Hi, guys. I just wanted to ask on here if anyone knew exactly how the r30's hand brake works on the disc rear end. My DR pulls the cable ok and the lever on the caliper section works, but there is still no hand brake. The rear brakes do work when the foot pedal is pressed. I imagine that it works with a cam type setup pushing on the back of the piston, I have tried taking the lever off but no amount of turning the shaft that it connects to will work. I can post pictures if need be, I'll just have to take them first.

Thanks to all in advance

With my old Renault R17 there was a specification for how thick the inboard pad needed to be. This was so the cam on the lever could shift the piston sufficiently to push on the disc with some force -- it only has a small arc and it does not move towards the disc as the pad wears.

Have you recently changed the pads or done something else? If not, I would guess the pads need replacing. This is just based on French technology.

The Pads have been replaced and are brand new. It had the same problem before I changed the pads, and I changed them because I thought it may have been the cause. It also only happens on the drivers side, the oposite side works although the cable is very tight, too tight to pulled back by the spring on the lever. Manually pullin the lever on the passenger side, locks the disc as it should, but on the drivers side, it does nothing at all.

Sounds like you will to open the faulty one up. In the Renault components the arm connects to a shaft with a notch in it that in turn catches and pushes a sort of rod. The shaft with the notch is a highly stressed part and could have fractured.

Ok thanks, that's the sort of answer I was after. I didn't really want to have to pull it apart because the seals seem to be fine.