Hi, I've got the drum/disc brake setup on my 71 truck and am redoing the drum brakes-pretty much everything new, shoes, hardware, wheel cylinders, drums-and found that the parking brake is not there. The lever that the cable attachs to is missing and the cable was cut off at the frame. Doesn't even come into the drum. My ? is do I need the strut bar that goes from front shoe to the parking brake arm that isn't there? I can't find the oval shaped springs that go over the end on the bar and the old ones are what caused most of the problem leading to re-doing my brakes to start with. Does this strut bar hold the shoes in line any or just for the parking brake? Would I be safe leaving it out alltogether? Thanks for any ideas