Thread: Tech1, Parking Brake?

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C9, Total Performance calls the double line clips "Kugel" clips but they are just flat stainless plates while your very sturdy double clip looks like a block. The Spruce site no longer seems to exist and the other sites say "Adel" clips are the rubber lined type. Just wondering where you got that neat double clip holding the two lines? You are right about the scrub line. I have a 5" drop in my front axle and it looks like my actual scrub line is the lower shock mount bolt rather than the steel wheel rim. Do you think it is worth it to change my 14" front wheels to 15" wheels just to gain 1/2" of scrub height?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Absolutely!!! You want to keep the suspension off the ground at all times. You blow a tire, and your going for a ride you may never forget! Hey Don, I'm running a low pressure, brake pressure switch like in your picture. I'm giving it the heave ho! I have to really stand on the brake pedal to get the brake lights to come on. Model A's are so light, it doesn't take much line pressure to stop. Not having the brake lights come on really irratates me. I am changing over to a mechanical switch, that mounts to the floor pan.

your very sturdy double clip looks like a block

??? I did make my own two bolt clamp to hold the hard brake line against the boxing plate.
Is that what you're talking about?
(Made from 7/8" diameter aluminum with a groove milled in for the brake line and a couple of stepped through holes for the 8-32 allen bolts. I made 20 of them and only used 9 on the 32 . . . so I have enough to do the 31 when I get to the plumbing.)

Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but I don't see the brake line clamps in the above pics.

Blwn 31 is right.
Hydraulice brake light switches ain't so great.
Especially if you use silicon brake fluid.
The silicon fluid emigrates past the seals and gets into the contacts, insulates them electrically speaking and it's not long until the brake lights don't work.

Here's a pic of a standard GM (Chevy I think) lever brake switch and how it was mounted in my 32.
The arm was cut down.
The switch is designed for interior use, but it does well here.
I've driven through some deep, block-long runs of water and the switch has never gotten wet.

The brake pedal is tapped 10-24 and a stainless allen bolt installed with stop-nut to lock it in place.

Adel clamps are shown on the fuel lines attached to the heat shield.


I forgot to add Aircraft to Spruce & Specialty Co.
Full name is Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co.

go here:
http://www.aircraft-spruce.com/

Forgot the pic.

Here are some nice line clamps from ECI....
http://www.ecihotrodbrakes.com/brake_line_clamps.html

Rubber-lined Adel clamps are available at any Ace Hardware in the nut and bolt section.

I use, and like, the clamps Richard referenced. You can get them a bit cheaper at Summit http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...=egnsearch.asp

EDIT: Looks like their link is squirrly, enter P/N MFY-3089911 and you'll see it.

Thanks Tech.

We have one right up the street.

Closest genuine speed shop is in Las Vegas or Phoenix.

Thanks all. In the meantime I have been figuring out a way to make my own bracket-clip from aluminum by drilling holes in a block of aluminum the size of the cable sheath and then sawing across the holes. The missing material from the saw cut allows a bolt-down slight crush fit. The bracket C9 made is really neat but I think I can make something similar. Yes I know all about machined pieces and during my career had the services of an expert shop that would make whatever I could sketch, but now I am limited to a hacksaw, a drill, a Dremel tool, a body grinder, a couple of files and a full size vise. I am waiting for the driveshaft loop and will use that to attach the cables so that they enter the brake handle parallel to each other and "straight in" to the handle. At least I now have both cables on the rear backing plates and have reassembled the brakes (several times!). The drums go on and the brakes look like the picture in a 1982 Chiltons manual! I may also add a few more 5/16" eye bolts to guide the cables and keep them away from the drive shaft. I wish I had understood the space issue with the smaller Vega-style handbrake but the cables are different and I would have to change the cables along with the handbrake so I will just install my tall brake, a la 1929. The bracket-clip I am referring to is in the upper left corner in the first picture just above your H-pipe. That is what I need to route the cables into the handbrake and I now think I can make a "pancake" bracket to line up the cables before they go into the brake bracket.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/Teen Rodder

Originally posted by Don Shillady
The bracket C9 made is really neat cables before they go into the brake bracket.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/Teen Rodder

That bracket is a Gennie Shifter bracket and came with the E-brake cables I believe.

