Getting pissed off with one side of Shauna's handbrake not working.
Turbo Mini Forums

Never in my life have I had such a problem getting a handbrake to work properly. The worst part of it is that the passenger side actually works! So since having the car she's had new drums, new shoes, new cables, the adjusters were working properly and adjusted up properly and I've just fitted a new handbrake lever on the side that doesnt work properly. The passenger side works lovely. What else can I do to make this work as I'm really at wits end with it, the adjuster was wound up more to get the handbrake on the drivers side to actually do something but now I've taken the drum off again it's prematurely worn the shoes and there was a load of dust in there. Even when it does 'something' you can still grab the wheel and turn it easily. If you pull on the cable on the radius arm towards you it starts to actually pull up properly which made me think it may have been the lever. But the amount you have to pull it to make it lock up is probably nearly an inch

Edited by Carlzilla on 25th May, 2014.

quadrants getting stuck

broken cable

shoes fitted wrong way around (can be done lol)

rear brake cylinder fubar

stub axel problem

my ideas :)

Drives
-Ford S-max Mk2 Ecoboost
-Rover 100 VVC #2 - track project

Searching is all you need on TurboMinis

Quadrants move freely, rear wheel bearing is fine, shoes definitely the right way round and the rear cylinder does work when you press the brakes. I'm sure it's got to be something in the setup I've overlooked or something. New cables too.

Is it twin cables or a single? If it's a single, get some grease on the the link where the handbrake short cable meets the rear cable. Make sure the grease gets in right where the cable runs against the link on the long cable.

You'll also probably have to re-adjust both drums after.

Edited by Carl S on 25th May, 2014.

Single cable mate, probably haven't got enough grease in there. I'll have to get under with the grease gun and grease the crap out of it.

has the lever arm coming out of the back plate ever been changed? There are 2 different sizes available so if you've got a mix 1 side will never work properly

Masturbation is not a crime its a hobby

I've issues with this in the past but generally its been with the twin cables.

I assume, given your comments above, the levers are free moving

Have you checked for any wear in the clevis pin on the quadrant? This could effectively lengthen the cable and give the issue. The other thing to check is that the cable isn't too long. I remember back in the day at the mini specialist i worked at, we had a great deal of issues relating to this very thing. We must have had 5 or 6 cables all differing lengths on the shelf at one point.

pull the hand brake on, and get underneath and check the quadrant isnt hitting the radius arm,

I had shoes, and lever arms worn or made so shodily that they have enough play the quadrant bottoms out on the arm,

I built the lever arm up with weld ad filed it back to shape.

I had the same problem, found the quadrant was hitting preventing full travel so I cut a bit off, now works perfect.. ps I had fitted new cables aswell