Frozen Handbrake?

Hello all,
as some of you might know i had a little incident this weekend, that resulting in the disco sitting in cold muddy water up to the carpet level for a while, all was well and i was recovered out and other than a smashed lower bumper and muddy carpets there was no obvious damage.

I took her back out on Sunday and had a good 3 or 4 hours dicking about off road in a local disused quarry and through some great wooded areas, but this time found a buddy to potter round with and we both got bogged down or grounded a few times, but being teamed up we had a laugh pulling each other out.

so all was well she was driving perfectly and washed down looks respectable enough for work again this week. Only problem was when I went out this morning at 6.30am to head off to work it was -6 and the handbrake was frozen solid

So my question is, do i have to strip down the brake drum on the shaft to empty out whatever is in there that froze or will it clear itself in time?

I have left it in gear tonight and not bothered with the handbrake, I live in Poland and its not renowned round here for its hills flat as a witches tit would be my description.

any advice welcomed even BoB's advice to Burn it might be an option

Cheers in anticipation

Polski

if it was frozen, then it might dry out soon enough, but usually mine seizes up when the mechanism gets full of crud. then when you do get it on, its crap, and then it wont release again.

you can try giving it a tap around the backplate to clear it, but it probably needs a strip down for a proper inspection.

not that much of a job tbh, rear prop off at brake end, two screws in brake drum, and lever it off to have a look inside

Blow torch on the drum would have worked. But strip down is best as there will probably be grit in there as well

Dziękują proszę

T

I had my handbrake seize on once - there was a problem with the earth strap and the car earthed down the handbrake cable and melted the lining. If this is the case, using the adjuster on the drum will allow you to move. If it's crud in the drum, it won't!

Thanks for the replies guys, i havent had any more trouble with it since, but have now got a leak on the input shaft for the front diff so looks like i will be under the car at weekend anyway so i will strip it down and give it a good clean out,

probably the best idea i reckon, as my usual maintenance and repair mantra is "**** it will be right" but im guessing this wont work for long as i have discovered a free playground locally that im in almost everyday now, slowly but surely destroying my disco:clap2: