Handbrake Cable

[Neil-yaj396]

Is the removal and refitting simple?

My handbrake has stopped working on one side accompanied by a big increase in travel of the lever. This happened when applying the handbrake on a steep hill and I got a stretching feeling from the lever followed by a failure of what feels like the offside brake, hence me suspecting a partial failure (stretch) on that side.

Haynes shows the cable as a single unit wrapping round an adjustable 'U' connected to the lever mechanism, but gives no indication of how the cable is located to the calipers.

[cheeky monkey]

Hi Neil
Same happened to me yesterday !.  Jacked car up last night and HB not working on near side. Took caliper off and pulled cable back and forth and it held weakly when HB applied. It was then getting too dark and wet to bother getting under and try to adjust the cable from the centrepoint. Will investigate on Saturday and let you know
Cheers
Graham

Ps. Proves that even after 30 odd years some things that come off the same shelf fail at the same time

[HFStuart]

The handbrake cable is dead easy to remove from the lever end  - all done from under the car - but the ends of the cable can be a bit of a sod to get out of the levers on the calipers.

[MattNoVAT]

The cable end is held into the HB lever on the brake caliper by a welded ball at the end of the cable, then the outer cable body is held in place by a sleeve and collar.  This collar is at the end of the arm that is part of the main ally body of the brake piston housing. 

Two problems arise, both due to lack of copper-slip.

1. The ball rusts in place and can difficult to free.... or

2. The collar seizes in place, I have seen plenty of folks snap off the ally arm/collar trying to free the cable sleeve end.   Don't use heat as I've also seen someone use a blow torch to free things up and the seals then instantly gave way...... d'oh!

Clear as must of the crud off the collar and use mole grips / pipes grips that give plenty of purchase - just rotate the sleeve centrally.  The sleeve ends do have fitting for a spanner but as the cable is knackered I generally use the mole grip method for extraction. 

Clean everything up and use copper-slip on the refit its all very straightforward :-)

[cheeky monkey]

thanks Matt & Stuart

I will give that a go.

g

[Neil-yaj396]

Turns out it wasn't the handbrake cable afterall. The collar mentioned by Matt has broken off the body of the caliper, hence the cable has nothing to work against. Bit of a design fault really, albeit that the Betas were some of the very first cars with all round discs (the Fulvia had them but had a little drum for the handbrake).

Anyway is this repairable or is the caliper a write off?

[MattNoVAT]

Hi Neil,

I certainly would not bother trying to repair as it will be forever weak after say tig welding it.

I may have what your looking for, I just have to check on a couple of things first.

I'll PM you prob Tuesday when I'll know for sure. ( not trying any hard sell, just I think a repair would be very prone to failure )

[rossocorsa]

Neil if you get really stuck I might have a bad example with a good bracket if that makes sense but probably not one in immediately usable condition

[Neil-yaj396]

Thanks Matt & RC - I think HF Stuart is sorting me out with a replacement caliper.

Neil

[cheeky monkey]

Two problems arise, both due to lack of copper-slip.

1. The ball rusts in place and can difficult to free.... or

2. The collar seizes in place,

Yeah, your not wrong there.  N/s sleave seized but ive got caliper off the car now so i can work on it with bigger mole grips and new swear words.
Hope you are getting on with yours ok Neil.

G

[Neil-yaj396]

Finally got a working handbrake. Via a bit of confusion re the handedness I ended up with two calipers (£30 each then a pair on eBay for £25 within weeks!!). Anyway I had them both reconned at BigRed for £120 and finally replaced the broken off side caliper today along with new pads on both sides. Only hiccough was that the finish around the inlet was a bit lumpy so I couldn't get a seal. Took it all off and went over the area with a file and then abrasive paper after filing the port with some rag. Still had a tiny bit of seepage but this appears to have cleared up after a test drive.

So hopefully just a wash and polish before the long drive to the LMC Weekend. Hope to see some of you there.