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

Sadly MY23 owners report the same issue. I test my MY22 car today on South Hill in Felixstowe & it held easily but it will be on the check list before the warranty expires.

The handbrake on mine is the best is the best one yet on a mog. Spent hours on the Aero over the years changed the internal mickey mouse shoes and only just passed the MOT every year. The trad was new and not much better. At least the wife can operate this one a bit of a bonus. Em

As all component parts are manufacturered to a given tolerance specification plus or minus, could it simply be that occasionally a group of components are assembled together that have wider than specification tolerance and this results with the handbrake reduced efficiency to that designed. This could explain why the majority of handbrakes work, but some just do not. I did wonder about this when the dealer changed our cars complete rear braking system out and we went from a poor hand brake to a good one... just a thought...

Thats a good observation from Davetherave. Sadly I think it's more likely that the number of not so good hand brakes is higher than the good ones, occasional good ones rather than the other way around! My Plus four handbrake is pretty poor - although I have found that if I press the brake pedal then apply the handbrake it will hold better on hills.

Liam1961, thats interesting, ref use of footbrake first and then apply handbrake. I must try this out. I assume the Plus Four rear caliper is similar to the Plus Six?. The Plus Six handbrake mechanism is part of the caliper and basically uses a mechanical internal mechanism to push the brake pads against the disk. This is operated by the handbrake cable.
By applying the foot brake first the pads will have already been hydraulically forced against the disk by the main caliper pistons, the handbrake mechanism then basically applies its force against the already holding pads. Maybe it can exert more mechanical force this way and that is why the handbrake will hold a little better?. Some time ago I did try to track down an exploded diagram of the rear calipers for our 2020 Plus Six to try and figure out the mechanism, but apart from external photos in the manufacturers supply catalogue I found little else...

Yes a morgan parts book would be useful

I count on you 🤗

I wouldn't

I thought that was standard practice for a car where the parking brake operates on discs/calipers rather than a small drum.

Me too, the hydraulics apply the high load required to squeeze the pads to disc and then the handbrake tug just 'locks' it there