Just put my old faithful 200K miles focus estate through what I thought might be it’s last journey . It did fail as I expected and I’m hoping I can fix the relatively small number of issues despite not working on cars much .( lack of money means often I have to !)
The handbrake was failed for being below the efficiency threshold but the disc/ rear drum hydraulic system was fine.

New rear brake shoes were supposedly fitted last year ( dodgy garage ..cheap cash job incl other things but I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t fit the new shoes I provided them with . I will check tomorrow (if I can undo the weird axle nut) . I had the drum apart once before and accessed it by 4 bolts at the back but they are totally seized and rounded off now. Anyway….

I am assuming the shoes and drums are ok as otherwise it would have failed the main brake tests so I simply tightened up the handbrake cable adjuster fairly tight but not so much that the car wouldn’t roll easily in neutral . This did make a fair difference and I tested it on a very steep incline both facing up and down . It would hold the car without movement in neutral and no brake BUT …when testing it as an “emergency brake” ie yanking it on at 60mph it has little effect in slowing the vehicle . I know drums aren’t the best and front brakes do most of the work but, alone I imagine it should noticeably slow the vehicle from speed ?

I have never used a handbrake like this in 40 yrs of driving so I don’t know whether this is relatively normal or with that lack of performance it will most likely fail the retest ?
I presume they use the rolling road and measure it’s ability to slow the vehicle but I have no idea of what power they expect .

So basically I’d appreciate any advice/knowledge re this issue , the likely cause and things to check to improve the handbrake generally .

As mentioned I have little experience with working on cars but have maintained motorcycles , stripped an engine and fiddled/fixed numerous things over the years so feel fairly confident with most things , articularly with the aid of a decent manual and a digital camera!

Thanks in advance

Bill

I’m not a mechanic, but would have thought jamming a handbrake on at 60mph will eat the shoes or glaze them over.

I would imagine tightening the handbrake cable would have been sufficient to pass the test. Worth asking the tester if you can as they are normally very knowledgeable.

Sorry not really much help.

Somebody tightening the handbrake cable is probably why it’s failed.

The fact it’s passed the foot brake efficiency, does tell you the actual shoes/drums are likely fine.

My guess given what you’ve said, is the shoes aren’t adjusted correctly (adjusters are probably seized, or just f**ked), and the handbrake cable has been adjusted up to compensate, meaning all the leverage angles are now where they shouldn’t be.

You need to strip the drums off, make sure the handbrake levers are back against their stops (if they’re not, the handbrake cable needs slackened until they are), then check the adjusters. They should be automatic, but given the age, they’re probably seized/corroded/non-functional. Depending on the type, you can just manually adjust up screw type until you can just get the drum back on and spin it with a little bit of drag. But if they’re ratchet/cam style, then you’ll likely find the teeth are corroded/stripped/not-holding, and only real option are new adjusters.

It’s been that long since I worked on old Focus, I have no idea what type of adjusters are fitted.

I sold my Mk1 Focus six years ago, so memory is hazy, and it had rear discs not drums, so the handbrake mechanism would be different, but the cables and lever may be the same. What you had to do was slacken the adjuster at the lever, apply the brakes hard, ten times, to activate the self adjust, then retighten the adjuster. Worth a try – but I would also check the handbrake cables. I have a note that I replaced mine at 118k – if I remember right, the outer had a plastic cover and if that is damaged, water gets in and corrodes the steel outer and/or the wire inner. To find out if the cables are actually sticking you’d need to take the drums off and disconnect it, but have a good look at the outers for damage first.

Please avoid checking the handbrake whilst travelling over 10 mph , that will tell you all you need to know about the efficiency , at 50/60mph you are taking a massive risk and could loose control especially as you only have 1 hand on the steering wheel when you do that – unless you are one of those driving gods of course.
Apart from that = yeah adjustment etc – the MOT should have told you if the handbrake was working evenly on each wheel , so go from there.

I had handbrake inefficiency on my daughters Clio the mechanic said that the self adjusters sometimes do not self adjust so I had to manually adjust the handbrake.

the shoes aren’t adjusted correctly (adjusters are probably seized, or just f**ked), and the handbrake cable has been adjusted up to compensate, meaning all the leverage angles are now where they shouldn’t be.

This. Follow mc’s advice.

Some excellent advice ..thanks to all..The surgery will start this morning and I’ll report back . Regarding applying the handbrake at 60 mph …I actually applied it gradually ,..so yank was the wrong word , At the end I was applying it quite hard but with little slowing so was unlikely to get any sudden shock or lose control but

I appreciate the concern .

I had a mk1 Focus for donkey’s years and did all the spannering myself, so here goes.

