The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

I fitted new rear brake shoes on my 1850 yesterday and now I'm struggling to get the handbrake to be effective. It wasn't good before. I subsequently adjusted the cables to their maximum adjustment both sides. The handbrake just about holds the car on the 40degree hill outside my house, but on the uppermost notch on the lever.

I made sure the h-shim piece was replaced within the shoe fittings both sides.

Is it likely this could be an MoT failure and is it best I replace the 2 brake cables now?

thanks
Dave

dave1850 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 9:22 pm I fitted new rear brake shoes on my 1850 yesterday and now I'm struggling to get the handbrake to be effective. It wasn't good before. I subsequently adjusted the cables to their maximum adjustment both sides. The handbrake just about holds the car on the 40degree hill outside my house, but on the uppermost notch on the lever.

I made sure the h-shim piece was replaced within the shoe fittings both sides.

Is it likely this could be an MoT failure and is it best I replace the 2 brake cables now?

thanks
Dave

40 degrees is pretty extreme!

Anyhow
Have you tried adjusting the ratchet wheels within the slave cylinders?
They ratchet wheels are handed, are they on the correct sides?


Ian

You take the handbrake cables off. Then adjust the shoes by the ratchet. That is a self adjuster and in a dolomite that means adjust yourself.

When all is tight then refit the handbrake cables again.

Jeroen

As Jeroen said, slacken the handbrake adjuster right off. Take the brake drum off. Turn the adjuster by hand until you can just about fit the drum back on. When you turn the drum you should be able to feel/hear the brake shoes just touching the drum. Adjust the handbrake cable to take up the slack. Sometimes the adjuster thread is a bit long so you may have to chop a bit off.

I don't think you will have a problem at MOT time. According the the MOT Testers' Manual in Section 1 ( Brakes) there is a note about testing typically large American cars using a Gradient Tester . They are only required to achieve 16% to pass ( about 1 in 6 ) . If your handbrake holds on a 40% gradient ( 1 in 2.5 ) then that should pass, provided that the ratchet holds.

There are a couple of experienced MOT testers on here that could check that my interpretation is correct.

But some brake shoes are not formed correctly to the drum surface from new. It may take a few hundred miles for them to bed in.

Tony.

It may well hold the car, but 'excessive travel' of the handbrake lever itself is a thing; though I don't know whether it's a fail thing or an advisory thing these days...

Thank you very much for your replies. I'm very grateful for these.

I have self-adjusted the adjusters but I think next I will get under the car and check the whole system from lever to rear wheel. In the distant past the car has received a MoT fail for "Parking brake efficiency below requirements (1.4.2 (a) (i))" which in reality was the tester didn't like it holding on the final notch (of which there are 9 on my 1850). I take encouragement from the comment about the slope and also that the new shoes need to bed in. Also no-one has commented on the need for new cables so I guess that means it's not commonplace to replace handbrake cables.

thank you
Dave

The percentage efficiency the handbrake needs to achieve for MOT varies depending on whether the vehicle has single circuit or dual circuit brakes.

For single circuit the minimum figure is 25% (of 1g)
For dual circuit it is 16% as mentioned above.

This is because a single failure in the hydraulics of single circuit brakes will leave you completely dependant on the handbrake, whereas a single hydraulic failure on a dual circuit system will still leave you with 50% of the hydraulics operational.

There is also, as Alun says, a failure available for "insufficient reserve travel" Typically, this means that if you have 9 "clicks" available, you should only need 6 max for the handbrake to be hard on. A lever that comes up to the last click should fail.

In all my years i've never changed out out a Dolomite handbrake cable for either breakage or stretching and only a couple for seizure. They are normally pretty well foolproof.

As has been said above, you really need to get a few miles on the new shoes and then reset the self adjusters before condemning anything else.

Another tip is to check the drums carefully for rusty "wear lips" around the edge. These, where present, can make a big difference to available manual adjustment as the drums will only go over the shoes with a lot of possible adjustment left. Grind the lips away until flush with the rubbing surface with ye olde angle grinder, then reset the shoes!

Steve

I have also found that it is essential to get all the slack out of the brake cables as it does make a big difference to how far the handbrake comes up.

another thing to be aware of if there is too much travel on the lever and you pull it above the last ratchet you'll struggle to release it.

Just an update. I took the car for a pre-Mot check - the same as an Mot but without the official paperwork of course. It "failed" on the handbrake adjustment (and wear in the steering rack mountings). I've adjusted the cables as far as I can so will be asking the garage to do this to the satisfaction of their MoT tester.

An advisory was that a bolt is missing to engine and gear box. Please does anyone know what this bolt is and what I need to order in?

thanks for all the replies above.
Dave

Hi Dave.

The garage needs to be a bit more specific about what bolt is missing before anyone will be able to advise on what you need to purchase. If it is a nut and bolt I would expect the mechanic to be able to find something to do the job.

When it comes to the handbrake do keep us posted. Have you or the mechanic done as Steve suggested checked the drums carefully for rusty "wear lips" around the edge. These, where present, can make a big difference to available manual adjustment as the drums will only go over the shoes with a lot of possible adjustment left. Grind the lips away until flush with the rubbing surface with ye olde angle grinder, then reset the shoes! The wear lips develop on the inside of the drums as the brake shoes wear the metal away. The drums have to be taken off to check for this problem..

When it comes to to the steering rack mounting I assume you will be getting the mountings replace with the poly type.