850 Hand brake adjustment

My car has failed the MOT because of too much travel on the hand brake. I'm
going to fit new rear brake pads, are there any other adjustments I should
make to the hand brake cable etc

thanks.....ttfn......Alistair

 

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,

Assuming that the 850 is the same as the S/V70, fitting new rear pads will
make no difference!

The rear brakes are a combined disc/drum affair - with the handbrake being
provided by the drum part.

You can adjust the drum brakes by turning the disc/drum (with the car jacked
up and the wheel off, and the handbrake lever OFF) until the adjustment hole
lines up with the adjuster, and then using a screwdriver through the hole.
The Haynes book for my V70 says to tighten it until you can't turn the disc,
and then back it off by 4 or 5 notches. It also says to drive for about 400
metres with the handbrake on by a few notches *before* starting the
adjustment - to clear any accummulated crud (my word) off the drums.

With shoes correctly adjusted, the handbrake should come on fully in between
3 and clicks on the handbrake lever ratchet. It it takes more clicks, the
cables need to be adjusted. The adjusters are under the centre console
armrest (just behind the lever) - on the V70 anyway, requiring the lid to be
opened and the internals to be removed.

HTH.

 

Ironically, since a car that fails on brakes should be retested, surely
it would have been cheaper to let the MOT station adjust them for a
tenner or so rather than take the car away to pay the full retest fee?

(Unless the centre is feeling charitable?)

David.

 

I asked the same question, but they assured me it was beyond their
capabilities. They were however happy to sell me a new tyre. Thanks to
'Bonnet Lock' I shall have a go myself.

thanks....ttfn.....Alistair

 

I asked the same question, but they assured me it was beyond their

So lets see...they need to remove the wheel to replace a tyre and that's
all you need to do in order to poke a screwdriver in to flip up the
ratchet to adjust the brake.

Oh boy!

Do they check oil too but then suggest you go elsewhere to get some put
in?

David.

 

This was a local firm that I've been going to for some years. 6 months (ish)
ago they were bought out by 'Joe Bloggs', their name now appears along with
5 other business's. All the 'old boys' have been replaced with new
mechanics, no two told the same story as to what they could or could not do
or even if there would be a retest fee,(they have now decided not to charge
me) the whole place was a shambles. They want life easy by just doing
batteries, tyres, exhausts and MOT's.
I will of course now take my business elsewhere. I find it increasingly
harder to find any Garages interested in cars, so thank God for the
newsgroups.

ttfn.....Alistair

 

me) the whole place was a shambles. They want life easy by just doing

I know the feeling. In a hurry I took my Saab 9000 to a local one that
just offered those type services, also failed on handbrake.

Fortunately, they were willing to adjust them and as a bonus, the young
lad that did it used to run a Saab 9000 and knew how to do it properly
on that car.

So I hear, there are lots of changes coming on the MOT front anyway from
an admin and implementation side.

David.