My 87 EA82 Sedan didn't pass inspection partly because of a poor handbrake on the right wheel. I looked into it today and the handbrake lever on the caliper would travel freely with no effect on the piston until it almost hit the cable bracket. Then the piston would move slightly.

 

I screwed the piston in several times but with no luck. Is there a way to set the tension on the mechanism in the caliper? Seems like it has some sort of internal play that is taken up by the movement of the lever.

 

Also both calipers wont return the lever properly when disengaging the handbrake, but the right one is slightly worse.

 

Cycling them several times usually gets them to adjust, along with using the regular brakes, like alternate them.

 

Sounds like one of them is either stuck or needs other repair.

 

Screwing the piston in is for when you install new pads.

 

No other adjustment should be needed.

There is usually some free play in the levers, but I'd think it should be similar.

Thank you for your reply I did the front brakes with new pads and rotors 1000kms ago, and have been using the handbrake regularly since then. Since the car is an automatic I've never really noticed that the handbrake wasn't functioning properly. I suspect that the internal adjusting mechanism is stuck and I have to find another caliper.

IIRC, these have two adjusting nuts at the hand brake lever, one for each wheel. These were made before the self adjusting kind were produced. You need to tighten the one that goes to the right wheel until the cable end is contacting the lever at the caliper.

Edited October 14, 20178 yr by skishop69

IIRC, these have two adjusting nuts at the hand brake lever, one for each wheel. These were made before the self adjusting kind were produced. You need to tighten the one that goes to the right wheel until the cable end is contacting the lever at the caliper.

 

there is only one adjuster.  Not one per cable.

 

One cable may be stretched.

 

Or if someone has forced the piston back into the caliper without rotating it, it may have destroyed the helical self adjustment for the E-brake.

 

I would replace that caliper.

Gotcha. Been a while since I had to adjust any of the Brat's or XTs. Didn't think about someone reafing on it and destroying the cam inside. Definite possibility as well.

After going through the exploded illustrations in the Haynes manual it seems to me that the caliper would need a rebuild. So a new used caliper is ordered and on its way I actually found a working caliper in my parts stash, but it was a left side one of course. But i will be replacing that one too because of the bad lever return spring