Hi

Im having trouble with my handbrake on my 2003 grand voyager its been adjusted on the rear wheels as far as you can without the wheels locking and the car still rolls backwards so i would like to remove the cover that goes over the handbrake lever between the front seats to have a look to see whats going on in there ....my question is how do you remove it ? sometimes the handbrake comes up quite a way then another time it does,nt

any thoughts on this

Pete..........

 

Anyone ????? the handbrake has been adjusted and the car still rolls backwards maybe the problem isnt in the lever mechanism but id like to start there,... reading through this thread it seems the problem is very much with the design looks like ill have to remove the disc/drums as well to see whats going on im getting concerned about this because the MOT is looming and i need to get this sorted out

Pete.......

 

You can examine the handbrake assy. by taking out the X-head screws under the rubber pads on the grey plastic handbrake lever surround.
We all have a problem with GV handbrake system. The lever is a self-adjust feature as descibed earlier in this thread. To date, no-one has been able to make it work like other cars; the last thing on the agenda was to fit brake shoes with very soft high-friction liners, but never found anyone supplying these, except maybe someone in Australia.
This problem has not been resolved by us.

Leedsman.

 

The handbrake is a crappy design indeed but you can get it a little better, hopefully to a point you pass MOT.
I did it by renewing the brakeshoes inside the drum and adjust as sharp as possible. I barely passed the APK (Dutch MOT) but I did and if I pull the lever as far as possible I will not roll down a small hill .. just..

 

Worth reinforcing Leedsmans point on the ' lever force multiplier spring ' it wants and indeed demands a good pull. I make two points :

- ladies and OP's might not be in a position to give it a good 'yuk!
- many would shy away from the force needed to avoid stretching the cable

So people should not be afraid of applying a good yukking to the handbrick lever on GV's.

 

Okay guys! Our handbrake on our 56 plate is not holding the car at all! Have to jank it rite up to the moon! So there is no way of adjustment to this apart from the one outlined and pictured by Leedsmans excellent post?

 

No, I tried the conventional way and even with access to an MOT garage, its ramps, cety, rolling road, windy tools and three extra knowledgeable time served fitters I was unable to 'balance' the three cables - end result was a lot of extra time and effort for no extra return in braking efficiency.

Its a crap system, a crap initial engineering design and manufacture. I'm a troglodyte, I must be, you see I believe that no car should ever be able to pull away in any gear be it auto or manual - it should stall - that's the only safe test. If the coefficient of friction in the drum / hat is inadequate then the linear coefficient of friction between road and tyres is inadequate in a 2.7 long ton gross vehicle weight on a steep gradient when your engine stalls and you roll backwards.

N.B. The British ton is the long ton, which is 2240 pounds, and the U.S. ton is the short ton which is 2000 pounds.

 

Bloody Hell mate! So we are stuck with having to have the gearbox lock up in "Park" in order to stop the bloody thing from rolling down hill and crashing into no 52! Not good to hear the "Clunch" when you take it out of gear and into drive! I wonder how much damage it's causing these 41TE boxes?...

SO... back to drawing board mate...

 

Hi, I agree with QinteQ in the pulling handbrake on issue. My usual way of applying handbrake on all my dozens of previous car was to gradually pull it up till it was hard on. But have recently noticed that if you jerk it on quickly on Voyager, with a bit force, it somehow holds on hills.
Emmm, hows that. My MOT'S up in months time, so back wheels up and adjust to both rubbing and locking on same click of handbrake. Has it worked previously, nope, but somehow it passes MOT, maybe testers know the problem, or jerk it on.
Hope weather becomes dry again cos I'm outside working.
Oh and better do ABS fault as well.

 

I recently discovered that my handbrake works actually pretty good hilldown backwards, or at least much better then nosedown the hill forward (if you understand what I am talking about .. )
So when I park with the *** of the car pointing down the hill it holds perfectly well
strange..