Hi,

I unfortunately have drum brakes on the back of my 9N3. I have recently replaced the shoes and also the handbrake cable. My question is is it normal that i have to yank the handbrake through the roof for it to hold on a hill? The hill i park on is quite steep but my girlfriends 07 plate punto, and all the other cars in her family, don't seem to have to have there handbrake pulled through the roof. My handbrake is adjusted as far as it can at the handbrake end.

I'm wondering if the drums themselves need to be change as i don't know when they were last done, but they don't look too bad.

Thanks In Advance

Olie

I'm not familiar with the rear brakes on a 9n3 but with most cars you need to adjust the shoes so that they sit closer to the drum, usually there is a wedge or star that moves them further out. Adjust them little by little so that you can still get the drum on and off (may need to grind the lip off the drum to make this easier) until you can't spin it by hand at 3 or so clicks of the handbrake.

As above.

Slacken OFF the hand brake cable adjustment, 'pump' the brake pedal to allow the auto adjusters to do their thing and only then adjust the hand brake cables to give about 3-4 notches of application - It is important that the cables are not over-tightened.

If it proves impossible to obtain the above, there is probably something not quite right within the drums.

There is much to be said for drum brakes on the rear, as you will get a 'self-servo' action from them - You do not get this with disc brakes, having to rely on application pressure for good braking action.

Regards.

Thanks for the advice. Ill try moving the wedge but i tried that before a replaced the handbrake and it didn't make any difference.

Hi,

MOT coming up on my 9N3 again, nearly failed last year and the year before on low drum brake efficiency, 16%. Hand brake has been crap from new. Only done 20K miles, 5 years old. No dust or faults in mechanism, original parts fitted, adjuster working fine. Q - Have you managed to fix or improve your drum brakes, if so please let me know how. Thanks, N

Adjust them?

It can also help if you 'deglaze' both the working surface of the drums and the linings.

Lots of 'light' braking causes glazing.

Regards

Yep, improved my handbrake action slightly by rubbing drum friction surface with rough emery paper, I was surprised at how much dust came away.