Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

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ChrisM
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Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby ChrisM » Thu Jan 28, 2010 11:19 am

Well here it is Folks for your interest, my old Throttle style hand brake in bits.
Why: Well it statred playing up a few months back, it would go on but would not come off, eventually the button went right in and did not come out - no tension on it, ratchet for hand brake did not engauge so no hand brakem up it came and down it dropped. You can get it to work on a temp basis until you replace it, wont pass MOT mind you, no way, but it will get you mobile again.
I have read lots about soaking rags in solvent and fixing self tappers under handle to make brake work but no images, no idea what all that is about or how to do it, so post mortem was needed, and here it is.

Image

1] to remove the leather cover, you only need to take to top off, 1st unpick stiching on the back of the handle, then run a thin flat blade screw driver alonge the seam whilst carefully lifting the top half once it is lifted you can pull it gentally with your fingers and "peel" it, the handle is in two halves, so you only need peel the top until just past the join, the white pastic cover will lever off, it is held in place by plastic tabs, I think you may need to glue it back though as mine does not want to stay in place now, sso glue him I think.

Image

This is what you will see once leather has been peeled, prise of top cover.

Image

And there it is, in it's full glory! so what are you looking at.
RED CROSS - hand brake button Slider.
BLUE CROSS - Spring which keeps tension on the ratchet at base of hand brake.
GREEN CROSS - Rod which attaches this linkage, to the ratchet at base of hand brake.

You can pull the Button Slider out by carefully levering it out {not on coloured Button} it is on a slider so it will pop out on the right as you are looking at it now, you will feel some resistance as it has a small tag holding it in, just lever it past this tag, it wont break, undo the two cross head screws on the top and the base of the handle comes away.

Image

This is a close up of the linkage, you can see how it works by the blue arrows when you press the button in to operate hand brake. so what are you looking at.
1] Hand brake slider - with button on far end. moves inwards.
2] The metal plate that moves in an arc, there is a slot along 3 quarters of the slider [1] which this plate sits in, once you press the button slider moves in pushes plate 2 in an arc, which puts tension on the spring.
3] Self Tapper which acts as the plate pivot point, spring is fixed here as well to act as an anchor point
4] This is the problem end as the spring is too long here, as it sits on the plate the bottom of the coil is this side, but the lef of the spring which sits in location 5 is too long by about 5mm, so this leg bends upwards and eventually will bent in the direction of blue arrow on 6 which then gives you less button presure at the handle = button does not come out as far - hand brake "sticks on", eventually button will not come out.
5] Location hole for spring - not deep enough.
6] Rod, which attaches this linkage to the base ratchet

Image

Just to show you where rod 6 goes. notice on the ratchet, no spring to hold the teeth together, it is all done up at the handle with that tiny thin spring! To be honest it does not need a lot of presure to keep them together, but I still tihnk the spring is badly designed and fitted as over time it gives way! Just by clipping the leg mine looked stronger and more secure.

Simples! as that rodent says on TV! :-P

So what happend to mine? I Think as well as the bending spring the self tapper pivot became dry, as when I took the whole hand brake out to change it, there wasa rattling sound, once opened up I see the self tapper had come out? I think because it was dry, every time I used H/Brake it was unwinding the tapper so it eventually ran out of thread along with spring presure it gave up the will to work.
I also After putting it all back together saw the spring at location 5 was to long, so I trimmed around 5mm or so off it so it sits in the hole but also flat against the plate and H?brake works again, there is still a bend some where as I have around 8mm play in my button, so I am goinf to drill and tap the slider where the plate enters the slot to take up some of the play, hand brake should then be good to go, just need to fugure out how to get it all back together again so it looks good with the leather.

Now how to make it work whilst looking for a new one. again Simples!
You will 1st needto pop off the cover which houses the roof and window buttons, open lid on storage box, and prise very caerfully the front cover off, it is held in place with plastic clips no screws, pull of plugs, for said switches [ they are colour coded with the switch] and remove cover for now, looking down at hand brake you need to look at the inside covers, the one you need to remove is on the button side, slide the small flat head into the back end [where the handbrake cables are] and carfully lift it will start to pop out once it has started to move it will slide back wards, you may be able to make it slide up at the handle I couldn't it was to tight, however it will side back ii from the back, but not yet!
the cover looks like this.

Image

Once this off, you will see the rod where it attaches to the ratchet, I have read on here people being told to operate the rathcet and leave the switch cover off, well 1st the ratchet will hurt your fingers and get them greasy, 2nd car looks naf with the large front switch cover removed. so, now you can see the rod, the ratchet, etc. take a look at the image below, you can see how the rod operates, so try it now, lift hand brake with left hand, whilst leaning over to get right hand finger to press towards rear of car on the rod, you should feel the ratchet clicking as you lift and press, there ya go hand brake on, it will hold as usuall once the ratchet is engauged!, to release the nautrual postion for the racthcet now is away from the opposite teeth which is why it will not stay on, so to release just lift the handle [ I still pressed the non working button for some reason] the ratchet will pop out of the on postion but stay away from the teeth so just drop the lever as usual if it does not, you can apply some forward presure to the rod which will pull the ratchet mechanism apart and allow you to drop the brake, mine worked simply by lifting it in the usual maner.

