BADGHIA

I am sure this has probably been asked before, but our BA Ghia's handbrake has just gone out of adjustment for the 4th time since new (50k). The first 2 times it was readjusted under warranty by seperate dealers in another state and the last time was by my local dealer because the last dealer stuffed up the adjustment. The local dealer informed me today that it will cost me $45 to have it adjusted this time as it is a regular adjustment with the BA and is not covered under warranty. Just what is it that goes wrong with the handbrake to make it go out of adjustment so quickly? Apparantly it uses a single shoe in the internal drum instead of the usual twin shoe arrangement. Is this just a case of cost cutting or bad design? Either way it looks like I will be doing it myself as I can't afford $45 to have it adjusted every 10-15k. Has anyone out there done it before?

FPV_technician

re The BA handbrake

Mate i'm a ford technician and without exageration I would have adjusted at least 1000 of these hand brakes. They are a single shoe as you said, yes they are a bad design. I think the main dramama with them is the brake lining material seems to be too soft because we cant use asbestos these days. Also it take bugger all for the inner drum to wear over its maximum diameter of 26.7 or whatever millimetres. You may also need a new set of shoes as the old ones may still look ok though, shoes are cheap considering its a late model vehicle, they are about 30$ and generally even if the inner diameter of the drums are too big a new set of handbrake shoes can solve this problem.
All I can say is have fun and hopefully the tech who adjusted the h/brake wont have done a dodgy and adjusted the cable and has actually adjusted the shoes at the wheels through the hole in the disc rotors.

Cheers.

Blueblood

I had am on-going issue with mine, going out of adjustment but also the shoe rubbed on the drum. If you drove with a solid wall beside you, the rubbing sound could be heard bouncing back to you.
End result was new rear discs and handbrake shoes at 60k.
Ford covered them and the handbrake is good again.
Has not gone out of adjustment yet.
Apprantly commodore has the same issues.