Handbrake not latching after replacement

[pleasestartnow]

Hi all, have gotten a whole weekend to myself so i have decided to ignore social duties and concentrate on the van. First job was to drop fuel tank and replace handbrake. Before resorting to this i used a joiner to try and join two 6mm bits of rod but the original rod was just to corroded and even after i used a die on it to sort out threads.

Anyway onto the issue. New handbrake rod/cable in and the lever is moving nicely with some tension for a change. However now the handbrake wont catch. The teeth and the latch on the lever are just short of each other by 1 or 2mm. And i cant seem to jostle or force them together. While doing the handbrake i had to take off the circlip that holds the handbrake cable to the lever and that went back together no bother.

Any ideas why they wont meet all of a sudden?

[Ralphious2]

Maybe the wee button mechanism in not aligned right.

[blacky]

Its the spring under the button that pushes the pawl teeth to engage with the ratchet so I look at why thats not happenning.