VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION New User Forum 1929 Chevrolet brake cross shaft problem

Hello to all and thank you up front for your expertise.
I have a 1929 Chev,two door coach that I am starting to work on. It is in relatively good shape overall. It's been sitting in a barn since the mid 80's. My goal is simply to leave the exterior as is, make the interior liveable and have it function mechanically so I can use it as my "town " car. (I live in a rural area.)
My present challenge is to free up the two brake cross shafts. I've been spraying them with PB Blaster but I'm getting nowhere. Can I heat them with a torch or will I destroy the bushings? Any hel0p and comments are greatly appreciated.

There are several answers to your question.
The easy answer is yes. The more complicated answer and probably more accurate is maybe. Since they are not currently performing their job they are worthless. So destroying them may not be a big loss. The bushings are made from a "white metal" and are relatively soft but also tend to expand with age. If they 'lock' on the shaft and only barely rotate in the bracket they need to be replaced. If the shaft rotates in the bushing then eventually from endlessly twisting the shaft(s) the center of the bushing will wear enough to "free" the shaft. How much time do you want to spend? Can you do the work yourself or have someone else (paid) to do it?

Hi Chipper,thank you for the quick response.
The cross shaft is frozen solid and does not even wiggle the slightest bit! It sounds like heating them is the way to with replacement of the bushings. Next question(s) - how readily available are the new bushings? Also can you provide some sources that supply them?
(As you can see, this is going to be an iceberg deal, every answer leads to new questions.)
I plan on doing the work myself.
Thanks again.

I don't know of anyone that has the bushings available. Several have either made them or had a machine shop do it. I haven't tried it but figured they could be made from nylon or delron in two pieces. If you remove the rivets from the support brackets and split them then you could put the halves in place without removing the end arms. If the bushings were whole then the end arms as well as the brackets would have to be separated. Arms then welded back on.

I had to replace the bushings on one side on my 28, someone before me got carried any with hammer and had the bushing on a bind. After I got it apart I was able to find a pillow block bearing that the center was the correct size, they were stainless. The local machine and tool store was able to get them, just cut the outside of the pillow block off, also added grease fittings to lube.

I was hoping I would not have to take the cross shaft out of the car, but that may be the most prudent thing to do, especially if I have to come up with either a new bushing or bearing set up.
I've been away from vintage cars for quite awhile, but I do know not to bull ahead, but to take the time to ask questions before working on a problem. There's no sense in completely reinventing the wheel.
Thanks again for everyone's input.

Quick project update - I removed the brake cross shaft unit from the car, and degreased and pressure washed it. Using what I had on hand, I concocted a mixture of kerosene and diesel fuel with a splash of ATF and soaked the unit for a few days.
After removing from the solution, I built a frame out of 2x4s to simulate the the car's frame rails and bolted the cross shaft in. I gently worked the arms back and forth (by placing a pipe over the end arms) until they were reasonably free to move. (Once taken out of the frame they were more difficult to move as the parallel rods would have a tendency to twist and bind in the brackets, thus making it harder to move the individual rods.) I did not apply any heat during the process, but sprayed the bushing areas with liberal amounts of penetrating oil. The last step was soaking one end at a time in a bucket of the above mentioned mixture for a couple of days and occasionally rotating the rods back and forth with the end submerged in the solution, to help clean out the bushings.