Hand Brake Hold Not Tight Enough At Full Pull

[Oka]

My hand brake is at about 40 degrees when fully pulled. When fully pulled, it still does not 'grab' the vehicle at point of stoping. When I let of the foot brake, there is still some lateral play on the vehicle.
Would the angle of the handbrake make any difference if it is fully pulled. I have tried to give it a tight pull, but when releasing it, it is more labor to do.

Would adjusting the line tension make the difference?
Thanks.

[ericjp]

My hand brake is at about 40 degrees when fully pulled. When fully pulled, it still does not 'grab' the vehicle at point of stoping. When I let of the foot brake, there is still some lateral play on the vehicle.
Would the angle of the handbrake make any difference if it is fully pulled. I have tried to give it a tight pull, but when releasing it, it is more labor to do.

Would adjusting the line tension make the difference?
Thanks.

Adjusting the tension will only change the angle you are able to pull the handle, unless it was so loose that it wasn't fully engaged. 40 degrees sounds like a lot. my brake fully engaged is probably close to 30 degrees.

[Oka]

Adjusting the tension will only change the angle you are able to pull the handle, unless it was so loose that it wasn't fully engaged. 40 degrees sounds like a lot.

So I thought about the physics! Then would you know what the issue might be?

[BillAileo]

Your cable may be loose and at 40 degrees not fully engaging the shoes. If I remember correctly the cable can be adjusted by turning a 10mm nut assembly located under the cover at the base of the handle.

[billr99]

Correct cable tension produces a brake lever that is full on after 5-7 clicks of the ratchet. You need a 10mm deep socket to adjust the cable at the spreader which is under the leather boot at the lever.

Cheers,

Bill

[Astro14]

Would adjusting the line tension make the difference?
Thanks.

Yes

[Xheart]

Would you post a photo Oka?


My hand brake is at about 40 degrees when fully pulled. When fully pulled, it still does not 'grab' the vehicle at point of stoping. When I let of the foot brake, there is still some lateral play on the vehicle.
Would the angle of the handbrake make any difference if it is fully pulled. I have tried to give it a tight pull, but when releasing it, it is more labor to do.

Would adjusting the line tension make the difference?
Thanks.

[Mario1975]

On mine, my brake shoes and the lining have become detached. That is why the hand brake wasn't tight. Hope it wasn't the case for you!

[Oka]

Sorry I did not get back to this soonest. I have been side tracked a lot since then.


Would you post a photo Oka?
6435
Here is a current photo after adjusting the tension. Now, what you see there are just two clicks to hardness of the lever pull.
At that point, it made no difference (sill as it was when the hand brake angle was at much higher).


On mine, my brake shoes and the lining have become detached. That is why the hand brake wasn't tight. Hope it wasn't the case for you!
My rear brakes are disk brake system (are you referring to the disk and pad as shoe-system also?).
I know how the hydraulic system works for the caliper but NOT how the hand brake works on the same rotor where the handbrake also functions.
What do you exactly mean by "become detached"? If something is "detached" it will not function anymore. In my case, the hand brake holds
but very slack that the car still moves to the slope it is standing on. I can feel there is some hand brake functioning, but not enough.

[Willy]

Volvo's have disk brakes, but the hub of the rear wheel is a brake drum.
The shoes of the handbrake are known for delaminating over time.
I suggest you take a look. You need to remove the caliper and the disk/drum.
The precedure can be found on this site in the Resources section (How To):
http://www.volvoxc.com/0/resources/how-to/pdf/parking-brake-shoes-replacing.pdf
Willy

[Oka]

Never stop learning. As an old schooler, did not know wheels come with both shoe and pad. Always wondered how the hand brake works with caliper/pad system.
Now I know. That's why I wondered why Mario1975 mentioned it.

Your link showed how easy it is to get to the shoes. Now, could my shoes be worn or I need to adjust the cable if disengaged somehow.
I believe the shoes should last as one owns the car since it is not used to stop the moving vehicle.

Thanks.

[gwee]

How many miles have you driven?

[Oka]

Now I have 131K. I bought it a year and half ago.

[Astro14]

Handbrake shoes on my T5 had delaminates, reducing effectiveness. New shoes and hardware with proper adjustment, and the handbrake holds the car very well.

Try adjusting first, but given the cars age, it could be time for new shoes...

[Oka]

Have already adjusted and still the same slackness.

Don't know if the former owner ever changed the shoe. If am going to open there, I might as well change the shoes. Right now, at full-strength pull, it barely holds the car.

I appreciate all the inputs. As soon as I replace and test the handbrake, I will surely post an update. This will be very soon.
Thanks again everyone.

[Willy]

It is not a difficult job, the only thing that could pose a problem is when the disk/drum
is rusted to the wheel hub. A decent blow with a heavy plastic hammer may help, as
does letting some kind of "creep oil" find its way overnight between the hub and the drum.
Vadis wants you to replace the bolts holding the calipers, but I don't do that. Applying
some kind of thread lock could be an alternative since that is, I think, the reason the
bolts should be replaced. I use a torque wrench when torque values are given.
Willy

[vanrynd]

yep, Guess it was my turn.
Only 1" lockup"

fixed it last weekend.

