MOZ
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
- Messages
- 146
- Location
- Knaresborough,North Yorks
- Car
- W163 ML270 Inspiration, Leon Cupra TDI
Hi Guys,
bit of background first. Changed the pads ad disks on all 4 corners yesterday.
Fronts a piece of piddle - easiest brakes Ive ever worked on - both fronts done in less than an hour.
rears - straight forward enough, a bit more time consuming due to messing with the parking shoes adjuster through the wheel bolt hole but pads easy and disk not too bad.
now the frustration. needed to replace the parking brake shoes. for a first timer I found it an absolute pain in the ****, the spring clips holding the shoes in were a git and kept falling back through the back panel. then the shoe spring - i didnt have a hook tool so struggled for ages to re-engage it. anyway to cut a long story short , finally got the shoes on (will be much quicker next time with a hook tool), got the new disks and pads back on, adjusted the parking brake adjuster through the wheel bolt hole again, tightened up and backed off a few clicks as per recommendations (disks rotating without binding - good). Note for anyone else doing the job - as I was doing each corner in turn I was just lifting each corner up and this turned in to more frustration when trying to get a wheel hole to align up with the adjuster as the wheel on the other side would lock up the axle and if the hole wasn't perfectly aligned with teh adjuster I had to put the wheel back on and move the car a bit and so on!!, for everyone else, lift the whole back end so both wheels off the ground and then you can rotate the disk at will.
Then released the cable compensating adjuster under the center of the car.
Anyway, after that long story of piece of piddle fronts, to nightmare parking shoes, I finally get to my problem. The brake pedal is virtually non existent, it does bite but right at the bottom of the travel applying both parking brakes, but with very little efficiency - and certainly not really usable.
I messed about with the compensator again, but after some thought I have a feeling it is at the full extent of its travel leaving the brake cables loose. see attached picture.
Am I right in thinking there is no other adjustment I can do, and if this is at the end of its travel as it looks to me (please let me know if you have any other thoughts) then am I right in thinking that the cause must be that the cables themselves have stretched and need replacing?
Note, I did correctly ensure the cable end inside the shoe hub was correctly connected to the hook of the shoe spreader, and the brakes do work - just there is too much slack in the cable - It was not perfect before but I suspect the new shoes being thicker have slackened the cable to the end of its travel
If i need to replace the cables it wont be a show stopper, but will be a major pain as I will have to redo most of the work I did yesterday to fit the new cables, but if it is the only way then so be it.
Can you let me know your opinions. 1) do you agree the compensator is as far as it can go
2) is there any other method of cable tightening that I'm not aware of.
3) do you agree its new cable time and if so would you expect this to solve the issue?
4) is changing the cables straight forward or a git - looks OK but lots of crawling about under the car
Thanks to anyone who can offer some advice. the good news is that the new disks and pads work fine. Just need to get the parking brake working as am relying on the transmission park lock too much till I fix it.
Let me know your thoughts, I have searched the net for info and have found very little, so if I do need to change the cables I may well take some photos and do a bit of a DIY write up, to help others avoid the first time learning curve frustrations.
all the best.
Moz
bit of background first. Changed the pads ad disks on all 4 corners yesterday.
Fronts a piece of piddle - easiest brakes Ive ever worked on - both fronts done in less than an hour.
rears - straight forward enough, a bit more time consuming due to messing with the parking shoes adjuster through the wheel bolt hole but pads easy and disk not too bad.
now the frustration. needed to replace the parking brake shoes. for a first timer I found it an absolute pain in the ****, the spring clips holding the shoes in were a git and kept falling back through the back panel. then the shoe spring - i didnt have a hook tool so struggled for ages to re-engage it. anyway to cut a long story short , finally got the shoes on (will be much quicker next time with a hook tool), got the new disks and pads back on, adjusted the parking brake adjuster through the wheel bolt hole again, tightened up and backed off a few clicks as per recommendations (disks rotating without binding - good). Note for anyone else doing the job - as I was doing each corner in turn I was just lifting each corner up and this turned in to more frustration when trying to get a wheel hole to align up with the adjuster as the wheel on the other side would lock up the axle and if the hole wasn't perfectly aligned with teh adjuster I had to put the wheel back on and move the car a bit and so on!!, for everyone else, lift the whole back end so both wheels off the ground and then you can rotate the disk at will.
Then released the cable compensating adjuster under the center of the car.
Anyway, after that long story of piece of piddle fronts, to nightmare parking shoes, I finally get to my problem. The brake pedal is virtually non existent, it does bite but right at the bottom of the travel applying both parking brakes, but with very little efficiency - and certainly not really usable.
I messed about with the compensator again, but after some thought I have a feeling it is at the full extent of its travel leaving the brake cables loose. see attached picture.
Am I right in thinking there is no other adjustment I can do, and if this is at the end of its travel as it looks to me (please let me know if you have any other thoughts) then am I right in thinking that the cause must be that the cables themselves have stretched and need replacing?
Note, I did correctly ensure the cable end inside the shoe hub was correctly connected to the hook of the shoe spreader, and the brakes do work - just there is too much slack in the cable - It was not perfect before but I suspect the new shoes being thicker have slackened the cable to the end of its travel
If i need to replace the cables it wont be a show stopper, but will be a major pain as I will have to redo most of the work I did yesterday to fit the new cables, but if it is the only way then so be it.
Can you let me know your opinions. 1) do you agree the compensator is as far as it can go
2) is there any other method of cable tightening that I'm not aware of.
3) do you agree its new cable time and if so would you expect this to solve the issue?
4) is changing the cables straight forward or a git - looks OK but lots of crawling about under the car
Thanks to anyone who can offer some advice. the good news is that the new disks and pads work fine. Just need to get the parking brake working as am relying on the transmission park lock too much till I fix it.
Let me know your thoughts, I have searched the net for info and have found very little, so if I do need to change the cables I may well take some photos and do a bit of a DIY write up, to help others avoid the first time learning curve frustrations.
all the best.
Moz
