It should be. When ever I’ve done it, I crack the shits and walk away for a bit. The whole spring thing annoys me. That linked video, old mate there was also challenged by it. It’s why I posted it. He reflects the experience most will have.
There are a couple of things in those videos that are a little different from what’s in the manual.
Firstly, the second video that shows the ‘major’ handbrake service kit. There is also a ‘minor’ kit that only comes with the shoes. The major kit also includes the (coil) spring and bracket which are the ‘upgrade components’ for the earlier Commodores (pre VY?) which didn’t have the anti-thump springs fitted at the factory. If your car already has that bracket, it doesn’t need to be replaced, it’s just in the kit in case it is needed. The anti-thump spring was supposed to help prevent a banging thump when reversing after releasing the handbrake (or something like that).
The first video has the handbrake adjusted so the shoes were still dragging. I believe they need to be backed off a bit more. But the complication with the ‘no drag’ method is that the anti-thump spring actually pulls on the handbrake shoe which makes it harder to judge when it is backed off enough. There is an alternative method to adjust the handbrake which involves measuring to set the clearance (I‘ll see who bites at my use of the word ‘clearance’ and brake adjustment
). However, that method can only be done with the disc/drum removed.
If someone has the VY manual, it might show the preferred method to do the ‘no drag’ method as the anti-thump springs were standard from that model.
Here are the two methods from the VT/VX manual…
