Welcome Rory! Another Texan, eh? Whereabouts? According to the Texas DPS inspection criteria, parking brakes are not inspected on vehicles older than 1960. As you may know, there are 3 ways to register a vehicle in Texas: 1) antique 25 years old or greater; 2) classic; and 3) regular. If you register your vehicle as an antique, it is exempt from annual inspections. The other 2 require annual inspections.
Irregardless I hope you try to repair it as it's a _serious_ safety defect not to have a park brake ~ they go all the way back to the Model 'T' days.....
Texas inspection Nates, right, (always)--parking brakes especially on old trucks can save you some day!!!!! I had my truck inspected in Houston a few months ago. All they checked were lights, horn and windshield wipers. (They had me drive it into the garage)
Do they offer a non-original e-brake that can be installed original is long gone I placed a 58 Chevy 1/2 ton rearend into the truck and still have the E-brake attached to the axle.
Park Brake Firstly , you have to accept the concept that the secondary brake sysem on older vehicles if _NOT_ for ' emergecies ' ! it's to try and hold it from rolling away and getting into mischief as you're opening a gate or posting a letter ~ BT , DT , have the scars to prove it A buddy of mine almost died one time , in my car as I'd neglected to repair the parkbrake when I replaced the tranny... Opps ~ I'm ranting again and I apologize , back to your Park Brake problem : If you have a floor shift four speed tranny , you can easily install a tranny mounted drum typ Park Brake . If you have a Three On The Tree , you can re-connect the '58s park brake cables to the foot pedal's cross shaft , this will involve some higgery-jiggery with junkyard parts but will still work well . The rerally good news is : the brakes used on your '58 rear axle , were used up to 1967 and maybe longer , often you can use the linkages from other brands too... (farm fixing)
Here is how we do S10 frame swaps which keeps the AD emergency brake and connects to the open style rear end. The rod from the E-brake pedal is cut the right length and threaded to accept an equalizer which can come from most any donor vehicle. On this one the cable from the left backing plate is run through the equalizer and to a point it overlaps the cable from the right side by about 3". A 3" piece of 5/16 steel tubing is slid onto the overlapped joint and crimped with battery terminal crimping tool but I have run brass into the joint being careful not to burn the cable. Now it adjusts like any modern E-brake cable.
