Adjust handbrake on 2002 Toyota Corolla

[dougone]

Can anyone tell me tha correct procedure to adjust the handbrake on a 2002 Toyota Corolla. Presumably this should be done only on the handbrake drum which are part of the rear brake rotors???? Do I have to take the calipers off or can I adjust through the hole on the hand brake drum? How much do I adjust by? Is it up or down to tighten the hand brake?????

[homeguard]

take off the paneling around the hand break in the car. there will be a cable coming from the floor follow that up to the end that has been threaded with a bolt and attached to the handle with 2 nuts. just tighten the nuts down some until you think it is good.

[dougone]

Originally posted by homeguard
take off the paneling around the hand break in the car. there will be a cable coming from the floor follow that up to the end that has been threaded with a bolt and attached to the handle with 2 nuts. just tighten the nuts down some until you think it is good.

Are you sure that the adjustment should not be done at the shoes in the park brake drum?

[homeguard]

if your talking about taking slack out of the line when you pull up the hand break then the way i explained is correct.

[dougone]

Homeguard, I don't mean to break your b@lls, but a mechanic I know told me that I should never take the slack out of the handbrake cable the way you explained. He got all technical about angles and degrees. I'm not sure if the set up is the same in America, but 2002 Corolla in Australia has a small hand break drum in the middle of the rear rotors. There is a service hole in this drum. Shouldn't I just adjust the shoes through there?

[thespud]

It is exactly the same thing. The brakes these days are auto-ajusting, so that if you over tighten them, they will wind back, the opposite occurs when you under tighten them to an extent. To get them to self-ajust, just find a nice quiet back-street, throw her into reverse, get some sort of speed up and hit the brakes.

Once you have done this a few times, proceed with the ajustment on the handle itself. The angles crap is just a mechanic that is full of sh*t. It is a cable that is pulling on the brakes. The lever is at the same angle as always.