VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Emergency Brake

I have had my '41 for three weeks now, and is safely road worthy. I am not sure, however, when the emergency/parking brake was used last or if I try to use it will it get stuck with the inability to release it. It is something I want to use when parking it on a hill or slight decline, but will not know what to do if it gets stuck.
Gus.....

I'd suggest you check all linkages and lubricate the handle mechanism to make sure you have a working emergency brake. You only have one master cylinder on this vehicle. If you blow a line, the master cylinder, or a wheel cylinder, you lose all brakes. New cars have two brake systems....the 41 has one. That's why it's called an emergency brake

Added to the above I would pull-up the handle about six inches and release it several times. Then pull it up a little farther a few times . Then check if the car will still roll on a slight incline. If it does I would then pull it up to the limit a few time and give it the roll test again. Inother words kind of ease into it.

And spray the cable housings with WD-40, Blaster or penetrating oil. Can't hurt.

Charlie

Gus,

I want to reinforce the above advice by saying that one of the first things a new car owner should do is a thorough inspection of the entire brake system on his vehicle. Start with what the previous owner said was the condition of the system and then reevaluate it yourself or have it professionally done.

You need to know the condition of the brake lines. If they are rusty on the outside you need to plan on replacing them ASAP. Brake lines usually fail from internal rust. So if they look bad on the outside assume they are on the inside. Check that the rubber brake line hoses are not cracked, flex them a little. Look for brake fluid leaks at each fitting.

Remove the drums and see if there is any indication of brake cylinder leakage or damage to any of the internal brake parts.

Look at the condition of each brake shoe, and for grooves in the shoes' or the drums' contact surfaces. The shoes and drums should appear dry, some glazing maybe present on the shoes, but no fluid residue should be on them.

Never apply your brakes with the drums off of the car. This could cause the brake cylinders to expand enough to release some of the fluid in them all over your brake parts. A mess to cleanup!!! Brake fluid attracts brake dust causing a grease type mess.

Check the fluid level of the master cylinder. Stick your finger in the fluid and see if there are any contaminants that show up on your finger when you remove it. Is the fluid clear?

Adjust the brakes by bleeding them according to the manual specifications with the drums on. The manual will tell you the correct order to bleed the brakes. It will also tell you how to adjust your emergency brakes.

Hopefully, others can add to my suggestions. This is another topic we have covered in past posts so doing an Advance Search should also be helpful.

Good luck, Mike

Mike:

I'll add one more thing. MY 48 had all new brake lines on her when I bought it. However, somebody used a brass compression fitting to join the lines together. Luckily my son noticed it, and, we replaced it with a high pressure stainless steel fitting from NAPA.

Regards:
Oldengineer

This I question...

Mike,
Thank you SO much for the great information you gave me. The previous owner said the car had new: brake lines, brake shoes, wheel cylinders, master cylinder. However, when I was in the process of asking him about operation of the vehicle, he told me about the brake system, but said at this time, they were out. After I purchased the car, I had it trailered, by the seller's GREATFUL brother to Milwaukee, to my mechanic. Mr. Pete Deinlein had his crew check over the complete barking system making sure it was road safe. He did the things that you said. All is well. No pulling or soft peddle. The mechnics found that the brake lines, connected to the wheel brke cylinders, were loose, thus all the fluid being pumped out of the system.
Onto another thing. How do I post a picture about an item I am working on. I have my radio removed and the back plate of the radio removed. When the radio was in the car, it lit up, but no reception or ability to turn the dial or move the selector. Not even a hum.
From looking in the rear of the radio, I do not think this thing has been touched. My experience with tubed and capacitor amplifier. I seccessfully restored my amplifier on my 1961 Seeburg AY160U, Jukebox. Would like to find someone who has done the type of work, or for their radio to work.
Thank you Mike so much for all your advice.
Gus...

Hi Gus,

I will handle the radio question first. I would try to handle it's repair locally, although there is a very knowledgeable VCCA member who does professional repair work. His name is Ray H. and he posts here on our VCCA website as AntiqueMechanic. He is also the VCCA Tech Adviser for radios. Like Gene "he's the man" for radio repairs. You can checkout his email address or send him a PM. Just click on his chat name and it will direct you to those addresses.

I have found the best local repair can be found through your local HAM Radio Club. They know who does this work, and knows what they are doing. I got mine repaired by a HAM guy that would not accept any money for his labor. He only charged for the parts. I decided to buy him a gift certificate and had a mutual friend give it to him. I assume your problem could be with a tube. You can order sets of them from Chevs of the 40's https://www.chevsofthe40s.com/shop/...ase=&searchtype=FT&Seach=Search. This is very expensive so a local guy could sell you only the tubes you need.

A little heads up on good VCCA topic discussion. Whenever you change topics in a post try to remember to start a new post topic. This will lead to more responses to your questions, and make it easier to do Advance Searches of all our posts. It also saves a lot of time when people are looking at the topics covered today on the chat sites and deciding which they want to read. I try to start all my posts with the year of my vehicle. So for this topic I would have posted something like "1941 Radio No Sound." Please do not post catchy titles to draw attention to them. A lot of us are intrigued by them but do not have the time to look at all the posts or their responses each day. I am sorry to say I do not follow 90% of the 1938 posts in our Forum!

I will cover how to post pictures later. I will begin by doing an Advance Search to see what has been previously posted. No use reinventing the wheel if someone has already covered the topic.

Best wishes, Mike

On your radio, you might want to check out the vibrator. It could be defective. I had the same thing happen to the radio in my 1951 Chevy about 10 years ago and it turned out to be a bad vibrator. Replaced it and the music came back. Radio still works great to this day!

Hi Gus,

Now to answer your question about posting pictures. I did an Advanced Search using the key words +posting +pictures. The plus symbols before the words were suggested when I read about search tips for doing Advanced Searches.

I found a very good video explaining one way to post pictures. Why don't you give it a try. Video on posting pictures

I personally upload all the pictures I want to post to Photobucket http://s1321.photobucket.com/?utm_s...edium=email&utm_campaign=welcometopb a free photo sharing web site. To do this you need to set up an account with them and then upload your pictures to the site. To have the pictures accepted by our chat site the memory should be minimal (less than 300 KB).

To place a picture in your post just click on the picture in your Photobucket LIBRARY and an enlargement of the picture will appear. To the right of the picture you will see the words SHARE LINKS. Click on the the link IMG. This copies the link to your desk top. Now paste the link into your post. When you Preview your post you will see your picture.

After a couple of years your picture will be erased from your post so some paste the URL address of their photo in their post. It is never erased, unless Photobucket goes out of business.

To get the URL address of a picture go to SHARE LINKS and select the Option Direct. Now just return to your post and paste it where you want it.

Good luck, Mike
P.S. Call me if you need any more help.
989-832-7634

Thanks a lot. I will for sure give it a try.
Gustave

To expand on Mike's last paragraph about using option Direct in Photobucket, you can display your picture in the post by doing the following:

- After selecting Direct in Photobucket it will briefly say "copied"
- Switch to the VCCA Chat reply window, select the 4th icon from the list across the top. (When you hover your cursor over this icon it will say "Enter an Image")
- A window will pop up, select the first option "Insert a non-floating image"
- Another window will display for you to enter the URL. Do a Paste, either by entering CTRL V, or right click and select Paste. Select the "OK" button
- At this point your picture information will display in your post at the point where your cursor resides.
- Do a Preview Post to make sure your picture displays correctly

This method will not allow viewers of your picture to link to your Photobucket site.

Hi leagl,

Thanks for your great directions. It takes a village to get me through each day.

When I post a picture to Photobucket it is with the intent that interested VCCA members see my pictures. I wish I had the energy to post information about each picture or to go back and upload more of my pictures there. I wish even more that I could post parts of my 34 videos on youtube. They cover almost all aspects of the restoration work I have done over the last 11 years. But my English ain't so good and they would require a lot of editing.

Thanks, Mike