Author Topic: handbrake adjustment?  (Read 39490 times)

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Offline aeroadster

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Re: handbrake adjustment?
« Reply #15 on: June 16, 2018, 02:12:30 pm »
The calipers I've seen on ebay are new or at least professionally re-furbished, and they are sold by highly rated suppliers.

In fact this morning, I found a supplier in Germany who offers a new caliper for £47 including postage and I don't need to pay a deposit or return my old cores to them.  That's my back up plan if the new rear cables don't to the job.

Luckily a caliper swap is quite easy.  I was tempted to buy a new pair for the rears on account they are so cheap.  I have plenty of Millers Oils racing brake fluid and I've contemplated a set of stainless braided hoses too.

I don't trust garages anymore.  A lot of the young mechanics I've come across in London are trained to swap parts and not diagnose faults.  I've seen mechanics apply the wrong type of grease to caliper slider pins and brake pads.  When installing brakes, people seldom clean the key caliper contact surfaces and instead they try to whack in a pad that sticks solid and wont slide back and forth as pressure is applied and removed.  I'm lazy so I use a Dremel type tool with a mini grinding disc or wire brush attachment to free up the hardened debris.  I also use this thing called brake cleaner that escapes some people  :D

I've seen a front RH and LH brake calipers for a GH model on ebay for about £140, and Autodoc sell them from about £55 each + postage

Offline apav

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Re: handbrake adjustment?
« Reply #16 on: June 17, 2018, 09:01:33 am »
I did not know about this autodoc! It looks amazing.

I bet that my calipers were not good and the monkey was shouting that they were find and did not want to replace them in warranty.

I have no idea how he messed up and the new calipers did not work.

The other garage found one of them being 10% lazy. He says it is the handbrake but it does not even look that is braking right.

Can you sell the old caliper or do you keep them as suvenir?

I wish I had the space to play it with it. Even if I had to be there many times, at least I would know that it was done properly.

Offline aeroadster

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  • Year: 2009
Re: handbrake adjustment?
« Reply #17 on: June 19, 2018, 01:54:22 pm »
Autodoc are a good source of parts.  I've used them for years.  The only downside is that the delivery timescales can vary by as much as 5 working days.  But I'm a patient guy and I remember the days of mail order which took 28 - 60days for something to arrive.

I'm still waiting for my eBay sourced £37 set of rear handbrake cables to arrive before deciding on whether the caliper needs to be addressed.

If I did replace the caliper, I would probably spend the money on a caliper refurb kit, fix it and stick it alongside the 15years of Saab parts in my shed.  You never know when you need a spare!

There was a time when I would do small work on my car that was parked on the road.  It's illegal, or so I hear but I still see it going on around London.

Offline aeroadster

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  • Year: 2009
Re: handbrake adjustment?
« Reply #18 on: June 22, 2018, 01:00:15 am »
All done.

I fitted the new rear handbrake cable set today and everything is back to normal.  There are no issues with the caliper, as per my initial diagnosis.

Incidentally, the aftermarket set of cables were well made with the exception of one thing.  The pair of cylindrical lugs at the end of the cable were the wrong size and shape and didn't fit into my front handbrake cable's holder.

I had to grind off the excess metal in order for them to fit.

For future reference, in the event you need to change your handbrake cable on a GH model, you need to remove the near side under-tray that is located between the wheelbase of the car, but you only need to remove the bolts from the rear half of the off-side under-tray to get sufficient access.

If you have access to the Workshop manual it is easy, and my helpful tips for re-assembly are:
1. Unhook the release/rebound spring and re-attach this only after the cables are installed, the front and rear handbrake cables have been mated, hooked up and the adjustment nut is re-attached to the threaded screw.
2. Undo and remove the adjuster nut from the front handbrake assembly, and proceed to push the threaded bolt halfway down (1 inch) into the ratchet mechanism using a small screw driver.  This will give you more cable to play with and simplifies the reinstatement process, where you need to connect the front cable to the rears beneath your arm-rest.
3. Once the handbrake cable lug is hooked into place behind the caliper, remove the screwdriver that was gently holding that threaded adjustment screw down, then wiggle the handbrake up and down and pull the cable back towards the handbrake lever.  This encourages the threaded screw to resurface so you can attach the adjustment nut to the end,
4. My new adjustment nut sweet spot position is now 1cm from the top of the threaded screw  - instead of at the bottom some 4cm away.
5. Don't forget to clean the grime off all of the handbrake cable contact surfaces behind each caliper with Plusgas or something similar.
6. Remember to re-locate the release/rebound spring before refitting your wheel

I performed tests when adjusting the handbrake adjustment nut to make sure that the 6th click of the ratchet would fully lock the rear wheels.  Once the new cable is bedded in (one week should do), I'll adjust it again to make that the 5th click.

Offline mareng73

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Re: handbrake adjustment?
« Reply #19 on: June 05, 2020, 04:32:02 pm »
If your hand brake doesn't click, it means that the pawl and rack are worn, this because        (and you hear it all the time)  people pull the handbrake on without pressing the button on the end, which eventually wears the rack out as the pawl is perhaps hardened. It is just laziness and poor teaching during the driving lessons.
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