Image

Check out the image you can see what I mean, by pushing the rod the pawl I think it is call is pushed against the teeth of the ratchet and will stay there once brake is on, the design of the ratchet will hold it self on, to release just lift up handle as you would normally, because the hand brake is actually broken the pawls natural postion now is away from the teeth instead of against them so it will drop as usual, once you can see and have got your head around it. you are done apart from the cover.
leave the inside cover off the hand brake, the one you see above, take the large switch cover slide it back into postion and plug in the roof and window switches, and pop back in place, everything now looks as it did apart from the inside hand brake cover is missing, hardly noticable, you get quite a dab hand at applying this hand brake with two hands but the most important tihng is your car does not look like a shed with missing bits of large trim inside, so nobody will know you are having hand brake trouble , only you!

How the law or your insurance company would see this if you had an accident I don't know, and will DEFINATLY not pass an MOT but it will get you out of a sticky point for a while as a TEMPOARY measure!
So just carry a small thin bladed screwdriver in your car, as I am sure if you have the dreded "stuck on" hand brake somewhere you can sort it out in roughly 10 mins by doing the above and operating the pawl with the rod using your finger, doesn't take much presure at all and rod is clean as it is behind a snug fitting cover, and you will be on your way!

Hope you find this interesting! :life
Last edited by ChrisM on Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

davelowe
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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby davelowe » Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:12 pm

Very interesting, and an excellent write up.

The only problem is that it doesn't cover all the potential faults with the mechanism. This has been discussed many times before. The failure on mine was that item 5 in your pictures (the plastic part that tensions the spring) had snapped off due to poor grade plastic. The spring was therefore free to rattle around in the housing (the securing screw was tight).

The solution in this case (AlexB et al have written about it) is to use epoxy resin (not glue) to gel the plastic back together and put some self tapping screws in from the underside to reinforce the repair.

Mine old one is still in pieces in the garage. I must admit I've been promising a post mortem on it since it broke and I wrote the original 'how to' on replacing it. I'll get around to it when the current one fails.

Your report is excellent advice for anyone who has this particular form of failure. Nice contribution.
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ChrisM
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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby ChrisM » Thu Jan 28, 2010 4:41 pm

Thanks, Thought it might help someone wondering what was inside, if you can "see" the mechanics of it you can prepare yourself for a repair, I have read many articles about epoxy resin and selt tapping screw fixes but never any images to let you know what you are letting yourself in for, I suppose in a way I was lucky it was just a screw out, sounds like and looks like there could be a few fails going on with these it is such poor design, was kind of hoping people could tailor their own repair using my images and your guide to actually get the thing out, which I used, having said that you said to unpick gear gaitor and remove you don't need to unpick it it can stay where it is the centre console swivels around it and sits across the car, job can still be done with ease, so I know what you are saying that is my fix, I was kind of hoping people would add their fixes and short cuts as well as I am sure there there are short cuts to my job as well, so between your guide to remove the thing and my images and description of what happens in there hopefully people can effect a repair themselves a lot easier now.
The Temp fix though is a good one, I did read some where perhaps not on here where an AA chap absolutly destroyed someones hand brake becasue it was stuck on, and the button did not work, I used the two hands and finger on the rod for about 2.5 months with ease to use my hand brake, I read on a forum someone was saying to pull all the trim off leave it off and then operate the ratchet with your finger....... bit painful and very mucky, use the rod idea, much cleaner and quicker and as said you only leave the small trim inside the brake off.
Thanks for feedback, as said, hope it helps others now that they can see the actual mechanism before hand.
This was only my fix I have no idea what else goes wrong with them, so the more pictures we get the better informed we are. :grin

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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby davelowe » Thu Jan 28, 2010 11:20 pm

ChrisM wrote:Thanks, Thought it might help someone wondering what was inside, if you can "see" the mechanics of it you can prepare yourself for a repair...This was only my fix I have no idea what else goes wrong with them, so the more pictures we get the better informed we are.


You're right. I didn't mean to cause any offence.

