ae92 corolla hatch handbrake help

[lam.666]

hello

new here and i did a search but wasnt able to find anything for this particular problem, just purchased a 91 model corolla sx hatch but the handbrake doesnt work.

i've checked the cable, and checked that it's connected to the rear brake discs but when i lift the handbrake cable it moves and locks into place like its working (feels very hard to pull up aswell) but brakes dont engage at all...

jacked the car up and got someone to pull the lever to see if it was moving but only moves just a little bit, maybe 1 to 3 mm's of movement, the cables that go to the brakes look fine as well

it's got me stumped to what the problem is, and so i've took some pictures of the lever and the rear brake, excuse the quality of the pictures as their taken from my phone


the adjuster for the hand brake has several washers placed there and this is what it looks like with the handbrake down


slightly better picture of the washers


the right / left rear brake caliper, seems to look fine to me

if someone has some pointers on fixing this it'd be greatly appreciated

[Dale]

There's supposed to be two nuts on the adjuster, one to lock the other one in place.

Is it a disc brake rear end? The handbrake shoes in the discs wind back in when you fit new pads IIRC, they then gradually wind out as the pads wear to keep the handbrake correctly adjusted. They may not be winding back out as they should be while the pads wear... just a thought!

[lam.666]

yeh thought there was something funny about the adjuster

i'll have to check the brake pads tomorrow, would a brake bleed help at all?

checked out another corolla hatch and the hand brakes when applied showed heaps of movement in the caliper compared to the car

will probably pull the wheels off tomorrow to inspect it

[Cuzzo]

The handbrake is on the caliper and not internal.

This is what i did to fix it on my ae82.

Pull off all those washers and adjust the nut to right at the top of the thread.
Then push the thread down to the nut.

With handbrake fully off, pump the brake pedal like 50 times.

The adjust the nut just a little bit and then try it. It might not be excellent but it definelty helps it.

Other problems if that doesnt work is that the cable could be stretched or the brake pads on the back need replacing.

[Dale]

A bleed won't help as the handbrake isn't hydraulic!

Try cuzzo's advice

[lam.666]

accidentally double posted

[lam.666]

cool

tried cuzzo's suggestion but to no avail, the adjuster cable keeps on spinning no matter which way i try to loosen it, i dont want to clamp it as i'd kill the thread..

is there another way i can take this off? or would i need to remove the cables from the rear brakes... only that looks abit hard as im unsure how to put it back on once i remove it

is there a pdf of the workshop manual floating around?

cheers