What mc said, the ratchet and cam self adjusters can seize, and will only operate (via the pedal) if the handbrake cable is slackened off completely (10mm nut where the handbrake cable meets the handbrake lever). With the trim removed around the handbrake see if the cable stays taut as the handbrake is released, if it goes baggy theres a cable issue.

Also get a helper to put their hand around the back of the drums to see if both left and right cables pull equally when the handbrake is applied.

There is a cable joiner back there too, so if you need to free off a cable disconnect it there to create the slack.

The wear ridge on the drum will try to hinder removal of the drum (assuming you can get the nut off). Don’t haul on it, or the brake shoe anti-rattle clips and springs will get chewed up. There is a rubber plug on the backplate and if you flail around in there long enough with a flat screwdriver the self adjuster will undo a bit.

Don’t lubricate anything, just clean it with a small wire brush and try not to breathe the dust. As said above re-assemble everything with the handbrake cable totally slack, operate the pedal 10 times (you should hear a ratchetty zizzing as they operate, then do up the cable nut. I used to do the nut with my fingers, and it had no locknut yet never came undone.

Good luck 🙂

Thanks Oldnick ..that was helpful but I think I now know the reason for the poor performance ..although ..actually ..thinking again maybe not ..let me explain .
I successfully removed the axle nut on one side which wasn’t very tight and been fitted the wrong way round so some mechanic , sometime, had likely been negligent or not replaced the laminated nut. The drum came of easily and there was little corrosion to the adjusters etc BUT …the lying , cheating mechanic had not replaced the shoes last year when I paid for that (and provided the shoes myself.) One side is very worn ..I’ll add a photo shortly .
However ..despite that wear ..the brakes did pass on the main test so still wondering whether new shoes will make any difference.
I tried to look at the other side too but bizarrely , despite having what looks to be an identical nut , I was unable to remove it …not because of the torque required but because the 3O mm socket, which fitted on the other side ,was too big for some reason and looks like I’ll have to order a 29 mm tonight on Amazon prime .
Anyway ..all good stuff ..I’m learning a lot and getting somewhere . I need to learn more as , as I mentioned ,I have little money and so have to fix most things myself to save the pennies for rent and all the other things that are getting more and more expensive.Poor mental health and seemingly undiagnosed ADHD screwed my life up ..hence the lack of money , need to rent ( sold my house when depressed in 97 ) became an alcoholic etc ( have discussed on STW before ) etc but recently things are looking up . No pension, little money and renting at 57 makes for worry if I allow it but hey ho .. that’s life.
Sorry ..gone totally of topic !
Love this forum ..so many helpful , knowledgeable people ..I ‘ve saved a lot of cash over the 15 plus years on here thanks to you lot being kind enough to help me fix numerous things .
One time Ford quoted me £1100 to fix a problem on this same car but 20 mins after posting a question on here some kind soul suggested a fix and half an hour later it was sorted.
Thanks all
Bill in Exeter ( now 5 yrs T total ! )

One side is very worn

Is it possible that the automatic adjusters have not been working but the handbrake cable has been tightened via its adjustment and pulled the shoes to one side so that one shoe has been dragging?

Edit – I should have refreshed the page before posting, and I’ve have seen your photo. The front shoe have a very thick lining on it. The back shoe looks worn at the bottom, but that might be the angle of the photo. If it was worn because of the action of the handbrake lever I would have thought it would be worn at the top, but not so much at the bottom, as that’s a fixed pivot.

I wasn’t aware Ford used different thickness of shoes on the Focus, but that looks perfectly normal.

The leading shoe (front in this case) is the one that does the most work due to being self-energising and wears the fastest, so some manufacturer’s saved money by making the trailing shoe thinner.

Handbrake cable does need slackened off more though, and the adjuster checked to make sure it’s free and working.

On mine, teh old shoes came out looking much like that, not quite as exaggerated but pretty similar the new ones were equal thickness but they were Mintex probbaly rather than Ford OE so not sure if the genuine ones would be the same.

(also, 200000 miles! Mine got binned at 130000 and everything back there looked like it’d been carefully stored in the sea. Loved that old shitbox)

when testing it as an “emergency brake” ie yanking it on at 60mph it has little effect in slowing the vehicle

Do not use the handbrake at speed! It won’t be anything like as effective as the service brakes and some cars use softer pads for the handbrake and you’ll wear them out really quickly…plus you override any ABS control…lots of videos showing Americans skidding off the road…they call it an E-Brake and seem to think it will help them out during an emergency stop!

Also when adjusting the handbrake, you should do it with the wheels off the ground until you feel a little drag. If you do it on the ground, they will be dragging significantly before there is any effect on the car rolling on a gentle incline.

The parking brake efficiency required for the MOT is crazy low, something like 16% I think.

