Hi all,

I am new to this forum so be kind, I have a 2000 Mk5 Fiesta 1.25 Zetec that has developed a problem with the offside rear brake.

History: Bought the car, decided to do a brake shoe & pad change as the car is for her indoors. All went well, fronts are fine and nearside rear is fine, good pedal feel, hard and it bites well, so no issues with the braking. I have changed the handbrake cable and fitted a new wheel cylinder to the offside rear.

Here is the problem, before I changed the shoes the brakes worked fine and so did the handbrake, a little bit of excess travel but nothing serious. Now when you apply the foot brake, you hear the rear adjuster click, but when you pull on the handbrake there is a bit of a noise and the rear adjuster slips off and you are left with virtualy no handbrake on that wheel.

I have tried the two screw drivers trick, same problem, new handbrake cable, same problem. The drums are a little bit worn they are about 181mm, but they worked before, so new shoes should make it better???

The shoes are the ones with the adjuster built in so new shoes new adjuster, the springs are fine, no lube on the ratchet, it just will not hold. The new handbrake cable has given a better brake pedal but still no handbrake.

Please could you help, it's up for it's mot in six weeks, so it will fail at the moment, and to be fair, it's do my nut, tried everything I can short of drilling the adjuster cam and locking it off, but that's a nasty bodge.