We have a sticky hand brake on our wee monte and was just wondering has anyone done a self fix on this? I take it with all the wet weather and brake dust in there the drums just need a good clean. Can anyone advise how easy or hard a job it is?

Not hard to remove rear wheels and braked drums. They should have been done at the 2 year/ major service. You need to check there is not a broken spring in there, some cars have had this. Best get the wheels off before winter proper to be sure you can.

Thanks i intend to do it on monday. What size of socket do i need to remove the drum?

Maybe best get someone experienced to show you first time, and they will know what they are looking for.

Well that the rear brake drums cleaned out. Really easy job for anyone who has sticky handbrake.Just saved myself a packet from going to the stealers  :$$$:  :$$$:  :$$$:  :$$$:  :$$$:  :$$$:

Well done.

 

Was it just brake dust?

Was the cable OK, shoes adjusted OK now?

Did you have to give the drums a good tap to get them to loosen off? When I tried to remove mine last time they were on solid. 

Yes the drums were a little hard to get off. Remove wheel then remove the small torx head grub screw from the drum and spin the drum  giving  it a good chap with a hammer all way round then use a large screwdriver between drum and backplate to lever drum off. When drum comes off loads off dust will fall out. Give all moving parts a good blast with holts brake cleaner. Please note you do not have to remove the large nut in the centre.

Please note guys that inserting a large screwdriver and using it as a lever is not really to be recommended! - so take it carefully.

Please note guys that inserting a large screwdriver and using it as a lever is not really to be recommended! - so take it carefully.

 

Yes, poor old back plate!  It is very temping though to do that, best idea is to turn the drum so that you can see/reach the auto-adjusting mechanism and release it - that will retract the shoe(s) and the drum will come off easily. After washing all the dust out, you should clean check and re-grease the shoe contact points and make sure the handbrake lever is still free to move fully - it is usually this lever that causes the handbrake to fail. I'd always look inside the swept area of the drums and scrub with scotchpad etc to get rid of any old areas of (black) rust while you are at it, I think that it is these areas than cause seizure if the car is left with handbrake on for a week or so. Finally a slight greasing of the wheel/hub interface using something like copper-ease to make sure the wheels can come off when needed!

 

Actually if you do your own servicing, do this VERY year and it will be easy to do, ignore it for a few years and you will have a nasty job getting these drums off, maybe why I rather rear disc brakes - but they have their own problems I suppose!!

Edited 19 November, 201411 yr by rum4mo

Can I just poke my nose in again on this one?

As rum4mo has already indicated, a good move will be to re-grease the contact points.

 

YES, but sparingly AND with specific grease made for the purpose.  - and I do mean sparingly. You would be amazed how much wrong grease is over applied by well intentioned DIYers. 

 

Please note that heat generated by the brake melts ordinary 'general do it all' grease which can then spread to the brake linings. Whilst in the trade I lost count of how many times we had to 'tidy up' after a diy job of this nature was completed

Yes, I take your point, I seem to remember that VAG use some very gloopy stuff, that gloopy that once the dirt is cleared away, along with the "outside edge" of the contact point blobs of lubricant, if you lift the shoes off the back plate slightly, you can "ease" the gloopy stuff back into position. The DIYer's version of this stuff might just be some "superlub" - you know the silicon/ptfe mix stuff - but as you say, very sparingly.