Stuck Handbreak

My Dino has had far too little use this year and when I went to start it up last week, the hand break was stuck on. I leave it on as the garage is on a slight slope and while with the benefit of hindsight, I should have put some chocks under the wheels, I didn’t!

The car is due some TLC at a specialist, but I had hoped to drive it up there, rather than pay to have it picked up. But stuck hand break means I can’t.....unless someone hear knows of a simple / easy to perform fix that doesn’t involve a hoist.

I don’t have the skills or tools to do anything much myself and rely on others....so I suspect you will tell me that it needs to be put on the back of a truck...but I thought worth asking the question before I organise that.

Thanks

 

First, are you sure it's the parking brake that's stuck and not the driving brakes ?
Second, you MIGHT be able to break them loose by carefully rocking the car back & forth, either physically pushing or using reverse & first gears with engine running.

 

Are you sure it is the hand brake? Can you describe what is happening when you try to move the car.

 

If that was me I would put chocks under both front wheels, release the handbrake lever (assuming it goes down) and look underneath the car to see if the handbrake cables to each caliper are loose, if not then the swivel linkage is seized and will need some movement by hand.

If they are -

1. then its more than likely the pads are stuck on the discs - as mentioned above try rocking the car or start the car and try to move a little forward or backwards to jolt the pads free. If that fails

then

2. the handbrake pistons are seized on in the parking position, try gently tapping the caliper lever (at the end of the cables) on both sides with a small hammer or by hand to see if they move back and forth, it only moves a small amount so don't go getting heavy handed if all these are free then the pistons are stuck - This is difficult to do if you don't have the skill to remove the calipers.

Tony

 

Thanks for comments. Car can be driven....but doesn’t free wheel / something clearly sticking. Thought was hand break...but could be something else. I drove it round car park 2-3 times to see if it would unstick.....but didn’t get any better. Possibly pad(s) sticking to discs?

 

Best to leave it in gear with hand brake off in future. I hope you manage to get it sorted.