Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Plus Four, Supersport & Plus Six (CX & CXV Generation Vehicles) Plus 4 CX Hand Brake

Hi
We have 2021 Plus4 CX and on top of all the recall problems and leaking radiators we have also a hand brake which doesn’t hold on any kind of steeper hills. It has been back the garage twice and is going back for a third time this week for the same problem. Morgan don’t seem to have any kind of solution. Does anyone else have this problem and If so has anyone got a solution? It appears that Morgan don’t know how to get a hand brake to work with rear disk brakes..
Regards
Andrew

Shades of ARP 4

You might get more helpful replies if you asked a moderator to move this post to the CX Forum.

Thanks for reply about the forum

I have the same problem. The handbrake doesn't do much.

Doesn't only apply to Morgans. My Alfa has a pretty ineffective parking brake.

There seem to be several options for parking brakes on cars with rear disc brakes, the most popular but in many cases the worst are where the same hydraulically operated calipers have cable operation as well. My Jensen CV8 was the first car to adopt four wheel disc braking using Dunlop offerings. Needless to say that had a poor handbrake.

The dedicated drum brake within rotor is another option operated by cable in the conventional manner although drum diameter is necessarily limited.

Then there are dedicated cable driven calipers onto the common disc rotor or transmission brakes.

Strangely our F54 series Mini has the best handbrake I've ever come across. This despite using the former type but with a skeletal floating calipers hydraulically operated by single piston or cable driven by electric motor. Operation with any forward movement at all leads to an unintendedly abrupt stop given the full on or off nature of electric handbrake. Never dared using it above 5 mph.

Hi Richard,
Many thanks for the reply. I am not sure how the plus4 hand brake system works on our car, but the garage has tried twice to fix the problem with no luck. The second time they told me they had stripped down the rear brakes and rebuilt them, but still doesn’t hold when you really need it. Morgan don’t seem to have any solution other than to check that the connection from the hand brake lever to the brake wires are the same length I.e. one is not longer than the other and therefore not pulling with the same tension. Don’t think anyone thinks this is a solution! Given that the Morgan was twice the price of our Audi and the Audi hand brake is fantastic it is very disappointing especially as the car has been through the recall and had to have a new radiator has has only done about 3000 miles since new.
Cheers
Andrew

The Plus 8 hand brake operates a separate mechanical caliper on the rear disc: I rarely use it, as the Auto box has a park position. At MOT time I understand that the trick is to drive to the MOT place with the handbrake just on, so the pads get good and hot. Alternatively, one can take the pads out and abrade the friction surface...or fit new pads.....

On a good day the parking brake will hold the car, just. Applying it at 30 mph the car slows, a bit.

So is this a potential MOT failure to soon look forward to for CX owners?