left side has anchor bolt that should be wired so as to not back out. remove this. right side has spring tension bolt that adjusts shoes, and a screw with nuts to prevent bottom shoe from dropping. remove these and you are home free. if you need to remove drum, you must pull rear driveshaft. use some pb blaster on right side hardware after cleaning any grease or rust. i suggest that if you do not have a manual, take the time to draw a picture of how things are together---before removal--- makes guessing a thing of the past. maybe even a snapshot for future reference.

 

Thanks! That sounds fairly easy. Probably the hardest part will be getting the 60-year old nuts and bolts to break loose. But I have lots of time and plenty of Liquid Wrench.

I like the idea of taking pictures before removal. Does anyone have that master parts catalog CD I have seen advertised? If so, is it a real duplicate of the original paper book?

 

I took a bunch of pictures of my emergency brake on my 55 F250.
I don't know how similar they are but you can see them at:
Emergency Brake pictures by harrier1351 - Photobucket

 

Here is a diagram for you parking brake.


I got this from this manual:
1948-56 Ford Truck Master Parts Catalog CD - HiPo Parts Garage
I would highly recommend it. It's only $20 and is worth it just to look at the pictures.

For my 55 I just got the hard copy of the manual. It was cheaper than the CD's and work good. Although I use the above manual more.

 

Yes, that's it exactly. I crawled under again today to get a better look at it.

Thanks. Oh, and I was able to move the truck today for the first time since the tow truck parked it in my driveway. The parking brake works! Maybe not as well as I'd like, but it prevented the truck from rolling down my sloped driveway in neutral. I may get away with just removing, cleaning, reinstalling and adjusting it.

I will be getting that Master Parts catalog CD. That's the one I was asking about earlier.

Thanks again for the help.