Club 80-90 Forums

I've started stripping a spare pair of trailing arms, started on the brakes, all very easy to remove but I'm scratching my head as to how the handbrake sleeve is supposed to part company with the drum back plate. I await four their instruction. Many thanks, Mitch.

They're a push fit - grab the sleeve with some pliers and pull.

I grip plastic bit with mole grips and rotate,never fails for me

They are a rust fit!

Does the mean new ones will be required? It sounds as though removal will trash them. Not that I'm bothered as it's gong to be a case of buying everything new for the arms/brakes before reassembly anyway.

sacrifice the cable if the back plates are good.

cut the cables and drill out the metal/plastic sleeve.


its possible to leave as is and fit/ change the cable as well.

remove the back plate first tho as looks can be deceiving and what appears to be a good back plate can be rotten where you cant see!


next question - how do you remove the back plate?

The back plate is in great nick and is being galvanised too. I'll try adding some lube to it before gently trying to prise it out, if that fails, sod it, I'll yank and scream until it's released. Just have to buy a new sleeve to go with all the other purchases!

You may have a problem with fitting the new cable end in - just a forewarning, it appears that some sockets, although rust free, are slightly smaller and the diameter of the end will need a little dressing to reduce to enable an easy fit. Only a couple of people have reported this, myself being one - the end was something like 0.5mm too much. This may well be aggravated by galvanizing - on the other hand you may have no trouble.

Thanks for the heads up. Just managed to prise them out with a bit of lube to help. As the male is plastic, not too much trouble to reduce it's diameter with some sanding, unless you did it differently.

Sanding is the way I went, only takes a few minutes. My cables were from Brickwerks - there was no fault with them and the socket was clean and rust free, both checked with a micrometer. I pondered as to whether the plastic had been removed from the mould too early and had expanded then reached for the sandpaper! No big problem but may throw you at first.

Much appreciated. All 4 bushes just been removed in less than hour - off to the galvanisers they go. My hen begins the fun of fitting new bushes - such fun!