any tips on getting the handbrake holding car on a slope on an s type or are they all useless.
Any slight wear on the linkage renders them useless.
They are supposed to be self adjusting but the mechanism doesn’t work all that well. If you crawl underneath and can disconnect the cable, you can then work the pad carrier levers back and forth. This sometimes enables the self adjusting rachet to work itself over to the next click, thus tightening things up a bit.
Best of luck!
mechanism all works fine, plenty of adjustment left on cable. handbrake on about 3 clicks but just dont hold car good enough.
I know the S type is different to the Daimler 250 but the problem with my Daimler (and nearly all the handbrake mechanisms I have worked on) is the pivots seizing up. They can be extremely difficult to dismantle but once in pieces clean and oil everything so that movement is unrestricted.
My handbrake was useless when I bought the car but after doing that (took 3 days to get them apart) I could now lock up the rear wheels at any speed I wanted to 
No joke - they really are that good now.
It’s also important to adjust them as specified in the manual - about 45 years ago I replaced the oil seals on a 420G (or it might have been a Mk 10 - whichever has the IRS) and the handbrake was useless afterwards. I just couldn’t get it right using my usual methods. Then I got to read the manual and although I thought the instructions were counterintuitive it worked.
Not sure if the Handbrake is the same design as the MK2 , but when the pads are new , there is only a fraction of the pad touching the disc , because of the angle of the leavers and the way they work 
Is there a way to adjust the h/brake lever only?
I have completely overhauled my V8250 rear brakes, all adjusted and the handbrake works ok but it is almost at full click,
Could the cable be stretched? Does anyone know the length of a new one for me to compare?
Steve.
Hi Steve
I have a V8-250 but I think the S-type is completely different - doesn’t the S-type have IRS?
As far as the V8 is concerned. did you follow the instructions in the service manual? It’s quite detailed.
I had the same problem on my V8 and following the instructions didn’t fix it - it nearly always does especially when they are a bit odd as you wouldn’t do it that way without instructions but this time it didn’t work for me.
A PO had renewed the cable not long ago and I was getting nowhere so in the end I did away with the automatic adjustment thingies. It’s a bit vague as I can’t remember exactly what I did but I cobbled up something out of rubber to stop the adjusters moving by themselves and adjusted them manually - it was fairly simple to figure out how to do it once I decided to ditch the self adjusters.
The handbrake lever then locked up the wheels solid after 4 clicks, with 3 being enough on all but steep slopes but that still wasn’t good enough for me so I sawed a quarter of an inch off the adjuster bolt fitted to the end of the cable that goes into the yoke as it was too long to go any further into the yoke and that did the trick - wheels locked solid after 3 clicks.
I was very careful to make sure that there was no binding but it all worked. Having done about 2000 miles since, I’m back to 4 clicks now so it’s time to adjust the pads manually again.
Hi Bob,
Thanks for replying, I have been thinking about shortening the yolk screw as it is wound right up but the cable is quite taught but I may give this a try.
Steve.
I think that if the cable is already tight you have to work on the calipers. My cable still has a tiny bit of slack.
Well mine has a bit of slack also but have the car off the floor on axel stands, will wait until it’s back on all four wheels until I do anything.