[Healeys] Help adjusting the handbrake on my Austin Healey 3000 BT7

[philip fish]

Hi all,
I had a frustrating couple of hours trying to adjust the handbrake on my BT7
at the weekend. At the moment the handbrake pulls up to near the top of the
ratchets before engaging. As the rear disk brakes seem properly adjusted I
tried to take up the slack at the fork located at the rear of the handbrake
cable, above the rear axle. A straightforward job I thought following Norman
Nock's "handbrake" notes (downloaded from the web via British Car
Specialists), but not for me.

With the handbrake fully-off removing the clevis pin from the fork was fine.
I then turned the fork in several turns inwards and tried to reconnect the
clevis pin but could not line up the hole in the fork with the hole in the
balance lever. I could not do this on my own as there was too much tension
in the link rods. Got my son to help, but still couldn't get the clevis in.
I then removed the return springs thinking this would make it easier, but I
still could get the holes to line. Only by adjusting the fork back outwards
beyond the starting position could I get the pin back in. The result being
that I now have more travel on the hand brake than when I started.

Is there a better method that I am using?
All so what is the best method to try a re-fit the springs? I tried using
needle-nose pliers to stretch the spring but it took forever to get the hook
end of the spring back in to the little hole on the link rod.

Thanks
Phil       


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