handbrake low efficiency xantia

[chinkostu]

So, the old girl failed her MOT today. Now, the handbrake, to me, has always been ok. It came on with a few clicks and held the car. Local garage gave it 15% efficiency. Whipped the wheels off and they were stiff and difficult to turn even with the handbrake off. Took thr cables out and the wheels seemed a bit smoother.


I'm changing the pads anyway but is there any reason the handbrake would be dragging and it not be right for the testers? Plus whats the best way of refitting and adjusting the handbrake?

[citronut]

either the cables are slit were they go through the support eye on the strut allowing water in causing the them to bind/hold up,
or the levers on the calipers are not returning fully off with the hand brake released,

sounds more like the first one though as you say unhooking the cables allows the wheels to turn more freely,

the other possibility is someone has over adjusted the cables at the caliper ends,

what happens ( or doesn't more so ) when the hand brake does not fully release with the hand brake off, the hand brake mechanism inside the caliper does not adjust up as its mean to,

[chinkostu]

On for its retest. The nearside cable adjusted up perfectly, but there was no adjustment possible in the offside, almost like the cable was too long as the nuts are right up against the edge and the cable was a faff to get into the caliper arm. Unless theres a way of adjusting it under the handbrake lever near the equaliser but i ran out of time as the resest was at 11.

[citronut]

you need to adjust the calipers up whilst the cables are both unhooked from them,

you adjust these calipers up by pressing hard ( do not stamp, but just very hard foot pressure ) on the brake pedal with the engine running,

after doing this two or three times, unwind the adjuster nuts on both cables re/hook the cables up to the calipers, then pull the slack up on each cable
( just to the point before the cable pulls/moves the caliper lever ) whilst spinning the adjuster nut up, once they are more or less equal lock the lock nuts up

[chinkostu]

Ah! I've had the handbrake off but the cables attached. The one cable is still the wrong length though as it JUST reached the hook with both nuts wound right back

[citronut]

if its the O/S one that seems to short, it is possible someone has fitted a N/S one on that side, as the N/S cable is shorter than the O/S

LEFT
LONG 1265
- EXCEPT BVM ML5T

4745 H5
LEFT
LONG 1295
- BVM ML5T

4745 G6
RIGHT
LONG 1335

not sure which part No.'s suite your car without the last 8 digits of your chassis/VIN No.

[chinkostu]

Possibly!