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Getting the best from your hand brake

I tend to pull the lever up and down hard a couple of times just to settle things, pull up a few clicks and then adjust until the brakes just start to bind. This usually leaves them hard on at about 5 or 6 clicks.
 
The number of clicks isn't really that important. It's not a measure I'd use to set the brake. There are two important stages. The first is that with the brake off, there is a little bit of free play in the lever. ie you can lift it a touch and it's not actually pulling the cable at all. The second is that as you start to pull the brake lever on, that it applies an even braking force to each wheel. At what point it does that is largely preference. The manual iirc says between 7 and 12 clicks? I doesn't matter. If you set the brake up so it's sooper-dooper, you might get full wheel lock at 3 clicks. The system is such a sloppy bag of shite that it might take 12 clicks to pull all the slack out of the system. That is why the thread is all about removing the slop in the brakes so that the movement of the lever is minimal. Justdon't use the lever to adjust the brakes. That is the wrong thing. Those nuts are there to adjust the position of the lever, that's all.
 
Quite agree, in my answer I should have been clearer. I assumed that having read this thread, Matthew would be doing the adjustment at the drum end of things.
 
Not at all dear chap. I was really answering his post rather than responding to yours just for the sake of fullness on a resurrected thread.

Actually, what I do is, with the cable slack, I pull the lever up one click then tighten the nut down until it's touching then lock it off. When I release that one click, there is a little slack in the connection at the lever but not one that feels sloppy and loose
 
Thanks for the quick and detailed replies.I will give it a go tomorrow and yes I will be doing the adjustment at the drum end :)
 
From what I can see, there are pretty much identical. I don't know if they share any components at all, but the 90 is descended from the 80 in many other parts. I don't like the fact that it's a single cable to one side that is then slaved off to the other wheel. I'd prefer two cables from the handbrake lever, through a balancer, then on to each wheel. The slaved, driver side is the one that tends to suffer more from wear and scrunge in the moving bits. Which is odd given that it's not the kerb side one that runs in the gutter. I tend to adjust the nearside one first and then the driver side. I might try doing it the other way around next time and see if it makes a difference, It shouldn't. On the bell crank there is a hole with a pin that goes through it. Any wear in those is magnified in movement in the lever inside the cabin. There is no bush in them. Just metal on metal. It is this slack that you are taking up when you adjust the little screws outside at the back of the drum. I am going to need some longer threads in a bit as I am running out of adjustment!

Chris

" Any wear in those is magnified in movement in the lever inside the cabin."
When you say movement in the cabin lever, do you mean slack as in the lever having loads of clicks on it or physical movement of the cabin lever itself. I'm guessing you mean cable slack but just so I'm 100%.
 
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Re: Who is doing what maintenance today?

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

The bit I find awkward to judge in the above procedure is taking the slack out of the bell crank lever by pushing it away from the drum. It's attached to the backplate via 2 springs so I don't really feel any obvious slack as these 2 springs are already in a tensioned state, when pushing the bell crank away your fighting them springs from the start. Do you mean push the bell crank away from the back plate until you can see the shoes start to move, and hold the crank at that point whilst screwing the stopper bolt out to meet the back plate then.

Edit: - I'm just after thinking, sure I won't be able to do the above method as the disc will be on so I won't be able to see the shoes start to move when pushing the bell crank lever away????
 
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No, the shoes won't move as they shouldbe fully extended. Just stick a screwdriver in the crank to move it against the springs. They aren't that strong. It's very common for the stopper bolt to be too short. There's so much wear in an old vehicle that taking all the slop out can be difficult.
 
@Chris - Great guide, thank you for posting it up, it enabled me to replace shoes, discs, bell crank units, all springs, shoe wires and horribly fiddly stuff.

I'm at the adjustment stage and I must be a bit hard of thinking :smile:. I've slackened off the hand brake at the 10mm bolt in the cabin, then adjusted the cog so the shoes are tight to the inside of the drum. Is the next step to move the bell crank arm out in the direction of the arrow and adjust the stopper bolt so distance A is as small as possible, ideally up against the backing plate?

Then back off the cog until the discs turn and then adjust the handbrake in the cabin.

 
There you go! Exactly that. Just remember as per the guide that the shoe may only be tight up against the drum in a small high spot. This is the point of elongating the dog bones. You slacken the cog until free and lo and behold - the handrake doesn't stop you rolling. Arrrggghhh you think. The FSM remeedy is to drive a pit pulling the handbrake on to essentially shave the shoes to fit the drum diameter. If there is a lot of wear in the mech, you could be some time doing this. The dog bone idea is a way of kinda shortening that rocess bey altering the geometry of the pads to fit the drum better to begin with.
 
Thanks very much, I can’t wait to have a working hand brake. It’s does seem amazing that in such a tough vehicle they fitted this system, no truck is perfect I guess.

I’m having an engineer friend cut a set of extended dog bones for me as my welding skills are zero. From this thread it seems a 3mm extension is the way to go as people have reported struggling to get a 5mm extended dogbone in when the shoes are new too.

Seems your initial guide has lead to a part-time-job in replying to everything so thanks again
 
I have extended stainless dog bones in stock for anyne who's interested.
 
Picked up a set of Chris’ extended dog bones last week and fitted them. Big difference for my handbrake . Still bedding the new parts in but a great deal better.
 
@BobMurphy Thanks for the tip on those 8mm set screws to remove the drum.

Those tips from 2010 really helped me out two weeks.

All the best
 
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