Also could be a hydraulic issue.

Over time rubber brake lines swell, when you put pressure in they expand and apply the brake, whe you let go they close up and the brake stays on.

That could also play havock with the self adjusting, and kill a set of pads in a year.

The parking brake efficiency required for the MOT is crazy low, something like 16% I think.

What does the efficiency mean though? Efficiencies are normally a ratio of things – energy in to useful work out.. or force in to force out. What is measured as being 16%?

Interesting Mr Spoon ..I see what you mean but I don’t think it was that.
I’ve had both drums off now ..they came apart easily and quite amazing that there’s no lip or obvious wear after 20OK . I’ve had it since 14K and know it’s still on the original shoes.
Both brakes are much the same and fairly corrosion free ..just the trailing shoes on both are down to 2 to 3mm thickness wise and the leading sides have plenty of friction material left. Also the cables are fairly friction free.
The brakes may well pass now ..I’ve adjusted the handbrake nut and it holds well on steep inclines both ways but still does little to decelerate the car once moving. I’m not sure if that’s normal ?
I’m probably going to fit some new pads anyhow .
It’s been s useful thread for me and I’ve learnt a fair bit and am now keen to work more on my car . As I mentioned ..I’ve always left garages to fix my car and done all 2 wheelers myself.
I enjoy fixing stuff and need to do it anyhow because of lack of funds ( as I talked about earlier in the thread ) . I also somewhat sadly tend not to trust people who effectively write their own cheques and learning more helps to counteract that as I become more familiar with issues.
The best prices and service always used to come when I dropped the car off whilst wearing a pair of Mercedes pro mechanics overalls and telling the person who took the keys that I had intended to do the work myself but just had too much on !
Thanks all …until the next time ..( which no doubt will be very soon ).
Bill

What does the efficiency mean though? Efficiencies are normally a ratio of things – energy in to useful work out.. or force in to force out. What is measured as being 16%?

Measured force at wheel divided by GVW.

16% is the figure for vehicles with split service brake systems.
Old vehicle with single line service brakes (was either 70s or 80s split systems became a requirement), the efficiency requirement is 25%.
For completion, for vehicles above 3.5t GVW, and fitted with a towbar, the requirement is 12% of GTW.

The measured reading can be lower, provided more than 50% of the braking system wheels lockup.

Essentially the handbrake is still the final resort should the service brake fail, and the 16% applies because 25% is hard to achieve on a single axle especially on cars where the rear brakes are not the main braking axle, and on a dual system, the likelihood of the service brake failing completely with no warning, is very unlikely.

Shoes a bit worn id say due to being over adjusted on the handbrake cable.

29mm sounds wrong. Normally they are 28 or 30mm. Check it’s not a LH thread.

Back the cable off. Then using 2 big screwdrivers tweek the Shoes apart slowly you just want a couple of clicks if you go too far just ping the ratchet back. Bit trial and error.

You just want it to just slight hiss when you spin it.

Once foot brakes good then adjust the lever.

Thanks .Duncan ..The nuts were however closer to 29mm it seems .
I had to order the socket on Amazon prime and it arrived today and worked well. Funnily the 30mm socket worked on one nut but was bit of a loose fit . On the other side which appeared to be the same the 30mm was just too loose . 29mm needed a little tap to fit but allowed the high torque value to be applied properly.

It’s also often worth replacing the spring kit too as they play a significant part in alignment/efficiency and can lose tension over the years.

But it looks very much like a case of bad adjustment here, so as has been said, back the cable tension right off, adjust the shoes manually in the drum to almost touching, then adjust the cables to touch and back off a bit so you get good lever travel and a rock solid hold at the drum.

Personally I’d replace the shoes and springs while in there and resurface the drums if there’s any glazing. Obviously brake cleaner on all contact surfaces.

Also worth checking cables aren’t sticking and allowing full pull travel.

Good luck!

the likelihood of the service brake failing completely with no warning, is very unlikely.

Luckily very true, but if it happens….
My only experience of this was complete service brake failure on a 1976 Alfa GT Junior coming up to a T junction. No warning, foot went straight to the floor-absolutely nothing. Luckily I was only travelling at about 15 mph as I had just come out of my Aunt’s house driveway and the Alfa has a separate cable operated drum as its handbrake integrated into the rear discs and first gear/handrake actually pulled me to a halt. Scary though.

I’m wondering whether it’s worth replacing the shoes as in reality I expect the car to be scrapped in the next year . The cambelt hasn’t been changed for 125K iirc
The clutch is only engaging right at the top of the lever travel . The engine shakes badly on startup ( intermittent ) (it is a deisel though but I suspect engine mounts) ? + the turbo has 200K on it .
Any bill for more than a few hundred will sign it’s death sentence.
Is it worth sanding the drums out of interest? ( for a temporary improvement on the handbrake ) The trailing shoes have only 2 to 4mm friction material left as well but they have lasted well and iirc were well worn about 5 yrs ago when the drums came off and haven’t changed much since.
The cables definitely move ok ..I can pull them back and forth with my fingers .

