The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

My hand brake lever rachet release button had been playing up for a while but I'd managed to get by until today!
It took 5+ minutes of swearing and aggro to get the handle to release, I then stopped to pick up the kids from school pulled the handbrake up without thinking and the same thing happened!

I got the car and kids home and set too stripping it apart. The rod with the button has come completely adrift from the rachet pawl and lever. Looking at the way it's made I can't see how I can get the lever back in and operating the rachet pawl as the pawl is rivetted in.

Does anyone have any bright ideas of how to get it back together? Is this a common problem? Is it totally Goosed? Do I need to put an ad in the wanted section for a new hand brake lever assembly?!
I've stripped the mechanism of the car so have had a decent look at it.

Thanks in advance

Alex

It's a rare fault but it does happen. i've not bothered to try fixing one, the only handbrake levers i've ever bothered to repair are the hens teeth "fly off" models from early Spitfires.

I've 2 or 3 Dolomite levers in stock you can have one for a fiver plus postage.

Steve

_________________
'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.

Steve,
You have PM!

Thanks

Alex

When you fit the replacement handbrake be careful to check that the handbrake lever does not come up too far because the auto adjusters in the brake drums are not working or the cables just need adjusting. I believe this may have caused the initial handbrake lever to fail.

I think you're spot on with this one Richard, I had just replaced the rear shoes so it all points to the initial set up of the shoes/adjusters. I thought I'd got it right! Will go back and revisit the auto adjusters etc.
I my very slight defence the hand brake button had been playing up for a long time - honest guv

I will post below a copy of an article that I had published in Dolly Mixture that may help you.

It started as a simple rear brake shoe change on one of my 1500hl Dolomites.
When I was checking over my oldest dolomite, a 1977 vintage, prior to taking it in for a MoT in February I decided that it would be sensible to change the rear brake shoes before next years MoT. I did not want to do it before this years MoT as they would need some time to bed in and I normally get a comment that they only just pass. I know the car does not need a MoT but I like to get someone else to check it over for my own safety and I do not have the facility to check the brakes properly. It should also help me to prove to my insurance company that I believed it to be road worthy if I was involved in an accident.
The removal of the old shoes went quite smoothly but at one point I did question the need for changing them as the new ones did not seem to be that much thicker than the ones that I had taken off. I have noted that the current bonded brake shoe material is not as thick as the material that was used when the brake material was riveted to the shoes, however I decided that as I had started I would get on with it based that I might not feel like doing it as I get older. I cleaned everything up, checked for hydraulic leaks, freed up the auto adjusters and checked that the slave cylinders were free to move in the back plates I have some that a can push by hand but others I need to give them a knock with a hammer. A word of warning I have found that some new, after market, slave cylinders can be too tight a fit in the back plate. It is also worth checking that the brake shoes have not worn the drums down so that they have developed a lip on their outside edge. If they have it is best to grind the lip off before you fit them again, provided the lip is not excessive, as a lip can make it harder to get the drums off. Having done these checks I fitted the new shoes and fitted the brake drums. I have found that it always a bit of a game to get the drums back on and once you have them on there is a need to centre the shoes by pressing the brake pedal. I then resort to taking the drums off again and winding out the auto adjusters by hand until I can just get the drum back on again. I may go through this cycle a few times before I decide that the auto adjusters are out as far as possible. I had just got the drums on and was about to press the brake pedal to centre the shoes when I was distracted by some friends coming into the garage for a chat. In error I pulled up the handbrake lever and as the shoes were so far out of adjustment the handbrake lever came up too far and went pass the end of its ratchet mechanism. I now had a real problem as the lever would not go back down again. Luckily I did have a spare that I could look at to see if I could identify how to resolve the problem. What I discovered was that the spare one just would not come up far enough to come off the ratchet mechanism so I was forced to look into taking the handbrake lever out to sort the problem. This is not something that I had undertake before and when I read up the workshop manual this advised me that the two front seat had to come out so that the carpet could be taken up. When I attempted to do this I found that I also had to disconnect the seat belt warning cables from the passenger seat and that there was a need to take out the centre seat belt fixing before the carpet could be folded back. The workshop manual failed to include these tasks. The workshop manual and the Haynes manual also fail to tell you that to get the seats out you need to first remove the front two bolts from each seat and then push the front of each seat slightly away from the prop shaft tunnel having done this the seats will move further forward and give you access to the two rear seat bolts. I also had to carefully cut some of the stitches to get the cover off the handbrake lever. It looks as if the actual handle/grip has been stuck on after the cover has been fitted. This gave access to the bolts that held the handbrake lever in place but before I could lift it out I had to get under the car and disconnect the handbrake cables. It was at this point that I decided that as I had disconnected the handbrake cables it would be a good time to replace the cables with a new pair that I had in my box of spares. It should have been yet another simple task to undertake but I was to discover that it was not that simple. One of the reasons that I decided to fit the new cables was that it is not possible to grease or oil the cables where they are sheathed once they are fitted and I was wondering if they were still moving smoothly. Before I fitted the new cables I moved them up and down the full length of the unsheathed part of the cable and gave the cable a good coating of grease. This did seem to make them slide a bit easier that the old ones that I had taken out or at least this is what I convinced myself to justify fitting the new cables as I could not see anything physically wrong with them. Going back to the hand brake lever I decided to fit my spare handbrake lever as this one just would not go past the end of the ratchet. In pulling the original handbrake lever up so far I had also wrecked the handbrake on switch. Yet another thing that I believe is no longer available new so I was lucky to have one on my spare handbrake lever. In due course the replacement handbrake lever and the new cables were fitted along with carpet and the seats etc. Now it was just a matter of adjusting the length of the handbrake cables which turned out to be more difficult than I had expected as the adjusting screws were too long so I had to cut about ¾ of an inch off both adjusting screws. This was not that easy as I did not want to take to two cables out to do this. Once this was achieved I was able to finally adjust the two cables to take the slack out of the system. As the car was up on axle stands it was easy to check thoroughly that I had taken the slack out of the handbrake cables. With this set up the handbrake correctly the handbrake lever came up the 5 or 6 notches that I have read as being the correct setting on the clubs discussion board. For infor the ratchet has in total 12 notches. I was now happy to reinstate the carpet and the seats etc job complete.