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Fiat Cinquecento handbrake???

It's a 1994 basic 900cc box on wheels. I've been asked to give it the once over for a mates daughter who recently passed her test. Seems tidy for it's age & 12 months mot but got an adisory on the handbrake (Your vehicle has only just met the required park brake efficiency). Well I'm not sure how it passed cos one side does f*ck all and the other may just hold on level ground if you're lucky !!! Rear shoes look fairly new and the sliding pivot bar is moving freely. Handbrake adjuster was on the very last thread so got a new cable thinking it had stretched. New cable on but exactly the same, it adjusts all the way to the max and little brake efficiency. Only thing I can think of is the lever bars that the cable attatches to have bent inwards but with not knowing much about these cars thought i'd ask the experts here?

Reply to
Redwood
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It'll be the shoe adjusters in the drum. If it's the ones I'm thinking of, they're built into the shoe retaining spring bits, and they were renowned for not working and slipping. I've only had the misfortune on working on them a handful of times, so I'm not entirely sure how they work, but I have seen a couple that had been welded up.

Reply to
moray

Doesn't appear to have any shoe adjusting mechanism on these brakes, only the lever pivot bar that the handbrake connects to, which slides the lever to open the shoes. Have just bought 2 new ones so will compare it with the old when I get em off.

Reply to
Redwood

The question has already been answered, but lots of them have a useless handbrake. Mine would stick on if it was thinking about getting close to freezing point. The funny thing was, you could apply the handbrake, get out and move the car. But if it stuck on...

It'd also stick off too in the winter. So I would recommend you recommend :-) leaving the car in gear rather than relying on the handbrake.

Reply to
DervMan

Finally got these poxy fukin things working in the end. Took the old shoes to my local factors just to compare them with a set of new ones and all looked identical - but for a tenner I decided to buy new ones anyway. Fitted the shoes and with the drum still off I operated the pivot lever by hand to see what's happening and noticed that the big spring that are riveted onto each shoe actually slides as I operated the brakes. Now the only thing I can think of is that one or more of these spring contraptions on the old shoes were seized solid, so although the h/brake & pivot lever was working fine it was still not pushing the shoes fully out. Brakes are now spot on & work evenly on both sides. Got good h/brake on 2 notches and fully locked on the

3rd. I've read that these are shit brakes at the best of times so will advise leaving it in gear. Every movable thing is greased to the max so hopefully should last a little while at least.

Here's a pic of shoes with the built in sliding mechanism spring thingy.

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Reply to
Redwood

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