I've gone and ordered a set of springs to help my calipers release better as discussed in the sticky handbrake issue thread - but I might have a different underlying problem:

When I picked my car up from the repairers I noticed that the handbrake was really loose & it required 3 or 4 notches before it started to bite. However, the handbrake seemed to still work with the car parked up, it just required me to pull the lever up more.

So, I popped the rear ashtray thing off & tightened the brake cable. The lever was now back to normal.

However, the other day, I pulled the up & yanked the handbrake lever up & noticed the rear passenger side 'bounce', it felt like the rear wheel was biting. So, I took a look & found that I could move the wheel - the handbrake wasn’t working!! (Well not on this wheel anyway!)

It seems that the caliper lever that the handbrake attaches to is stuck in a 'half on/half off' position. The caliper works fine using the foot break but the hand break caliper lever doesn’t move when the handbrake is applied.

As you can see from the photo this is how the caliper looks with the handbrake off. Its not releasing properly but luckily the wheel turns freely.

Do you guys think it’s just a case of taking off the caliper & free up the lever? I'm going to add the springs as well.

Cheers

Handbrake section in caliper has seized, or maybe even broken the worm drive. New caliper is best option. See if you can remove the cable caliper end though, just in case the cable is seized.

Going to take the caliper off this weekend & have a look.

Gonna find me a big hammer!!!

If the worm drive has broken the main piston woundnt come out would it?

pull the H/brake off the caliper work the H/brake lever on the caliper and see if it returns to the stop if it does and wheel still fee caliper ok, suspect H/brake cable sticking.

If the caliper arm dosnt return to the stop its the caliper at fault. This is only a 10min job to check.