1942 Emergency brake cable

[ralfstc]

Hi folks,

1942 Super Deluxe . . . .

My emergency brake cable is causing some head-scratching! It's hasn't worked since I've had the car and I've reacehd the point where I would really like it to--I live in a hilly city and I think the traffic people deliberately put lights at the top of hills.

Anyway, the issue is the rear part of the cable. The front seems fine and fits well between the lever and the "stop." I have all the parts including the adjusting clevis, equalizer and what not, but I just can't get my emergency brake cable tight enough. Both front and rear cables and new, and matched what was previously on the car (when it didn't work either. I know).

The length of the cable on the car seems pretty odd. Most listing show 122" or MAYBE 107" (but nobody has that cable in stock). Measuring from the end of the tube taking the cable through the brake backing plate to the equalizer gives me a distance of 45." Assuming about 4" is in the rear hub, this gives a total cable length of 98," give or take. Which doesn't seem to be listed anywhere.

I tried the wee cable adjuster doo-hickeys without any luck.

What am I missing here? Could somebody check the equivalent measurement for their car? My brakes appear to be the 1941 spec, but I'm not sure that matters as I think the change in brake cables (1941-42/48) was because of a moved anchor point. Anyway, any help or ideas would be very gratefully received.

Cheers,

Ralf

(ps. One of my hubs is stuck like a pig, my own fault because I put them on. That's for another time . . . )

[hueyhoolihan]

just installed a new front cable in my '41 today. i've got the rear one too, and am stalling rather than INstalling it at the moment due to the necessity of removing the rear hubs, which i don't look forward to doing.

the front cable's length is not as critical WRT length as the rear, i think, due to its fixed end points. what's necessary, for me, is a turnbuckle (and i'm still looking for one) with sufficient adjustment. as the one on my car is some sort of home-brewed contraption that only allows about an inch of it, which isn't enough.

i'll be following your adventure. good luck!

[Ggmac]

You’ll need to remove that hub again to check the parking brake lever to the front shoe bar / connector. Not sure of its proper name . It contacts the lever the cable attaches to the. I’ve seen more than a couple of these ground shorter . I guess just to get the shoes on . Not all shoes were made the same and when the lining is thicker than original or more recently, the metal shoe tabs longer , the previous owner ground the connector . So no matter how long the cable is usually doesn’t work .
Take pictures and look closely at the connector .
One more item to investigate, did you install the little clip at the end of the tube inside the drum ? If not or if it broke the cable housing will juat move freely .
Good luck

[Terry,OH]

Green parts book: front cable and conduit 11A-2853 is 87.5" long for Pass cars 1941-48
rear cable 21A-2275 is 107.25" long for 1942-48

[ralfstc]

Thanks folks. Some fiddling this morning and it's clear the passenger side EN lever is disconnected inside the hub. which it wasn't last time I connected it. Unfortunately that's the hub which is stuck. Working on that.

Even when I fitted the new cable, though, the most I ever got was a wisp of emergency brake, just enough to slow down a backward roll. A bit more oomph would be nice!

As for removing the hub, when I did it the first time after I bought the car I found the nuts had been torqued to . . . 0 ft/lbs. I could easily unscrew them by hand. That seems less than the recommended 200 ft/lbs or else all the spinach I'm eating is really paying off!

But with the right puller getting the hubs off isn't too bad Huey. They don't go flying off across the room or anything, just pop off.

Best,

Ralf

[Ggmac]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

Is all of the adjustments maxed out on the primary cable ? If so your only option is to shorten the rear cable by using the cable slack adjuster thingys . ( or buy a shorter cable , lots more work than adding 2 slack adjuster thingys )

[ralfstc]

Thanks, I tried the slack adjuster thingies and I'd need a few of them!

I'll report back once I get the job off and can handle the cable.

Best,

Ralf

[tubman]

Why can't you just cut enough off one end on the rear cable and "re-terminate" it. You could use a appropriate size chunk of small tubing or even a couple of small nuts, and weld 'em on? A long time ago (about 30 years), I remember having to do some repair work on the cables on one of the main doors in my garage. I vaguely remember some sleeves and a sledge hammer. I do remember that the repair worked fine, and that my local hardware store had a nice assortment of things to terminate wire rope. Amazon has a bunch of interesting stuff.

[Ggmac]

Tubmans suggestion is a good one . I actually used aircraft (?) cable to fabricate a parking brake set up in a T bucket with a banjo rear many many years ago .

[tubman]

Originally Posted by Ggmac

Tubmans suggestion is a good one . I actually used aircraft (?) cable to fabricate a parking brake set up in a T bucket with a banjo rear many many years ago .

