406 handbrake, what shoes do you use?

[PhillipM]

If you are so good at making stuff work perfectly, where is your solution that everyone can copy to repair their handbrakes.
At least my solution works!

I'm still waiting, I thought I might have been reading about it by now

Your 'solution' is to clean and reset everything to how it should be. Hardly rocket science, nothing everyone is isn't doing.
And you still end up with a sh*t handbrake, whether it passes the MOT or not.

But hey, you keep insisting you're the only mechanic in the country that can wind some adjusters around the the correct way and the rest of us are incompetent morons.

[PhillipM]

My handbrake has always been fine.
.
.
.
.
.
So far.

Or to be exact. It needs the last click to be able to hold the car on a slope.
It passes the MOT Ok,
On that basis , I decided to leave well alone.

Must say, on an everyday car, that isn't being hurled down the side of a Welsh mountain on a rally, or doing handbrake turns....
I can't in any way see how special brake linings are relevant.

Same trouble as you have, the car needs some serious force to hold it on a slope when you've got a few passengers and luggage, it's bloody annoying in a car that's supposed to be easy-to-drive cruiser.

[trufflehunt]

My handbrake has always been fine.
.
.
.
.
.
So far.

Or to be exact. It needs the last click to be able to hold the car on a slope.
It passes the MOT Ok,
On that basis , I decided to leave well alone.

Must say, on an everyday car, that isn't being hurled down the side of a Welsh mountain on a rally, or doing handbrake turns....
I can't in any way see how special brake linings are relevant.

Same trouble as you have, the car needs some serious force to hold it on a slope when you've got a few passengers and luggage, it's bloody annoying in a car that's supposed to be easy-to-drive cruiser.

Nnnnnoooo. It's no trouble to me. Have you considered other vehicles, at a similar price, that offer the all-round qualities
of the 406 ?

[PhillipM]

No, I'm just going to fix the problem and not have it hinder me any more, I've already sorted the rest of the brake system so it's better than when it came out of the factory, why settle for a sub-standard handbrake too?
Same as everyone else on here that isn't happy with theirs.

[trufflehunt]

No, I'm just going to fix the problem and not have it hinder me any more, I've already sorted the rest of the brake system so it's better than when it came out of the factory, why settle for a sub-standard handbrake too?
Same as everyone else on here that isn't happy with theirs.

I think the only voice that you want to hear is your own.

As already suggested, how about you go off and fix it to your own design, then return
with how you did it, and the results.

And then others will decide for themselves whether they view the benefits in the same way
that you do, and in terms of cost in time and money.

[PeterN]

No, I'm just going to fix the problem and not have it hinder me any more, I've already sorted the rest of the brake system so it's better than when it came out of the factory, why settle for a sub-standard handbrake too?
Same as everyone else on here that isn't happy with theirs.

Let us know what you do.

Peter

[PhillipM]

I think the only voice that you want to hear is your own.

Check the title of the thread.

People in here are after solutions to a problem, and all we've had so far is snide remarks about how we're all not fitting/adjusting them right, and one saying I should look at a different car because I don't like the handbrake. Seriously? Is that what this forum is?

Here's an idea, how about the people that want to make snide comments go to off-topic and make a thread there about how we're all sh*t mechanics, and leave the rest of us looking for better quality shoes or another solution to the issue to actually come up with ideas and solutions in this thread?

I'm having some shoes made Peter, just need to grab some new Pagids tommorow to use as blanks, it's the easiest solution if it works because it's just a straight drop-in replacement then if anyone else wants to follow suite, save messing with the mechanisms. Unless someone finds an off-the-shelf shoe that works better to start with, I've got pagid in mine and they don't have much bite.
If that's not enough I'll swap the handbrake out for one with a digressive pull but that's a bit more involved obviously.

[PeterN]

Let us know how you get on. The old fashioned handbrake mechanism had a right angle on the operating levers so you could lengthen them to increase the effort but you can't do much with this system. As I said, the only flaw in an otherwise brilliant car.

Peter

[steve_earwig]

Flaw...

I'd be intersted to see anything that improves the 406 handbrake. What would be great would be to use the handbrake lever from this and maybe the spreaders from that, parts sorced from other PSA cars, but I doubt anything will ever be that simple.

Still...
https://youtu.be/CVaNBrYLvFg?t=3m2s

[PeterN]

Thank you.

Peter

[OllieNZ]

Flaw...

I'd be intersted to see anything that improves the 406 handbrake. What would be great would be to use the handbrake lever from this and maybe the spreaders from that, parts sorced from other PSA cars, but I doubt anything will ever be that simple.

Still...
https://youtu.be/CVaNBrYLvFg?t=3m2s

I wonder if they did anything other than over inflate the tyres to achieve that sort of thing

[PeterN]

Don't believe it

Peter

[jasper5]

If you are so good at making stuff work perfectly, where is your solution that everyone can copy to repair their handbrakes.
At least my solution works!

I'm still waiting, I thought I might have been reading about it by now

Your 'solution' is to clean and reset everything to how it should be. Hardly rocket science, nothing everyone is isn't doing.
And you still end up with a sh*t handbrake, whether it passes the MOT or not.

But hey, you keep insisting you're the only mechanic in the country that can wind some adjusters around the the correct way and the rest of us are incompetent morons.

I never said everyone was incompetent morons...that seems to be your attitude to me and others. I only suggested that adjusting the adjusters in the correct way makes the handbrake actually work...which isn't rocket science....it actually works..shock horror
I've been doing this for many, many years without issue...nobody has ever complained their handbrake didn't work properly after i had adjusted their handbrake, plus I've never had an mot fail on a 406 handbrake.

As i said...I've just done my brother's handbrake on his estate, he doesn't have a problem even with his caravan attached!

Building specialist systems is fine and no doubt they do the job designed for, but we are talking about a standard old car here...I can't build specialist brake systems, but I can fix motor cars when they don't work...and I've been doing just that for 46 years.

If you can make the handbrake work better than it did when it came out the factory that's fine...do it and post the results so that everyone can copy it.