Technical 55SX - Handbrake is crap!

[JonnyBoy]

My Punto's handbrake has recently become really crap at holding the damn car still. I have to park on a fairly steep hill where my Uni house is, and every time I put the handbrake on to park on the hill it creaks like buggery and the car can actually be moved by getting out and pushing it downhill.
Obviously I always park it in 1st gear so that it can't roll away, but I've yet to suss out whats wrong with it. It had new brake shoes a couple of years ago, I had a look at them the other week and they are hardly worn.
I've tried adjusting the cable at the lever, but I'm out of travel on the adjuster now and the lever still comes all the way up, although it needs a hell of a lot of force to get it there.
I'm a bit short of ideas now; I'm thinking of just replacing the drums and shoes, to rule out worn drums or crap self-adjusters (as the self adjusters are part of the brake shoe) and if thats no good then perhaps the cables as they might have stretched. Unless anyone's got any ideas?

Bloody car... always waits till I'm broke to go wrong!

 

[thefishdude]

not had a hand break prob in this car but from expereince i know that the hand break cables can stretch and fray and eventually break. my dad had an old nissan when i was young hand break was crap and got steadily worse he put up withit, one day he let me drive i said this hand break was crap and i was determined to make it work so i pullled as hard as i could and it snapped the cable he was not happy.

anyways cable may of stretched or it could be fraying. also make sure one side isnt seized

 

[faster4_tec]

get the cable replaced (really needs to be on ramps as it weaves in and out of everything).
And make sure the drums are cleaned out with a flatscrewdriver to remove any corrosion that could prevent the shoes from acting smoothly

 

[JonnyBoy]

I've changed one handbrake cable on this car a while ago, wasn't the most pleasant of jobs! I think that when I'm a bit less skint I'll end up doing it all - drums, shoes and cables. I'll also clean the backplates out and get rid of any dirt/rot. Cheers for the advice guys