New to this forum and thought i'd pass on my handbrake experience as it seems to be a common problem with these motors. A mates daughter recently passed her driving test so he got her an old 94 basic cinq and asked me to look it over. Was recently MoT'd with an advisory for the handbrake. I had a look and don't know how it even passed as it was utter crap & would just about hold on flat ground if you were lucky!! (the o/s was doing nothing).
All shoes looked fine with hardly any friction worn. Handbrake was fully adjusted to the max thread so I thought perhaps it had stretched so fitted a new one - made no difference. I read about the pivot adjusters often sieve so got 2 new ones - nothing wrong with the old ones but I noticed someone had put a spot weld on the groove where it butts up to the shoe in an attempt to push the shoe out further on the side that was not working at all. Still made no difference.
Took the old shoes to my local motor 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 new 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 thingy that's built into the shoes actually slides forward as you operate the brake. Now the only thing I can think of is that one or more of the springs on the old shoes were seized so although the h/brake & pivot lever was working fine it was still not pushing the shoes out cos of a seized spring on the shoes. Brakes are now spot on & work evenly on both sides. Now got good h/brake on 2 notches and fully locked on the 3rd.
So if anyone is experiencing similar probs check that the shoe springs are not seized solid as I could have saved myself a new brake cable & pivot lever. But at least it's all working fine now.
All shoes looked fine with hardly any friction worn. Handbrake was fully adjusted to the max thread so I thought perhaps it had stretched so fitted a new one - made no difference. I read about the pivot adjusters often sieve so got 2 new ones - nothing wrong with the old ones but I noticed someone had put a spot weld on the groove where it butts up to the shoe in an attempt to push the shoe out further on the side that was not working at all. Still made no difference.
Took the old shoes to my local motor 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 new 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 thingy that's built into the shoes actually slides forward as you operate the brake. Now the only thing I can think of is that one or more of the springs on the old shoes were seized so although the h/brake & pivot lever was working fine it was still not pushing the shoes out cos of a seized spring on the shoes. Brakes are now spot on & work evenly on both sides. Now got good h/brake on 2 notches and fully locked on the 3rd.
So if anyone is experiencing similar probs check that the shoe springs are not seized solid as I could have saved myself a new brake cable & pivot lever. But at least it's all working fine now.
