tis either "on" or "off"... When I put my clutch cable on my handbrake ,hill starts were interesting...
When i first had the early i had to pull the handbrake out to do a hill start on a very steep hill and the clicking thing went inside out and jammed the brake on. All i could do was pull it on harder, it wouldn't let go.
I remember yanking on the umbrella handbrake handle of my ageing Corsair: there was an almighty twang and the whole thing shot out of the dash, followed by a couple of feet of greasy cable ...
After a while you get the sequence for hill starting with handbrake on and too many clicks because you need to adjust the brakes but you forgot on Sunday and it is now Monday morning in the dark. Press on brake pedal Release handbrake Foot on clutch Engage first gear Pull back hard on handbrake until it hits the gear stick but doesnt quite pop out of gear Hold handbrake handle vertical so it can go back further Foot on throttle Let up clutch Let go of handbrake Voila! hill start with more than 6 clicks on handbrake and an EMPI speed shifter. I still remember how hard I was heaving on the handbrake rolling with brakes on hard down a steep hill towards a T junction with a busy A road on my first ever drive in a T2 and later on finding out how few strands of rusty brake cable remained.
When I first got my bay,I was parked on a hill,kids sat in the back I sat on the floor by sliding door and the van stated rolling back whilst I was taking my wellies off,it's funny now but at the time I sharted myself
I've used a Dremel to elongate the bolt slots in the base of the EMPI shifter, allowing it to be moved back at the base which moves the lever top back too. Now with the handbrake adjusted to use 6 to 8 clicks we can engage first gear with the handbrake on quite happily.
The slots I have in mine were expanded laterally to deal with wear in the edges of the guide plate before I fixed that.. I am sort of running out of metal to tighten bolts and washers onto.. I suppose I could weld some new bits on amd start again ... But at the moment the gearchange is nearly 100% there except sometimes first to second will not go easily past neutral without a wiggle when I am in a hurry.