I LOVE the Springs install _ NOT !
(buy a kit with new springs)

[Astro14]

The Haynes book that I use says to adjust the 10mm nut until "full effectiveness" is reached between 3 and 5 clicks on the handle. My driveway is a fairly steep slope. I adjusted the brake after bedding in the new shoes (drive 100 yards at low speed with the parking brake semi-applied). The brake holds the car on my driveway at 4 clicks up.

[Willy]

The shoes of my handbrake still look like they are in prefect condition, but when I pull the handle
up while he car is slowly moving, the most loud and scary squeek comes from the rear.
I can't find anything wrong, but it seemes that the brake doesn't engage in a "linear" way but bites suddenly and hard.
This may be the self-servo effect of the twin leading-shoe design, but I don't remember this happening a few years ago.

[billr99]

I LOVE the Springs install _ NOT !
(buy a kit with new springs)

Absolutely worthless those springs and even new ones aren't all that great. Not exactly one of Volvo's (or ATE's) finer engineering moments.

Cheers,

Bill

[Astro14]

The shoes of my handbrake still look like they are in prefect condition, but when I pull the handle
up while he car is slowly moving, the most loud and scary squeek comes from the rear.
I can't find anything wrong, but it seemes that the brake doesn't engage in a "linear" way but bites suddenly and hard.
This may be the self-servo effect of the twin leading-shoe design, but I don't remember this happening a few years ago.

Or the shoe is delaminated and you're hearing/feeling the friction material get wedged in a non linear fashion...time for some disassembly...

[Willy]

Or the shoe is delaminated and you're hearing/feeling the friction material get wedged in a non linear fashion...time for some disassembly...
The thing is that I have already disassembled both sides and saw nothing wrong!
I will take another close look when I mount the winter tyres...
Willy

[Oka]

Need to ask this. How hard would be too hard when the handle is pulled. For my years of driving experience, my XC is just too hard.
What I mean is this. I am used to pulling a hand brake and it "slowly" gets hard. For my XC, by the time it gets to the first click, you
can feel it toughens quickly. So, how tough should I be looking for after replacing the shoes and all its parts (kit)?

Thanks.

[pelagikos]

The shoes of my handbrake still look like they are in prefect condition, but when I pull the handle
up while he car is slowly moving, the most loud and scary squeek comes from the rear.
I can't find anything wrong, but it seemes that the brake doesn't engage in a "linear" way but bites suddenly and hard.
This may be the self-servo effect of the twin leading-shoe design, but I don't remember this happening a few years ago.

When I replaced rear rotors a couple years ago, with all the delamination stories I had heard, I looked at the shoes closely and found nothing wrong with them.

The new aftermarket rotors turned out to be much more prone to rust than the original ones. So all the surfaces with the exception of where the pads touch are always covered with rust flaking off. I imagine same thing is going on inside the drum as I hardly ever use the hand brake. When I do apply hand brake while moving, it makes this loud squeal, but it does go away if I go slowly a 100 feet or so with hand brake lightly applied, and it does not come back for a while. I attribute the initial squeal to the excessive rust on the aftermarket rotors rubbing off.

[Willy]

When I inspected the (original) rotors, they were very lightly rusted. I removed it, but the disturbing noise remained.
But I will try your "run in" method and see (or rather hear) what happens.
Willy

[nickbw]

When I did this job recently nothing was "wrong" with the shoes visually but when I droped on a few inches onto the ground the backing plate and friction material immediately parted. I slackened the cable right off at the adjusting screw on the handbrake lever before removing the disks. Then having removed the shoes I withdrew the expander lever and disengaged the cable niple. I could withdraw the cable an inch or two (forwards) through the rubber boot in the backplate. I filled this with high melting point grase and greased the adjuster lever components. These can be a bit of a chinese puzzel to reassemble, so I suggest taking a photo to refer to. When it came to adjesting the handbrake lever at the end of the job I had almost the opposite to Oka's situation - the lever becomes hard after 3 to 4 clicks.

I am sorry to contradict OP but this handbrake/ drum brake design is not twin leading shoe but one leading and one trailing shoe. If you read the link below it is easy to see the reason why, given drum rotation is the same for both shoes and each pivots from the same point, and is acted on by the same point (albeit by a lever rather than a wheel cylinder). So on each drum only one shoe has an effective force, even when all the mechanical are in perfect order.
I converted my rears by the addition of brake adjusters in place of the "H" pivot bar Anyhow the car has just had its Ministry of Transort test and passed.
http://www.engineeringinspiration.co.uk/drumbrakes.html

[pelagikos]

This drum brake being a parking brake is to be equally effective preventing rolling EITHER forward or rearward. Thus trailing becomes leading when the car parked nose uphill.