Hi there,

Today I was doing some odd jobs on the car and one I thought I would tackle was painting the handbrake. I never got this far.

All I believe worked fine until today (although I don't use the handbrake with the car in the garage as per advice on here, I use wheel chocks to be sure). Certainly it did not feel loose.

What I did: I unscrewed the stainless steel cap off the hand brake lever (and retained this and the spring which appears OK). I can see no other parts in/under the car...

Now what happens: The hand brake feels loose and "wobles" from side to side and easily moves backwards and forwards. When I press the button it has no effect. It feels far too loose to even lock in position.

As far as I can tell the cable is OK (breaks are off as I can easily role the car backwards and forwards). I note on this post a spring - I don't have one (that I can see/feel) - but mine is older - 1976 4/4.

Any clues as to what I have done and/or how to fix it?

I went under the car and there is quite a bit of side to side play in the hand brake itself but everything seems tight and the "teeth" on the latching mechanisim seem OK.

Photo (not very good) is below....

Thank you as ever in advance!

R.

Difficult to see, but there should be a pivot bolt or pin. If there is a lot of sideways play I'd suspect this is worn. Can you lift the lever to check for play?

Cheers,

I can try - but what do you mean "lift" the lever?

Fo you mean "exploded" parts 1 to 4 here...

3 and 4 I think (once I'd expanded the drawing).

Lift? Jiggle up and down (Dean will be here in a minute with further comments alsong the lines of (gear)knobs, probably followed by Steve with his 'red card' ).

Trying to check whether there is wear in the pivot bolt (# 3) that holds your brake lever, or even if the nut has maybe fallen off (this is sounding worse... ).

Cheers,

I've jiggled and tied to pull it off and there is a little play in the hand brake up and down but only a little.

What strikes me as odd is this happened all of a sudden (so not wear?) and happened at the same time as I undid the nut at the top!

The other possibility is that the brake cable has beome detached (or broken?).

If you can get to the back axle - you have a 4 seater?, it means lifting the seats etc out. Once you can see the top of the diff, you should also be able to see whether there is any movement in the cable from the lever.

I was starting to think along those lines - I was just able to get a spanner to "Bolt 3" in the diagram and it is tight, very tight.

I do have a four seater - will try to take a peak later, but may have to be next weekend now as travelling for work from tomorrow.

The brake cable seems to be attached at the hand brake end as per photo above...or so it appears to me.

OK,
Good luck and do let us know any further findings...

Well I got 10 mins so went to the gargage. I got a good view of the back axel (see photo). As I moved the hand brake there was movement at the axel so the cable is OK. Not much movement as I don't think the hand brake is getting the purchase....

So I must have been something to do with undoing the top of the hand brake??

There seems quite a lot of side to side play between the ratchet and pivot bolt...maybe bacause something else is loose? Or is there a trick when putting the screw cap back on the hand brake??

Can you get the top (18) to screw onto the ratchet rod?
I wonder if the rod has dropped alongside the ratchet plate (1)?

After that I'm lost - it's a pretty simple system with little to fail.

One thing you might note for future is that the little knob can gradually unscrew during driving. This manifests iteslf when it reaches the ends of the threads and the spring launches the knob somewhere under the dash / into footwell...

Cheers,