Handbrake Lever Not Releasing

[Jentwistle3]

Hi All! I hope that you are all doing ok despite the Wuhu. I’ve taken advantage of the saved commuting time to do projects on my S2 Elan. I had a problem with the handbrake not releasing and I didn’t see any article here so I thought I’d post a few pics on what I found.

Many other posts deal with disassembly of the lever once it has been detached. To summarize: there is a button / spring sandwiched between the frame and the slide which keeps the slide from coming all the way out:

Depressing the button allows you to remove the slide:

And the bits look like this:

My problem was that when I pushed the button the slide would not release. There is a little steel toggle attached to the slide which is spring loaded to engage dimples or teeth which are pressed into the side of the frame. When you push the button a steel rod with a bronze wedge on the end is supposed to push the toggle down, disengaging it from the teeth. Like everything else this wedge seems to have worn down with time.

The wedge is threaded onto the end of the rod so it is a simple matter to adjust the assembly to be a little longer. The problem seems to be solved pending reassembly.

[danwasdahl]

Thanks for the iPhoto’s and analysis