39 Ford Project

[Custer55]

/\ And to me too! That rear license plate mount looks great (details, details, and execution)!

Thanks,
Time consuming details for sure.

[Custer55]

For my next project I decided to set up the parking / e-brakes. I had purchased a universal parking brake kit from Amazon several weeks ago which is similar to the Lokar and Wilwood kits that are available for between $145. and $175. from Summit and Speedway among others. I got this kit for $26. from Amazon and it has the same part number as the Wiwood kit and comes with all the same parts so it is either a Chinese copy of the Wilwood kit or possibly made in the same place. Either way it will work just fine for a lot less money. I didn't get any pictures of the back half of the system but it is a pretty straight forward set up. The outer cable bolts into the backing plate in the original holes and the inner cable hooks into the original parking brake lever with the original spring so it all functions as it originally did. This kit will also work with rear disk brakes as I used a similar kit on my 55 Chevy with the Corvette rear disc brakes. The holes in the backing plates of the 67 Mustang rear were bigger than the cable housing ends but it was an easy fix to just use washers on either side of the backing plate where the cable housing bolted in. From there you just route the cables to a common location on the frame or floorboard to a supplied bracket where everything will connect to a single cable from the original parking brake lever under the dash.

Next I needed to figure out how to connect the parking brake lever under the dash to the new rear cables. The kit comes with a cable union block that combines the two rear cables to be pulled by a single front cable so it would be possible to use the original cable (above) but mine was in pretty bad shape. The clevis on the left is the original and in good shape and connects to the original cable via a 5/16 fine thread stud. I couldn't find any universal cables with the studs although there is a company in CA that would custom make cables like that and repros of my original are made for about $65. or so plus shipping. Not too bad but then it dawned on me the cheapest option would be to just by another universal kit for the $26. and just use one of the cables to replace the rusted up original.

The only downside of the universal style cable is that it wouldn't have the 5/16 - 24 studs on the ends but they do have a stop on the end that connects to the drum or disc brakes so the plan was to just feed the inner cable through the original under dash clevis. To not have so much sloppiness in that connections i drilled a hole in a 5/16" bolt the same size as the cable connectors from the kit. My mini lathe worked nice for this as the hole came out very nicely centered in the bolt that way.

Then I installed the bolt into the clevis with locktite and filed a bit of a saddle in the bolt for the cable end to sit in.

Here it is with the cable in the clevis. Once everything is connected with a bit of tension it should work fine.

Like the backing plates the mount hole for the parking brake lever cable under the dash was bigger than the end of the cable housing so I made a couple of bushings on the lathe so it will all fit nice and tight when it's bolted in.

In the background of this picture is the instructions from the Lokar kit I used about 10 years or so ago on my 55 Chevy. The cable end for a single cable is still available but Amazon didn't have it and it would have been $35. to $40. with tax and shipping so I just made my own from some 3/4" rod, the lathe was pretty handy for making this as well. The cable union block with the 4 set screws came with the kit.

Here is everything I need to hook all the cables together. I basically made a bolt out of 5/16" stainless threaded rod by welding a nut on one end for the adjuster rod. I also drilled out the threads in the cable union block so it can just slide up and down the threaded rod and be held in place with the jam nuts. This was kind of a flaw with the set up that Lokar sells as there would be no way to adjust the tension without removing the cables from the block if the block was threaded on the adjuster rod. This wouldn't be an issue if using the clevis and rod that comes with the kit but that wasn't a good option in this case.

Here it is all connected up and adjusted under the car. It seems to work good but I won't know for sure if it needs more adjustment until I am able to drive the car some. The cables from the rear are supposed to be cut off just past the union block but I just bent them back over and put shrink tubes on the ends to keep them from fraying. As you can see the bracket for the front cable has an extra unused hole as it is the same as the rear bracket. I just mounted it a bit lower on the frame so it is centered between the two rear cables.

Here is all the leftover parts from the 2 cable kits, so I could just buy one more kit to have enough parts to set up another complete system for another project. Not too bad for only spending about $60. or so. So on to the next project one of which will be to make up a list of parts I still need as Jefferson Car show and swap meet is this coming Friday and Saturday. Always a sure sign of nicer weather being around the corner up here in Wisconsin!!
Brian

[Belair-o]

Really nice work on adapting what you had to make all the parts work together! Thanks for the continued progress updates and pics! Great food for thought!

[Custer55]

Really nice work on adapting what you had to make all the parts work together! Thanks for the continued progress updates and pics! Great food for thought!

Thanks!