Adjustment of handbrake after new rear discs

[Aussie_Dan]

Gday all.
I just installed new RDA slotted and dimples rotors with Bendix 4WD pads on my NP today, at all 4 corners.
The install went really smoothly and I am sure there will be an improvement in braking ability, especially when loaded up and towing.
Now, as the rear rotors are new, I have adjusted up the handbrake shoes using the adjuster mechanism at the bottom of the brake shoes. I adjusted it until I could hear the shoes touching the drum when the wheel was rotated, then backed it off a notch so that nothing was dragging.
I than also found I had to adjust the handbrake cable slightly, but this was easy enough to do by simply pulling out the cup holders in the center console.
The handbrake feels good, however, it doesn't seem to hold as well as it did with the old rear discs / drums in place.
I imagine that the hand brake shoes need a little time to bed into the new drums that they are operating in and I am hoping that as this occurs, the handbrake should gain a little more bite.
If not, I will order a replacement set of handbrake shoes and replace them.
What have you ladies and gents found the handbrake like, after rear rotor replacement?
Any thoughts or suggestions welcome....
Cheers, Dan.

[hiedipro]

Gday all.
I just installed new RDA slotted and dimples rotors with Bendix 4WD pads on my NP today, at all 4 corners.

I imagine that the hand brake shoes need a little time to bed into the new drums that they are operating in and I am hoping that as this occurs, the handbrake should gain a little more bite.
If not, I will order a replacement set of handbrake shoes and replace them.
What have you ladies and gents found the handbrake like, after rear rotor replacement?
Any thoughts or suggestions welcome....
Cheers, Dan.

New rotors should have no effect on drums.
DO NOT go by sound for adjusting drum brakes, because that could be just one cnr touching while the rest is miles off.
The best is to adjust up till you can only just turn the wheel by hand with two hands. Then back off to recommended notches, usually 10 or 12. You will still hear "scraping" sounds probably, but ignore that, they will rectify at the first couple of brakings.
Slacken off the hand brake first or you may get misled by a tight cable.

[Aussie_Dan]

Thanks for the tips Heidipro.
I managed to find the attached service manual procedure. As you said, loosen off the cable and do up the adjusters until the rear discs (not the wheels, the increased size will give you a mechanical advantage) can only just be turned by hand. Then back off 3 or 4 notches, then adjust the slack in the handbrake cable.
Will give this a go, later today.
Cheers, Dan.

[Shano592]

Thanks for posting that PDF, Dan. It will make it much easier to source in the future.

[Aussie_Dan]

No problems Shano!
Had another play this morning and within 30 minutes I had the handbrake sorted thankfully.
As per above, I backed off the cable, jacked the rear end, tightened the adjusters until the disc was very difficult to turn, backed them off 3 notches then tightened the cable up again.
Took it for a drive and wasn't happy with the handbrake on really steep hills (plenty of them around where I live....).
Turns out that tightening the adjuster on the L/H rear wheel by 1 notch was all it took and I am now very much happy with the ability of the handbrake to hold on steep hills.
When jacked up, it still doesn't sound like anything is grabbing either, which is a good bonus.
Thanks again for the tip Heidipro!
Cheers, Dan.

[hiedipro]

No problems Shano!
Had another play this morning and within 30 minutes I had the handbrake sorted thankfully.
As per above, I backed off the cable, jacked the rear end, tightened the adjusters until the disc was very difficult to turn, backed them off 3 notches then tightened the cable up again.
Took it for a drive and wasn't happy with the handbrake on really steep hills (plenty of them around where I live....).
Turns out that tightening the adjuster on the L/H rear wheel by 1 notch was all it took and I am now very much happy with the ability of the handbrake to hold on steep hills.
When jacked up, it still doesn't sound like anything is grabbing either, which is a good bonus.
Thanks again for the tip Heidipro!
Cheers, Dan.

Very glad for you. My memory of 10 notches is from older cars & caravans, using the wheel, which probably did mean a tighter starting point for backing off.

[Gogatee]

When adjusting the main handbrake lever, the manual states 5-7clicks for standard at approx 200Nm. That's a fair amount of force on my 200Nm torque wrench which is longer than the handbrake.

Is it basically tighten the hand brake lever until it's quite snug?

Doing this i get closer to 10 clicks, so looking to adjust at lever and brakes per manual.

[erad]

The recommended handbrake force is 200 N, not a torque of 200 Nm. 200 Newtons is roughly 20 kg force, so it is not that much at all.

[Gogatee]

Ah yes. Oops.

Basic high school physics that one. F = m x a. (a=9.8).

That makes more sense. Firm but not silly.

Thanks for that erad ☺

[85L200Express]

I know this is an old thread, but I'm having issues with my hand brake after putting on new rotors. The passenger side was scraping real bad, I adjusted it and it seemed ok until I turned right then the scraping started up again.

All I can think of was that when I was removing the old rotors I forgot to release the handbrake and I used two bolts to pull the rotor. I finally realised and released the hand brake, but now I'm wondering if I damaged springs or hardware holding the shoes in place?

This is on a 2009 NT