Latest issue troubling me is a very frustrating hand brake!

I've put new shoes and cylinders in the rear drums, all appear to be adjusted nicely. Handbrake off..wheels spin nicely (slight scrape on pads as per adjustment.) handbrake on 3 clicks...can't spin either rear wheel. Perfect.

Try and go for a slow drive in the backyard, handbrake does absolutely nothing! Try and park in my driveway, slightttt decline, have to put bricks under the wheel!

Everytime I go for a drive the rear brakes seem to re adjust themselves to not working!
The adjuster nut seems to be very strange and somewhat square inside the drum...as I tighten it, the shoes get tighter, another nip up, they go loose again! The handbrake cable is just being tigthtened and tigthtened and soon there will be none left!

It should not be this hard

That adjuster nut is correct, it goes tight and loose so it can't undo itself.
Are the springs inside in good order?

The adjusters are square, if you leave them in the tight position its easy for them to go loose again so you have to make certain they are adjusted correctly when in the loose position.

The handbrake adjustment should be slackened off and adjusted after the brakes.

If you've run out of adjustment you need to check how much meat is left on the shoes and whether or not the drums are machined (or worn) oversize. They might need replacing.

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

The rear drums are adjusted by screwing the square thing in and out, the further in towards the drum the screw is the tighter the brakes will be.

The old drums could be standard 7", or worn a bit, or machined +1/32", or +1/16" size. This was/is the standard practice here in Oz to avoid buying new drums, brake shops machine them out and supply rebonded shoes, radius ground to fit the drums properly.

New shoes you bought are standard size. For a 7" drum.
If the drums are bigger radius than the shoes you do not have good lining contact. This will get better as they wear in, but new std shoes should only be fitted into standard drums. Otherwise they take ages to bed in, and are worn out before their time.

Pull them off and check the contact area...
New drums are pretty cheap now from Kc or elsewhere, if you need em.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Big thanks for the quick replies everyone.

I just went out and gave it a complete strip down and sprayed everywhere with brake cleaner to get any rubbish or liquid off. Then I loosed off the handbrake, readjusted the brakes and then tightened the bejesus outta the handbrake so it's full lock on 1-2 clicks but can still yank for the 3rd. Finally got it to not move or roll!
However still no emergency stopping happening anytime soon Can't lock them?
And doc I went and put the old shoes back on! It seems they were actually fine my adjusters were just very tight. So no worries of bedding in or different sized shoes.

I'll take it out and try some hill starts tomorrow and see what happens!

Just make sure that the handbrake cable is free to move.
The pivots on the trailing arm can run out of travel if the cables are stretched.

I would be diving straight for the pivot quadrants on the trailing arms cause when they freeze up funny things start to happen

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"Investing my Super in a Cooper" &
"Re-living my Surfing Past in a Woody"

I always thought they could stretch, but i changed mine about a year ago and the 40yr old ones were the same length as the new ones.

i was talking to an older mini guru and he said they dont stretch. I tend to agree they dont stretch.

Happy to be proven wrong though

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From your earlier description I would think the threads are stripped in the backing plates. The adjuster pin adjusts up nicely, then slips back through the thread. Had to get new backing plates for mine

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Dalmeny

I told Sam yesterday to spray their pivots with WD40 and free them up. So they should be OK...

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Always back hand brake cables off befrore adjusting shoes and check how far the handbrake linkage inside drum moves before it's tight. If they get worn, the handbrake lever can go full travel without moving shoes. Check the pivot and for wear in bits that contact shoes. I don't know how to put picts on so here's link to bit I'm talking about.

http://www.minispares.com/product/Class ... assic/hand brake.aspx|Back to search

Thanks for even more response!
Adjusting handbrakes must be a common occurrence with this many responses! Haha

I'll go have another play today and try these suggestions after I take it out for some testing and let the rears get a bit settled. I'll let you know if I pull off a 180 degree turn or not.

This is the common problem point

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

1.

In your first post you said that you replaced the shoes. Did you fit the new ones correctly. It's a common mistake for the inexperienced. When you look at the shoes, the braking material goes right to one end of the shoe, but stops before the other end leaving a "gap" - this means that when fitted one shoe has the "gap" at the top and the other at the bottom - and they will fit incorrectly on the other way.

The manuals aren't usually that clear in their descriptions, but if you look at the photo that they usually have, by looking at which side the trailing arm is visible in the photo and make sure the shoes are fitted that way on that side of the vehicle - the other side of the vehicle is the opposite to the photo, but the "gap" should be the same as the first side - ie top/bottom, front/rear.

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2.

The adjusters are another trap for the inexperienced mini mechanic. The adjuster bolt has like a pyramid on the end that fits into a square hole. As you rotate the adjuster it get harder then easier to turn each quarter turn as the sides of the pyramid raise up out of the square hole and then drop back into the hole with each ninety degrees of rotation.

It is a trap to turn the adjuster a little bit (maybe only 30 or 40 degrees) and find the adjustment "feels" right when you rotate the wheel. BUT - the little pyramid won't be seated into the square hole properly and the adjuster will usually slip back into the hole after a couple of brake applications, thus "UN-adjusting" it.

You should turn the adjuster a full 90 degrees so that the pyramid is seated back in the hole then check the adjustment by rotating the wheel. It may actually take several full rotations of the adjuster (with it getting harder and looser to turn each 90 degrees) to adjust the shoes up properly.

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