Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Handbrake Ratchet Failure?

FlyFisher, its not hard, you don't need to take the hub off and if you have a BTR axle you would just be making yourself a hole load of work! If you need to service the cylinders you can generally do this still fitted to the back plate. Morgans tend to get such little use as opposed to daily cars that I haven't yet seen cylinders that are beyond servicing rather than replacement. years ago it was just simpler and quicker to swap them out and they were peanuts to buy. To get the transit van cylinders with the correct pin location that fit the Morgan you are probably looking at £120 for the pair at best whereas a service set of seals are about £12 a side. They are just generally gummed up and/or seized. I find it quicker to service them than change them anyway! Don't go trying to clamp off the flexi hose to the back axle either. They are quite a rigid walled structure and you will lose very little fluid when you dismantle the cylinders, 1/2 an egg cup -sh!
Take a picture of the fully fitted brakes before you disassemble them. On re-assembly first connect the self adjusting arm and spring to the relevant shoe then position both shoes on the back plate. Next fit both shoe spring retainers holding both shoes in position. the top spring which lies in parallel with the self adjusting bar is next. A word here: I have seen so many variations on a theme as to the positioning of the two top springs, some are indeed a wonder as to how they managed it. use the Gomog site and look at the picture showing the correct positioning as its possible that you may return them to the position you found them in but they may already have been installed in the wrong way! You can now pull the self adjuster arm upwards to set the shoes at minimum expansion and refit the remaining springs. One of the lower springs has a double bend at the hook ends. some suggest grinding this off to make life easier when fitting but although a bit fiddly I find its worth the hassle for the security it gives!

You will now need to bleed the brakes, I use a pressure bleeder but a cheap auto valved bleed tube is just as easy and you can do it on your own with little effort too!