Handbrake bad design?

[Rev Jules]

The trouble with hand brakes are the people trying to yank them up through the floor, that’s how they get stretched, yanking them up across the ratchet, that’s what the release button is for, depress and pull up.

Rev

[COLVERT]

Originally Posted by Rev Jules

The trouble with hand brakes are the people trying to yank them up through the floor, that’s how they get stretched, yanking them up across the ratchet, that’s what the release button is for, depress and pull up.

Rev

They try to yank them through the floor because they haven't bedded them in correctly.---

As per my earlier post.-------------------Be careful what you yank, I say.-

[steve-45]

I think out handbrakes are a great improvement over those fitted on the Rover 45. The handbrake mechanism connected to the rear caliper (no internal drum) has been an on going pain on mine.

Just fitting new rear calipers so hopefully will be OK for a while....

[RoverP480]

Originally Posted by T-Cut

A perfectly set up handbrake system, using all the recommended parts, will still exhibit the locked wheel slop that's regularly mentioned on the forums. Though raised frequently over the years, no convincing explanation of why it behaves thus has been proposed. Less so, how it could be fixed. IMO, it can't be fixed because of an inherent design flaw that resides within the drum.

TC

If I remember correctly the reason for the 'slop' is that the parking brake is a duo servo , ie both shoes act as leading ones whichever way the wheel is trying to rotate. The small amount of movement (float) is a design feature to allow this feature to work. Due to the small diameter of the park brake drum the duo servo is required to meet the legal park brake requirements on what is a 2 tonne motor, that fixed shoes with a simple expander would not meet. Using the disc brake calliper for parking was also discarded for the same reason. I worked for Rover Group at Gaydon involved with the braking engineers when the design was being finalized. It is 20 years ago so the little grey cells are slowing down a bit!

[hogweed]

Originally Posted by COLVERT

Patience is a virtue.

Ummm… patience…? I’m going to have to look that word up, as I don’t know it – is it French or something?

Originally Posted by COLVERT

Your brakes will slowly improve and be able to hold your car on a slope though I use belt and braces myself by leaving the car in gear as well.

Yeah I’ve always had to leave it in 1st. OK, I’ll persevere with impersonating an old woman driving along with a trail of smoke from the handbrake she forgot to take off two towns ago…

Originally Posted by RoverP480

If I remember correctly the reason for the 'slop' is that the parking brake is a duo servo , ie both shoes act as leading ones whichever way the wheel is trying to rotate.

Of course, that makes perfect sense. I was a biker back in the 70’s, and the difference between SLS and TLS front brakes was dramatic, so I thought why the hell don’t they do this on our handbrakes… but then of course bikes didn’t have to brake backwards

[macafee2]

was it Renault Lagunas that used to role down hills even with handbrake on?
I think it was caused by the discs cooling and shrinking so the pads did not grip.
The recall advert, Even when its standing still it's on the move or something very similar

macafee2

[clf]

Originally Posted by macafee2

was it Renault Lagunas that used to role down hills even with handbrake on?
I think it was caused by the discs cooling and shrinking so the pads did not grip.
The recall advert, Even when its standing still it's on the move or something very similar

macafee2

Was it a Citroen, with handbrake applied to the front discs? Can't rem the model, but if you were braking hard before application of the parking brake, as you say the discs cooled , shrunk just enough to allow the weight of the car to overcome the friction.


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[HarryM1BYT]

Originally Posted by hogweed

Ah, wheel slop… never heard that one before. But that’s one of the problems, yes. Put handbrake on, release footbrake, car moves a little then (just about) stops.

The other problem is that it doesn't actually hold the car on a hill. I mean, maybe if I wrenched the handle up another couple of notches it might, but other cars I drive (like my parents’ Siesta) hold completely on 1-2 notches, with little pull needed on the handle

They all do 'slop' to some extent, the amount varies from car to car. No one has found the precise cause, nor a fix.

Properly set up, with a modified compensator, decent shoes and drum - the handbrake is as good as any. Unlike many cars, the 75 uses a completely separate handbrake system from what ever the hydraulic system uses for its brakes - be they pads or shoes, the result is the shoes and drums get little use in braking the car to a stop - and there lies the fix...

Make a point of giving it some work to do. Where you can safely do it, apply the handbrake as you come to a stop - the final yard or two will do it, just to keep the drums free of rust and dirt.

My handbrake was rubbish when I got the car and nothing annoys me more than a less than perfect handbrake. Within weeks it was perfect, once I had worked out that one of the issues was the compensator, designed a fix and has stayed that way ever since, by simply using it. The unofficial Rover fix, was to drive the car with handbrake lightly applied, around a car park to clean the accumulated rust and dirt off the drums.

Take a look at my How To link below.

[HarryM1BYT]

Originally Posted by RoverP480

If I remember correctly the reason for the 'slop' is that the parking brake is a duo servo , ie both shoes act as leading ones whichever way the wheel is trying to rotate. The small amount of movement (float) is a design feature to allow this feature to work. Due to the small diameter of the park brake drum the duo servo is required to meet the legal park brake requirements on what is a 2 tonne motor, that fixed shoes with a simple expander would not meet. Using the disc brake calliper for parking was also discarded for the same reason. I worked for Rover Group at Gaydon involved with the braking engineers when the design was being finalized. It is 20 years ago so the little grey cells are slowing down a bit!

Not absolutely certain, but from memory and logically I think you are wrong.

Logically a twin leading shoe would only work well for one direction of rotation - pretty useless for a handbrake to hold a car on both a up slope or down slope.

[maxi_crawf]

'slop' never heard it described as that before, I always think of the car 'sitting down' after applying the handbrake.