Top post. :cool:
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Red 03 plate 5dr 1.9 Dynamique dci120

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ChrisM
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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby ChrisM » Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:33 am

No worries, no offence taken :cool: , just hope others will add thier images of failure and possibly fixes, that way we can get an all round view of what can go wrong with this design and what you can do to possibly fix it yourself, instead of giving the local Renault stealer 'Ooppss' Dealer buckets of cash for a part that I think looking at it was designed with a limited life span in mind, I am suprised a manufacturing company hasn't spotted a possible opening here, and make an aftermarket part, like the MG's now have, aluminium water pipes, as the steel ones under the car rot away with salt and road water, plastic window guides that break and drop the window are now replaced with metal ones which don't break, all because a manufacture saw a window made the parts tried them and now has them for sale from a web site, superb idea!
perhaps someone could design a metal plate with a pin on it which the mechanism sits on, which is fixed to the base of the handle, you would end up with a slightly thicker handle but I bet it would not hinder you using it, by the sounds of it the weak spots are the self tapper and the hole where the spring mounts, if this was mounted on a metal plate with a pin fixed to it you could use a slightly stronger spring as well , that way self tapper has gone, and everything swivels from the pin fixed to the plate, could be the seed of an idea there for someone in manufacturing. 8-)

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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby joeishmather » Sun May 30, 2010 12:28 pm

hi, any chance you could re post the pic thats missing, showing the inside of the handbrake grip, just taken mine appart and didnt pay much attention to how it went together! :-(
Image

ChrisM
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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby ChrisM » Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:11 pm

Hi

Image

Sorry didn't see this question until now, guess by now you must have sorted it out, but you can use the image there, the 2 black screws hold the base on, you can see the long button length with the red cross, this moves on plastic sliders. the Blue x is the spring that hooks around the flat silver lever and pushes through a slot in the button length, the spring then sits in the most fool hardly little hole to give it tension, you then pop in the self tapper to hold it all together, it is a crap idea, I had to snip off the tail of my spring to make it sit flat other wise it just poped out once it had some tension, becareful not to over tighten any of these self tappers as they only bite into plastic, no idea what happend to rest of images must of exceeded my limit so some have been removed.
did you manage to get your leather cover back on, if so how?

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Jammie667
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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby Jammie667 » Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:28 pm

what is typical costing of getting it replaced by a dealership/garage?

just in case mine goes. me + DIY = disaster
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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby joeishmather » Mon Jul 12, 2010 8:30 pm

mines in a extreme model so no leather cover, just poorly coated plastic, i ended up wet and drying the plastic and then giving it a good polish, can be seen in one of my posts if your interested, cheers, Joe
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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby ChrisM » Tue Jul 13, 2010 2:22 pm

Cheers Joe will go and look.

Jammie no idea what the dealer will charge for this job, I belive the handbrake itself is rather pricey, and labour on top at Renault prices at a guess around £300 notes, it is a simple job though to be honest, all you see here is the handle opened and repaired, to actually change it is simple, took me 1st time around half an hour to do Davelowe has put up a how to on it just follow that, apart from I did not undo the stitching on the gear lever as the centre console will spin around so it is out of the way, saves on some finicky stitching after.
As for the lever itself, it comes as a complete unit of cage and lever, held in place by 4 bolts, brake cable comes through the middle and is bolted to a plate in the cage, take a look on ebay, sometimes they are offered but go for micky mouse prices especially for the CC last one I chased went over £100 too much for a used one by far, you need to look for scrap Meg 2 does not matter if it is an estate, saloon, hatch or CC they all fit! search on ebay for breaking megane 2, sometimes you may need to remove the 2 it will throw up all the megs that are breaking, just send them a message, have you got a handbrake unit for a Megane 2 simple as that I picked mine up like this and paid £45 for it inc postage, it was from an Estate car, fitted no problem, the key point is the button, and how much play there is in that button, mine is from an 07 car so virtually no play, with my old one you could pull the button out half it length again to where it should be so it was due to fail.
When it does fail it is no hardship, again there is a how to on here written by me, they usually stick on, and the more you pull it up the harder the h/brake is put on, you need to open the center console compartment lid, push off the front panel (held on with clips) pull plugs off switches they are colour coded, remove front panl, slides up towards roof, look inside handbrake on driver side, you see plastic strips, use something strong to hook it out at the bottom and slide it down towards the rear seat, in there you will see a metal rod, lift handbrake push button and use spare hand (finger) to push rod towards back of car this is number 6 in one of the images, ratchet will be released and H/Brake will release, you can put front panel back on now, and drive as normal, every time you need to release H/Brake you pull up, press button and use finger to push rod backwards, car does not look any different, I drove mine like this for nearly 3 months before changing it for an MOT, as it will fail on handbrake as it can not be released correctly - do not worry H/Brake will stay on in this manner, as all your finger is doing is operating the ratchet, your finger has become the button mechanism basically, it really is not that hard, you can even have a look just by opening the central compartment lid and pushing off the front panel - I can see now why these cars rattle and squeek every where nothing seems to be screwed anymore it is all plastic push on clips :sad

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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby q292u » Thu Oct 27, 2016 10:39 pm

None of the images work..

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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby Stranger » Fri Oct 28, 2016 3:54 pm

q292u wrote:None of the images work..


'cos the thread is 6.5 years old and I imagine most of those members have gone now ;)
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Re: Your "Throttle type" Handbrake EXPOSED

Postby q292u » Fri Oct 28, 2016 4:01 pm

Ah. That would explain it.


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