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Locked rear wheel - handbrake/caliper problem and can it be fixed at home?


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So, I tried using my car this morning after 3 days of it being parked with handbrake on. The passenger side rear wheel would not turn so I ended up dragging it around a metre in the gravel.


I tried rolling forwards and backwards several times. I also jacked up the car, gave it a few blows with a hammer (wood + cloth surround), tried turning it manually, jack back down, the rolling it again....but no luck (I didn't take the wheel off). Still jammed.


Anything else I can try myself?


If not, is it worth getting a breakdown company have a go or shall I just get it recovered to the local garage? I am with AutoAid so I can decide what to do and get most, if not all of the cost of breakdown/recovery refunded.

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The handbrake is a drum brake set up. I'd get the wheel off and try and back the shoes off. You can do this by the turning the disc till the hole is at 6 o'clock, take out the rubber grommet and you'll see a cog, turn that with a flat head screwdriver, can't remember if it's up or down. Once loosened off you will probably need to give the drum of the disc a few sacks with a rubber mallet to loosen the disc.

You should then be able to take the disc off and have a look.

It might need a new handbrake cable if it's the cable sticking.

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This has turned out to be highly embarassing. Despite all my hammering and WD40 efforts last night, it didn't work. It was getting dark and wasn't feeling particularly brave about taking everything apart, so left it at that.

Called out breakdown this morning and the guy just jacked up the car, didn't even bother to take the wheel off, gave the drum brakes a mere 2 hits with a hammer and the wheel came unstuck! Basically I was hammering it wrong...at least I tried. Lesson learnt.

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