VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Parking Brake Toggle Lever

Hello to all,

I am moving this post to this forum to hopefully get some ideas. I originally posted it in the Truck forum. There have been quite a few views but no responses. I admit that maybe I did not ask the question correctly.

Continuing our work on the '49 3100. It has the same parking brake linkage in the rear brakes as my '37 Master coupe.

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!

I don't understand your problem. Can't you adjust the brake cable (shorten cables) at the fronend of the cable?

Hi Rusty,

Here is a manual for doing brake work on the 1949 brake system. Please read through the emergency brake info (pages 20-21). I do not think you are following the sequence of steps they recommend. I believe you should be installing the cable first and adjusting it then the toggle?


1949 Brakes I assume your 49 truck manual should be also covering the same info?

Good luck, Mike

Hi Gene and Mike,

Yes, that is the adjustment process I am referring to. It is the same for many years of many vehicles with Huck style brakes.

I also think that Mike is addressing the key point that is confusing me. I could not determine if the front end of the brake cables should be connected when you make this adjustment.

If the cables are not connected there is a lot of clearance between the toggle lever and the bottom of the slot in the extension link. It appears that you can only correctly make this adjustment after you have the front end of the cables connected and most of the slack pulled from the cable.

Now that I have studied the whole linkage and cable more it appears that both the eccentric adjustment and the position of the clevis on the front end of the cable will affect the parking brake operation.

The eccentric adjustment to leave clearance in the slot will make sure that the brake shoes completely retract with the brake cables connected. It makes sense that you need to do this when new shoes are installed and the brake cables have not been disconnected during the service process.

Thanks for indulging me as I work through my confusion. The other resident in my household tells me that I "tend" to over-analyze everything!

Rusty

I would leave the cable and cam loose while adjusting the main adjustment. When the main adjustment done then adjust the cam to just touching the shoes then adjust the cables for appropriate handle travel (typically 25% of total available travel).
When you need to do a service adjustment you often only need to do main adjustment and occassionally the cam. The cable adjustment rarely needs to be touched.
Tony