I was driving the other day, shaking the dust off, pulled over for a bit and when I pulled the handbrake it kind of popped and now is loose. Also, I noticed that it seems like one of the brakes is partially engaged. Is there something that can easily disconnect? It was a rather new cable but I have not been able to inspect it to see if it broke. Any advice appreciated!

Giardiniera1969 said:

I was driving the other day, shaking the dust off, pulled over for a bit and when I pulled the handbrake it kind of popped and now is loose. Also, I noticed that it seems like one of the brakes is partially engaged. Is there something that can easily disconnect? It was a rather new cable but I have not been able to inspect it to see if it broke. Any advice appreciated!

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You'll need to check the cable or the split pins for failure as this is most likely cause. You can start at handbrake end by unbolt ign and lifting up mechanism to check.

For the brakes, once you have the handbrake sorted, check each wheel to see that they are moving freely. If not check out the drum brake in question. You most probably have a sticking piston, or a broken/loose shoe spring.

Cheers

Steve

I started at the handbrake end as you suggested and found that this adjustment bolt was snapped. The bolt tightens the pulley which pulls the cable. I looked in the manual but did not see this part? Question: Is this a normal part of the handbrake system or something the previous owner rigged up? Thanks!

This is a photo of my 69F brake lever pre resto. Looks like yours is not quite correct.

Normally adjustment is by loosening the 4 bolts that hold the lever assembly to the tunnel and sliding the assembly forwards to take up the slack of a stretched cable (or back if the brakes are binding with a new cable.)

Thinking aloud, it looks like someone has tried to compensate for a cable that is too short, or did not know how to fit a cable correctly in the first place (the latter is the more likely) and then tried to fix it with a work around.

Need to see the brake end of the cable. I know if you have the fit / adjustment wrong on the rear suspension arms it can be a bit confusing to get the cable fitted correctly.

Second photo shows the adjustment point on the suspension arm. A bad install here can make the cable 'appear' to be too short.



Regards

Joe R

Yes, Joe's right about the short cable. The pulley should be directly in the forks of the handbrake mechanism. They have made a mechanism in the place where the pulley should be. You might be easiest to get a new lever and cable but try fitting the pulley back in the handbrake lever.. Possibly the Giard has a longer cable to compensate for the wheelbase. A saloon version may have been fitted.

Yes. apparently the cable on the Giard is 10mm longer each side. That's where the problem will have come from.
https://www.fiat500ricambi.com/fiat500/Cables/KB1006