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Here is a bit of a puzzle I'd like to throw out to the group.
I have a 1980 GT Limited Edition that I drive only through the dry summer months here on the west coast. In 2022 when I had the GT on the road, I decided to replace the rear brake pads and rotors. I was not able to complete the job due to one seized hand brake cable not allowing the new rotor to be installed. So, the old rotor went back on and the car delivered to the local independent Volvo specialty shop to replace the cable. Once the work was underway, the shop called to say the other cable and the shoes needed replacing, so got that done at the same time. This began the saga that ended up costing a lot of money, took about a month, and resulted in a hand brake that now did not work. That brake had previously always held the car securely. I even bought another set of cables and shoes from ipd for the shop to try and the shop claimed made no difference to the situation.
Last week I stopped by another shop where our daughter has taken her 740 with good success and talked the matter over with them. They are reluctant to take on the for two reasons. The first is another shop has worked with the brakes taking them from working to non-working, so there may be missing (lost) small parts that are no longer available to purchase. The second is that factory parts are no longer available and they don't always trust aftermarket items.
In my 33 years of 1980 Volvo ownership, I don't recall working on the handbrake other than replacing shoes once (oil contamination) and swapping in a rear axle on the subject car. So, the handbrake seems to be something that just works almost forever with little worry. As a result, I couldn't draw or describe the system, but must not be very complicated with respect to possible missing small parts. But, I do need a solution as the summer is here and I want to be able to drive the car, park it, and be confident that it won't roll away on its own.
I would appear that the new cables have inner core that is too long relative to the outer casing. And, it seems that there is only one manufacturer of the cables on the entire planet.
So, for all you people who have worked on your handbrake cables, shoes or whatever, have you ever had an issue with the slack not coming out, excessively springy handle, or the brake just not holding? Have you successfully replaced the cable and or shoes without incident? Are there any small, mysterious parts in there that could easily be lost resulting in a brake that almost works, but not really?
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Thanks to everyone for their ideas and feedback on this. The situation has been rectified and was fairly simple. It really comes down to two factors.
The first is that there were no parking brake parts on the right side (shoes, springs, activator, spacer bar), which was a surprise. I had a new set of unopened shoes on hand from last year. I was lucky enough to find the small parts from the Volvo part recycling shop on Vancouver Island. That took care of the missing parts.
The other issue is the cable geometry. I know from the PPS parts that I bought for the project last summer that the inner cable is about 20 mm too long relative to the length of the housing. The repair shop had identified this with the first set of cables they tried but failed to come up with a working solution that they were happy with. They added extra spacers under the nut that terminates the inner at the lever. While this is somewhat correct, it is not very elegant for a couple reasons. I elected to add the necessary spacers between the housing end and the lever body termination. There were a few other clean-up items from what looked like a rushed job that never got to the tidy-up phase.
I now feel confident in parking the car and having it still be there when I return.
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I put the car back on the road a few weeks ago. It's been running fine, but no parking brake, of course. I finally got around to opening it up today to investigate and see what can be done.
The left side looked unremarkable other than the little activator lever was in a position that made me think it should already be in the activated position.
I next checked the hand lever and found that the cable for the right side had nothing holding it at the wheel, so took that side apart to investigate and found that the small two-part lever mechanism was half missing, the cable-end pin had fallen out, and the shoes, springs and spacer bar were completely missing from the car. So, I'm a long way from having a solution. I cannot imagine why the shop would ever consider returning a customer car in this condition.
If I want to restore this to operating condition, I'm going to need to replace these irreplaceable parts. If anyone has any ideas.
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Where are you located? I have parts cars. - Dave
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Sorry for getting back to you so late. My alerts don't seem to be getting through. I'm in Greater Vancouver area, British Columbia.
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Thanks for the help. I might have something local. One of the other Club members also reminded me about Rainbow.
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Hello Again!
Sorry for being a bit later on this reply. Thanks all for your continued support on this. I appreciate all the feedback.
Art: I grabbed the used cables from the 1983 GLT but felt the outer housing crumble while I was cleaning them. The cable may still work in a pinch since the housing is in compression, not tension. The might be a good exercise regardless. I'll be able to check for dry linings as soon as I get the car home and can inspect all that. But, I'm pretty sure the parking brake does not even work that well.
Dave: When I started on this last year, I went looking for the star adjusters and then reminded myself that the car does not have them. I can check for the balance and count the notches when it's home.
Bulletproof: The only adjustment will be the lever adjustment. Thanks.
Chris: I will plan on checking the rotor inner diameter (probable have to find a machinist friend) and compare to the data in the manual, assuming it has that information. I will also check the arc of the shoes to rotor and make sure they match, more or less.
Regards,
Cam
