Hey guys, new to "This" forum and looking for a little help I cant seem to find on my own. My trucks original handbrake isnt working as it should, when its pulled up its not staying up and returning to its original position.

Its not clicking on the way up and and I cant see anything engaging into the gear teeth... need to get this fixed to pass safety to get it on the road. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Fully restored 49' Camaro front clip, disc brakes, etc

 

Hi there and welcome to the site. I had the same problem with mine. What I did is grind of the weld and install a spring in there. The little springs rust and break. They are very similar to the springs in a clothes pin. I lucked out and found a spring in my collection and installed it and welded the mechanism back together. You might be able to see it in this picture.

 

I should have a good parking brake handle in case you want to go with the replacement route. Email me, modelking2000 at hotmail dot com.

 

Welcome Aboard '49,
Good to see you working on one of these old trucks!
Pictures will also help get you some attention on here
if you don't initially get your question answered.

Our original ebrake was long gone when we purchased our 1950 F1.
We ended up putting in one from a salvage Explorer - works fine.
Good luck over there!

Ben in Austin

 

Welcome!

If you are looking for advise / resource help - you are in the right place. If PanelMan doesn't have a part, you don't need it. The man has an impressive collection of 'stuff' as do a number of others. Just ask!

Gotta love the '49s.

DW

 

welcome . Mervy 49 is probably dead right about the broken spring ,it's real easy to bend a new one let us know how you make out .

 

Ill add a pick of what the problem area is, figured we all knew what the shotgun hand brake looked like . I cant even see how that little spring would keep the hand brake in the locked posisition.

Mervy: Its hard to see the spring in the pick, but thanks for taking it.
51Panel: Ill be sure to let you know if I have to change the assembly.

 

im not entirely sure what the spring does..... or how to replace it if it even is the problem

 

The spring holds the pawl against the teeth of the rack . Take it out and have a real good look with a bright light trust me the problem will become evident . You may have to make your own spring like I did .

 

If yours is like mine my spring is good but the pawl is ground flat. When I get home I will post a picture of what mine looks like.

 

Sloppy Joe: If you can that'd be sweet

Oldmerc: Ill take a good look at it tomorrow, Hope fully its not a Monster to get out of there onto the work bench

 

This is my brake lever pawl as you can see the tip is ground flat instead of having a small triangle at the end to catch the gear.


This is the pin, pawl and spring from inside the brake lever.


This is how they are together when inside the brake lever handle.

New spring just a little easier to see in the picture.


This is one of my problems the link pin from Mid Fifties is to short and is approximately 1mm to large in diameter to even fit in the original brake handle.


Looking at your picture I can see the spring is broken like merv and oldmerc said earlier.

 

Sweet thanks alot Sloppy Joe, Is the pin just pressed in?

 

The original had a little excess in the shaft to "squish" kinda like a hot rivet but without as much material. I popped mine out with a C clamp, a socket and a small piece of round metal that was smaller than the "rivet" If you have a Bench top vise to press it out instead of the C-clamp it would be much easier.