So i've fitted the rear shocks, and set the shocks (with the car up in the air) to maximum droop. My train of thought is to set the handbrake cable to bring on the brakes with the first ratchet at this point, else i seem to have a lot of sloppy slack in the transmission tunnel which i obviously don't want, and i want it to be tight enough so that when the cars on the ground the handbrake still works.

only trouble is the half moon compensator and the eye which attaches it to the handbrake when set to the tension i want, fouls on several different points of the handbrake, chassis and brackets for the handbrake, which i've been furiously filing away for several hours yesturday, and its still not smooth in its operation... anyway i can't see any way round going back and attacking again tonight.

anyway hope you get the idea, thoughts/comments welcome, trouble is my fabrication skills are limited, but i did wonder if a longer threaded bolt/flange and a shorter cable might work. (its sierra at the moment)

p.s handbrake only seems to operate the upper most brake shoes, is this normal?

I would have thought that you should set the handbrake up with the car on the floor. That is after all, where youre most likely to use it.

The cable should pull on the half crescent, which is in the centre of the cable between both calipers. I have cable outers secured and radiused to the calipers which prevents it sagging, and snagging.

Make sense?

i wanted to setup with the wheels hanging at their lowest point, to ensure a big pot hole doesn't pull the rear brakes on. not quite sure what you mean by radiused to the caliper.

Am I missing something? The handbrake cable shouldn't be pulled by the wheels going up and down. Where have you mounted the sleeve? There isn't that much movement in mine.

There shouldn't be any slack in the tunnel.

If you are using the standard Sierra cable then it does need to be shortened, both the inner and the two outer sleeves. HTH Ray

Edit to add: that it should make no diference whatsoever if the car is on the ground, on full droop, or even flying over a jump, the hand brake should only come on when you pull up the lever.

[Edited on 26-4-11 by Chippy]