handbrake rear cable?!?

Hi all,
I'm realy hopeing you can all shead some light on my very anoying problem asap,
just bought a puma and I live on an extreemly steep hill, but the handbrake wont hold on any hill!!

so changed the rear shoes as they looked very shinny and that did not help so I have changed the rear handbrake cable on both sides which has helped a little but it still wont hold on steep hills + one of the wheels is getting very hot ! after just 3 miles the alloy is well hot with a slight brake smell.

so my questions are
1) which side does the longer brake cable go? ( fitted the shorter one to the left n/s as it seemed to measure up better i think!)

2) I cant hear any bearing droning, so assume the heat is coming from the handbrake sticking on. but when i put the drum back on, pumped the brake pedal and handbrake lever the drum spun (not as freely as the other side though)

3)any other ideas to why the handbrake wont hold?( oh i blead the side on the handbrake that seemed worse )

p.s im sure the shoes are bedded in now as a pulled up the handbrake while traveling as shown by a mechanic. and the old drums dont have any major grooves in


any advice/help would be great

thanks

Hmmm... not heard of that before... maybe it is just too steep? Why not just leave it in gear.. shouldn't roll then.

ye that does work!! but living in sheffield there are many steep hills it wont hold on yet all our other cars are ok! and as its a xmas gift for the better half so I can really expect her to do the three pedal dance with the right foot on the brake and acel and the left on the clutch !!

The only thing I can think off is that I have put the rear cable on the wrong way around (long and short sides) and one side is holding and one is not but its not obvious to see when the back end drops!!
or it euro parts gave me a faulty cable with wrong lengths?!?

I cant for the life of me think why one side of the cable would be longer than the other but I have just looked up one of Yogs pictures and his car has the green cable on the drivers side. I dont know if your cable came in green one side and black the other ???

Did you notice the cables were different lengths when you unwrapped them or are you concluding they are different lengths because one doesnt seem to reach as far as the other on the car ??

It could be if your car has had the axle off at some point for the bushes, that its been put on slightly wrong ie the axle brackets not tightened on the ground which could leave your axle not on straight i.e one side is more forward than the other which makes you think the cables are different lengths.

Measure both sides of the car to make sure axles on straight, when my axle was done it was out over 1/2 an inch on one side and the handbrake wasnt as good as it could have been

sounds like it hasnt been adjusted properly putting it back together and/or the self adjusters are faulty

slacken handbrake take drum off wind self adjusters inthen put all back together pump footbrake a few times and it should self adjust up, then tighten up the cable

if that still doesnt work points towards faulty self adjusters which can sometimes be self fixed by cleaning them up and bending the copper tooth on the ratchet mech in so its a bit firmer on the grooves

All good advice but what about his contention that one side of his new handbrake cable is longer than the other ??

yes i measured them before putting them on and one was a good 2 inch ish longer than the other, i was just as confused ! as the cables look like they run exactly the same route just on opposite sides and there seems to be no reason for a longer one.
unfortunalty europarts cable did not have a green sleeve just a tiny bit of blue tape on one cable but i cant remember which one off hand (ill check ive put it on the drivers side tommorow ) ...

Thinking back though, I think only matched up the left hand side and just asumed the other side must be the longer perhaps i miss matched them but with a 2 inch difference gap thought i would have noticed it ...

also i do remember the girl i bought the car from the other day did mention a back bush so ill measure the distance from the edge of the front rim to the back rim on both sides to check that its the same thanks !! did you notice bad handling when it was out? is re alining the axel a big job?

thanks for your reply

Yes i thought self adjusters myself and did what you suggested and it did not seem to fix it but i did not try bending copper teeth so ill give that a try also thanks

WOW £50 for new adjusters !! was thinking ill just put new ones in !! not now !

I have the same opinion as you the cables follow the same route and you'd think the lever is in the centre of the car so why would they be different lenghths, but stranger things can happen.

That is your number one question really, should one side be 2 inches longer than the other ??? and if so which side should be the longest?

I didnt notice any handling probs but I really dont push it much. As for the axle allignment possibly being off, the bush job would have to have included the axle coming off or the brackets coming off to do the bushes.

I got my advice from Scubasteve on this matter and it seems a simple matter to loosen off the 8 bracket bolts to finger tight and lowering the car to the floor causes the axle to pull itself straight and level on its own, then tighten them up while its on its wheels on the floor.

I couls see the difference on mine between the tyre and the arch without measuring

quest63 said:

All good advice but what about his contention that one side of his new handbrake cable is longer than the other ??

Click to expand...

they are sided and one side is longer, any difference the equaliser will take care of anyway

Thanks quest63 I'll take a look for sure about the alignment .. Glad it does not sound like to big of a job if it is out !!

Scubasteve, do you know which side of the car the long side is designed to go on does it not matter due to the balance bar ? I was just thinking as they are marked (green cable , or in my case bit of blue tape) its to show which side goes where.

Thanks again guys !! Been driving me mad trying to figure it out !!

When I fitted my new drums I only did one adjuster as I forgot to do both sides so I was getting one good side and one bad and the car would hardly hold on the slightest of hills. This actually showed up on an MOT and nearly failed as there was quite a difference between each side. Later, and as Steve recommends, after a few pumps of the pedal and quite a few more on/off's of the handbrake lever they eventually evened out and both are strong as anything to the point where the MOT I just had he said he'd never seen a car lock out the brake thingy so quickly/easily

from memory i think the green side is drivers side i can confirm later though

yes green is drivers side found an old pic of mine

Thanks guys,
I'll doubel check the side I have put the blue marker on (green on your cables) and also the self adjusters to see if that sorts it!!
really hope so as this will be the 5th time ive had the drums off !!