E30 Zone

my handbrake is, for want of a better word, naff!

i'm assuming i have a pair of small drums inside the disks. would a new set of disks/drums and shoes and pads cure this or are they normally not much good?

Try adjusting the handbrake cables first,the shoes aint self adjusting so you need to adjust them every now and then..The cables adjusters are under the centre console.

the handbrake doesn't have excessive travel. maybe 3" in total?

do the cables get sticky?

hehe! cheers cros, must get the hang of finding what i want when searching!!!

A lot of people seem to suffer with handbrake problems on their E30's including myself. When I took the entire handbrake assembly apart, the reason became apparent. The handbrake cable enters the backplate and attaches to an expanding plate type thing. When you pull the handbrake, this should open up and push the shoes against the inside of your drum\disc. I found that my expanding plate had siezed solid over the years so when I pulled the handbrake, not much was happening.

I ordered some new ones today from the dealer and am going to fit them this weekend, here's a picture of one open and one closed, mine was siezed closed:

hmm, how much did these cost?

i amy do a rear end re-fit with all new pads, shoes and disks, maybe these too if the're not too expensive.

my diska are suffering from the under-used corrosion thing that all rear disks seem to get.

The E30 handbrake can become pretty poor if it is neglected, but if sorted properly can be every bit as good as the handbrake on a rear drum car.
Problems are caused by the uninitiated playing around with the cable adjusters at the handbrake end, instead of the adjusters in the drum.
Cable adjusters at the handbrake only require adjustment when fitting new cables or very infrequently when the cables have stretched. If they are used to adjust the handbrake, the shoes contact the drum at one end only, and eventually wear out of shape so that they then cannot be adjusted properly, even by the correct method.

i changed the disks, pads and handbrake shoes at the weekend...

they had been hauled up to the limit of the cable adjusters, killing the shoes! also, the linkages had got sticky, siezing on one side. this is all sorted now and it all works!!! will lock the rear wheels at speed!

woohoo