Technical Hand Brake

[jaque]

Hi, I am in desperate need to get my Fiat through the M.O.T so i can get to a night club in London.
If anyone can give me any advice on fitting a new hand brake cable that would be great.

 

[rallycinq]

Rear of car in air, on axle stands please. Remove rear wheels, remove plastic cup surrounding handbrake lever under floor.Remove split pins from clevis pins on rear shoe activators. Remove clevis pins and store somewhere safe. Loosen outer cable at small bukhead just aft of handbrake lever, remove split pin from clevis pin inside pulley on bottom of handrake lever, unclip cable from bottom of car and throw it in the bin.
Before fitting new cable make sure the actuators are not seized or too badly worn. If in doubt fit new ones. Make sure you use new split pins in all the clevis pins.

That is the easy bit.

Adjusting it, is a matter of making sure you have the most effort applied at the correct point on the ratchet. It can be as little as two flats of a difference between working and not.

Hope this helps

Cheers

D

Grumpy old git going fast downhill rather than downhill fast!!

 

[ivantate]

did this at the weekend, no problems really.

I did have to free off one of the linkages, which wasnt too hard but also found a seized wheel cylinder.

Would recommend fitting new brake shoes at the same time at this helps with adjusting the cable.
My shoes are just over half worn and the new cable is on the limit of its adjustment.

I also took the exhaust guard off to get the pin out of the wheel on the bottom of the handbrake.

Make sure you have it jacked up nice and high and the job will go smoothly.

 

[ClamChowder]

I would second the above re brake shoes, but also add that as per the Haynes manual it is a vvvvvvv good idea to take the handbrake actuator out of the back plate and give it a good clean with brake cleaner and a good lube with copper grease. These things can all be had at a very reasonable cost from Halfords. Make sure the actuator is operating nice and freely and it'll be much easier to adjust the hand brake properly.

Oh and if you are going to make a habit of this sort of thing a Haynes manual is the best 10 (or is it 15?) quid you'll ever spend.

Chowder out.

 

[jaque]

Cheers fellas, this puts me right on track.