicks and the stoppers are against the backplate.

What happens now at this point, if you put your cable on and it results in pulling or moving the crank lever stopper bolt away from the backplate,, this shouldn't happen though because we should have the cable fully slackened off and therefore the cable wont be under pressure when connecting it to the crank, yeah?

 

[Chris]

Now you've got it.

 

[StarCruiser]

After finding it difficult to adjust my handbrake properly after adding some length to the 'dog bones' I finally found and got to read this thread. Chris, your procedure is perfect.

There are a couple of things I have noticed though. The stronger, yellow/green springs were on the back shoe. I'm pretty certain that the hand brake shoes have never been changed or these springs altered from new as I haven't done them in 12 years and at 60,000miles they wouldn't have needed looking at when I bought it. Also, thinking about this, the servo effect (where the front brake shoe pushes itself and the rear into the drum due to the drum's rotation) would be impeded if the rear shoe were pushed out first and may chatter or knock as the shoes rotate with the drum and drop back again against the stop.

The other thing is that the anchor point where the cable first meets the rear axle is attached to the outer of the handbrake cable, the inner of the cable goes to the near side wheel and the outer, through the anchor point which is free to move, is transferred via the bare cable to the offside. By doing this, it's rather like pulling one side with one hand and the other side with the other, there is equal and opposite pull as the cable pulls the near side AGAINST the offside.

After freeing up this anchor point, all was free to move and I had to take the adjustment at the hand brake lever back a good 25 to 30 mm before it would meet to fit the last cable. I suppose this was largely due to adding weld (2mm each side) to the dog bones.

Brilliant Chris, we are not worthy…

 

[Chris]

Ha ha, well fair exchange Rich, I've learned loads from you. Get the brake right and it's enough to lock the wheels whist driving. Trust me, but I don't recommend that you do it. If you haven't sorted every last bit, then it'll never work right. We need Chrisgreen90's Avensis conversion.

 

[StarCruiser]

Thanks Chris. I'll have to do a search for that Avensis mod out of interest on a rainy day (so fairly soon). I do now have a handbrake that feels good and strong that I could use in an emergency, it is a revelation. The little stopper screws on the back had to be wound in just a smidge to accommodate the weld on the dog bone. If I had gone for any more than the 2mm I went for, I would have been pulling it apart again and filing it down. There will be no more driving off with the handbrake on .

 

[MisterCruiser]

Hardly worth starting a new thread on this, it's my annual Mot / Doe test time and the handbrake has reared its ugly head again, an usual. I adjusted them a little before sending the cruiser in for the test but it still failed on the handbrake, in fact that's all it failed on.

I stripped them properly today after it failed, and found some of the shoe material had fallen off the passenger side shoes. I've fitted new Toyota brake shoes to the passenger side now, and adjusted the handbrake as described in the above procedure by Chris.

Anyway, when taking the slack out of the drivers side bell crank lever, I had to fit a longer bolt as the original was too short to reach the dust plate. When I release the handbrake now, this bolt doesn't return all the way to the dust plate. Also the passenger wheel locks before the drivers, I re-adjusted the drivers wheel at the ratchet cog to tighten up the drivers but I don't want to tighten it too much more in case it starts to bind, and best I can get is both wheels spin ok when handbrake is pulled up 3 clicks, passenger is locked at 4 clicks and drivers side doesn't lock til 7 clicks.

Is there any thing I can do to balance them out a bit more? And does the drivers side stopper bolt not returning to the dust plate fully when released have any bearing on this?

Honest to god, this handbrake messing every single year is painful

 

[Chris]

Yes it is.

OK as the driver side is slaved off the passenger side, this imbalance isn't unusual. I thought I'd addressed this somewhere. I too have longer bolts fitted in one of my Cruisers. The losses in the system are such that wear demands a longer bolt for MOT adjustment. OK OK yes I could go thorough the whole rigmarole but actually taking up the slack at the long bolt is so easy on the day of the MOT it's what I do.

Trick is to set the driver's side tighter. Now actually from what it sounds like you get all this, I think that maybe you just need to run your truck with the hand brake pulled on a bit to square off the shoes to the drums so that they fit better and give as much holding force each side as they do 'fell' when adjusted. Man that's hard to explain. Where's that other thread that's running? Feeling tight at the lever doesn't mean that the shoe is fully touching all of the drum all the way around.

The stopper bolt should return, yes. Somewhere something isn't quite balanced right or it's binding a bit.

 

[IRLGW]

We all know that the 90 hand brake can be a PITA so here's a little guide to getting it working well. Actually replacing the linings is a tricky little job and needs some patience and dexterity. But usually, the linings will last a long time. Milners do a replacement hand brake cable with fits beautifully and is much cheaper than OE. Always worth doing that too if you need an overhaul. A key part of the assembly is the bell crank lever. The hole in the middle and the pin can wear. This means that you have movement where you don't want it and you'll have the lever up around your neck before the brake works. You can weld it up and then re-drill it. Or you could speak to our resident part expert the Rt Hon Mr Rubinstein.



They are a drum in disc design. The outside is the main brake and the inner is the handbrake drum.
To start with slacken off the cable inside the cabin. You'll need a long reach 10mm socket and a spanner. I ground one down to make it thin enough.
The cable needs to be completely slack.

