406oc.co.uk

Hi everyone, i came out of work the other night to find my drivers side wheel locked as if the handbrake is still on. The handbrake feels very tight and will bearly go up a click. Iv tried the usual methods of WD40 & beating the drum but to no effect. I also tried removing the drum but its stuck solid, any suggestions would be muchly appreciated!

Hello and welcome to the forum,

perhaps you May have to loosen off the handbrake cable,
and then persuade the drum off,

hi mate,

I'd have a look at the handbrake cable, over time they can sieze against the outer sleeve. My old GLX drivers side cable did that and my LX is showing the same early signs.
Quite often you'll see evidence of the outer sleeve moving back and forth where it's rubbed on the guide hook which it shouldn't do under normal operation.
If that looks likely chock the wheels and disconnect the cable further up to give you some slack then give the outer sleeve a bloody good pull away from the drum, hopefully that will free it enough to remove the drum, if not a good pair of cutters may be required. If the cable looks fubared on first inspection I'd go straight for the cutters/grinder.
Obviously you don't want to be doing that if the car is likely to move about so not on jacks!!! I have access to a pit so I just duck when things start to wobble

I think a brake lining has seperated from a brake shoe and jammed up, slacken off the cable and bash the drum on the front, if you can move it at all try shinig a small torch through a wheel bolt hole and look for the adjusting wheel then try to undo the adjuster until you can remove the drum.

Hi everyone, thanks for the welcome & advice.

After alot of encouragement i finally got the drum off. Few springs and pins fell out in the process lol.

Anyway, the piston is pishing brake fluid and the friction part of the shoes just fell out.

Is it just a matter of replacing these and bleeding the system?

Was the problem likely to be caused by no brake fluid? (leaking from piston?)

New cylinder and shoes, give the drum a very good clean to get all the old fluid off, bleed the system and you should be good to go.

Great stuff. Thanks muchly.

Once this gets sorted il throw a few photos in the members gallery.

MrWhite wrote:
Was the problem likely to be caused by no brake fluid? (leaking from piston?)

As the friction material just fell out the problem was almost certainly the friction lining seperating from the shoes and jamming up, seen this problem a hundred times....the clue was in the handbrake becoming very tight.