Suzuki 4WD Club of Victoria

Hi all,

Could anyone point me in the right direction as to how to make the Sierra's handbrake better? It has the handbrake drum in the drive train. I have replaced the shoes and cable and adjusted as per the manual.

I then towed it (via the A-frame) to Mildura. I noticed that the drum was getting hot (I hadn't left the handbrake on).

The handbrake handle needs to be pulled all the way up to have any effect. Do the brake shoes need to be shaped prior to fitting?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

if you are willing to spend the money - there is a company called spidertrax from the US that make a disc brake replacement for the handbrake setup.

www.spidertrax.com

that's the path i have always been planning to go down.

Hi Chris,I have a rear disc conversion that as a bonus gives an exellent hand brake .I was going to use it but you may want it .Lloyd.

Thanks Lloyd,

I assume you mean that the rear drums are replaced with discs. Would it require an engineers report to keep it street legal?

Isn't there any way to make the existing system work properly? I was thinking that the brand new brake shoes may have need shaping to take in account that they simply pivot at the bottom and moved outwards at the top.

I would prefer to spend my money on rear lockers and transfer case reduction gears, if I can get the hand brake to work as it should.

Cheers

I'm not sure if you're aware that the transfer mounted handbrake isn't self adjusting like the wheel brakes. I'd have a go at adjusting it before you abandoned it. They work very well once adjusted up. The biggest problem with the transfer brake is nobody can be bothered adjusting it, and the effects of smashing it on rocks.

The spidertrax brake is very nice (but expensive for what you get) but it's also not self adjusting, and require a WT handbrake cable - quite expensive to buy new.

Steve.