Hi, my P plate escort is due in for its MOT on Saturday. the handbrake is coming up well passed the 3 or 4 clicks. Ive looked at the adjuster in the actual handbrake itself and its screwed up to the hilt. I havent had time to check what kind of mechanism is in the hubs for taking up the slack. Can anyone tell me if it's self adjusting or manual please?
many thanks
Kev
it is meant to be self adjusting, if the cable is too tight the self adjusting cannot operate. they are often iffy on that model. you need to slacken the cable right off, strip the brakes out and free off the self adjusters, check the wheel cylinders move etc. rebuild, press the pedal a good few times, take it for a short drive and then adjust the handbrake cable to give operation at about the seven clicks area.
that is of course assuming that you have drum rear brakes !! some of the high performance ones have discs on the back.
Cheers, yeah its drum brakes - this old banger would never have discs on the rear. Thanks for the info. If I have time on friday then I'll do it or I'll cancel the MOT.
Many thanks.
Kev
Par for the course for any ratchet self adjuster on drum brakes, I'd say. Why do they bother?
if they are inspected and cleaned each year they give no trouble. Problem is that they almost never are.
They never work properly on the SD1. Which I assume uses the same sort of design. One reason I'm fitting rear discs. ;-)
But if they need inspecting and cleaning once a year wouldn't it be as easy to have a manual adjuster?
The problem with the SD1 is they tend to adjust ok with the car stopped, but let go on the move. The pedal gradually increasing travel as with normal adjusters would be preferable. I gave up on them after buying the third or fourth set. ;-)
I've had them on every car I've owned for the last 20 years, with one of those being 10 years old. I've never had any failure or difficulty with them; they have worked perfectly.
I take the drums off every second year to clean and inspect. The first time I do this on a "new to me" car, I lubricate all the mechanism. Then I forget them.
The alternative of manual adjusters is just too awful to contemplate. They suffer from the same sort of neglect as self-adjust, and seize up. It's almost impossible to get them balanced side to side.
Of course, having owned drum-braked Minis many years ago might be what makes me hate manual adjusters; they really were dreadful!
Chris
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