The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline '51 4100 emergency brake lever and linkage question

I recently picked up a '51 4100 cab and chassis that I am going to restore. It's a 4-speed and it had a transmission-mounted e-brake lever originally. The lever is missing, along with it's associated parts. All that is there is the shaft that sticks out of the passenger's side of the top cover on the transmission where the lever mounted. It appears to have been held in place on the shaft by a snap ring. The linkage rod that ran from the other end of the lever back to the bellcrank on the frame behind the cab is still there. I can't find any pictures of what it should all look like when it's installed and complete. I'm trying to find one so I can figure out exactly what all is missing so I can try and find replacements. Any help is much appreciated.

Just to be clear - this truck's e-brakes are part of the rear drum brakes, not driveshaft-mounted. I'm not sure what year they switched to that style. I can find all kinds of pictures of the later model ones with the e-brake on the tailshaft of the trans, I just can't find any with the lever on the side of the trans that links to the rear axle drums.

I highly suspect your rear end has been replaced with a newer model.

Highly unlikely. The rear brake cables and all the fittings on the frame, including the bellcrank is all intact and appears factory-original. This truck only has 37,XXX miles on it. The reason the brake lever is missing is because the truck sat so long that the transmission became rusted stuck. Someone before me took the tunnel cover off in an effort to investigate the problem. They had to remove the e-brake lever during that process and it was lost, apparently.

A hand-lever actuated parking-brake using rear brakes was standard equipment in all size trucks 1947-1950.
- foot-pedal actuated in smaller models
- hand-pedal actuated in larger models

The propeller-shaft hand-brake parking brake was a regular production option RPO-348 on some larger trucks in those years.

From 1950-1955, 4000-6000 series trucks had the hand-lever actuated propeller-shaft parking brake as standard equipment.

It does not look like the prop-shaft was an option on other size trucks in any of those years?

If I get home from work before dark tomorrow I'll take some good pictures of what I have. I am almost certain this truck is original and un-molested - with the exception of the missing parts, obviously.

I was also surprised to discover it had e-brake provisions on the rear drums. I expected it to be mounted on the tailshaft of the transmission like most other big trucks of this vintage were. I have never seen one with this type of setup on it before.

Your truck looks like a 1950 to me...The 1950 trucks don't have vent windows, the 1951's do.

Check the body serial number to confirm the year. Fire departments are know for being slow in getting titles for their truck and it may have been first titled in 1951, but was built as a 1950 model.

Mike B

This truck has an odd serial number on it. It doesn't jive with any of the s/n conventions I can find. The number is:

3TJ-D 1170.

Now I do know the suffix on the big trucks didn't usually have the leading "00" like the lighter duty trucks had, but the prefix on this one is throwing me for a loop. It should be "UJ", not "TJ". It is definitely "3TJ" though. I didn't get a title with it and the license plate that's on it is from 1986. Not very likely that I can run it, although I haven't tried it yet.

You know Mike, you might be right. I guess it is a '50. I was looking at the breakdown for trucks lighter than 1.5 tons.

3 TJ D
http://www.1954advance-design.com/chev-specs/1950-Chevrolet-t-ser.pdf

3 = assembly plant St Louis, MO
TJ = 4100 (1950)
D = month = April

Here's a few pictures of the e-brake setup...

Here's the back of the trans.. Trans pic

Here's the cable going into the backing plate.. Backing plate pic

Here's a pic of the cable bracket/fitting on the rear frame near the front spring hanger.. Cable bracket

Here's a picture of the bellcrank, on the passenger's side you can see the connecting rod hanging down and pointing rearward - it just got folded back there when I loaded it on the trailer.. Bellcrank pic