That B~@!£$%y hand brake !!!!

[EuropaTC]

Ok guys, this is part rant, part despair.....  never have the    and  icons ever been so apt for me.

I've just had our UK annual roadworthy-ness test on the car and although I have a nice new certificate I have that feeling that I don't really deserve it. The mechanic was very complimentary about the car and obvious work I do (he knows me well, he tests all our cars, knows I'm a DIY guy and don't skimp on maintenance) but we had a long conversation about the handbrake efficiency.

Basically he said it was junk and that really hit home because this was the first year in ages I actually thought I'd get a "well done" for it.    I've replaced the brake cylinders, U clips, all springs, and even the actuating arms. I've reinforced the cable mounting points to stop them flexing, the brake cylinders slide easily on the backplate and although the cables aren't new they are excellent.   I've adjusted it exactly as per the manual;  remove cable, tighten until binding, back off and then connect the cable & adjust the free play in the central tunnel adjuster.

But it's still not much good.  It's good enough to park with (it's very flat in Lincolnshire with no hills to roll down) but because my TC has single circuit brakes the rules say it must have a 25% efficiency as an emergency brake. On my other toys I can generally exceed that figure with no problem, but this car always seems to struggle.

So the question is, has anyone here actually got a handbrake that can lock the rear wheels up from, say, 10-15mph ?  Mine would stop the car (given a long enough road  ) but as the guy said, it's not inspiring.

[cal44]

Brian,

I thought my e brake troubles would be over when I just finished up the rears and got the brakes cylinders moving nicely with new shoes.

Sat in the car....pulled the handle.......and Bam!  NOTHING!  it was like I have done a stinkin' thing to the brakes.

Since the cable is tightened all the way in the tunnel, I'm thinking it is stretched beyond help.  I'll get a new one...along with the other things  I don't have time to do.

I now see brown foam in the radiator of my Elan................I reckon that means head gasket............ugh.  I may have that done as I just am running out of time to finish up anything.

[EuropaTC]

well, it's a sort of relief to find I'm not the only one !   I'm having similar fortunes Mike. The only thing I hadn't replaced was the brake shoes because they looked fine with plenty of lining left. My friendly MoT mechanic had suggested that it might be worth glaze busting them, but I have a new set in the cupboard so I pulled them out today and fitted them.  It was 27C here today, which may be normal for you guys but it's tropical for us Brits and sweat was dripping off me.

Job done, all adjusted nicely......    and I actually think it's worse......     

[cal44]

B,

That's about 80 degrees....right?   Sweat is good for you, keeps the pores pouring.

This e brake thing should be a no brainer............I'm starting to think brake is smarter than me.  Won't give up....ever.

Mike

[EuropaTC]

Last night I decided to think outside the Lotus box and went looking for what the Triumph guys do over here at our annual MoT test time to see if I could pick up any hints.   And contrary to what I expected, they also have problems with this handbrake design although not so bad because they have a conventional floor mounted lever with more "umph" than our umbrella-type levers.

One thing I did find was that Triumph acknowledged the design wasn't so good by issuing an extra part, mainly for the export market it seems although it was used in the UK as well.  They added a sleeve over the levers at the drum end to increase the leverage on the shoes and hence the handbrake force. Ok, it means you need more travel at the handbrake lever but that doesn't seem to be an issue at the moment.

Of course the UK Triumph forums are saying these parts are obsolete, etc, but they do seem a simple design and a couple of guys have made some with good results. Apparently they say they're getting a 30% improvement (the MoT measures brake efficiency and if you talk to the mechanic he'll usually give you a % number so you can assess improvements next time)

I've enclosed a picture from a TR manual, has anyone else tried this mod ?  (it's part DR33 on the image)

Brian

[EuropaTC]

(thread bump)

Ok, slightly off the original thread, but does anyone else have these "Girling Shoe Steady Plates" in their rear brakes ?  I can honestly say I've never seen them on my car, but of course it will have been used/maintained for 15yrs or so before I got it, so they could easily have been lost.

From the text, I think they go in the slot where the handbrake actuator lever fits, and both reduce the point contact load and also move the lever backwards slightly. Strangely enough I've been working on improving the h/b over the last few weeks and the most promising mod so far is to weld something very similar to these in place on the leading shoes.  The effect is to move the external part of the actuating lever towards the backing plate in it's rest position, which means as you apply force you end up with a better leverage on the shoe.

