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[tmx]

The problem arises when trying to adjust them using only the knurled wheel in the hubs.   That is never going to work properly.

ahhh! thats where i went wrong! MOT Not due till Sept so ill read The HowTo and get it done before then

[Cybertrucker]

Omegas handbrake is rubbish! like all vauxhalls you adjust it for the MOT only two weeks after the test the handbrake will fail again!

Tell me about it - I had an Opel Kadett years ago, the handbrake never made it from one MOT to the next.  I got very good at holding it on hills on the clutch...

Quite clearly, neither of you know how to service handbrakes.....shame really as I have found Vx handbrakes to work really well when you know what your doing.

Ah, there's obviously some trick needed on Vauxhalls which you don't have to employ on Fords...  

[Marks DTM Calib]

Omegas handbrake is rubbish! like all vauxhalls you adjust it for the MOT only two weeks after the test the handbrake will fail again!

Tell me about it - I had an Opel Kadett years ago, the handbrake never made it from one MOT to the next.  I got very good at holding it on hills on the clutch...

Quite clearly, neither of you know how to service handbrakes.....shame really as I have found Vx handbrakes to work really well when you know what your doing.

Ah, there's obviously some trick needed on Vauxhalls which you don't have to employ on Fords...  

No trick, just common sense as required on all cars!

MAKE SURE THE HANDBRAKE CABLE IS SLACK BEFORE SETTING ANd SERVICING THE BRAKES.

This is true of Fords the lot.....the handbrake cable is not there to allow adjustment of the brake setup on any car....its simply a means of actuating the brake setup and should be slack when off!

 

[tmx]

Thanks mark ill note that for when i fix it once and for all i hope!

[Marks DTM Calib]

Do that and they work well and need little attention (just use them!)

Why the hell people adjust brakes using the cable I dont know, its the equivalent of setting brakes whilst somebody has the brake pedal slightly pressed!

We weere quite happily creating '11' 's on the road with TB's once it was done.

[Cybertrucker]

The problem arises when trying to adjust them using only the knurled wheel in the hubs.   That is never going to work properly.

So you don't adjust them on the cable (which is logical, that's only to take unnecessary slack out of the cable) and you don't adjust them using the knurled wheel in the hub.  I really am going to have to read the how-to again to find out exactly where you do adjust them!

It's about twenty years since I've had to adjust a handbrake.  I think that's because I had Fords...  

[tmx]

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1152564750/1#1

The Guides written by the man himself explains everything nice and simple

[Marks DTM Calib]

The problem arises when trying to adjust them using only the knurled wheel in the hubs.   That is never going to work properly.

So you don't adjust them on the cable (which is logical, that's only to take unnecessary slack out of the cable) and you don't adjust them using the knurled wheel in the hub.  I really am going to have to read the how-to again to find out exactly where you do adjust them!

It's about twenty years since I've had to adjust a handbrake.  I think that's because I had Fords...  

Thats because you were probabaly driving lighter front wheel drive cars!

The auto adjusters on the rear shoe setup on the fords and Vx's work very well and require little attention......if the cable has some slack in it!

The Omega is much heavier and has a shoe setup that does the handbrake alone, this has a manual adjustemnt and in theory does not wear.

In reality it requires occasional maintenance (mine gets done every 2 years and always works well) and its worth just lightly applying the handbrake for 50m or so every month to remove any surface rust build up on the drum faces.


The adjustment is done via the adjusters on the shoes....but it must be done once you have made sure the cable is slack and that the pivots are all free.

Only once you have done this can you make any adjsutement to the cable.....and even when done this must have some slack when off to allow for suspension travel etc.

The optimum on the Omega handbrake is around 6 clicks to on.

[ians]

The problem arises when trying to adjust them using only the knurled wheel in the hubs.   That is never going to work properly.

So you don't adjust them on the cable (which is logical, that's only to take unnecessary slack out of the cable) and you don't adjust them using the knurled wheel in the hub.  I really am going to have to read the how-to again to find out exactly where you do adjust them!

It's about twenty years since I've had to adjust a handbrake.  I think that's because I had Fords...  

I guess the key word in my post was 'only'  
I can well understand why garages (or people) just whip the wheels off, nip up the adjusters and whack the wheels back on.   The proper process is a pain - removing heatshields without shearing the studs for starters,  then access to the central adjuster is awkward.   But having done it on my 3.2 its makes a world of a difference making the effort

[Andy B]

......
The auto adjusters on the rear shoe setup on the fords ..... work very well and require little attention...... .......

That obviously does NOT include the earlier auto adjuster  that worked (or didn't) on the handbrake, rather than the foot brake, of a MkII Cortina.              


which was probably why they modified them and made them self adjust using the foot brake instead!  

[Cybertrucker]

It's about twenty years since I've had to adjust a handbrake.  I think that's because I had Fords...  

Thats because you were probabaly driving lighter front wheel drive cars!

Never owned a front-wheel drive car in my life!  Sierras and Granadas were my kind of car, rather than Fiestas and Escorts.

To be fair I did once have a problem with the handbrake on the Granada.  The Granada has rear discs, like the Omega, but the handbrake applies the
disc brakes instead of a separate drum brake, and on one occasion the operating machanism on one wheel seized up.  Drowning it in WD40 and thrashing it backwards and forwards with a big hammer soon freed it up!