The with the wheels off, turn the hub until the hole that you can see though is at 6 O'clock. Use a torch to look through the hole. You will see a toothed cog wheel. With a flat screwdriver, flick this cog toward you and down until it stops. This will release the disc off the hub. You may need to whack it a bit as the disc can stick to the hub with time. Turn and hit, turn and hit. it will come off. Have a good look around inside and a bit of a clean if needed. Check the friction lining thickness on the shoe. Operate the bell crank lever on the back of the brake (attached to the cable) to make sure that the mechanism is free and moving. If it isn't then it's a strip down job. This is the Achilles' heel of the system. Likely as not, the off side one will be sticking.

OK if all is well, put the disc back on and tighten with two wheel nuts to centre the disc. Now wind the cog back the opposite way until it is tight. Try to move the hub back and forth to make sure that the shoes are centered. Just use a bar in the wheel studs. Right, now you need to look at how much movement there is in the bell crank lever on the back of the assembly. this is how much you'll need to take up before the shoes even move. There is a little flat faced bolt on the end of the bell crank with a lock nut. Adjust this until the movement has all but gone from the bell crank lever. Now back the cog off one click and the hub should be free to move again. Now, there is no slack in your system. All of the joints, swivels, guides etc in the cable must be free and moving - yes? No good if they are stiff. Now re tension the cable inside the cab until the wheels stop moving. Put a couple of clicks on the lever first if you like and tension it up - then when you drop the lever, everything will be slack. If you have one wheel that 'comes on' before the other, you can balance them with the little cog, but you shouldn't have to if everything is on the money. You need to be sure that there is no drag with the handbrake off or you'll be wearing your linings out and adding to your fuel load.

Make sense?

Chris

BUMP

tell me is the adjuster rotation (down to release and up to tighten) the same on both sides? Mine appear to be opposite which could be my problem...

 

[IRLGW]

I also neglected to notice is the adjuster is operated by the handbrake mech i.e an auto adjuster? If its not, then it doesn't matter which way is up

 

[Chris]

No the adjuster is purely a manual thing. The handbrake doesn't take up any wear by itself. Now then - the cogwheel thing. You can put them in either way around which means that on one, up and back could be loosen or down and forwards could be loosen. There's no convention. I always put them back in the same way so I know. If you wind it one way and the drum gets slacker and comes off then that's loosen!! If you got the other way .....

 

[IRLGW]

Super Chris that saves me the hassle of taking the two hubs apart.

 

[Chris]

Here's a snippet that I posted on another handbrake thread. Just for people who like to read the past post first.

Here's a quick explanation of why the brake is so poor.

There's no lubrication in there and lots of metal on metal contact. The shoes are a perfect fit on the bench when you place them inside the drum against the wall. Well, they SHOULD be but due to manufacturing tolerances they sometimes aren't. When you set the shoes up with the little cog wheel at the bottom of the wheel, it winds the shoes out against the drum until the touch. But it only winds the bottom; in other words they pivot around the top point. What happens is that the first bit of the shoe to touch the brake drum effectively stops any further adjustment. So you pull on the handbrake lever and get a fantastic feeling handbrake. Wow, that's brilliant. Then off you go, find a hill, pull up, stick the brake on, let the main brakes off and you just slide down the hill. Sound familiar?
This is because only a tiny portion of the friction lining is actually touching the brake drum. No way near enough. What you can do next is drive along and just keep applying the handbrake in 100 m bursts. Relatively gently and only a few applications to prevent it getting too hot. This is actually in the factory service manual. What it does is sort of machine off friction material until it's the same shape as the inside of the drum. But there are limits and whilst it does work, it doesn't always prove to be enough. You will probably have to adjust the brake again when you have finished.

Right, if that doesn't work and you have removed all the free play in the mech as I describe in the set up method, then it's time to mess with the dog bones. What this does is push the tops of the shoes out a bit more so that when the adjuster is turned or the lever is pulled, the shoes make a different contact pattern with the brake drum surface. So adding a small weld or a longer bone simply isn't going to end in disaster. We're talking a couple of mm extra. If you do too much, you can't get the drum back on!

 

[Shayne]

In short expect to fail on your first attempt .

What i do now after much faffing about and frustration is to put it all back together then tighten the adjuster through the disk like so

As tight as i can get it both sides then back off the adjuster until i can turn it by hand "just" by popping the wheel back on for leverage .

Wheel nuts on and i'm finished for a week having achieved absolutely nothing because my handbrake will soon be rubbish again .

During that week i'm only driving to the shops (5 or 10 minutes) and here to actually reach 30mph for more than a second around town is pretty much impossible so heat is not really an issue but towards the end of the week the handbrake is non existent so for the last few runs i will keep the handbrake lever half up .

The following weekend the wheels come off , i tighten the adjusters as far as they will go and then slack off the drivers side however many turns it needs so a can rotate by hand using the wheel for leverage . The passenger side adjuster gets backed off the same number of turns and the wheels get bolted on .

Job done .

 

[Chris]

Like I say, read the full post and all is explained. Remember that as it's a rubbish set up, one side slaves off the other. So always set the slaved side slightly tighter than the non slaved to allow for the slack in the system. Handbrake imbalance is also punishable on the MOT.

 

[Matthew1955]

Having just replaced the pads all round on my LC4 I am now thinking maybe I should adjust the hand brake.I have read all of this thread and I don't really want to get involved in a total strip down as has been described unless I really need to.In fact I don't at this stage even know if it needs adjusting.So my question is how many click should there be on the handbrake in the cab mine currently has 11/12 clicks to hold the car on an about 12% slope,is this to much and is there a recommended number of click for it to be correct,thanks