Now that I think of it, I did the same thing on my "T"-Bucket in 1966. Only I used old garage door cables. (It was budget build.)

[ralfstc]

Hmmm, yes, that might be where I end up, thanks. I can't find anything that says "the early 1942s (possibly Canadian) had a special custom cable 101 17/64 inches long" so I'll keep messing with what I have.

Best,

Ralf

[Karl Wolf]

Originally Posted by Ggmac

Is all of the adjustments maxed out on the primary cable ? If so your only option is to shorten the rear cable by using the cable slack adjuster thingys . ( or buy a shorter cable , lots more work than adding 2 slack adjuster thingys )

I used Nicopress. One could use a stop at the end, in the drum. I did it in the middle of the cable, (convenient).
Nicopress is supposed to be 100% as strong as the cable...

Karl

[ralfstc]

New possibility- wrong clevis. Do any of you folks know the length off hand? Mine seems a bit long!

Thanks

Ralf

[hueyhoolihan]

Originally Posted by ralfstc

New possibility- wrong clevis. Do any of you folks know the length off hand? Mine seems a bit long!

Thanks

Ralf

is this what you're talking about? i just re-installed one of these, or an almost identical piece, on my car today. this one connects the front parking brake cable to the rear parking brake cable's equalizer yoke on my car. it looks to be about 2" long. the one on my car looks to have 5/16" x 24 threads, but were in pretty sad shape, could only screw it on about 3/8". or maybe i should say that the threaded stud on the rear end of the front parking brake cable is 5/16" x 24 thread (i think) but the clevis rod could be just about anything considering the extent to which the threads have been abused.

why the previous owner was using a Model A clevis rod on my '41 is a mystery. there was another item on there too between the end of the front cable and the yoke, that was decidedly home-grown. looked like someone had welded a couple of nuts on to the ends of an elongated piece of hollow hex stock. it was not..ahem...re-installed.

here's a pic of a new one, which i should probably get, assuming everything fits:

https://cwmoss.com/products/emergency-brake-rod-clevis

[ralfstc]

Thank you! Mine is about 4". Mystery solved, perhaps!

I've made a rookie mistake- assumed the previous owner sourced the correct parts ��

Thanks again for the help- much appreciated!


Ralf

[hueyhoolihan]

Originally Posted by ralfstc

Thank you! Mine is about 4". Mystery solved, perhaps!

I've made a rookie mistake- assumed the previous owner sourced the correct parts ��

Thanks again for the help- much appreciated!


Ralf

ya, ...i'm coming to the point with my car where i'm now assuming that the parts are wrong and am working backwards from there. ha

BTW, i found that i had to de-couple the attachment point at the grab handle, and back it off about an inch to get the slack i needed to then climb back under to the car to connect the front to the back cables. and i had to pull pretty darn hard on the rear cable, against the spring tension from the brake shoes, to line up the holes in the yoke and the eye in the clevis rod before i could get the pin back in. a feat requiring a bit of strength, technique and patience to accomplish!

i estimate that there's only an inch or maybe two of throw that's even theoretically possible from the grab handle. so everything's needs to be just right. smh

[hueyhoolihan]

just found this one!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265028560074

looks to be close to four inches. it may be the one you have. and it's probably the correct one for your car. but i'm guessing that as the cables age and stretch people would install one of the older ones from the model A, like they did on my car, when the adjustability ran low.

...just a guess, of course.

[ralfstc]

Hey Huey,

Yes, I just ordered one of those from South Carolina (one of my favourite two Carolinas). Hard to tell from the photo, but it definitely looks shorter than the one I have. It's definitely a different design, so wroth having in any case.

Yes, there's not much adjustment and yes, It's a PIG pulling against the emergency brake springs to get the pin back in. I have spent quite a while looking at the clevis thinking "naw, no way Dearborn could design something you had to adjust before you attached it . . . "

Onward and upward!

Cheers,

ralf

[hueyhoolihan]

Originally Posted by ralfstc

Hey Huey,

Yes, I just ordered one of those from South Carolina (one of my favourite two Carolinas). Hard to tell from the photo, but it definitely looks shorter than the one I have. It's definitely a different design, so wroth having in any case.

Yes, there's not much adjustment and yes, It's a PIG pulling against the emergency brake springs to get the pin back in. I have spent quite a while looking at the clevis thinking "naw, no way Dearborn could design something you had to adjust before you attached it . . . "

Onward and upward!

Cheers,

ralf

yes, my thoughts exactly, but i have to think that i'm missing, as in misunderstanding, something...

frankly, i was expecting to see a true turnbuckle down there. you know, the kind with reverse threads on one end so that turning it one way pulls the two ends together and turning it the other way pushes them apart.