whats the most unlikely reason for a handbrake to fail?

i recon i found it. noticed my handbrake stopped having any noticable effect when i was travelling, figured i was in the outback (NT) so i didnt really need it anyway. now that i have finally gotten round to taking a look at it...
first thing i notice, cable is still fairly tight, a little slack, but not much, so i go to adjust the rear pads, assuming they must be way off. nope, after 14000km without adjustment they are just fine. handbrake can still be defeated by hand spinnign the wheel though. jack up the second side, spin the wheel and... screech, rattle, clank, not sounding good. take the wheel and drum off and a 10cm long piece of steel falls out. the pin that holds the armthat the handbrake cable pulls on has SHEARED COMPLETELY IN 2 and the arm has just been rolling around freely inside the drum i feel bloody lucky it didnt decide to get itself tangled up with a pad or destroy the drum completely! is this a known fault? has anyone else had this problem or is it just a freak occurence!?

am i the only person who has broken this?

u are talking about the pivot pin? and not the clip that holds the pin in?

are u superman? how much force would u have to put on the hand brake to get that to snap!

Been drifting in the Kombi? That I'd pay to see. :bounce

Never seen one break or wear out...
but I always replace the pin and circlip when doing the brakes.....
Might have been a Brazillian Pin.... ;lol...

Lee