how to adjust handbrake series 3

Procedure for adjusting the hand brake is first to find it!


If you aren't familiar with Land-rovers, the Hand-Brake doesn't operate on the back wheel brakes like an ordinary car, there is a 'fifth' drum brake on the back of the gear-box.


Find a back wheel, crawl under the car, and follow the axle to the middle, and you'll se a 'bump' which is teh diff casing, and a shaft bolted to it, which is the prop.


Follow the prop back from the axle, and it ends at the hand-brake drum, which is roughly under neat the back of the seat-box in the cab.


So having found it, FIRST of all check that there is No OIL anywhere to be seen on the bottom of the brake drum, as that indicated that the gear-box output seal has 'gone' and is leaking lube into the brake, which is rather unhelpful, and will defeat ANY adjustment......


NOW; feel BEHIND the drum, on the backing plate, in the gap between the brake and the gear-box, and you'll find, if you have crawled in from the passenger side, that the square adjuster people have mentioned is on the passenger side of the drum, at about the 9 o'clock possition as you are looking at it.


At the 3 o'cl;ock possition there is a rod coming out of the brake and that should be going to a little linkage arrangement.


Now climb in the cab, and lift away whatever is in the middle seat possition, remove teh tin tray or inspection plate, and you should be able to see the back of the hand-brake from above, as well as the linkage from the lever in the cab to that rod I just mentioned. (You may, want or find it easier to remove the drivers seat and inspection cover too)


OK, so to adjust,


You'll want to check that the hand-brake turns or doesn't with the lever, and you'll not really want the car rolling away while you are messsing.


So, first of all, chock teh front wheels, and jack and axle stand the rears so that they are hanging.
Gear-box in neutral, transfer box in neutral, then hand brake all the way down.


Now looking through the inspection hatches in the seat box; On the end of the handbrake lever is another rod that goes to the pivot that pulls the mechanism inside teh drum, and I think its the down rod from the lever (from memory) that has a 1/2" brass nut on it to adjust the lever link.


wind that OFF so that the rod is hanging loose.


Now you need to turn your attension to the square adjuster, and that may be more easily accessed from back under the car


Using I think its a 1/4" SQUARE spanner (you may need to buy one from a motorfactors) rather than a 1/4" AF open ended spanner, becouse its bound to be stiff, and such a small spanner is likely not to grip or allow enough leverage, while a pair of mole crips or pliers will simply round it off.......


Or failing that, I believe its the same 'square' as the drive square in a small socket set, in which case you can get say an M6 bolt, wind a pair of nuts onto it and lock them together, then put the M6 socket onto the adjuster 'backwards' put the bolt in the socket and use a spanner on the locked nuts on the end to turn them all!


Back the adjuster off, and check that the drum will 'swing' As you do so, the prop will turn and so will the wheels probably so dont expect it to be easy!


(If you haven't got axle stands; you could take the prop-shaft off and leave the wheels on the floor; BUT the prop bolts through the brake drum, and usually people omit the brake drum retaining grub screws so the brake drum is ONLY held on by the prop bolts, in which case it can rock about making it nie on impossible to adjust properly)


Now, with the drum 'loose' and the adjuster backed off, you can wind it in to close up the clerance and get the shoes to bite.


As you do so, it should feel a bit 'notchy' as the adjuster is octagonal so that it 'sits' on the flats and is less likely to unwind or change adjustment.


As you wind it in, wind it back and forth a bit to get a 'feel' for that notchiness as you want to make sure that when you have tightened it up, you are on a flat, not a corner, or it will back itself off to the last flat, which can be as much as 1/2 a turn off adjusted properly.


Now, as you wind the adjuster in, rock the drum back and forth as you go, and you should feel when teh shes come up and start to 'bite'.


As said, take the adjuster in, until it will lock the drum, with the adjuster going over tight and onto the next flat, THEN back it of 1/4 turn so that the drum just turns.


Then go back into the cab, and adjust the nut on the end of the Brake lever so that it just pulls the linkage into tension, but doesn't engage the brake, with the lever all the way down.


Now lift the brake lever until its on the ratchet, and it SHOULD with three clicks lock the drum, and be able to come up one more click, if you tug hard.


If it takes MORE than three clicks, the chances are that your brake shoes are worn out, or you haven't got the adjustment on the other side right.


If it takes LESS than three clicks to get the drum to lock, then back the nut on the hand-brale lever side off a tad until you get three to four clicks to lock the drum.


Bit of messing with the adjusters though and you SHOULD be able to get it nie on perfect, but it IS something that needs doing as described balencing both adjusters working on either end of the shoes, fairly frequently.


Very common, for people to only adjust the hand brake with one or other of the two adjusters, and not very successfuly, becouse they are then only getting engagement of the shoes at one end, and wearing teh shoes out unevenly.


Though, gear-box oil seals are just as often a cause of a bad hand-brake!


Best of luck with it!

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