Thread: 53 Is back from the Body Shop

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It's great to see an old truck being driven! Trailer queens are depressing to me.

What fun for you!

Awesome! I'm glad you and the Mrs made it back safe with no issues. That had to be a great trip!

I decided Rita needs a parking/emergency brake. When we took it to the Black Hills pulling our UTV there was a few times my brake fade was pretty bad. I never did let Kari know just how little brake I had left a few times I decided two things were going to happen, Rita needed an E brake and the trailer needed trailer brakes. This is step one as we are planning a trip to Yellowstone late this summer ( no trailer ) and I know the brakes are going to get a workout again in the mountains. E Stop was an option but an expensive one so I did what I've seen others do. I bought an linear pull motor/switch and some cables to make my own for $130. I'll post some more pics when its finished. These toys are never done are they I have a link to what it is on you tube.

https://youtu.be/aWzaXXx5aZc

Very cool on the E-Brake.

I'd still add trailer brakes if you're hauling the heavy UTV. It's surprising how much a loaded trailer can push, and it tends to lift the rear of the truck in a hard stop, too!

Originally Posted by rspears

Very cool on the E-Brake.

I'd still add trailer brakes if you're hauling the heavy UTV. It's surprising how much a loaded trailer can push, and it tends to lift the rear of the truck in a hard stop, too!

Especially when you take in consideration angles of the trailer and the load pivot point.

Seth, I put one of those on a drive line at the rear diff pinion of a manual truck once. It worked great but years later the actuator stopped working and the owner couldn't find a similar replacement. Make sure the one you selected is a common unit.

These old trucks are much lighter than the new ones, I would think a trailer could push it around. In my young stupid days I towed a heavy v-drive boat with my 77 toyota truck, I hit the brakes hard for a red light and went right through it, so lucky that me or someone else wasn't hurt towing that thing (towed it a number of times, didn't learn anything, no trailer brakes)

Yeah, you deduct all the weight for the modern conveniences, insulation, and 100 miles of wiring and computers and the old cars are fairly light. The manual for my 49 Plymouth coupe showed the original weight as 2850lbs.

I got my E Brake installed and it works great, in about 2-3 seconds I can really feel it grabbing. I'm pretty happy how it turned out.

Nice work! That will be something I bet you wished you did a long while ago.

Nice! Emergency brake can be a life saver.

So this might be a novice question but I'm going to ask it anyway. I replaced Rita's poly a arm bushings with pressed in rubber bushings because I got tired of fighting the squeaks. It seems to me, and I've never noticed it before, but the front end bounces too much or floats after hitting rough spots on the road. I replaced the shocks, which did not help, I'm wondering if I need a stiffer shock, which there doesn't seem to be a lot of options, or if I have to preload the sway bar, or if the rubber bushings make it bounce too much, I don't know? Any thoughts ? I would like to get this taken care of before we start road tripping again, and Roger,I still haven't fixed my drive shaft angle lol

I'd be surprised that the rubber bushings would have enough "give" for you to feel that much difference, but if it was OK with Poly and bouncy with rubber that must be the case. I've not had reason to try it yet, but I saw a neat trick to stop the squeaks in poly bushings - Teflon tape, the stuff used for threads to prevent leaks!! Here's a YouTube video showing the process, and the guy says that he put poly in a Honda 5 years ago and has never had a squeak!! Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbgEvh-rSl4
I don't know of a "fix" for the pinion angle other than adjustment!!

Thanks for the link, I should say have not adjusted my pinion angle since we got home from Florida. I don't remember for sure, but I'm sure I've tried the Teflon trick, I bet I've tried half a dozen different tricks.

Did you tighten the bushing bolts down unloaded? That could create some tension with it back on the ground. Can you get KYB's for your truck? They made a huge difference on my 67 Camaro, much sportier.