Gennie Shifter is a pretty good outfit to deal with and I'm sure they'd sell you one separate.

If you made your own bracket, all it would take is four holes drilled in a piece of 1/8" angle - aluminum or steel.

The Gennie Shifter cables fit through the drill holes in the bracket and are retained by a keeper that has a couple of holes drilled for the inside cable.
A couple of allen setscrews hold the E-brake cables in place.

It helps to lay some solder onto the cable where you cut it for proper length.

Take a look here:
http://www.hotrodhotline.com/gennie/#brake

(I don't see a bracket similar to the one on my car, but I would guess it was simply left out of the picture.)

Thanks C9 (and Tech1 and Bob), I have checked out the cable kits from Gennie and I have already found that the Tech guy there is very helpful (I did not tell you before that I broke one of the stainless fittings on the cable end and he sent a new one to me the next day by FedEx air freight). However the cable ends for the Vega-style hand brake are different than the replica Model-A brake. I just found a picture in a restorers book showing the shifter and hand brake and yes indeed the Gennie version looks very much like the original and as I remember it, although a slight more to the right. Anyway I'll use what I have and I am back to using 5/16" eye bolts when I get my drive shaft loop to fasten to. You gentlemen are real pros and I will try to make my set up better than trash but maybe not up to the standards C9x shows. To make matters worse the cable connection point is right in front of the u-shaped transmission cradle and at present I think I will put one eye bolt on each side of the right part of the transmission cradle and thread the cables through there to keep them parallel just before the bracket. As C9 said in a helpful way I can make at least one bracket from aluminum to keep the left line off of the driveshaft. I am sorry to bother you experts and thanks for humoring me. Thanks for the tip on soldering the cut ends of the cable, I can do that. Thanks also for the tip and solution to the brake light problem. Hey to those folks who say these are just cookie cutter kit cars, I say there are a lot of innovations needed in little details in spite of the availability of many kits! You can see in my original picture at the top of this thread that the bolt in the crossmember is where the trans cradle is attached and it is right behind where the Gennie cable bracket is; I will probably put one cable on each side of the vertical part of the trans cradle.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

People forget that the main advantage with a re-pro body is you don't have a rust problem and you don't have to do bodywork.
(Most times anyway, my Brookville 31 shifted in the crate during transit and got a couple of minor dents, but no big deal.)

Don't be telling yourself you can't do some of this stuff because you can.
It's all a learning process and one of the more important parts is having the right tools to do a particular job.

Anyhoo . . . when you solder the cable, solder it prior to cutting.
I wasn't too clear on that part, but if you don't solder prior to the cut, the cable will unwind and it will be a bitch to get it back together close to the normal diameter.

Make the cut with a muffler cutter or Dremel tool.
Grinding through the cable instead of using a cable cutter or bolt cutter will alleviate distortion.

I use a fairly soft non-core solder with flux.
Acid core solder works ok as well.
I neutralize the solder point with baking soda dissolved in water, not sure if it all gets neutralized, but it's better than nothing.
So far (12 years down the road and no problems.)

