Wonderful Handbrake - NOT

[Keith Turner]

Has anybody found a solution to what must be one of the poorest handbrake systems ever fitted to a modern(ish) car. the Y10 system looks OK but it just don't work! Mine is not seized, the shoes are recent, but it won't hold on anything resembling a hill & here in South Wales we specialise in hills.It seems as if the lever is too short & can't exert enough pressure on the shoes even with two hands on the lever I can't make it hold. I am tempted to reinforce the bracket on the brake back plates & fit a Beta handbrake lever, anybody got a less drastic solution?

[Steve Matthews]

A friend of mine says he knows someone who used an Austin Metro mechanism on his rear drums. I don't know how much modification would have to be done to the back plate for this but its the only Y10 I have ever heard of that can be parked on a hill and not left in gear.

[Jens Larsen]

yup, had this problem too (my y10 has been nothing BUT problems....and suprisingly all of them are contained withing these few topics..). The only way I got the hand brake effective enough to pass inspection was to buy a new hand brake wire and adjust it so one would have to be the Hulk to use it comfortably... one can hear one's joints pop when pulling the lever! It's damns tiff, but at least it works... falling apart, this car is...