My struggles with GV handbrake and MOT.
 

As the title says, my "struggles" with the handbrake on this vehicle could help some unfortunate person on here landed with the same task of getting the thing through its MOT.

So I put it in the form of pictures for the handbrake assy, mechanics seem to like pictures much better than words. The rest is as-usual.

The MOT failed on rear brakes, a seized actuator on the offside, and some binding on the nearside.

1) The actuator was freed-off in the normal way, penetrating oil and cursing.
2) The brake bind was caused by a very sticky long cable binding near its end. This binding was caused by the spread of rust from a wear-mark/cut in the external black plastic coating over the years. I dare say if this cut had not happened there would have been no reason to change the cable. It's expensive BTW. (Isn't everything parts-wise on this vehicle?)
3) The handbrake lever assy had to be replaced as the end of the square-section spring was broken off where it abutted against the end-stop. This was about half an inch of spring. VERY expensive, this one.

Now this handbrake works like no other I've ever encountered. There are NO adjustments anywhere, except the handbrake lever assy. itself. There is a wierd arrangement of springs at the pivoting end of the lever (see pictures). This thing adjusts itself the very first time you pull on the handbrake after fiddling with the cables. At first you think something is loose as the lever shoots to the top. But the second pull seems a lot better. But it doesn't work like any other handbrake I've had.

A normal handbrake goes to three to five clicks on the ratchet and then meets with an obvious brick-wall with brakes hard-on. NOT THIS ONE!
There are a few clicks as expected, but then the brake goes on gradually over the next ten clicks or so, so much so, you'll hit the end-stop if you actuate too quickly. This handbrake you apply SLOWLY.

Even with all this mechanical complexity (some would say tomfoolery) the performance of the handbrake system is poor overall, as has been mentioned by contributors here many times. It only just scraped past its MOT. The "cable-adjuster" shown in one picture was my attempt to shorten the travel of the lever, but it didn't seem to make much difference. I left it there as it wasn't harming anything.

Leedsman.

Thanks for the explanation and the photo's Leedsman. It seems strange that the cable should exit the lever towards the front of the vehicle. It appears to be a very convoluted way to get the cable to the rear wheels. No wonder we have so may problems with the handbrake on the Voyagers.

Good write up. I'm sure this will come in handy for somebody soon.

HiYa Leedsman, I found it to be the useless 1930's drum-in-hat style brakes that were the fundamental problem, with mine which has the fold-in-floor seats with three flexible steel parking brake cables even with access to proper ramps, cety-heat, windy tools and a full MOT rolling road I found it difficult to 'balance' the parking brake. I found everything irrelevant when compared to the useless design of the backing plate and in particular the seized brake cam lever that passes through the backing plate - all this appears to have been designed to deliberately encourage every scrap of crap / ice / salt in the world to enter the drum-in-hat itself and sit there for decades. Kiddy-fitters don't rub down de-rust free-off & lubricate, year on year its two shoes in and that'll do as quick as poss.

OPERATION

The automatic-adjusting feature in the foot oper-ated parking brake lever continuously applies mini-mal tension to the parking brake cables when the parking brake lever is in the released position to keep them in adjustment at all times. Due to this feature, the parking brake cables require no periodic adjustment. When the parking brake lever is applied, the cables are pulled, thus applying the brake shoes (rear drum brakes) or parking brake shoes (rear disc brakes) at each rear wheel. The brake shoes are mechanically operated by an internal lever and strut connected to the rear park-ing brake cables. An equalizer bracket is used at the rear end of the front parking brake cable to distribute tension equally to each parking brake cable.

STANDARD PROCEDURE - PARKING BRAKE AUTOMATIC ADJUSTER TENSION RELEASE

The parking brake lever (pedal) mechanism used in this vehicle is designed so that the automatic adjuster is not required to be locked out when servic-ing the parking brake lever (pedal) or the parking brake cables. This parking brake lever (pedal) mechanism is designed so that the adjuster mechanism will rotate only half a turn when the tension is released from the parking brake cable. This eliminates the require-ment to lock out the automatic adjuster when servic-ing the parking brake lever (pedal) mechanism and cables. Use the following procedure to release the tension from the parking brake cables and the automatic adjuster in the parking brake lever (pedal) mecha-nism.
(1) Release the parking brake.
(2) Raise and support the vehicle. (Refer to LUBRICATION & MAINTENANCE/HOISTING -STANDARD PROCEDURE)
(3) If equipped with Fold-in-floor seating, perform the following:
(a) Clamp an appropriate pair of locking pliers
on the front parking brake cable strand approximately 25 mm (1 inch) forward of the button at the equalizer

When I did my rear brakes, new shoes, pads and Calipers due to sticking on, I just adjusted the shoe ratchet adjusters until each wheel binded at 3 clicks and locked after five clicks of handbrake. If this had been a normal car the handbrake would have held on a steep hill, but not this car as it needs a good yank to even hold in a car park.
So it will need to be adjusted again for next MOT and really ASAP. I will have a look at this silly spring handbrake mechanism when adjusting and try and work out its purpose, if it has a purpose.

