Well I just replaced my rear drums and adjusted the rear brakes. The car stops much much better now, but I still cannot get my parking brake to work properly. I have tightened the nut on what I think is the equalizer all the way and I still get no parking brake. Any suggestions on getting this thing to work, I'm starting to get frustrated.

I need the parking brake to pass inspection and I need to pass inspection to get my car registered and on the road. Thanks to the help of soaring and others, I have my title situation figured out, but now I need to pass safety inspection!!!

 

Are all the cables connected?

 

All the cables are connected.

I can get more tension in the cables, just not enough to operate the brakes.

I'm thinking I might just have to engineer a solution, but I really don't understand what I am missing.I guess is it possible if over 40 years the cables have stretched.

 

Just out of curiousity, Is it a problem if my car doesn't have the parking brake link that goes between the two shoes.

 

I will assume that you have adjusted the nuts on the adjusting rod as far forward as they will go, is it possible that there might be more threads that are covered with gunk? I was surprised to see just hor far the threads go up the rod once it was cleaned off. Perhaps you could thread the rod a little further up using a die... a little bit goes a long way when taking slack out of the cable.

Also, it may be possible to shorten the cable that goes from the brake handle to the mechanisim at the rear of the trany by cutting a slot in some nuts and putting them in front of the little ball on the end of the cable..

If I remember correctly, there are two holes in the "cross bar" at the end of the tranny, if you have the rear cables hooked to the wrong hole, the travel may not be right.

If everything above fails, then it looks as if you may need to come up with a means of safely shortening the rear cables, (or replacing them). I will give this some thought, by shortening I mean make the shorter without cutting..... think,,,, hmmm. clamps??? still thinking...

 

I will have to admit to not knowing what the parking brake link is, but if you are talking about the spreader bar, this will cause issues with the parking brake and your service brakes....

 

It is simply the bar that goes between the shoes and has a spring on the side pointing towards the front of the car.

 

You do need the bar for the brakes to function properly,,, I do call this the spreader bar..... This bar holds the shoes in the right relationship to one another, and helps to keep them Perpendicular to the backing plate, and therefore square with the drum.

The bar is an integral part of the brake system that alsohelpsboth shoes to pivot toward the front of the car as a unit when the brakes are applied. This pivoting allows drum brakes to be "self energizing", this pivoting uses the forward momentum of the vehicle to help engage the shoes against the drum. So in other words, this bar should fix your parking brake situation, and further improve the effectiveness of your service brakes as well.

For clarity, I am discussing the bar that spans the gap from one shoe to the other and has two prongs on each end that fit around the central "rib" of each shoe, with a spring on one or sometimes both ends that pushes the bar away from the shoe. I think we are on the same page....

 

I have the same problem. I tightened the nut as far as possible, and BARELY have enough brake to hold the car on flat ground[:@] I think maybe what you said about the cables just being old and stretched may be true.

 

i think i have the best answer and will get it fix......take it to a shop and let them do it