Parking Brake, Modification

Hi all,

Here's a topic for discussion:

Has anyone investigated the fitting of a 'normal' handbrake lever to an XM. I propose removing the arm rest/ cubby hole box and fitting a fabricated frame to the mounting points, to this could be mounted a handbrake lever from a suitable donor. Cables would be straightforward as someone like speedy cables can make them from a sketch.

I suppose that I could fit 2 cables with seperate adjusters at the lever end like a Morris Minor or would I have to do it the same as it is done now?

Is it legal to modify a car this way?

I'm sure that someone here knows about these things, your assistance please.

Thanks in advance

John

Can't be of any assistance on the technicalities or legalities, but I am wondering why?

Do you dislike the parking brake that much? I prefer it to a conventional hand brake.

No I don't particularly dislike the foot parking brake. The reason is that to use a car for a particular car club I want to join they insist on a 'standard' parking brake. I was hoping to achieve this in a reversible way as I have described.

John

Sounds like an odd kind of club

I don't mind the Xm system and in fact feel it has many advantages over an ancient lever
that looks like it opens a trap door in a Victorian Theatre!!? Obviously it's down to how you
drive, but there are advantages to slowing the car without broadcasting the brake lights,
such as when there's a speed trap/following Police car and you don't have to burn everyone's
eyes stuck waiting behind you either! And you get an interesting arm rest glove box!!

Read somewhere recently an Activa owner was asking how he could remove or disable the
active roll system. If the car isn't right for you, why buy it in the first place!?

Andrew

Hi John

Legaly there should be no problem, so long as your proposed system meets the mot criteria there will be no worries.
The only reason i can think for reverting to a standard style parkingbrake would be for competition style driving, but since the xm's works on the front wheels this would be of no advantage, or maybe as a learner car without dual controls you must have a brake available for the instructor??????? go on im dying to know what club this is..................or tell me to piss off if im being too nosey

Andrew
What idiot in there right mind would want to de-activate the activa's anti roll system?????? and where is this posted, i could do with a laugh ...........

D

Dean,

It's a club where adults teach their under 17s to drive (off the public highway), hence the need for a lever parking brake.

I like XM's and when I get a company car (soon) I would like to run a hobby XM, and this would kill 2 birds with one stone, so to speak.

John

All is now clear

The only tricky bit would be making an attractive cowling around the mechanism, but it can be done. The equaliser is on the L/H side of the transmission tunnel so the cables would have a straight run above the exhaust heat shield to it, but legaly if you are allowed to build your own car for road use this sort of minor mod will not present you with any trouble.

Good luck
D

Hi BigJohn

I can find you a spare equaliser so you can see and measure up without having to climb under your car. Will be cutting the floor of an XM up next week so might even be able to cut out the whole chunk of tunnel complete with the parking brake if this will help you design and test your changes out.

John

I rarely use my Xms parking brake, the only time i do use it is when i park on a steep hill, i dont want the car resting in the part position of the gearbox. At junctions i just put the auto into neutral with my foot on the brake (sod the people behind!)

Although in a manual XM i can see there is a need to use it at junctions (and obviously when parked!), i bet a lot of XMs go through clutches fast when people can't be bothered to use the foot operated parking brake to do a hill start.

I see why you want a conventional handbrake now, its quite a car to learn to drive in!

De-activate an activa suspension! Thats a crime surely, we had a 1996 activa for a year or so, what a fantastic car!

http://www.citroen-owners-club.co.uk/citro...?showtopic=4015



This post has been edited by Andmcit on October 17, 2008 12:12 am

Sounds like a fantasic car going to waste there!

I wish i could have kept mine, but it was going to get expensive as it was developing a few leaks, one part i needed would have been close to £700, i didnt pay that for the car, even though it was mint.

So i traded it in for a 1999 Xm VSX Auto, which was a very odd car, and soon went the journey.

I may be wrong but I get the impression that a much greater braking effort or force is likely to be achieved with the foot operated brake than a hand operated substitute. Given the poor performance of the existing system as an emergency brake and being a MOT weak point, I wonder if the conversion could be made satisfactory. Being a maintenance intensive vehicle I would be reluctant to invite unnecessary grief but good luck with it if you proceed

Robert.

Hi Robert

It all depends on the length of the handbrake lever selected for the conversion. If it is longer than the foot brake arm it will apply more force, if shorted then less. I do not agree that the XM foot brake is a poor performer as an emergency brake it is just that there is no power assistance to apply the brake pads in this mode. Nor should it be an MOT problem if the lower two cables are replaced when the outer starts to wear and kink from steering movement.

John

I never need to use it at junctions. The petrols may be different of course as they probably haven't got the torque to pull away without using the accelerator.

I find that even if it is enough of a hill (or I am driving fast enough) to want to use the accelerator as I pull away then there is enough of a delay in the brakes releasing to avoid rolling back. However I do do the whole feet manoeuvre quite quickly so a less experienced/confident driver may need to use it more often.

I have found one of two hills where I have had to stop in traffic and needed to use it - but they are the sort of hills that make you think you are going to fall off when stationary.

It is much more of a faff to use on a manual of course as you need 3 feet to do the clutch, brake and parking brake at once - or for the humans among us take it in and out of gear in a rather long winded clutch-gear-declutch-parking brake-clutch-gear-declutch thing. But like I said, I never need to do it.