'54 f100, volare ifs, 302/c6. i am still building the chassis, and i have a '70 mustang 8" rear end, that i'm preparing to put under the bare frame. what do i do about the parking brake cables? do i use the mustang cables? if so, one is about 31", and the other is about 130" long. has anyone used this setup? if so, can you tell me how you made the parking brake cables connect to one another and to the front cable, which is operated by the original handle?

thanks,
john
unclejp2(No Email Addresses In Posts!)

 

John,

In the older style parking brake there was a cable that came from the handle/pedal that ran to a common point under the car. It was used to pull a common "Y" cable that pulls both wheels simultaneously, sometimes with an lever arm that mounted to a crossmember under the bed. Unless the lengths are right, I don't see how you can use them.. I used after market cables from Control Cable, Inc. www.controlcable.com on my '53. I installed a foot operated actuator from a mid '70s truck ran a short cable from there to the left side of the frame rail at the rear of the cab. from there I ran individual cables to each caliper (in your case, drum).

You can see what I did... there is an article on my site at http://jniolon.clubfte.com look in the left frame for "Parking Brakes"

I've seen others that used junk yard cables and fabricated brackets to fit... and they worked nicely.. my problem was finding good cables in the junk yards !!..

hope this helps

john

 

Will the short cable from the new rearend reach the original cable support brackets? If so, I would buy another short cable for that year rearend, and put it on the other side to replace the long cable. Then just use cable clamps you can buy at the hardware store to clamp the newer cables to the old truck front cables.