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Might it he that the replacement rotors have a slightly larger inside diameter than the originals?
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Any chance yours has the star adjusters? If those aren't adjusted properly they can cause your failure to hold on a slope in addition to the more common causes such as worn shoes, frozen actuators and misadjusted cables. Some early 240s still had the early Girling rears with those adjusters as in the 140s. I see elsewhere a mention by one 1980 240 owner that had them. Yours as a limited production model may have come from a different assembly plant and be more likely to be different than others of your year.
Also check if the two cables are somehow uneven side to side by jacking it up and checking to see how many hand brake notches until you start to feel resistance one side vs the other and again how many notches until you can no longer turn each by hand. They should be very close if both sides have new shoes, new rotors and were recently cleaned up with everything moving freely.
Also for handbrake adjustment with the 17mm nut, the Volvo spec calls for 2-3 notches until the brakes are fully set. In practice I've often found 3-4 notches may be needed. At 2-3 notches, when released the brakes often still drag (a little scuffing is normal). Also, at 2-4 notches there seems to be more leverage than at 5-7 notches.
--
Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now
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I had this same thought, Dave. But I'm thinking the adjusters were gone by '80. It's worth a look though.
And if they are present, that should be the first step. Then adjust at the console.
--
'79 242, '84 DL 2 door, '80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon, '15 XC70 T6 AWD
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Hi Everyone,
I don't know this forum all that well, so I hope I'm replying to everyone, more or less.
I clearly didn't get into enough detail in my long-winded explanation. Sometimes I've been told to be less wordy.
Bruce: the centre console has been off since the early days of this ordeal, so all parties are aware of the tension bolt. For sure, I am. I'm going on the assumption that the Volvo repair shop knows about it as well. The ratchet assembly has even been off and replaced by the shop. The bolt has been run in and out extensively, though I cannot exactly tell you what is at the end of the adjustment, but it essentially didn't solve the problem with overall tension. I also have a spare, good functioning ratchet lever from the GLT parts car.
The pin described by Dave and Art I vaguely recall from the axle swap 20 years ago. My recollection is that the pin becomes trapped by a body once the linkage is in the normal position. I'm fairly sure this must still be there, otherwise there really would be 'zero tension'. Anyhow, something I can check once I get the car back home here. None of this is complex mechanics, from memory.
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Sorry cfinn, I cannot guess at the cause for your parking brake symptoms. Though I've done multiple shoe replacements among ten 240s '79 to '93, I've never purchased a new cable, having pulled them from cars before sending them to the crusher.
Fact is, my only experience with a brake slipping despite having the correct force applied by the friction surface to the rotor was caused by a rotor that had not been cleaned of its rust preventive coating, but that was not a Volvo, nor my job, and a memory older than your car. But I discount that thought because you're familiar with oil contamination of the shoes.
Puzzling is the attitude of your second professional. There may be good reasons for the reticence to seek out parts not available through GCP or Volvo's network, given this to be a frequent requirement keeping 40+ year old cars of any make on the road, safety items or not. Could be they're just not in that business.
Just the same, it sounds like you do need a mechanic.
You're using this forum to reply to all in the best way it can be done here; a reply to your original post. I know the dilemma between brief enough to be read, and detailed enough to be useful. You did well.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore
"If only Sweden awarded a Nobel Prize for recycling its cars." - General Colin L. Powell
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If you remove the ashtray from the rear of the hand brake cover. There will be a single large bolt that is used to remove the slack from both cables. Tighten it and this should solve your problem, just don't over tighten to the point of dragging.
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Bruce S. near D.C.
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In the event that tightening the adjuster as Bruce S describes does not fix your problem---there is one tiny part on each rear handbrake that may be the cause. It is a "pin" that acts as a pivot point in the linkage which just slips into place--there's nothing holding it in place accept for the other parts of linkage. It's possible for it to slip out on removal or installation if one isn't careful. - Dave
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I think this is the pin Dave is describing:

And the bulk cable adjuster (does both cables) Bruce mentioned. From memory, you need a 17mm socket. Check that for me.

If someone mixed up the sides, there's an up-arrow to verify parts.

--
Art Benstein near Baltimore
Working people frequently ask retired people what
they do to make their days interesting.
Well, for example, the other day, Mary my wife and I
went into town and visited a shop.
When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket.
We went up to him and I said, 'Come on, man,
how about giving a senior citizen a break?'
He ignored us and continued writing the ticket.
I called him an “asshole” . He glared at me and started
writing another ticket for having worn-out tires.
So Mary called him a “shit head”. He finished the
second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first.
Then he started writing more tickets.
This went on for about 20 minutes.
The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote.
Just then our bus arrived, and we got on it
and went home.
We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired.
It's important at our age.
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