IIRC the legal side of having the handbrake and the foot brake hydraulic is in itself illegal? It was a long time ago but it was something along the line of there being two different actuating systems, for example foot brake fluid, and the hand brake mechanical? This could well be wrong but the gray matter and all that?
It was during the overhaul of many things back then, lorries for example had to have air that released the brakes as opposed to air to keep them on. Before that it was air over hydraulic, but then Bedford TK's had issues and they went to cable hand brakes, leaving the air over hydraulic for foot brakes.
The result for cars though was fluid for foot brake and cables for hand brakes.
I renewed pretty much everything on the 80 brakes in December 2015 so four and a half years ago, when I say pretty much everything I might not have replaced the handbrake lever?
Back then I used the FSM procedure to bed them in and have had a brilliant handbrake for the best part of that time. I am not casting doubt on anyone's mechanical skills here but after the drive/handbrake/ drive repeat procedure many don't get the car jacked up again and remove the wheels to readjust the brake shoes, it is a pain but is necessary, the other thing is when the wheels are off you must stack a few washers and refit the wheel nuts to make sure the disc/drum is back in place while tightening the adjustment, if not the disc/drum can 'cock' and give a false impression of the correct adjustment.
It was earlier in this year and when I noticed the extra 'tug' needed to hold my 80 on a hill, I am a 'park in gear' person so not too worried but decided a couple of months ago to check it out, I found an oil seal had failed and oiled up the shoes, so something else to be aware of. It was at this time the new (back in 2015) dog bones had a small for want of a better description compression marks where the shoes rest, they were replaced with new stock versions. I had purchased new harder steel and slightly longer dog bones a couple of years later but given how good the HB was I put them in a 'safe' place, they recently resurfaced! So I will use them when I put the whole lot back together.
The point to make here is when
everything is new and adjusted correctly, the 80 handbrake should be good with no further attention needed for 80,000 miles/four years? I am using mine as an example here. As an aside the inside drum area of the disc never wears out........unless you or a previous person adjusted them wrong.
regards
Dave