Handbrake adjustment...

[clarkey1984]

Hi everyone, i followed a very useful thread regarding handbrake adjustment, the rear shoe adjustment inside the drum/disk was well out on both sides, had to adjust a good 7 or 8 clicks per side to get it correct, however, on my 1996 2.1TD, where an adjuster nut is shown on the handbrake lever i dont have one, all i have is a pressed hexagonal end with a hole up the middle where you can see the cable is crimped into, and the same goes for the adjuster under the car, where the picture in the thread i linked shows a lock nut next to the part that goes through the white plastic piece, and then a hex part of the cable that you turn, my cable doesnt have that final piece at the end of the threads to hold with a spanner, it turns from the threaded part into smooth circular metal, then to the braided part.

The car had replacement rear pads and shoes just before i bought it and the previous owner did say the handbrake needed adjusting, and it has been undone quite a long way previously, probably to overhaul and replace the rear brake bits, as its adjusted right out so the threaded bar is flush with the end of the metal hex part thats connected to the white plastic piece, and you can pull the whole assembly around because its so slack, which explains why the handbrake goes up what feels like about 20 clicks before it finally holds the car.


So im just wondering how im meant to adjust this, im guessing i just grip the smooth part (or a threaded bit thats far enough out of the way for it not to matter) of the cable with molegrips and then undo the lock nut and adjust, but i still dont know what im to do about the fine tuning of it using the lever adjustment as i have no way of adjusting that bit.

Anyone got any ideas?

Many thanks

[steve_earwig]

I guess molegrips is all you can do at that end According to the part's diagrams there are 2 versions of the handbrake, most of them seem to be the one that adjusts at the top but every now and then the other version crops up, I'm not entirely sure where the adjuster is on that one, maybe it's under the car (and over the exhaust ) or maybe it doesn't exist at all. If you can't adjust the play out at the rear I guess you'll have to investigate.