The metal contraption is designed for American foot operated parking. Its declared purpose is that a mggga male with a big heavy clog can never over adjust. Essentially the clock spring automatically adjusts the park brake [removes the slack only from the cables] cable system, the self adjuster is designed to err on the side of never making the shoes bind on the inside wall of the in-hat drum. Clockspring and brake images here.

My point is you have to be pretty near critical perfect with all cable /tensioners / shoes / moving parts / etc adjustments and even then it hardly works with a hand pull - and would certainly never hold it on a hill. Unsurprising really - (1) it was not designed for a hand and (2) its a technology that was discredited 61 years ago and never replaced by Chrysler. In my opinion even the front disks are undersized for this weight of vehicle. My 05 is 11.06" .. .. and the later models were upgraded to a still inadequate 11.41" and only then, 35 years after the rest of the world made disks all round a standard, they put disks on front and rear of the Voyager.

I've been examining the operation of the old handbrake lever conveniently inside the house (it's raining here, now).
The "pull" on the cable is non-linear, more movement at first, less but stronger as the lever reaches the top of its travel. This is performed by what is basically an eccentric system, part of the design only. The two powerful springs serve only as automatic adjusters to take up slack in the cable and shoes.
Therefore, as you reach the top of the handbrake lever's travel, there is a big mechanical advantage acquired by the eccentric system. So even though the movement at top seems "spongy", a lot of force is being applied, as shown by simply feeling the cable tension in the assy. It really is very tight indeed.

So....what could we do for improvement of this handbrake to get the vehicle more easily through the MOT?

Well, looking at the handbrake lever itself I think would be looking in the wrong place.

As Qinteq pointed out, the drums are probably too small to exert enough stopping force for this vehicle's weight. As I see it, the only possibility for service technicians to remedy this situation would be by fitting ultra-soft, high friction brake shoes to replace the normal ones. This would be feasable since this handbraking system is under no stress at all, the hydraulic foot brake rear part having its own pads and calipers under Dunlop's classic disc-brake system.

Now here's the rub.

Is there anyone out there with appropriate contacts (possibly in the rallying field) who could find what friction these normal brake shoes have, and if there is a possibility of having some made, and made available, with very soft higher-friction liners?

Thinking caps on please....

Leedsman.

The old [up to 2000 ish] GV's had 11.11" 5 x 4.5 in. bolt pattern front discs on the front, these days as our American friends might testify they are [07 to 2014] 11.12" the 01 to 07 period was 11.12". Its an interesting comment and certainly 'shops' in the UK can re-hand-make shoes from any compound they have available. The problem would be its still the same uselessly inadequate uncoated 'iron' surface area they have to act on. Having the drum-in-hat's vented and Zinc Dichromate Plated might help some as would Leedsman's suggestion on 'soft, high friction brake shoes'. Even the arcane inboard disks fitted to the driven front or un-driven rear axle we had on the old Citroen's and beloved E-Type's would be a parking brake improvement.

My researches indicate that "normal" brake shoes are fitted with .35 to .42 friction co-effiecient liners. However, racing pads have a co-efficient available up to .62. They wear out in one race, but no-one cares, they just replace.
Now if you think about it, shoes that are used for handbrake only don't ever need to slide on the drum's inner surface. They are applied with the footbrake on, and un-applied from rest. So unless one is doing handbrake turns every day, there should be no problem about wear.
I'm giving "Villiers Brake Shoes" of Brierly Hill, West Midlands a call on Monday to see what they have to say. If you want to know, its 01384 265 797.

Not heard of zinc dichromate plating before, but does sound interesting, must look it up pronto. I wonder where one would get that done?

Leedsman.

I did manage to rebuild my parking brakes and got an MOT ok :D ------BUT----
the pins that hold the shoes flat to the back-plate keep pulling through the slot in the back-plate----I have replaced a couple with nuts & bolts-------the last time I just took the shoes out (it was a few days after the MOT)
The thing is---I noticed an immediate improvement in MPG :D:D.
I COULD replace the back-plates:D and pins-----but it's going to be MUCH easier to replace with nuts and bolts.---------------I have been playing with brake shoes for 50 years and have never heard of this problem before :eek::confused::confused:-------anyone have an idea what is causing it ???? (I am beginning to wish I hadn't bothered to replace the discs/drums and shoes.
The back-plates don't seem very rusty.
Nigel