Handbrake Mech - Pt 2

There has been quite a lot of talk about handbrake performance of late on the forum. AK have been listening and are in the process of updating their handbrake mechanism accordingly. There is not an awful lot of changes but they are as follows:-

1) The third handbrake cable needs its outer shortening & the clevis pin clip modifying by AK;
2) A new aluminium pulley fits where the original third cable fitted, supplied by AK;
3) An additional small tube with a slot down its length is needed. This is the new cable abutment and can be supplied by AK;
4) You need a template for the modification to the chassis for the position of the new cable abutment tube (item 3 above), supplied by AK;
5) The chassis will need a suitably sized hole (approx 24mm TBC) angled hole to suit the abutment tube. This needs to be welded to the chassis with its hole aiming at the outer edge of the grooved pulley.

Parts needed (except cable!) for the mod to the handbrake mechanism assembly.

The intention was to simply bolt the pulley to the lever arm making sure the pulley is still free to rotate although not slack. Personally I don't like reamed diameters running on a threads. This all being under load and will wear the hole. Probably be OK but I have chosen to use a 10.9 grade 8mm diameter shoulder bolt as this has a nice ground diameter and the nut on the end (M6 in this case), can be tightened up hard onto the shoulder. With a spacer or two the pulley is free to spin. I must admit that I had intended for the shoulder bolt to be rigid but basically I made a mistake! I had intended to buy the next size up (10mm diameter) but got the size that fitted the pulley. This meant that I would have had to ream the pulley out to 10mm diameter. I will see how the current set-up works and decide later (before the body is permanently fitted) if this needs to change.

For info the shoulder bolt size I used is 8mm diameter with a 16mm shoulder length. With a suitable spacer this fits really well. I did have to ream the hole in the lever arm as this was a little small but better to have to make bigger than being already too big!

Pulley test fitted. Not certain if above or below is better but initially below seems to line up with the
cable anchor point pretty well keeping the cable as straight as possible (apart from around the pulley!)

Hole and slot to be cut into the chassis with the small tube to be welded here after.

As I progress I will add more info and pictures. I feel this modification will make a very real improvement to the handbrake function. Something to do with levers and pulleys!

I understand from Jon at AK that they are also looking into a 'more flexible' cable to allow it to bend around the pulley more easily. Maybe another purchase will be necessary! Time will tell.