hey guys. so i think i have my brakes on backwards.... I took the entire diff apart and I don't understand how i did it but this seems the most logical reason. Symptomns - - handbrake was getting super tight and locking on going in and out of my driveway (deep gutter) - brakes rear drivers side squeaks around corners - completely slackened off handbrake cable at the adjustment point underneath the car and the squeaking has 90% stopped and the driveway thing has stopped completely. attempted fixes - - assumed the brakes were on backwards - asked diff bloke to spin them back around properly but he said he thinks they are on properly... - tim aka 5spd vl recons they are on backwards. on this photo, to the left is the front of the car. does it appear to be correct?? this second photo is the back of the disc setup, showing the handbrake setup.. to the right is the front of the car these are photos of the passenger side disc. is anyone able to replicate these photos for me on their stock vl disc rear? i tried at the wreckers yard but everything there is either drum or the discs have been removed. vn onwards are different so i hear. thanks for any help guys i really want this fixed for springnats!

Yeah mate, you need to swap the handbrakes left to right, they're upside down.

hmmm. see what throws me about that is i never disconnected the stuff... anyway i'll pull it all apart and try. does that mean the brake calipers should sit at the front of the caliper? towards the front of teh car?

Yeah Mitch, that's what I was saying - the solid plate that the caliper is bolted to is upside down. Caliper is in the right spot, it's just that plate that's upside down. The handbrake actuating lever (that the cable is hooked onto) should be below the diff housing.

i'm confused still tim. u sure? i looked in gregory's and can see the calipers at the front however the diagrams don't really show which ways the handbrakes go.... ---------- Post added 11-11-11 at 23:38 ---------- ok. heres my problem. the goddamn axle housing has a further distance at the top than at the bottom for the studs yeah? therefore the actual handbrake assembly can only go on one side to make it have the flat bit at the rear of the car and this is where the caliper bolts on. problem - when the handbrake assembly is on and the calipers are at the rear of the car there are only bolts for the bracket the handbrake cable goes through at the top of the handbrake assembly. also the handbrake lever / actuator / where the handbrake cable slips on can only be at the top. is it possible that i screwed up the adjusters on the handbrake assembly? the entire unit was coated in paint when i did the reno' so this may have added a mm here and there.. maybe i'm loosing the plot but with the bits i have i can't see how it works. its doing my head in and time is running out before springnats. i've been over my entire hard drive of vl photos but to no avail. i never took any photos prior to the dissasembly. could it be the adjustors? is everyone sure the handbrake cable and the spring etc should sit below the axle? this $h17 is stressing me out as i just want to get it working again and now she is back up on stilts in the shed and pulled apart. please help!!

I just looked on my car mate and it's not on backwards or upside down. It looks exactly the same as mine, although I couldn't see much but from what I saw, the spring wasn't sitting on the axle. Maybe that is the problem? I'd upload photos but I'm on an iPhone, sorry dude. Edit: Sorry, just had a closer look at your photo and your spring isn't on the axle. Didn't look close enough the 1st time.

Quote: Originally Posted by bck2basic [View Post] I just looked on my car mate and it's not on backwards or upside down. It looks exactly the same as mine, although I couldn't see much but from what I saw, the spring wasn't sitting on the axle. Maybe that is the problem? I'd upload photos but I'm on an iPhone, sorry dude. Edit: Sorry, just had a closer look at your photo and your spring isn't on the axle. Didn't look close enough the 1st time. that looks normal from here too, maybe your hand brake has been adjusted too tightly, so either your cable is still tensioned maybe routed in correctly hard to say a simple test to see if its your hand brake is take the calliper off and try slide the disc off if your coming up against a lot of resistance there is a good chance the pads are still engage If it is that.... there is a little adjuster from memory its like a little spur gear, use your screw driver to take some load off, if you unwind it completely and they still wont come off i'd be checking the cable setup, mounts etc

in behind at the bottom on the plate theres a little rubber thing, oval shaped kinda, take it out and there should be that gear spin it to loosen it, cannot remember which way from memory but.

cheers guys!!! took me a few phone calls but I think i have it figured out. it was on correctly and now its in a million bits on my shed floor with pools of diff oil around it haha. it appears that the handbrake cable isn't moving very freely and with the body flex was locking on the handbrake. i'm going to wd40 the s*** out of it and see if i can get the cable moviong freely again. also i'm going to loosen of the adjustors in the actual handbrake mechanism. Cheers!

is it a vn diff if so thats your what it is as mine is down the bottom also but vn's were up top

i haven't changed it to a vn and the previous owner restored not modded it. given how far my 15x6"s sit inside the wheel well i'm sure its a vl diff.

I once had a seized cable on my mini bike... tried every lubricant under the sun to free it up... no good. In the end degreaser did the trick and loosened it up. Try to give it a blow out with a compressor at the same time