henkinc

So today I pulled a little hard on the hand brake and thereafter while driving the hand brake light would come on over bumps. Fortunately the top was up, bacause when still, the hand brake light WILL NOT COME ON now, which means my top will not operate since the car thinks the hand brake is off!

I think I heard a little clunk at one point while driving away from the initial point where I pulled hard on the brake handle. Perhaps I broke the hand brake switch device? What to do? Where is it? Thoughts?
Help.
Charlie

MarkD

micro switch at the rear of the hand brake is the likely culprit. Or loose switch... or broken spring steel that contacts it.

remove cassette holder, cup holder, CD holder... whatever you have in the spot behind the hand brake
There is a metal "spring" protruding from the back of the e-brake handle. This contacts a little switch. Check for broken stuff...

EDIT: with any luck, the screw holding the switch in place is loose.

henkinc

MKark - maybe there is DIY for hand brake removal, but I hope to avoid that. Note the loose connector in pix attached. Clearly the culprit. I can't get the plastic assembly off easliy (I know - just interior plastic) even if I remove the four phillips screws shown in the pix. Should I persevere or is there some trick to re-intalling the loose connector where ut needs to go?
Advice? Or just take it to my wrench?
I trust the pix uploaded?
Charlie

henkinc

there are no screw holes in the losse connector - just a curved copper colred strip. Could it have snapped from the part of it that has the screw holes?

MarkD

I cannot tell what is going on from the photo but it looks like the wire that goes to the switch is just sort of hanging there out in the open?
If so... the switch itself may be broken. Easy to replace.

Remove those 2 phillips screws near the back of the e-brake handle. The plastic surround will lift up and around the handle. The front of this piece has a couple of tabs that hold the front in place.

Hope that helps!

Raptor

Meanwhile, you can ground the connection by using a male connector screwed to a metal ground. Then connect the two and your top will work. Of course you will get the "!" because the electrical system thinks the handbrake is engaged. But it is a good temporary fix.

henkinc

Does anyone have a better pix or blow-up of the hand brake mechanism that shows the ground connector Raptor mentions and how it is attached to the hand brake assembly? I still don't know if mine broke off or "slipped" off and can be re-installed. Charlie

craig001

You could try the parts catalog over on Pelican Parts and see if the diagrams help.

henkinc

No diagrams over there.
Does anyone have a pix of the actual switch which detetcs the engagament of the hand brake and transmits the signal to the female wire (which I guess in turn goes to ground to engage the dash light)? Even better would be a pix of ithe switch and then a pix of it attached to the brake mechanism.
Thanks.

henkinc

Mark D - I couldn't quite make it out on your pix up top.

henkinc

Well, as it turns out, Mark, there are THREE screws that one needs to take out to move the plastic tray under the brake handle. I FINALLY saw the third, hidden under the handle, and when all 3 were out, the tray indeed moved to allow me to see what was going on at the rear of the handle. The copper connector is supposed to slip into a shaped groove in the plastic piece that I guess would be called the frame of the switch (?). Anyway, with the plastic cover off, and using various sized screwdriver blades, and some WD-40, I got the connector back into its groove, and all is well.

Maybe I should have taken a shot for yuou all in case this is of general interest. But I didn't, being delighted to be done with this. I assume that the combination of pulling hard on the handle plus maybe years of being "pushed" by a bit of lateral handle movement on egngagament gradually moved the connector out of its groove.
Thanks for the advice, guys.
Charlie

MarkD

Sorry about the 3rd screw... going from memory can be dangerous.

Glad you got it worked out!