Build 34. Handbrake

Before fitting the handbrake I decided to source a carbon handbrake cover as the default one is a real let down, especially as I have carbon fibre all over the place inside the cockpit. I'd heard about a person on the forums based in Germany who manufactured these so I sent him a message to see if he had any left. He promptly replied saying he has some and asked what size my handbrake was so he could send me one that fits nice and snug. For any one interested it was Carsten Filmer who you can reach at Carsten.Filmer@gmx.de.

Once it arrived I set to work on replacing the original handbrake cover. I easily removed the old by grabbing it with some water pliers and twisting it off, note this destroyed the old cover so it was a risk I was willing to take!

Once it was off I needed to Dremel off the left over weld join to make room for the carbon cover. This was a little bit of trial and error, file a bit, try again, file a bit more etc etc. Once it fit I then removed the aluminium end pieces from the tube and siliconned them to the tube to prevent it rotating. I also cleaned up the metal that I had just grinded with some appropriate cloths. I then put a blob of silicone on the inside of the aluminium parts and slid it onto the handbrake metal, then secured the grub screws in place and left it all to dry.

Once all that was ready to go I fetched all the parts for the handbrake install which were actually a bit all over the place. I found the pulley and one clevis in a bag in the "axle" box. I found another clevis in the left over bits from my exhaust bag and then I found the pins in the "Misc Fastener Pack" from the Z-Packs box, along with the 2 setscrews (not 25 as the manual states!) and some of the washers. (I ended up ordering some more M8 washers as I clearly didn't have enough!).

I lightly greased all the washers and the pulley wheel, and installed them as per the manual. I first connected the handbrake clevis to the handbrake, using a washer either side of the clevis, and also the handbrake bracket (the manual drawing is incorrect on this as it has you putting all the washers on the outside!). I have the SV chassis and the clevis is longer than what is pictured and you also will not cross the cable as shown in the manual.

Once that was assembled, the next part was putting the cable into the car this was fairly simple basically hook the thin wire part (that will go around the pulley) into each slot that the wider cable will go into, once you have done this you can easily pull the cable through so the thicker cable sits in the brackets. I then pulled the cable sufficiently so I could attach the pulley to the cable in place as per the manual, again I greased the washers etc just in case.

Once this was done, I attached the electrical female plug to the top/upper handbrake male spade. Once this was in place, it was a case of then attaching the main handbrake to the chassis with the two M8 setscrews and nylocs. Access was tight but I managed to use a small 13mm socket to tighten up one side, and a thin 13mm spanner on the other side (as shown below).

The last bit was to turn on the ignition and check the handbrake light goes on and off when it should. In order to get a valid reading you need to disconnect one of the connectors that is monitoring the brake fluid pot, otherwise the warning light will always stay on!

The finished handbrake installed, showing the loose ends under the car at the rear:

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