You know you are getting old when......

[Harry Bloomfield]

MOT due soon, so having tweaked the handbrake adjustment for the few years at the front adjuster, this morning I decided it was time to do the adjustment properly at the rear hubs.

It's tricky to do, even if you have done it before - a matter of spying the adjuster through one of the wheel stud holes, then poking a flat blade in to (hopefully) make contact with the edge on adjuster and guessing which way to turn it. You cannot see much of the adjuster, because it is above the stud hole. You have to look up from below and turn the hub to spot it.

Long ago I stuck a couple of white LED's on the end of some wire, which I could then poke through the hole to help find it. This morning I just could not find it. The original workshop manual was little use, so long ago I rewrote the manual to make it easier for others DIY'ing the adjustment. I had to resort to what I had written this morning, to get the job done...

 

[Burnerman]

Is this the drum / disc system Harry?
John

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Is this the drum / disc system Harry?
John

Yep! The serrated adjuster is edge on to you as you try to peep at it through the wheel stud hole, designed to click as you rotate it against the show return spring. The workshop method of adjusting was to simply tweak the adjuster at the front, by the lever - ignoring the more difficult adjustment at the hubs. A process which would end up eventually with a near useless handbrake. To add to the confusion, the adjuster could be fitted at the factory in either orientation, so you could never be sure whether turn it up or down to take up slack.

Properly set up and used, the handbrake is better than any handbrake on any vehicle I have come across. It needs to be used, to prevent the drums from rusting internally. The official factory advice to fix a poor handbrake, was to drive the car round the workshop car park, with the handbrake partially applied, to polish of the rust.

Done now and it locks the rear wheels solid on two clicks.

 

[Burnerman]

Yep, I know them well....best to back the adjuster right off to release the disc/drum then you can clean up and remove any rust lip that may be there.
John

 

[EFLImpudence]

Isn't this adjuster wheel/cog supposed to be tightened automatically by (what you are calling) the [show?] return spring when the brakes are used? Admittedly they often don't work properly.

Or am I thinking of something different.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Yep, I know them well....best to back the adjuster right off to release the disc/drum then you can clean up and remove any rust lip that may be there.
John

No rust, I use the handbrake to keep it working.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Or am I thinking of something different.

It is a similar edge on wheel, but it is completely manual adjustment. I have come across the auto-adjust ones where the rear uses brakes shoes for the foot brake, but these shoes are solely for the handbrake.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Ok.

 

[Burnerman]

No rust, I use the handbrake to keep it working.

I meant the area where the shoes don’t sweep, at the edge of the drum.
Leave it on the Merc Sprinter and you’ll never get the things off
John

 

[Mottie]

Isn't this adjuster wheel/cog supposed to be tightened automatically by (what you are calling) the [show?] return spring when the brakes are used? Admittedly they often don't work properly.

View attachment 246385

Or am I thinking of something different.

That’s the theory but I’ve never know them to work very well.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I meant the area where the shoes don’t sweep, at the edge of the drum.
Leave it on the Merc Sprinter and you’ll never get the things off
John

This particular layout, must have plenty of clearance between shoe and drum, because they always come away easily once the adjustment is backed off. It has a peculiar thing, in that despite the handbrake being fully on, the wheel can still be easily rotated a few degrees back and forth.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

That’s the theory but I’ve never know them to work very well.

It is many years since I last had a vehicle with shoes on the rear with the auto adjust mechanism, but mine always worked well.

More usually, I have had disks all round, with the handbrake operating via the front disks. Now that type did give me lots of issues, on SAAB's and Granada's. I could never get them to work as efficiently as l like handbrakes and I often as not stuggle to wind them back, then to get them to auto-adjust properly.

 

[Mottie]

It is many years since I last had a vehicle with shoes on the rear with the auto adjust mechanism, but mine always worked well.

Well, working in the motor trade for years and servicing vehicles with so-called self adjusting brakes, I can tell you that it’s very, very common to have to manually adjust them - especially when there’s a lip on the brake drum be it the Ford Bendix type where a couple of screwdrivers are needed or the ratchet type in post #5. Experience counts as you have to manually adjust them then bang the drum on, hoping that it will be okay once the drum lip has cleared the shoe. The best manually adjusted self adjusters are the VW ones where you can adjust those with a pointed tool through a wheel bolt hole.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Ford Bendix type where a couple of screwdrivers are needed

I bought a gadget like a wire frame square cast box. It was designed to wind in several varieties of handbrake piston, using a ratchet handle. I still have it in my tool chest.

 

[Mottie]

I bought a gadget like a wire frame square cast box. It was designed to wind in several varieties of handbrake piston, using a ratchet handle. I still have it in my tool chest.

Yes, that’s for disc brakes though Harry, I’m referring to drum brake self adjusters.