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MG MGB Technical - Useless B hand brakeThe hand br

The hand brake on my 63ish B is useless,has been since the rebuild many years ago.The manual I used had the photo reversed so that led to a few problems.
Simple adjustment of the cable doesn't work only produce drag on the drums but no stopping power.
Obvoiusly I have done something wrong, and my wife will not drive it 'till fixed! We are talking 20 years of not working so don't get too enthustiastic!
As an aside huge overbore to 2000cc plus with VW pistons,1/34 SUs, balanced. Boys toys!

Thanks for all help.
J Millsom

The handbrake of my 72 GT was equally useless when I bought the car. I resorted to a new cable but had renewed the rear brake cylinders and eased off and cleaned the adjusters for the shoe adjustment ( these always seem to seize up.) The old cable had broken, and PO had a marine type clamp holding the ends of the cable. Make sure on re-assembly that all parts move ie any quadrant brackets or where the cable changes direction, grease up well.( I even covered the cable runs with electrical tidy covering, the ones that you can coil around wires, greased up as well.) refer to the manual for the brake handle and how all the parts asseble. Once all together, actuall it is not a bad handbrake. New cable wil stretch a bit. Mike
J.M. Doust

The above really helped mine. Make sure any pins and associated holes are not worn. Also keep the brakes well adjusted; this means less movement is needed for the shoes to contact the drum.

I also use my foot brake while applying the handbrake when stopped. Again this gets the linings tighter.

As I remember my actuator linkage in the drum had wear on it which limited how much real movement I got even with a totally redone cable assembly. Of course these linkage parts are NLA so the option would be to have the wear points welded then ground to proper profile. I haven't done that. You may also have wear on the backing plate. Again same fix.

Bob McCoy
65 Roadster
Robert McCoy

Also check that the linings are in the right way round and hand brake lever, within the drum, connected properly. You would not believe the variations of assembly I have winessed. AND the cable and compensator free and greased.
Allan Reeling

On the banjo axle the levers are the opposite way round to the later axle.
The little lever should be at the top and not underneath.
The new shoes have too bigger slots in them so you need to bend over like a U shape piece of steel to take up most of the slack.

Ste
Ste Brown

I don't know how much effectiveness you are looking for from the handbrake, if comparing it with the footbrake then any handbrake is useless, as the rear brakes are designed *not* to lock the wheels when the fronts do, let alone if you are trying to stop the car with handbrake alone - an emergency brake it certainly isn't, it is a parking brake.

Consequently the rear brakes rarely get the attention they deserve.

The shoes should be positioned such that a point on the drum passes over the 'empty' portion of each shoe first during forward motion, both sides.

A smear of grease is required on every metal-to-metal point of contact between shoes, adjuster, slave cylinders and backplate. The adjuster also needs to be dismantled and the threads greased regularly, as does the linkage pivot inside the drum, the clevis pin outside, the compensating linkage on the diff casing, the cable in its sheath, and the cabin lever.

The shoes need to adjusted correctly first (to give the correct foot pedal travel), then the handbrake - personally I do it so the first click makes no noticeable difference, only the second, then I know that when the lever is down the handbrake is fully off.

Done annually whether it be the V8 when it was a daily driver and travelling up to 15k per year, or the roadster and only around 3k per year, I've never had the compensator, adjusters or lever pivots seize or even get stiff.

As Ste says the short lever needs to be above the long lever inside the drum on Banjo, below on Salisbury. Replacement levers can also cause problems by the end nearest the pivot being too long and preventing the drum from being refitted.

I've had to weld up the grooves in the levers inside the drum as mentioned in the past, although that can be a factor of iffy shoes with the wrong dimensions as much as wear. With the handbrake pulled on so the shoes are just starting to be pressed against the drums, the lever that sticks out the back of the backplate and turns to point rearwards, should be at right-angles to the cable so as to get maximum force onto the shoes. If it's angled away from the backplate either the levers are worn and need welding, or the shoes are slightly undersize. The greater the angle between lever and cable the more inefficient it becomes.
PaulH Solihull

Everything must be assembled and adjusted correctly to get an adequate hand brake. It took me almost 5 years to get mine to the point where it wouldn't attract attention at its annual inspection. The shoes must be adjusted to their minimum clearance from the drum and all of the components, that make up the system, must be free to move and have no slop whatsoever. Once this is accomplished, you, and your wife, will be surprised at how well the hand brake can be made to function. RAY
rjm RAY

This thread was discussed between 27/12/2011 and 28/12/2011

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