850 Hand brake adjustment

My car has failed the MOT because of too much travel on the hand brake. I'm going to fit new rear brake pads, are there any other adjustments I should make to the hand brake cable etc

thanks.....ttfn......Alistair

Reply to
Alistair Ross
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Assuming that the 850 is the same as the S/V70, fitting new rear pads will make no difference!

The rear brakes are a combined disc/drum affair - with the handbrake being provided by the drum part.

You can adjust the drum brakes by turning the disc/drum (with the car jacked up and the wheel off, and the handbrake lever OFF) until the adjustment hole lines up with the adjuster, and then using a screwdriver through the hole. The Haynes book for my V70 says to tighten it until you can't turn the disc, and then back it off by 4 or 5 notches. It also says to drive for about 400 metres with the handbrake on by a few notches *before* starting the adjustment - to clear any accummulated crud (my word) off the drums.

With shoes correctly adjusted, the handbrake should come on fully in between

3 and clicks on the handbrake lever ratchet. It it takes more clicks, the cables need to be adjusted. The adjusters are under the centre console armrest (just behind the lever) - on the V70 anyway, requiring the lid to be opened and the internals to be removed.

HTH.

Reply to
Bonnet Lock

Ironically, since a car that fails on brakes should be retested, surely it would have been cheaper to let the MOT station adjust them for a tenner or so rather than take the car away to pay the full retest fee?

(Unless the centre is feeling charitable?)

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

I asked the same question, but they assured me it was beyond their capabilities. They were however happy to sell me a new tyre. Thanks to 'Bonnet Lock' I shall have a go myself.

thanks....ttfn.....Alistair

Reply to
Alistair Ross

So lets see...they need to remove the wheel to replace a tyre and that's all you need to do in order to poke a screwdriver in to flip up the ratchet to adjust the brake.

Oh boy!

Do they check oil too but then suggest you go elsewhere to get some put in? :)

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

This was a local firm that I've been going to for some years. 6 months (ish) ago they were bought out by 'Joe Bloggs', their name now appears along with

5 other business's. All the 'old boys' have been replaced with new mechanics, no two told the same story as to what they could or could not do or even if there would be a retest fee,(they have now decided not to charge me) the whole place was a shambles. They want life easy by just doing batteries, tyres, exhausts and MOT's. I will of course now take my business elsewhere. I find it increasingly harder to find any Garages interested in cars, so thank God for the newsgroups.

ttfn.....Alistair

Reply to
Alistair Ross

I know the feeling. In a hurry I took my Saab 9000 to a local one that just offered those type services, also failed on handbrake.

Fortunately, they were willing to adjust them and as a bonus, the young lad that did it used to run a Saab 9000 and knew how to do it properly on that car.

So I hear, there are lots of changes coming on the MOT front anyway from an admin and implementation side.

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

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