Myles Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 Emissions excellent. Handbrake not-operational... (under dash de dion) Sod. I've tried adjusting the cable, but I can't get terribly significant effectiveness out of it - I can still just about turn a rear wheel by hand and can move the car forward (with effort) on a level surface with it full on... I've got less than an hour... Keep BC free and open for ALL. Membership No. 43xx Alcester Racing 7's Equipe - 🙆🏻™ Edited by - Myles on 23 Apr 2004 15:38:49 Edited by - Myles on 28 Apr 2004 16:45:17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewenm Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 Have you called Caterham yet 🤔 My handbrake is rubbish too ☹️ 72511 miles and driven daily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Day Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 Mine failed on handbrake in 2002, returned for a re-test after adjusing it & it only just passed. Last year went to a small garage (his son has a Westfield) & all the brake tests were done "on-the-road". He was in the passenger seat with his meter & had to operate the hand brake himself. It passed & the tester commented on how efficient *confused* it was. The moral here I think is find a garage with some mechanical sympathy but also tell them you have a limited slip diff. Apparantly these shouldn't be tested "on-the-rollers". I hope you passed. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Wheeler Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 Re LSDs and not testing brakes on rollers if one is fitted, is this common knowledge ? I wasnt aware does it cause damage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Day Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 It was pointed out by someone else with an LSD. I don't have an LSD; I just let the tester think I did. In conversation with the tester they test all 4x4's "on-the-road" as they all have LSD's of one form or another. Whether it does any harm "on-the-rollers" I don't know. I think it's probable that brake efficiency is difficult to measure "on-the-rollers" with an LSD. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myles Posted April 23, 2004 Author Share Posted April 23, 2004 Oh well - I passed on the retest after adjusting the cables - but only by cheating... In the orig. test. the tester sat in the car and operated the brake - on the retest, I was in the car - and 'quite by accident' had my foot on the footbrake during the LR wheel test - it passed...! I didn't repeat the trick for the RR - and that raised a 'oh, that's not so good' from the tester... I did speak to CC tech help - they couldn't suggest anything. I've spoken to a mechanic aquaintance - and he reckons it's all about resetting the ratchet mechanism in the calipers - so next week, we'll sort it properly.... Incidentally - this test station thinks that emissions testing is not required (full stop!) for kit-cars... so if anyone in the Warks area is a bit dodgy, contact me and I'll point you in their direction I volunteered for an emissions test (bog standard 1.6k with a cat) - and it sailed through with fantastic results...! I'll post them when I can find them again - but CO2 was very low and almost all of the O2 was being used up - so the car is running pretty cleanly and efficiently... 😬 Keep BC free and open for ALL. Membership No. 43xx Alcester Racing 7's Equipe - 🙆🏻™ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom7 Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 Myles, I'm amazed you let it on the rollers for brake testing. 😳 Tom Edited by - tom7 on 27 Apr 2004 11:06:08 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myles Posted April 24, 2004 Author Share Posted April 24, 2004 Tom - it was the same place (Roman Motors) - and I did query the use of rollers based on ground clearance - but the guy (Robin) said it would be OK and just went and did it... Maybe it was a different chap - maybe it was because you had an LSD? Heh-ho. I passed in the end... Keep BC free and open for ALL. Membership No. 43xx Alcester Racing 7's Equipe - 🙆🏻™ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted April 27, 2004 Share Posted April 27, 2004 Ok, I had the same problem first MOT after my second hand purchase of the car, the problem was that the h/b lever under the dash was only pulling around three clicks and this was not amounting to much in proportion at the other end, the smaller leaver ontop of the caliper, the idea is to have a lot of travel at the leaver end and this moves the mechanism all the way at the calper end giving good braking, if this is not done and the handbrake not in use correctly or not at all you stand a chance of letting it seize up and the only good way of sorting this out is to replace it.Just to piont out that if a h/b mech does start to seize it can make the caliper stick resulting in burnt out pads and warped discs and lots of smoke, I know from experience on my Audi. X/FLOW 1700 DD 1990 ROAD USE ONLY..SO FAR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myles Posted April 28, 2004 Author Share Posted April 28, 2004 Update. After someone found me a soft copy of a Ford Sierra Haynes manual (not necessarily the right one, but it helped...) I've managed to get the h/brake working much better - so I might as well describe it here. After jacking the car and removing the wheels, I slackened the adjusting nut on the handbrake cable (directly under the prop-shaft, just ahead of the diff) until the handbrake 'ears' were back on their stops. I then 'vigorously' pumped the footbrake a few times - apparently to help reset the mechanism in the calipers. I then tightened the nut adjuster until one of the handbrake ears just started to move (actually, I just checked the LR one as I could see it from under the car where I did the adjusting). Next, several applications of the handbrake in order to even up any slack in the cable and a quick tighten of the lock-nut on the adjuster (actually, I lie... I should have done this but forgot 😳) I then replaced the wheels on the hubs (without doing the nuts up) and tried to turn the wheels. I could - with effort get them to turn, but it required a lot more effort than before. Wheels back on, handbrake off and a quick check to see that the wheels turned freely (ish... the pads will always drag a bit). Back on the ground, handbrake on and an attempt to push the car forwards or backwards. Again, I *could* get the car to move with quite a bit of effort - but it was really quite easy before - and I'm sure that the handbrake will hold the car on all but the most extreme hill now. I always park in gear anyway and can't use the handbrake on the move due to it being under the dash. One thing I did notice is that the RR handbrake ear (and, to a lesser extent) the LR one didn't want to fully return to the stops when the handbrake was released - I'm putting this down to lack of use, and with the exception of trackdays (where the handbrake should not be used), I'm hoping a little light use from now on will free them up even further. Case closed... for now... Keep BC free and open for ALL. Membership No. 43xx Alcester Racing 7's Equipe - 🙆🏻™ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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