new rear discs and handbrake shoes - help!

[mlc]

This is a really embarassing one, but suggestions please.

The handbrake on my 2001 S320 has never been up to much, on the last MOT it scrapped through with a warning. I suspect it was never used until I bought the car. On careful inspection I found the disk to be badly corroded on the handbrake matting surface and the brake shoes to be breaking up. So off to Eurpocarparts this morning for pads, disks and shoes.

The bad news is that I cant get the discs over the new shoes. I have carefully checked that the disk and shoes match the old ones, the old disc wouldnt go over the new shoes either. The adjusters are backed off fully and the handbrake cable seems to be slack.

Having spent over two hours trying to work out what was wrong I have given up and taken the adjusters out to rebuild the brakes. This works fine and I am no worse off cos I didnt have a handbrake before, but this is clearly a very temporary solution.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Mark

 

[television]

I have had these problems before, try the old shoes, if they go on easily with the new disc, if thats ok then I file off or grind some of the end of the shoe, the round end, not the end that goes into the adjuster, very little normally does it.

Do make sure that they are centralized

 

[mlc]

Thanks Malcolm,

got the chance to do the job this morning. It turned out that the new shoes were a really bad copy of the MB originals. I have to open up the slots to engage fully into the actuator as well as take some off the length.

This is the first time I have ever had to "adjust" new shoes, however it is also the first time I have ever bought brake components other than from a top name. I bought the bits from Eurocarparts and althought the discs and pads were a name I knew the only handbrake shoes available were a bit dubious (with hindsight).

I have learnt my lesson and wouldnt do that again.

Thanks again.

Mark.

 

[television]

Thanks Malcolm,

got the chance to do the job this morning. It turned out that the new shoes were a really bad copy of the MB originals. I have to open up the slots to engage fully into the actuator as well as take some off the length.

This is the first time I have ever had to "adjust" new shoes, however it is also the first time I have ever bought brake components other than from a top name. I bought the bits from Eurocarparts and althought the discs and pads were a name I knew the only handbrake shoes available were a bit dubious (with hindsight).

I have learnt my lesson and wouldnt do that again.

Thanks again.

Mark.

So pleased that you got there, they are only a parking brake so not the end of the world