Sprite Handbrake - worn pawl

[ribbit]

Froggy's handbrake is currently driving me nuts. It will engage properly on the lower teeth of the ratchet, but as you pull it higher, the ratchet slips. I took it off the car and filed the teeth of the ratchet clean and this helped, for about an hour! The pawl has clearly been sitting at an angle and has worn on one side more than the other, and there is evidence of corresponding wear on the teeth of the ratchet. I have packed the pawl pivot with larger washers so that it now sits straight, but I think the wear is too much. Does anyone know where I can obtain a replacement pawl, as Moss only sell a complete handbrake. If I can't buy one, what is involved to make a replacement and what should I be asking for it to be made out of (I have a friend who works at a fabricators who can probably cut me one).

Cheers R.

[frankenhealey]

It needs to be hard enough not to wear fast and soft enough not to be brittle. S45C carbon steel could be a good contender.

[curtis]

The handbrake system must have been on other cars in period? Nothing secondhand about ?

[frankenhealey]

Jul 17, 2017 12:56:06 GMT curtis said:

The handbrake system must have been on other cars in period? Nothing secondhand about ?

Could it be the same as an A30/A35 if so look here to check out the picture- austina30a35parts.com/shop_item.php?ID=245

[healeyneil]

I built up a worn pawl with weld quite successfully. Just added metal then reshaped it to the correct profile. It worked fine, but I always press the button when I put the handbrake on !

[ribbit]

Thanks for the replies. I am surprised that it has worn so much, as like healeyneil, I normally press the button when putting on the handbrake, and only when parking do I pull it up another click, but I guess if the ratchet and pawl have been out of line for a while, then even that gentle action has worn it.

I confirmed with Moss that they no longer do the parts for the handbrake, as I did find them listed for the later Sprites/Midget, but they currently have no supplier for these.

It appears that AH Spares do a replacement ratchet for a Sprite, so that might be a good place to start. They also do a pawl for a big Healey, which looks very similar (here), so I might be able to use that or modify it to fit. Not sure why, but a search does not find the handbrake lever for a Sprite on their site.

Thanks for the idea of looking at different cars, frankenhealey, though the A30/A35 one looks completely different! If I've not resolved it by next month, I'll have a good scout round the autojumble at Tatton and see if I can find something similar there.

Cheers R.

[ribbit]

After some digging and a bit of a gamble, handbrake is now fixed. AHSpares do a new ratchet for a Sprite for £12.75 (+VAT) and a pawl for the Big Healeys for £6.95, which looked similar enough for me to take a gamble on ordering one. I did phone and the nice gentleman actually measured one for me, but I didn't get a chance to take the handbrake off to measure mine, so figured that if it didn't fit, we would either make it fit or I would pass it on to one of our local Big Healey owners. The good news is that the Big Healey pawl fits the Sprite handbrake without modification - the holes are the correct diameter and spacing and the pointed end fits nicely into the ratchet. I have fitted them both to the car, but have yet to test them with the car on a slope. Here are a couple of comparison pics.

Old and new parts - new parts on the outside


Old and new pawls - new one top


So a relatively cheap and easy fix in the end.

Cheers R.

[healeyneil]

Looks like all the wear was on the pawl. Well done one the fix, and it's good to know that's parts are available one way or another

[ribbit]

There was evidence wear on both the ratchet and pawl. I was going to try and take an edge on photo of the ratchet, but I seem to have misplaced the old one. It had worn on one side due to the pawl being off-centre.

New parts are working well and handbrake now feels secure when you apply it.

Cheers R.