It seems to work quite well and I was patting myself on the back until I saw these things. Is the only reason it didn't work properly because it wasn't all there ?

brian

[pboedker]

Well, my car has these 'Steady plates' and they've never prevented the handbrake from being  and  ... When newly cleaned and adjusted, the handbrake CAN hold the car on a flat surface to a point that would be considered adequate. But after a short while they revert to a state where taking off in the car with the handbrake on is barely noticed if it wasn't for the instrument brake light. Sigh!

The steady plate will move the lever backwards, as you suggest, and that this will give a better leverage.  But it is also necessary for the lever to travel all the way backwards so that the automatic adjustment can do the same.
I just opened up my rear brakes for a cleaning and adjustment and attach some pics of the 'Steady plates' in there. The outline dimensions are 3/8" x 5/8" and the thickness 1/8". The two notches I didn't measure but just remove as much material that the shim is a very loose fitting in the brake shoe.

[EuropaTC]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for taking the photos, as usual they explain things far better than words.  My "mod" was to weld in a small steel plate in exactly the same position, tacked in place because I was concerned it might vibrate out. Of course I didn't think about putting small lugs on the ends to hold it in place....

It has made a difference to mine although as to how long it lasts, well that's anyone's guess.  At the moment it will just about lock the wheels from 10mph on our gravel driveway, which is a marked improvement from when I bought it home after the MoT test last month.

Brian

(incidentally I did make & try the "handbrake helper" sleeve mentioned previously. It does make a difference but I decided it looked too much like a homemade bodge and didn't feel comfortable presenting that for a mechanic's appraisal , so I ended up with an "internal bodge" that he couldn't see instead ! )

[cal44]

I had a chat with one of the fellows at Dave Bean.  He has a Europa and stated that he drilled and ground a hole in the backing plate where the e brake could be adjust without taking off the drum..............like a normal car.............
Then buy some rubber plugs for the hole to keep out dirt.......like a normal car.

According to him the brake system would center itself after a couple of turns of the drum.  He claims this to work.

Mike

[EuropaTC]

I think it would Mike, I've heard of drilling the back plate to get a screwdriver to push the ratchet wheel round before in connection with Ford axles used in Kit Cars over here.

Brian

[kiwiokie]

Where can you buy the Girling "steady plates"?

[EuropaTC]

I have only ever seen them on Ebay UK, never at any of the normal suppliers I've used.  They would be fairly easy to fabricate, they're only a bit of shaped mild steel plate and Peter kindly posted the measurements in his response.

Brian

(incidentally I gave up with it eventually and went for rear discs. For the first time in it's 45yr life, the car has a handbrake that works ! )

[kiwiokie]

Thanks Brian.  The handbrake on my, new to me, TC Special will not hold the car on even the gentlest of slopes which makes hill starts something of a problem.  Never been one to hold the car using the brake pedal.  What rear disk option did you choose?  Cheers, John

[EuropaTC]

The handbrake wasn't great on the cars when they were new, so yours sounds very typical to me. If you read back through road tests of the period you'll find comments of "handbrake failed to hold car on 1:4 hill" and the like.

But you can get it to work, at least to UK test standard which is 25% efficiency on a single circuit braking system. It just takes time and making sure everything is adjusted correctly and the cables free to move.

The rear disc conversion was in the Garage section a while ago. There are two links;

http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=451.0

and how it all started

http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=436.msg2843#msg2843

I'll add that this is most definitely a DIY conversion, undertaken because I wanted the challenge. There are considerably easier ways for this option and buying the Banks' kit is probably the easiest and quickest way. Or using Mazda/Honda parts is another common one. Lots of info on the internet, either the Files section of the Yahoo group, the Knowledgebase (from our main page) or half way down this reference

http://lotus-europa.com/manuals/index.htm

Brian

[BDA]

I have the Banks kit and I like it, but unless he's changed it since I got it (that may be quite likely since I got mine in the late 1990s), the parking brake is useless. There is an attachment for the cable, but it doesn't pull hard enough on the lever arm to make it work. Richard told me to put my foot out the door when they test parking brake. Luckily, that's not necessary for me since in my state, they don't inspect cars as old as mine any more.

None of this bothers me a bit since I rarely use the parking brake on any car and thankfully so far I've never HAD to. in my Europa. Of course if I lived in San Francisco, I'd have to take care of it since it's mandatory because it's so hilly (when you turn on to some of the streets, it looks like you're facing a wall with a stripe down the center of it)!

Speaking of San Francisco, I did drive there when my car was new and I had no problems rolling back when starting from a stop on the steepest hill (without using the hand brake ). I'm certainly not the best at using a clutch/shift, but it is certainly possible to master that skill.