VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Trucks and Vans Emergency Brake Toggle Lever

Continuing our work on the '49 3100.

I am having some difficulty understanding the shop manual instructions about adjusting the toggle lever. The same process applies to many different vehicles including my '37 Master coupe.

The shop manual states that you need to make this adjustment when new shoes are installed and after you have adjusted the hydraulic service brakes and the shoes are in the full release position.

We tried to make the adjustment before we connected the parking brake cables to the levers on the cross bar. The problem is that there is not near enough movement of the toggle lever due to the eccentric to move the toggle lever to the bottom of the slot in the hand brake extension link.

So we set the eccentric to move the toggle lever as close as it can be to the extension. There was still a lot of slot showing (maybe 3/8") and a lot slack (at least an inch)in the brake cables.

What am I missing here? It seems to me that this adjustment and the one where you pull the cable and turn the clevis to line up the holes with the crossbar lever are doing the same thing.

Thanks for the guidance!

These are my impressions after doing this on my 38 master a couple of months ago. After the shoes are adjusted for the hydraulic operation, this adjustment gives the best operation of the emergency brake within the drum. The eccentric should be adjusted so that there is a small amount of movement in the lever. Too much movement and you loose out on some of the action. No clearance and you risk having a dragging shoe.

Thanks for the information. The trick seems to be that you have to coordinate the eccentric adjustment with the cable adjustment.