C9, Thanks for the reminder about soldering the cable ends BEFORE cutting the cable! I have been waiting for delivery of the driveshaft oval yoke from Speedway. It looks like it is intended to bolt to the top of the frame rails but then this may mess up the mating of the body to the frame so I will figure out how to bolt it in between the rails down a bit the thickness of any bolts I use for the support of the brake cables. I will post a picture of my results. It looks like there is no way around putting one cable on each side of the vertical part of the trans cradle. Today while waiting for parts I amused myself by port matching the crush aluminum ($35) exhaust gaskets using my Dremel grinder. Although DennyW gave me his secret procedure for using wet gaskets I bought the aluminum ones because they are reuseable so I torqued up the shorty headers and then took them off and ground away any flanges indicated by the impressions in the aluminum gaskets and then put them back. Since I paid (too much) to have the exhaust ports smoothed it only makes sense to match the gaskets to the ports and only a small amount of grinding was necessary. Yes I am not worried about rust of the Bebops body, that is a good point. Further examination of the body shows it holds up to clean lines almost everywhere except that while the rumble lid fits perfectly when closed, the gap at the bottom of the lid is noticeably wider on the right than on the left by about 1/8". As I say this is not noticeable when the deck is closed and probably is due to a slight misalignment of one of the rear quarter panels. When the decklid is closed the gap all around the lid is uniform. The fit of the doors is excellent. I have ordered my "rumble-seat-tank" from Rock Valley after sending a drawing and a full scale cardboard model of the tank to them. I am having it made of 14 gauge stainless rather than 16 gauge since there will only be a 3/8" plywood panel with foam on top to keep the dimensions like the original. I also added a 4"x1/4"x38" steel bar across the back of the 13.6 gallon tank with a 2" crush space gap by attaching it to the rumble seat brackets. Rock valley says they have one of their tanks which was in a rear end collision at 35 mph and has a large dent but it did not leak. So with 14 gauge stainless and a steel bar behind it I think I have done as much as I can for protection of the tank from a rear end collision and of course I also plan to add a rear Model-A bumper. I just need to get the brake cables finished and settle the trans cooler position and then I can take it to a muffler shop where I plan to use just cheap turbo mufflers, but I do not know how hard it will be to order up an H pipe, it depends on the shop. C9 I really appreciate your help and interest, thanks. Bob is right about the need to get the exhaust system installed and I have bookmarked the NSRA inspection requirements that Tech1 sent.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

The H-Pipe is not difficult to install and is a common job for muffler shops.

The H-Pipe on my 32 is for sound attenuation problems and not so much for performance.
It's too far back for performance requirements, but it took the low frequency resonance out of the exhaust system.
Get one installed when you do the exhaust system.

The 32's exhaust system is 2 1/2" and the H-Pipe proper is 2 1/4".
Using the next size down pipe makes things easier as far as the cutting and welding goes.

I had a pair of Walker's Turbo muffs with glass packing on the car for quite a while.
They sounded good and after about 8 years they got a little noisy.
Two Chamber Flowmasters were installed and after a little running around with them, the H-Pipe was installed.

I have three chamber Flowmasters on my 2002 Ford F-150 SuperCrew with 5.4 liter engine.
They sound great, very much like a longer glasspack from the good ol daze.

If the muffs end up under the chassis on my 31 I'm going to see if the three chambers will fit.

It ain't the noise, it's the music....

Well I put more than a few hours in today on the handbrake cables (and broke 3 drill bits) but I am not sure I have totally solved the problem. I phoned "Bill" at Bebobs and he said to attach the cables to the underside of the floor after the body is on and I plan to add some attachments to the floor as he suggested. I also found a few pictures of a clean roadster showing the cables attached to the floor.

http://www.srbymichael.com/gallery/kyzer/kyzer.shtml

I received a driveshaft safety hoop from Speedway but it was too narrow for my frame at only 27" and the frame is 30" wide where it is needed and the loop must have weighed at least 20 pounds and I would have had to add some extension brackets to the sides which would look pretty clunky. I decided I am not building a dragster or a tank so I opted for simple 1" angle iron as a weak cross member and then used 5/16" eyebolts to guide the cables into the handbrake. Hardware store eyebolts may not look high tech but they have round surfaces so as not to cut into the cable housing. I need to touch up the rattle can paint with another coat and I plan to add one more eyebolt to each side to the bottom of the floor when the body is on so I will not cut the ends of the cable until I determine the slack needed for the floor attachment. Anyway here is what I have now, not pretty but functional and I am not planning to put a mirror under the car for shows anyway. Special thanks to C9 for his help and suggestions. Due to recent dscussion of H-pipes reducing the noise maybe I can use simple tubular glasspacks or even Smithy mufflers with an H-pipe and then I will have more room for slim mufflers. I still don't like the way the left handbrake cable crosses over the drive shaft but if I attach it to the underside of the floor it should clear the driveshaft and a tubular muffler.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

That looks ok to me Don.

A couple of Adel clamps added to the floor will assure the cable stays off the driveshaft.

I don't think there would be a problem if the driveshaft did puke a U-joint.
The front is retained by the driveshaft loop if the front U-joint fails.

If the rear U-joint failed, I don't think the driveshaft would catch the E-brake cables.
What usually happens when the rear U-joint lets go is the driveshaft may beat the underside of the car up, but most times it gets tossed onto the ground sorta bent up....