Handbrake issues after caliper has been rebuilt

[Andy03]

Evening all

Just put my car back together after having the rear calipers refurbed and rebuilt and I'm having problems with getting the handbrake hold the car.

When i reinstalled the calipers I needed to adjust the handbrake from the adjuster located behind the heat shield and that got the car to hold on slight slope after circa 6 clicks. However Just took the car out to see how the brakes were and when I got back it definitely felt as tho the handbrake needed adjusting further. And when I applied the handbrake there was a slight dull thud and suddenly even full handbrake travel wasn't enough to hold the car at all. Having checked the calipers I can see that the handbrake cables car pulling on the L shaped levers that apply the brake as far as they can go so even if i were to adjust the handbrake from under the heat shield further it wouldn't make a difference to how the car was held by the hand brake.

Can I therefore wind out the rear caliper pistons a little to give me more handbrake effect?

 

[Ads29]

When you refitted the calipers did you 'pump' the brakes up to set the pistons before readjusting the handbrake mechanism?

 

[172Oz]

Ive just taken my right hand cable off as it wasnt holding even after adjusting the tension. the left is fine. i stripped the caliper and cleaned it and still wouldnt hold. i just come to the conclusion the cable had stretched/or wrong one so just going to get a new cable to rule that out and change the left cable to keep them fresh if it works.

 

[Andy03]

Hmmm. I'm not 100% sure. I definitely reattached the handbrake cables before I bled and pumped the brakes, could this be the problem then? would I need to 'prime' the pistons before connecting the hand brake cable?

 

[Ads29]

That could well be the issue mate, I'd strip the pads out and reset everything then prime/pump the hydraulic side of the brakes first before reattaching and setting the handbrake up.

Hopefully that sorts the issue for you


Ads

 

[Andy03]

Thanks ads I'll give that a go tomorrow. It's got to be caliper related seeing as the cable physically pulls the levers as far as they can go

 

[JackJack]

Be interested to see if that fixes it.

 

[Ads29]

Be interested to see if that fixes it.

When I did my apprenticeship 15+ years ago that's the way we were taught, to always set the foot brake up before handbrake, otherwise there was the chance you'd f things up

 

[npt]

The handbrakes on these cars are shocking, everything brake wise on my cup is brand new but the handbrake isn't up to much, its the same design they had on the r5 turbo, and they were very poor also back in the day, they work but not very good

 

[Andy03]

Can only happen to me! Just checked the rear brakes and handbrake and Ive found out what's going on. The near side is working fine however the off side has been put back together back to front so that when you pull up the hand brake its actually releasing the piston further. If I pull the L shaped lever towards me it moves the piston in. I guess I'll be ringing bigg red on Tuesday

 

[bloke]

seen the mechanism fail in the calliper a couple of times. take the cable off and turn the arm with a pair of pliers and see how far it goes, try the wheel when it's as far forwards as you can get it, if it still turns then calliper mechanism is dead.

you can normally feel it when you turn the arm.

 

[Andy03]

Hi bloke. The mechanism is working just in reverse ie. If I move the lever with my pillars towards the front of the car the pads are disengaged from the disc, if I move it towards the rear of the car the pads engage the disc.

 

[bloke]

dead calliper then. don't think it can be fixed but have never looked that far into them, i don't even bother with rebuilding for the price of a new one.

 

[Louis]

You could try winding the piston all the way in to push into the mechanism? Seems very odd though. @optical knows a fair bit about these calipers but when you move the lever off the car the piston should move out just slightly. If it doesnt it's fucked. Seems odd it moves it in though as i dont know how that'd even happen.

You could always pop the piston out to see what's going on, or remove the boot on the handbrake mechanism to have a look although not much to see.

 

[Gus]

Take the handbrake cable off the caliper arm and get some pliers or grips or something and move the arm - keep an eye on the piston and see if that moves. the arm should move back to its original position by itself and the piston should retract too.

You will need a new caliper if this doesnt happen.

The way it works can be seen if you remove the rubber boot - it cable ties back on btw.
The mechanism uses concave washers as a spring - hard to explain without showing you. It is near on impossible to replace this mechanism. Do not remove the hand brake arm to test stuff - getting it back on is the hardest job on a clio, I would rather remove an engine than refit a handbrake arm.

 

[Andy03]

Bigg red refurbed the calipers for me. So I'll be ringing them on Tuesday. As far as I can tell the 'faulty' caliper handbrake function is working just in reverse. As far as I can tell at the mo is the spring that returns the mechanism when the handbrake is released has been put in the wrong way round

 

[Ol’ Tarby]

Bigg red refurbed the calipers for me. So I'll be ringing them on Tuesday. As far as I can tell the 'faulty' caliper handbrake function is working just in reverse. As far as I can tell at the mo is the spring that returns the mechanism when the handbrake is released has been put in the wrong way round

Is it possible to have two left, or two right hand handbrake mechanisms by accident ya rekkon, and thats what they've done?

 

[Andy03]

Is it possible to have two left, or two right hand handbrake mechanisms by accident ya rekkon, and thats what they've done?

I did think that that could be one possibility