Well I've stuffed my handbrake. I adjusted the cables and now it's like there's no handbrake at all.

I followed the manual exactly. I put the back of the kombi up on axle stands. I adjusted the brake shoes so that the wheels were just turning freely, then I put the handbrake on 6 notches and tightened the cables until the wheels had some resistance. When I let the handbrake off again the wheels turned freely again. Then I took the kombi off the axle stands, and tested the handbrake: it simply doesn't work, the kombi rolls on even a really slight slope.

I followed the manual exactly so I don't know where I could have gone wrong. Is there some trick to this I'm missing?

Thanks

Best off adjusting the back brake shoes untill they lock the wheel completely and undoing the adjuster just enough so you have the wheel turning with minimal scraping noise


When you have the 4 shoes adjusted correctly then go to the hand brake end and do the adjustment there.

Other wise you have stretched hand brake cable and need to replace both of them or the brake drums are worn beyond limits and you need new brake drums as well.

That's exactly how I adjusted the 4 shoes one at a time before doing the handbrake cables.

The cables don't have much thread left for adjusting, but it doesn't seem to make sense that they'd be too stretched: when the handbrake is off the wheels turn freely, when the handbrake is on only 6 clicks (like it says to use in the manual) there's a little bit of resistance in the wheels, and there are lots more clicks left unused. It's difficult to pull it on much more than 6 clicks: it feels like something's stopping it going on fully. Strange.

What condition are the brake shoes in? Possible that they are worn down past the point of hand brake adjustment. If it is difficult to get the hand brake lever past 6 clicks then I would say that the hook on the end of the cable is hitting the cable sheath. The range of movement for the cable inside the drum is only about 25 to 30mm from memory.

Well after my failed attempt to adjust the handbrake I road-tested the kombi and found that there's now way too much freeplay in the brake pedal.

I had adjusted the brake shoes individually according to the manual: I tighten them one at a time until the brake shoe just gripped, and then backed them off a couple of star points until it was just free.

I remember that before I started I found that the left wheel was way too tight: it had been almost impossible to turn. I'd just assumed that the last mechanic to do the brakes had left it way too tight, now I'm wondering if he'd tightened it so much on purpose to get the brakes to work properly.

The shoes are not too worn: I can see through the top inspection hole that the pads are still 4-5mm thick, the manual says that minimum spec is only 2.5mm.

WTF is going on????? All comments greatly appreciated.

Sounds like your on the right track with adjusting the rear brakes. You need to check why you have too much brake pedal travel though!
If you don't know the condition of the brakes before you start, it is often a good idea to loosen the hand brake cables all the way before you begin, if they are poorly adjusted they can hold the brake on slightly affecting your adjustment.
If the hand brake doesn't seem to work as you say, it could be because the cables etc are tight or rustly. Try putting pressure on the brake pedal with the engine running, then apply the hand brake and see it that helps?
If it does you need to look at cleaning and greasing the cables and pivots.
:thumb