Sorry for being lazy and asking the retro hive mind, but there's half a reason for the laziness... I work in the kerb and it's soaking wet out there so I'm hoping to get a headstart on where to look first.
Took my 73 Scim out for a drive yesterday. Got back. Hoiked the handbrake lever in the usual fashion but the lever came right up and had no tension. A quick mooch, and it became apparent that the cotter pin that holds the cable to the brake at the rear wheel had disappeared.
Found a spare in my toolbox this morning. Fitted it. Tested the hand brake. On a level surface, with just me pushing the car the handbrake offers enough resistance to stop me pushing it. However. the lever still comes right the way up and doesn't feel very 'strong'.
My theory: With the cable completely slack and me yoiking it a few times yesterday before the penny dropped it had disconnected, I suspect the slack has allowed the cable to flop out of some kind of restraining bracket that helps keep it tense. Its the only thing I can think of. The essential cotter pin between cable's end bracket and brake's eyelet was missing so that must surely be the reason for the handbrake failure.
I've had a look and a feel at the rear of the car and everything there seems to be fine. So I'm going to have to jack the car up... which I hate doing in the soaking wet because we have an absurd camber on our road and the car threatens to slide off the jack (yes, I use jackstands but getting the car up in this weather is never a relaxing experience). I'd like to have a go at jacking it up at the best point first time to get to the most likely place for the problem to have occurred.
So, I'm wondering (and my question is) has anyone else ever had this kind of problem and is there generally a point somewhere where this is most likely to be? EG is it likely to be towards the front of the car or the rear?
Or is there anything else I might be missing in my theory regarding the now-fixed-but-still-disconcertingly-slack handbrake?
Thanks for any thoughts and advice!
= )
Took my 73 Scim out for a drive yesterday. Got back. Hoiked the handbrake lever in the usual fashion but the lever came right up and had no tension. A quick mooch, and it became apparent that the cotter pin that holds the cable to the brake at the rear wheel had disappeared.
Found a spare in my toolbox this morning. Fitted it. Tested the hand brake. On a level surface, with just me pushing the car the handbrake offers enough resistance to stop me pushing it. However. the lever still comes right the way up and doesn't feel very 'strong'.
My theory: With the cable completely slack and me yoiking it a few times yesterday before the penny dropped it had disconnected, I suspect the slack has allowed the cable to flop out of some kind of restraining bracket that helps keep it tense. Its the only thing I can think of. The essential cotter pin between cable's end bracket and brake's eyelet was missing so that must surely be the reason for the handbrake failure.
I've had a look and a feel at the rear of the car and everything there seems to be fine. So I'm going to have to jack the car up... which I hate doing in the soaking wet because we have an absurd camber on our road and the car threatens to slide off the jack (yes, I use jackstands but getting the car up in this weather is never a relaxing experience). I'd like to have a go at jacking it up at the best point first time to get to the most likely place for the problem to have occurred.
So, I'm wondering (and my question is) has anyone else ever had this kind of problem and is there generally a point somewhere where this is most likely to be? EG is it likely to be towards the front of the car or the rear?
Or is there anything else I might be missing in my theory regarding the now-fixed-but-still-disconcertingly-slack handbrake?
Thanks for any thoughts and advice!
= )
. Glad I can answer something back to the RR collective - other cars use a similar setup whilst others use twin or even triple cables but the same principle applies - something has generally slipped off a guide of some sort and got stuck where it shouldn’t. Have had one jump off the quadrant on a Mini trailing arm in the past. 
