[SantaEugence]

Recently failed the yearly test we have here in the U.K. purely down to handbrake efficiency. It holds the car on a hill but I guess just wasn't quite good enough for the test.

I've got the M Sport Plus brakes. I've gently lifted the handbrake whilst driving to remove any rust on the drums but no difference. Goes up probably 7 clicks with significant effort.
I've read the spring under the handbrake cover can become stuck which causes slack.
Anything else? I'm sure it's been adjusted before, assume they would have used the slot hole on the drums to push the shoes out. However if not could they have tightened the cable elsewhere ie under the car? My old car had adjusters there.
Cars on 64k miles.
Thanks in advance

[FaRKle!]

There's an wheel/cog on the parking brake mechanism right where the shoes are to adjust the tension. You can see it in my below video at 16:41 on the left.

[SantaEugence]

Originally Posted by FaRKle!

There's an wheel/cog on the parking brake mechanism right where the shoes are to adjust the tension. You can see it in my below video at 16:41 on the left.

Thanks Farkle. Tbh I spent more time watching that whole video admiring a) those ridiculous brakes and b) how damn clean that car is! I'm assuming you took it straight from the dealer to your garage to replace the brake set up?

I have a feeling the handbrake has already been tightened up before, could they have done it any other way than adjusting it from that cog? My first thought was to just tighten it a few notches to bring the shoes closer to the drum, but if that's been done before is there something else likely to be wrong

[thejeremyman9]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

Thanks Farkle. Tbh I spent more time watching that whole video admiring a) those ridiculous brakes and b) how damn clean that car is! I'm assuming you took it straight from the dealer to your garage to replace the brake set up?

I have a feeling the handbrake has already been tightened up before, could they have done it any other way than adjusting it from that cog? My first thought was to just tighten it a few notches to bring the shoes closer to the drum, but if that's been done before is there something else likely to be wrong

Maybe someone drive with the hand brake on and wore the shoes? There's only so much adjustment you can make if the shoes are physically worn.

[cfm56d7b]

Originally Posted by FaRKle!

There's an wheel/cog on the parking brake mechanism right where the shoes are to adjust the tension. You can see it in my below video at 16:41 on the left.

AP Racing brakes ... that's all I had to see to appreciate the video.

[FaRKle!]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

Thanks Farkle. Tbh I spent more time watching that whole video admiring a) those ridiculous brakes and b) how damn clean that car is! I'm assuming you took it straight from the dealer to your garage to replace the brake set up?

I have a feeling the handbrake has already been tightened up before, could they have done it any other way than adjusting it from that cog? My first thought was to just tighten it a few notches to bring the shoes closer to the drum, but if that's been done before is there something else likely to be wrong

Haha, the car was pretty dang new (400mi) when I swapped the brakes on it. I'm just about to take it in for it's 1200mi break-in service.

I'm not aware of any other adjustment mechanisms for the parking brake cable. I guess you won't really know how much it's already been adjusted till somebody takes a look.

[ktw]

It's worth mentioning that you're supposed to be able to adjust that parking brake wheel/cog by taking out one wheel bolt, spinning the wheel to align the empty hole with the cog, and then using a screwdriver or something to turn the cog through the bolt hole. I haven't done this myself, but if it works it sounds easier than removing the whole wheel, caliper, and disc. Should also make it a bit easier to repeatedly adjust and check the braking force by pulling the brake lever and spinning the wheel by hand.

[SantaEugence]

Originally Posted by ktw

It's worth mentioning that you're supposed to be able to adjust that parking brake wheel/cog by taking out one wheel bolt, spinning the wheel to align the empty hole with the cog, and then using a screwdriver or something to turn the cog through the bolt hole. I haven't done this myself, but if it works it sounds easier than removing the whole wheel, caliper, and disc. Should also make it a bit easier to repeatedly adjust and check the braking force by pulling the brake lever and spinning the wheel by hand.

Yes there's usually a bunged hole where you can use flat a head to adjust, the shoes shouldn't really ever wear out unless, as someone has said, they've been used excessively whilst the cars moving.

I'll try the cog then see what happens, need to change the pads anyway so worst case I'll take it all off and have a look. Just really didn't want to do that, last time I changed brake shoes getting the stupid clips and springs back on was 🤬🤬

[Billfitz]

The shoes have a limited travel range, so if they're not properly adjusted they're not going to provide any stopping power. The usual method is to tighten them until you can just feel some drag when turning the rotor, then back it off one click. Imagine how much fun it was when all we had was drum brakes on all four wheels.

