Thread: jamming handbrake

the handbrake on my D1 is staring to jam on. I thought it was just some mud or something in the drum so I pulled the tailshaft off, removed the drum and cleaned the housing out. There was a bit of mud in there but not too much considering where its been

anyway, the expander assembly was full of crap so I pulled it apart and cleaned it out, greased it up and it slides nice and smoothly. The adjuster assembly was fine so I didnt touch that.

I put it all back together and it still jams on when the handbrake is released. When you climb under it, the hand brake cable is loose but the assembly seems jammed open, if you give a small tug on the handbrake cable, it releases easily.

the springs holding the shoes together (the ones that run vertically) were a bitch to refit so I reckon they have sufficient pressure to pull the shoes off the drum when the handbrake is released.

I cant think what else could be causing it to jam on, has anyone has a similar problem, if so, how did you fix it? (other than fitting a disk brake...which is on the cards) do the expander assemblies have a limited life??

cheers

Originally Posted by Skiboy

Does your cable run freely?

If you have a bad engine earth then sometimes the engine will earth via the handbrake cable and essentially get welded in place.

Skiboy

yeah, the cable runs free. when you release the handbrake lever in the cab, the cable flexes and bends outwards at the union with the lever at the expander assemby cause its not sliding into the housing.