Any help of tips on adjusting my parking brake. I believe I have adjusted the shoes till there is just the slightest drag on the drum. Attached a tie down to the Clovis pin to pull the brake cable tight and don't notice any braking action on the drum. What am I doing wrong?
Here's the procedure I used on my '47. Perhaps, that eccentric bolt needs to be adjusted? That should set the toggle lever and extension link in the correct positions.
Handy, Tried your suggestion. No luck. After playing with this thing for a couple of days on and off, i have come to the conclusion that the park cable itself is to long by about 2"! Now the question becomes how do I get it shorter.
Well, that's interesting..........as I had to have my cables custom made for the '47 because everything off the shelf was too short.
Are you certain each of the cable ends are secure? The backing plate end is pretty obvious and the clamp on the frame rail should be readily visible. Just be certain there isn't any movement on the cable housing.
If that all checks out, you might try a shorter clevis on the threaded end of the cable. They do come in different lengths; however, they might be difficult to find. You might be able to shorten the threaded end of the cable, but I'd measure twice and cut once if you do. That will affect your ability to adjust the cables, so give this some thought before you cut anything. Especially, if you need to return them.
If your cables are new, you might want to shop for some different cables........... Do you have the old cables that you can compare for length?
Post some pictures if you can. Hopefully, we can get this figured out.
Handy Andy or anyone else that can help. I have attached two pics (I hope they are attached). one is titled 'highlighted ebrake' and the other is titled 'hightighted ebrake cable'. Now for the story (bare with me). In the photo 'highlighted ebrake' you will see the brake drum with arrows #1 & #2. #1 is the ebrake lever and #2 is the point of contact that when the lever reaches that point the ebrake will engage. at this point the ebrake pedal is not depressed. The other photo titled 'hightighted ebrake cable' shows the position of the clovis at the point when the ebrake lever (shown in the previous photo) is engaged. As you can see that even when I use a short clovis the end of the clovis and the nuts on the threaded cable will not meet. Ideally there should be an inch or two for adjustment between the nuts and the clovis when the ebrake is engaged. I my case I could not attached upper clovis (the lower clovis is only there to illustrate the cable position when the ebrake is engaged) to the threaded rod as there is not enough threading. I come to the conclusion that the cable is too long! What am I doing wrong??
Do you have the front part of the cable anchored in the frame rail clamp? It's hard to tell from your first photo. It almost looks like the cable housing is in the clamp. Move that rubber weather protector out of the way so you can inspect the cable stay (metal end). I've attached a photo from an old cable that shows a machined groove that secures that end of the cable in the frame rail clamp. If there is a cable stay on the end, be sure it's in the clamp. The excess cable between the backing plate and frame rail clamp can be routed in such a way as to take up the extra length. Two inches is a significant amount to deal with; however, you have to be sure that end of the cable is secured in the clamp for the parking brake to properly engage.
Please post a photo of the cable with that rubber boot out of the way. I'd like to see what you're dealing with there.
That cable housing end is quite a bit different than what I've seen on AD trucks and had made for mine. Here's a photo of the the passenger side on my '47. I've also included a shot of my new cables prior to installation. They were made by Madison Power Systems.
I looked at several parking brake cables from a number of vendors and it appears that all of them have the short metal cable housing end. Perhaps, you can put the metal cable housing end in the clamp on your frame rail and obtain some threaded cable adjustment? Just a thought...........
I'll send you a PM with my phone number, feel free to give me a shout!
It looks a bit like the cable sleeve can be moved back in the clamp . Maybe enough to run the clevis down to the bottom of the threads , . Cut the excess length off the threaded end to fit .
Also it looks like the thread could be cut down a little further on the rod giving some adjustment leeway.