[SantaEugence]

So looks like adjustment made no difference as the passenger side (U.K. drivers side US) isn't sticking so garage reckons the pad is likely glazed over and not providing enough friction. They've said they can strip and just rough it up but I'm thinking I may well just fit new shoes for the sake of an extra £12.5 per side

[SantaEugence]

Thanks all fitted the new shoes over the weekend.
Forgot what a total pain handbrake shoes are, there was a lot of swearing. Everything was stuck or seized on.
Annoyingly couldn't get to the top caliper bolt to torque it either, torque wrench just wouldn't fit and when I got it on it was blocked from turning by the brake hose. So ended up with 'very tight' with the normal 1/2 ratchet

[BBri89]

How big (long) a job was it to replace the handbrake shoes?

Any useful tips or gotchas?

[SantaEugence]

Originally Posted by BBri89

How big (long) a job was it to replace the handbrake shoes?

Any useful tips or gotchas?

Total pain in the ass. However that was because a)one spacer was seized and took a lot of hammering/heating to get off, other one was also very tight.
B) one disc was seized onto the hub so took about an hour of hammering banging and eventually heating to get off. Note this was on axel stands and I wanted to retain the disc, if you're on ramps or aren't keeping the disc you can probably give it more abuse with a big hammer.
If your discs and everything comes off easy then it's not hugely intensive. I also have M Sport breaks so two bolts on the caliper and it just slides off and sits on top of the hub assembly, I don't know if it's harder with sliding brakes.

The shoes are just fiddly and the springs inside somewhat of a pain.
Tip that worked for me though, there's a top and (fatter) bottom spring. In between the top is the adjustment cog and in between the bottom is the handbrake clamp mechanism.
You can actually just put the top spring in before the adjustment cog, and then lever the cog in. If you put the cog in first then you have to fully stretch the spring which is harder.
Bottom spring is a pain and takes a fair bit of force to hook on to the other side.

There's a few videos on you tube. The E-Series parking brake assembly is the same so if you watch those don't worry about it not being for the F series.
Also I'd probably get both axels up and then strip one side, then use the other side as a guide on how it should go back together because it's not immediately obvious which way round things go, so if you have one side on show still together you can use it for reference.

[Watsey]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

Recently failed the yearly test we have here in the U.K. purely down to handbrake efficiency. It holds the car on a hill but I guess just wasn't quite good enough for the test.

I've got the M Sport Plus brakes. I've gently lifted the handbrake whilst driving to remove any rust on the drums but no difference. Goes up probably 7 clicks with significant effort.
I've read the spring under the handbrake cover can become stuck which causes slack.
Anything else? I'm sure it's been adjusted before, assume they would have used the slot hole on the drums to push the shoes out. However if not could they have tightened the cable elsewhere ie under the car? My old car had adjusters there.
Cars on 64k miles.
Thanks in advance

I made the necessary adjustments on my F31 just a few weeks ago. The handbrake lever was lifting excessively and the parking brakes were't holding the car sufficiently well on inclines.

There are two distinct parts to the process :

Step 1. Temporarily pushing the brake cable tension spring to its 'hold' position.

I found this step to be a bitch of a job, but absolutely necessary. This spring is located underneath the handbrake hinge assembly inside the car. You'll need to free the handbrake gaiter from the centre console trim (easy) and I found that it was best to remove it from the hand brake lever completely. It can be reattached with a cable tie after you've completed the process.

You'll then need a VERY long screwdriver or a socket extension bar (or two) - something around 400mm long. The spring needs to be pushed towards the rear of the car until it clicks onto a retainer. There's a very limited 'angle of approach' between the centre console and the seat, the clearance between the handbrake lever and the centre console, and the location of the spring and it's pretty much a trial and error process until you get it right. The spring is quite powerful so be prepared to push with some force.

Once the spring is held in position you can do...

Step 2 :

The parking brake shoes really don't wear, as they aren't part of the braking (retardation) system. They are purely there as a parking brake. Apart from a failure, I doubt they'l ever need replacing.

It is possible to reach the shoe adjusters with a slim shaft screwdriver through one of the wheel bolt holes. From memory the adjuster on the left hand wheel needs to be rotated upwards to 'tighten' the shoes; the right side needs to be rotated downwards for the same purpose.

You need to get the clearance adjusted so the the shoes just make contact with the parking brake drum - you'll hear the friction when that starts to happen. To do that, the transmission needs to be in neutral so as to allow the wheels to be turned. That's difficult on a car with an AT as the engine needs to be running in order to select Neutral, but even at idle speed the torque converter will produce enough torque to turn the wheels. You can see where this is going...you need to be able to hold each wheel motionless, with a wheel bolt hole positioned precisely in-line with the parking shoe adjuster, and make the adjustment while the engine/AT is trying to turn the wheel.

