100 series handbrake

Hi,

I know this topic has come up a number of times but the problem still seems to persist.

Ok. 2002 100 series crusier, diesel 1hz GXL, liveaxle, ABS.

The problem is the lack of a handbrake. The lever needs to be pulled to the stops to work on medium slopes (forget steep slopes). 65k on the clock and the shoes I removed from the vehicle were almost down to the metal. I have only had the vehicle a few month (ex gov) and the service history indicated the handbrake was adjusted 4 times before it reached 20K and nothing since.

I replaced the shoes with identical ones (turned out to be the same as the 80 series) and followed the suggested advice about adjusting them.
-back every thing off
-adjust the shoes on fully and back off 4 - 6 clicks
-remove the slack from the cable (no cable adjustment at the lever).

All this adjusting 3 or 4 times (someone else helped and double checked the adjustments) and still no improvement from the old, unadjusted shoes.

I did read one article about a "placement bracket", anyone know what that is or what it does??

Any help would be appreciated.