Handbrake Question & Brake Story.

[adventurer-96]

I’m trying to reinstall my handbrake lever and cable, and I’ve got a couple of quick questions.

1. How thick are the spacers, between the body and the handbrake lever? I think mine are missing and I’d like to look locally for something.

2. Did Tigers ever come with a different piece than the abutment clip/bush pictured in the manual? I’ve got a part that was co-located with the handbrake (the whole system was removed when I got the car) and it looks like it could work as a cable guide.

3. Does the handbrake functions like I describe it here? The rod is attached to the driver’s side wheel cylinder lever, and mounted in the axle bracket. The cable is “pinched” at the “welded clip” and the cable continues over to the pass. side wheel cylinder lever. That way, when the cable is pulled, the force is equalized between the two wheel cylinder levers, evening brake force between drums. Correct?

4. I’ve got a new cable, but I need a new fork end. Any suggestions? Are the threads standard enough that if I took it to a hardware store I could find something similar? I’m not seeing one advertised at Sun. Spec. or CS.

Thanks for reading and hopefully responding to the question part.

The second part – over the last two weeks I’ve rebuilt a caliper and done both wheel cylinders on my car, and if you are like me in that you’ve always been intimidated by brake work, it’s a lot easier than you’d think. Having done the work myself makes me a lot more confident about the long-term prospects of owning the car, and of how to deal with seemingly major problems that come along. In my case, the seals on both pistons on the right caliper were bad, leading to bad braking and a pool of brake fluid under the car every morning. But, with a little work, it all went together. Today I redid the wheel cylinders on both sides, and it was a true learning experience.

The brakes worked REALLY well after leaving the shop, but of course the true test will be when I look at each wheel in the coming days to see if there are any more brake leaks. Let’s hope not!

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