Hand brake chatter defender

[pjlhat]

My 1998 300tdi 130 crew cab has a chatter through the tail shaft as I coast to a stop, this can usually be stopped by giving the hand brake a couple of sharp pulls. I had the hand brake assembly out some time ago and this seams to have begun soon after, so I wonder if I have asemblyed it correctly. It feels like one of the shoes is dropping down onto the drum or that the drum is out of round, I have checked the roundness of the drum and the surface is good. It makes no diffewrence if I adjust the brake up close or back it off a fair bit. This is my first posting and am not sure if I have sent it to the right section. HELP!
Thanl you Peter

[Don 130]

Mine did that once. A trip to the mecanic fixed it. It was adjusted up too tight. See you rave cd for instructions on how to set it correctly. Don

[JDNSW]

This is probably due to the brake dragging. If backing it off does no good, then it could be the actuating mechanism is sticking, usually because the cable is rusty or has foreign material in it, or the shoes are contaminated with either mud or oil from a leaking shoe.

Less likely, but possible, is a broken or mis-installed pull off spring, loose linings, free play on the output bearing etc.

John

[pjlhat]

Thanks old Bushie,
Yes I am worried that I may have put a spring on the wrong way or some how misaligned it, as there is no dirt or oil, every thing is in good order,
is there any good pictures of the shoe and spring layout?
Peter

[JDNSW]

I had a look in my manual - no very good pictures, but I do see the following comment "Note that the fully lined end of the lower shoe must be towards the expander assembly and the fully lined end of the upper show towards the adjuster assembly". (The pictures show a couple of inches at one end of each shoe unlined.

This suggests a possible assembly error!

The springs simply go from one shoe to the other at each end, with the springs behind the shoes so that they pull the shoes against the backing plate.

John

[clive22]

Had pretty much the same problem on mine, couple years back. Used to stick on & chatter etc. in the morning.

Pulled down the handbrake assembly. Pulled off the cam mechanism at the heel of the shoes that converts cable pull to shoe separation. Cleaned it out, old grease dried and sticky, causing the cam to not fully retract leaving the shoes partially against drums. New light coating of grease, reassembled - solved it.

Problem was intermittent as enough warmth will cause the contaminated grease to flow enough to allow the cam to release the shoes.

Worth doing if you pull the drum off anyway. Would also try to get some motorcycle chain lube (rather then WD40) down the cable ends, flows like water initially, solvent evaporates leaving more viscous oil behind.

Clive