Handbrake query

Mad4slalom

Mad4slalom

Well-known user
I gather the psrking brakes on C 3’s are pretty bad. Have adjusted mine up at the cable in the centre underneath. Havent had avgo at the wheel adjusters yet. I just read on a US forum that the correct way of setting the H. Brake is to press the brake pedal hard with your foot, Then pull the hand brake lever up, then down again to set, it didnt say I cant see this helping as the handbrake shoes are seperate from the rear brake pads , any one shed light on this ? 🤔
 
Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump

CCCUK regional rep
No, that won’t do a thing. Sounds more applicable to a drum brake car with ratchet/auto adjusting at the shoes.
On the C3 you adjust the shoes with the little star wheel adjusters accessed by lining up the hole in the disc hub....once adjusted up......handbrake is still useless!!

Seriously though, you should be able to get the handbrake to work reasonably well if all the parts are in decent condition and adjusted. Mine was always borderline at an mot test despite a lot of fiddling about adjusting.
 
Emc

Emc

Supporting vendor
Pressing the brake will do nothing, apart from holding the rotor still, I have done hundreds over the years ,the best way is to make sure every single part is working perfectly, especially the cables as they can stretch as much as 2"
Pull the lever up 4/5 clicks
Adjust the expander until you cannot turn the rotor by hand with a lever .
Back off 1/3 clicks
Let the handle off
Take off the slack in the cable at the equalizer.
This may have to be done more than once until you are happy and its not binding.
 
Roscobbc

Roscobbc

Moderator
What Gavin says.........perhaps also consider replacing parking brake cable - it can stretch. Reality is that it is just a 'parking brake' not really up to being classed as an emergency brake - more like a pair of Honda 50 rear brakes on a very bad day.........
 
Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump

CCCUK regional rep
One thing I found....
As with many c3s, my rotors are replacement so not riveted or fixed on anymore. By putting two of the wheel lug nuts back on to hold the rotor tight in place, as it would be in service, seemed to help the adjustment process. Otherwise there is a tendency for the rotor to move slightly as the handbrake shoes contact it and giving a false read on the adjustment. I thought it helped.
 
kentvette

kentvette

CCCUK Member
Pretty much what Gavin says! I've just re-done ours in a similar vein after the trailing arm work, but yet to fully test it. I have also read that it sometimes helps to pull teh handbrake up fairly hard while reversing - supposed to help centre the shoes or something? But you'll be lucky if it ever works really well!

And whatever you do, be sure to have a test run after adjustment to ensure it is not dragging. You can tell that by doing about 5 miles and feeling the centre of the wheel - it should not be warm!
 
Mad4slalom

Mad4slalom

Well-known user
Emc said:
Pressing the brake will do nothing, apart from holding the rotor still, I have done hundreds over the years ,the best way is to make sure every single part is working perfectly, especially the cables as they can stretch as much as 2"
Pull the lever up 4/5 clicks
Adjust the expander until you cannot turn the rotor by hand with a lever .
Back off 1/3 clicks
Let the handle off
Take off the slack in the cable at the equalizer.
This may have to be done more than once until you are happy and its not binding.
Click to expand...
 
Mad4slalom

Mad4slalom

Well-known user
Thanks for confirming that . Couldnt see how brake pedal could affect drum handbrake.
I will have a go at the rear wheels, some were saying they disconect drive shafts before adjusting handbrake so there is no drag from the positraction, seemed a bit extreme and a lot of work😩
 
kentvette

kentvette

CCCUK Member
Mad4slalom said:
Thanks for confirming that . Couldnt see how brake pedal could affect drum handbrake.
I will have a go at the rear wheels, some were saying they disconect drive shafts before adjusting handbrake so there is no drag from the positraction, seemed a bit extreme and a lot of work😩
Click to expand...

It is a lot of work, but in reality, it's the best way, it's difficult to know what is "drag" from the brake and what is resistance from the diff etc. I did it once - at that time I thought (laughably as it turned out of course!) that I wouldn't be doing it again, so I'd make a decent job of it! I really wanted to make the adjustments before I connected the driveshafts when I put everything back together this time, but it would have been tricky to do with other bits also not bolted up....

That's why I now always do a test run, or three! 😊
 
antijam

antijam

CCCUK Member
A lot of the drag felt when adjusting is due to the U/J's tending to bind with the half shafts at full droop with the car jacked. I found that with the car raised on jack stands, careful jacking of the trailing arms to bring the half shafts more horizontal reduced the apparent drag very significantly.
Doing this I got a satisfactory adjustment of the brake without uncoupling the drive shaft.
 
kentvette

kentvette

CCCUK Member
Interesting thought, I might try that after I've done my initial test drive and I'll be interested to see how different it feels. Just had to jack the TAs to torque the pivots bolts while the car was on the Quick Jack.......
 
Mad4slalom

Mad4slalom

Well-known user
kentvette said:
Interesting thought, I might try that after I've done my initial test drive and I'll be interested to see how different it feels. Just had to jack the TAs to torque the pivots bolts while the car was on the Quick Jack.......
Click to expand...
Any pics of your quick jack kentvette, ? are these the ones that support a fair length of the chassis rail?
 
kentvette

kentvette

CCCUK Member
Hi - No, to be safe you have to opt for the 5000slx version as the Corvette is right on, or over the limit of the 3500.

Get them from Quick Jack direct, or apparently Costco sell them, considerably cheaper. (We didn't have that option here!) I the went for the 240v version, but the 12v would have been useful when we were keeping the car in a lock-up.

It's a good bit heavier than the video om their website implies, but manageable. And it's been extremely useful - I just wish I'd known about them 5 or 6 years ago!
 
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