The rear end of the spring nearest lever looms like it should be on top of the metal square tab that sticks out as it's marked on top. But when I put it on top it gets all twisted and looks like it will snap. Should it definately be on top? Ur threads have been really useful so far, I just wanted to try and get it working as it should without trying to mod it if possible.

QinteQ I get that about the car being too big and powerful but how else can I test it without rollers before I waste another test fee? Is not being able to turn the drum by hand enough? Wheel? With leverage?

Also when I tried to sprag out the cable like in ur pic, the mechanism seemed to compensate for it so it made no difference!

Just rechecked your pictures Leedsman you have it below the stop tab too

- car in park
- engine on
- footbrake hard on
- at least 3 or more pulls on the handbrick
- should self adjust via the clockspring
__________________

should read :

- car in park
- engine on
- footbrake hard on
- at least 3 or more pulls in quick succession on the handbrick whilst holding the 'pawl' in
- should self adjust via the clockspring

I just remembered my posting was called --
"My struggles with the GV handbrake".

Leedsman.

Round three here

round two

round one

Appreciation of the Quinteq search engine as above. In case you can't get round three and its pictures, the date stamp is 12/05/2014 US. (Handbrake mod).
BTW, the handbrake extension mod. is still working today just the same as it did then, no problems. Er... the same as all my mods. (Allow me a little bragging, I've put quite some work into the mods to this vehicle).
BTW. Dale_, vis-a-vis the 'sprag' to the cable, I only fitted it on the MOT tester's advice, in fact he GAVE me the little device himself. Then of course, I realized the cable-stretch compensation system would cancel it out, and it did just that. But I left it in -- lazy me.

Leedsman.

Just DIY a plagiarised version any of the existing overpriced readymades mate.

Today I managed to tighten up the shoes loads. They must have needed bedding in as the tops where rounded off. Then I did your handbrake pumping procedure and all now seems perfect! Test tomorrow so will soon find out.

Thanks for the help, I'd read through those 3 threads several times they were very useful.

Good luck with the MOT! It's always a bit of a nervous time. You must let us know what happens. I understand some MOT testers are are a bit more liberal over hand brakes when there is an autobox with "P" facility. My obvious handbrake lever lengthing mod. for greater mech. advantage is appreciated by my daughter when she drives it, as it's much easier to pull on hard for her. Also as many have said, the system really does seem to work better with car facing UPhill. As there can only be one leading shoe from the one slave cylinder in either direction, this does seem a little curious.
I'd no idea there were so many handbrake pictures on the net, some of them seem to be for disabled people/short armed people, some for kit cars.

Leedsman.