It's jobs like these that make me wish I had a manual transmission.

After you've adjusted both sides evenly it's just a case of reverting everything.

Good luck

[SantaEugence]

Originally Posted by Watsey

I made the necessary adjustments on my F31 just a few weeks ago. The handbrake lever was lifting excessively and the parking brakes were't holding the car sufficiently well on inclines.

There are two distinct parts to the process :

Step 1. Temporarily pushing the brake cable tension spring to its 'hold' position.

I found this step to be a bitch of a job, but absolutely necessary. This spring is located underneath the handbrake hinge assembly inside the car. You'll need to free the handbrake gaiter from the centre console trim (easy) and I found that it was best to remove it from the hand brake lever completely. It can be reattached with a cable tie after you've completed the process.

You'll then need a VERY long screwdriver or a socket extension bar (or two) - something around 400mm long. The spring needs to be pushed towards the rear of the car until it clicks onto a retainer. There's a very limited 'angle of approach' between the centre console and the seat, the clearance between the handbrake lever and the centre console, and the location of the spring and it's pretty much a trial and error process until you get it right. The spring is quite powerful so be prepared to push with some force.

Once the spring is held in position you can do...

Step 2 :

The paragon brake shoes really don't wear, as they aren't part of the braking (retardation) system. They are purely there as a parking brake. Apart from a failure, I doubt they'l ever need replacing.

It is possible to reach the shoe adjusters with a slim shaft screwdriver through one of the wheel bolt holes. From memory the adjuster on the left hand wheel needs to be rotated upwards to 'tighten' the shoes; the right side needs to be rotated downwards for the same purpose.

You need to get the clearance adjusted so the the shoes just make contact with the parking brake drum - you'll hear the friction when that starts to happen. To do that, the transmission needs to be in neutral so as to allow the wheels to be turned. That's difficult on a car with an AT as the engine needs to be running in order to select Neutral, but even at idle speed the torque converter will produce enough torque to turn the wheels. You can see where this is going...you need to be able to hold each wheel motionless, with a wheel bolt hole positioned precisely in-line with the parking shoe adjuster, and make the adjustment while the engine/AT is trying to turn the wheel.

It's jobs like these that make me wish I had a manual transmission.

After you've adjusted both sides evenly it's just a case of reverting everything.

Good luck

So I was adjusting the shoes on both sides without locking the spring under the handbrake lever. Does the spring just make this job easier by releasing the tension?

Yes I had to turn the car on and put it in neutral every time (engine off) This was fine until the battery went flat 🙄
There's a screw on the bottom of the ZFAT on these that manual shifts to neutral but as my car is lowered seemed easier to just turn it on and do it from the selector... until the battery went.

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by Watsey

.you need to be able to hold each wheel motionless, with a wheel bolt hole positioned precisely in-line with the parking shoe adjuster, and make the adjustment while the engine/AT is trying to turn the wheel.

There's no need for that. Put one wheel bolt in place and use your socket wrench to turn the rotor, listening and feeling for the shoes to drag, one rotation at a time. You can even do it with the wheel on the car. Completely unscrew one wheel stud on each rear wheel. Turn the wheel until adjustment screw is visible in threaded hole. Turn the adjusting screw with a screwdriver until wheel can not be turned anymore by hand, then back off the adjustment until it just will turn.
By his description the OPs problem was caused by corrosion, which will happen in areas with normal or high humidity if the brakes aren't regularly cleaned and lubricated.

[SantaEugence]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

There's no need for that. Put one wheel bolt in place and use your socket wrench to turn the rotor, listening and feeling for the shoes to drag, one rotation at a time. You can even do it with the wheel on the car. Completely unscrew one wheel stud on each rear wheel. Turn the wheel until adjustment screw is visible in threaded hole. Turn the adjusting screw with a screwdriver until wheel can not be turned anymore by hand, then back off the adjustment until it just will turn.
By his description the OPs problem was caused by corrosion, which will happen in areas with normal or high humidity if the brakes aren't regularly cleaned and lubricated.

Not sure what caused it, car was only on 65k but the parking brake on that side just sucked. Things inside didn't look particularly controversial and no worse than the opposite side which worked ok. They recommended a strip clean and roughen as suspected glazed pad but as above decided may as well put new ones on and take it all off for a good clean out.