I’m wondering whether it’s worth replacing the shoes

How much are a set of shoes?
My philosophy has always been to spend money on safety critical items, e.g. brakes and tyres if only for an element of peace of mind, but if they are still effective and you feel that they will last?

Is it worth sanding the drums out of interest?

If you had some brake cleaner and rough sandpaper it probably wouldn’t do any harm – I think drums can get glazed which reduces their efficiency.

Tbf shoes wear that slowly that if there’s no sign of being unbonded or breaking up and your scraping it I’d leave it.

I always scotch the shoes n drums up with 80 grit and brake cleaner them off.

jimw
Free Member

My only experience of this was complete service brake failure on a 1976 Alfa GT Junior coming up to a T junction. No warning, foot went straight to the floor-absolutely nothing. Luckily I was only travelling at about 15 mph as I had just come out of my Aunt’s house driveway and the Alfa has a separate cable operated drum as its handbrake integrated into the rear discs and first gear/handrake actually pulled me to a halt. Scary though.

Yup, but more modern cars are designed with more protection- split braking systems like MC mensioned mean there’s very few single points of failure

More tips ..cheers lads ( lassies? )

Yup, but more modern cars are designed with more protection- split braking systems like MC mensioned mean there’s very few single points of failure

The Alfa 105 series coupes were very advanced for a 1960’s design, they had split dual circuit brakes (although unusually it was a separate system for front and rear brakes rather than diagonally split) with a separate servo for each system and near equal sized unventilated discs front and rear and a brake balancing actuator. The reason for failure turned out to be grit in the master cylinder that had got through the rubber boot over the actuating pushrod had scored the bore allowing pressure bypass on both circuits simultaneously. According to an experienced Alfa mechanic who sorted the problem for me (bleeding the circuits was not for the inexperienced) it wasn’t an unheard of problem because in the conversion to RHD the master cylinder was put under the floor right in line with the offside front wheel with a very flimsy cover as weather protection. Master cylinders lasted three to four years apparently.

My Focus had diagonally split circuits but when a rubber hose split I didn’t think “Oh, one circuit has failed so I need to bury the pedal to engage the remaining circuit”. Nope, I furiously pumped the pedal, losing the rest of the fluid rather than slowing down.

Sounds like yours is getting to the point of no return, mine made it to 275K before the injector pump died, so unless you want to do a lot of spannering just treat it to an oil change (congealed oil contributes to snapped timing belts in winter) and drive it into the ground.

Fab cars, I miss mine.

Oldnick .. that’s basically my way of thinking too.Lovr it and would buy another if I could get a great example but age and the common rust issues make them hard to find in great condition.
Apparently Jeremy Clarkson loved the MK 1 so much he bought one.
Mine has been fantastic ..My wife an I went all over Europe in it 13 yrs ago ..slept in the back ( a bit tight ) sometimes. 2 pushbikes and topbox on the top.
No dual mass flywheel or particulate filter/ converter to worry about . Cheap and simple .
Mine had welding done 4 yrs ago and since then I left the back seats out and used it as a van ( estate ) .
Have carried 15 different Superkingsize beds on the roof ( not at once .. don’t ask ) .Like my mum ..I’ll miss her when she’s gone.

oldnick, dual systems are designed so there is always fluid remaining in the separate circuits, which is done by the reservoir having separated sections (they’re usually split below the level at which the warning light should come on).

The issue if brakes fail, is drivers panic and don’t press the brake pedal down far enough. When you’ve only got 50% of the brakes remaining, and the pedal is near enough on the floor before it does anything, drivers think the brakes are doing nothing, as the pedal has passed it’s usual bite point, and the vehicle isn’t slowing down.
I’m aware of one research project years ago which surveyed drivers who’d had brakes fail, and it was interesting that when vehicles were subsequently inspected, most still had brakes functioning well enough to stop vehicles safely, yet lots had ended up being driven in to things.

I’ve driven a few things with failed brakes, and it’s a very strange sensation when you press the pedal and it doesn’t do what you expect it to.
I’ve also driven a electronically braked lorry that had had the master cylinder air pipes wiped out in an accident, and that was interesting trying to brake gently when the only pedal resistance was the flimsy pedal return springs (the air pressure is used to create pedal resistance, as well as being the back up should the electronics fail).

Yup, the replacement (diesel) car has those time-bombs lurking, but for the towing duties I would have had a petrol engine.