Parking brake ?

[tmurray]

First things first: I am a Newbie. Please feel free to tell me how stupid I am if that's in fact true. I have a '75 40. I got tired of the cost & time of having to pull the parking brake drum, new shoes, etc. Even when everything was "new" and adjusted the hold was less than perfect. It wasn't even close to perfect on hills. So, I installed a Man-a-Fre after market "disc parking brake conversion." Seemed like a good solution. Installation went fine but the results are only slightly better than the old drum. I am still packing the chocks and thinking this may be as good as it gets. Am I missing something? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Olddog

 

[Cruiser Cruisin]

I have a stock parking brake and it works just fine. I guess it works fine after i got all the oil cleaned off the drum and new shoes put in.. SOrry i am no help with the new disc style. good luck

 

[Pighead]

A stock parking brake, properly adjusted and dry, holds me very well.

 

[TNFJ40]

As noted, the OEM brake works much better when it's properly adjusted and without oil leaking on it. However, it still doesn't inspire a lot of confidence on the side of a mountain.

I also tried the disc brake kit from Man-A-Fre and was very disappointed. I found it to be of a poor design and poor quality that wasn't typical of my dealings with Man-A-fre. So, I sent it back.

My solution was to install a manual line-lock device in the brake circuit. When engaged, you pump the brake pedal and it holds pressure on your brakes via a check valve. The lever can be mounted under the dash. It also has an LED that comes on if you have lost hydraulic pressure.

I don't leave it on all the time for fear that it may eventually cause the seals at the wheel cylinders to start leaking. However, for my intended purpose of intermittent use it works great.

The devices currently used by the drag racing crowd are all electronic and don't work well for this application. I finally found a manual unit at a heavy truck supply business. They still use them as a safety device.

 

[Downey]

We made a manual disc parking brake conversion a zillion years ago--- it didn't work. We then made a hydralic disc parking conversion, but knowbody would have been able to afford it. It included a hydralic cylinder at the rotor, a hydralic master cylinder at the frame, all the mounting brackets (everywhere), the plumbing kit, the cable control kit, etc. Finally deceided that our rebuilt factory parking brake worked as good as any other choice.

 

[nuclearlemon]

how was you factory brake adjusted? down at the drum only? there's also an adjustment on the cable at the firewall that's often overlooked.

 

[cruiserbrett]

a properly rebuilt drum parking brake has worked for years in my fj40 and fj55. couple of things that make the PB suck:

-leaking output seal on t-case
-oil covered brake shoes
-brake shoes with too little lining left
-parking brake cable housing plastic broken down/disintegrating(this makes it hard to get adjusted b/c pulling on the cable collapses the housing length, effectively lengthening the cable and reducing the pull force.)
-transfercase that has too much output shaft play(hard to adjust PB, and good chance the seal is leaking)
-surface condition of parking brake drum surface. treat it like your brake drums/rotors: good clean metal that is not too terribly out of round. take it to a machine shop and have them turn it. the machined outer lip should be fine for centering it accurately enough for machining.


They can be made to work well.

 

[jr4asu]

X2 check the cable adjustment. Might need new cables, streached to much

 

[calixto]

Wow, this is interesting because I just had a shop fix the leak on my rear output shaft and now my parking brake doesn't hold at all. PB seemed like it was starting to hold less and less as time went on but after getting back from the shop today it doesn't hold at all. On the plus side, my truck doesn't leak a drop of oil anymore........at least that I can see. Gonna go through and check all the brake line components before taking back to the shop to have them diagnosis. Any other thoughts on culprets besides the above? Guess I'm gonna be parking in gear and not on any steep hills for the next couple days.

 

[matty_sunn1]

i just cleaned mine up no new shoes and no adjustment its been working for me perfect. i should do the shoes some time

 

[nuclearlemon]

Wow, this is interesting because I just had a shop fix the leak on my rear output shaft and now my parking brake doesn't hold at all. PB seemed like it was starting to hold less and less as time went on but after getting back from the shop today it doesn't hold at all. On the plus side, my truck doesn't leak a drop of oil anymore........at least that I can see. Gonna go through and check all the brake line components before taking back to the shop to have them diagnosis. Any other thoughts on culprets besides the above? Guess I'm gonna be parking in gear and not on any steep hills for the next couple days.

check the adjuster on the backing plate. they may have loosened it to make getting the drum on and off easier.

 

[calixto]

It wasn't the pads. The shop didn't adjust the cable again when they fixed the rear output shaft. What a PITA.