Punto handbrake

Abelloid

Can anyone tell me how to adjust a handbrake imbalance on a '96 punto?
it's got new shoes and the lever is nearly adjusted to the limit, but it's still sh!te,
and I need to get it tested tomorrow.

Thanks in advance

BrianD3

Handbrakes can tricky to setup as there are various springs, self adjusters etc. in the drums which affect the handbrake operation. Really this should have been sorted when the shoes were changed. From what you describe something is definitely amiss and no matter how much you adjust the handbrake cable it probably still won't be right so I'd say you'll need to take off the drums and investigate.

Abelloid

I've had the drums off, the self adjusters on the shoes seem ok - they did click into place when the pedal was pressed for the first time after fitting them.
One cable seems 10mm longer than the other and there is only a single adjuster at the lever across the two cables!?

greglo23

slacken the handbrake off until there's plenty slack in the cable. take off the drums and manually adjust the self-adjusters on the shoes until the drums can be fitted with some small effort. take up the slack on the cable and set the handbrake at about 6 to 8 clicks. if your drums are in good nick this should improve your handbrake. if there is a pronounced lip on the drums you might need new drums.
a lot of the problems i've found with handbrakes are directly because of over-adjusting of the cables. if the cables are too tight the self-adjusters can't work because they need slack to operate properly. when fitting new shoes its important to slacken the cable so the shoes can adjust correctly.

BrianD3

TBH i wouldn't be an expert on handbrakes but i'd say whatever it is you won't sort it before the test tomorrow. I'd say leave it for tonight and throw it in for the test anyway, you never know it may pass. I think you're allowed a 25% handbrake imbalance in the test. I have put cars through where there was a noticable imblaance in the handbrake and they passed with a couple of percent to spare.

greglo23

as brian says you may be better off just putting it through the test. the allowed imbalance in the handbrake is 50% and 30% in the footbrake. best of luck

Abelloid

Thanks all, it was the drums at fault, for some reason I chose to ignore the massive
lip I found on the outer edge when changing the shoes, but it's all good now.
Will get it DOE re-tested (it's a van and originally failed last week) tomorrow