Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing ARP4 handbrake?

Good advice David, thanks, it's always useful to have the experience of others. I will have a look at the rear calipers when I next have the rear wheels off for cleaning.

part two..... I forgot to add that I also altered the handbrake cable compensator that is the pressed metal pulley arrangement to even out the pull to the pads. I added an expansion spring attached to the pulley and anchored to the frame, this serves a couple of purposes i.e. it keeps cable tension off the callipers when the handbrake is released and also when the handbrake is applied it keeps the paul under tension which stops the handbrake from releasing unexpectedly.

David Byrne

Personally I haven't got a clue what a 'handbrake cable compensator' is or were to find a 'rivnut' but I am able to report that the handbrake issue on my ARP4 was eventually resolved by the simple expedient of fitting softer brake pads. The handbrake now passes the MOT test. Nice. Thanks to Krazy Horse as ever.

Having read the saga of the handbrake on here for quite a while your dealer sounds like they really know their stuff, coming up with a straightforward answer /

Probably due to years of fixing H-Ds Richard!

True Graham.

Yes, I am sure that works fine, but the downside is that under heavy braking, the rears will be doing more work than they were, perhaps, designed to do, with the danger of locking up the rears first, which is obviously not a good idea, especially in the wet on a corner etc etc. In normal and sensible road use, I'm sure it feels fine however.

Will your handbrake, with the softer pads lock up the rears when on the move, or is it still and 'only just holding' solution?

I don't suppose you know the make and number of the pads do you Bob? It's certainly worth a try for very little outlay, it may even be claimable under warranty?

Hi Paul
Pleased to say that I've not experienced any problems with the new pads - as far as I'm concerned they do the job just fine. I haven't tried any snappy handbrake turns but the car now holds on steep hills in my part of the woods . I've no idea about the part number but they were as agreed between MMC and Krazy Horse so should be straight forward to obtain the relevant info. As the car failed the handbrake MOT test (even after MMC's own recommended fix had been carried out), the pads were changed under warranty. Nice.

Nice one, thanks Bob. As my car also came from KH I will get on to George in the parts/workshop next week and see if he can get a set of pads off to me in the post. Disappointing they didn't think to contact the other four ARP4 owners they supplied, at the time they did yours, I was one, Eddie who has posted here was another, but I don't know who the fourth was.