handbrake lever set up on brake drums

[DavidHill]

Carrying on my saga of refitting the rear axle...i am struggling with the handbrake levers that sit up in between the brake back plate and the differential casing.  I had to remove all of the brake mechanism, including the back plate to get at the levers so i could reposition them on top of the transverse spring.  Having done that i reattached the back plate and the handbrake mechanism that sits inside the drum and acts on the shoes and then refitted the shoes and then the drum.  I now find that the handbrake levers are very hard to move forward towards the front of the car to attach the handbrake cable to...  do i need to "preload" the levers (as shown in Simons photo where they are kept stretched out with green rope) before then refitting the back plate etc?

[DavidHill]

After some experimentation today, I have answered my own question...yes you do have to pre tension the handbrake levers before then fitting the brake drums and shoes. essentially the rod coming down the back of the back plate should be vertical when the back plate and rod that actuates the brake shoe is attached. which means it needs to be pretensioned against the spring.