Thanks for looking, I have a 1953 3100 series, it has the popular 235 engine swap. The motor is a 1960, the rear end is a 10 bolt open shaft design that is hopefully from the same donor truck. The parking brake is stock to the yoke. That's where my trouble starts!! What cables will fit to the yoke and go to the brakes, the old ones are cut. The drums and cylinders and pads are new but the whole parking brake mechanism has been removed inside the wheel. Does anyone have the spreaders and accuator hardware. Not sure what other hardware I need back there. How can I positively identify this rearend? I'm guessing this is a common problem because of this popular conversion. I got this from an estate sale so the previous owner is no longer available! Flashlight
I would say the first place to start is to positively identify exactly what rear you have so you can replace the missing parking brake actuators. Next, get in touch with some of the hot-rodders on here like "Ol Chebby". He will be able to steer you in the right direction regarding fabbing up a conversion for the parking brake. I seem to remember "Coilover" doing a post on this as he does lots of rods in his shop. Andy
Park Brake Cables Is it a 6 lug rear end ? I'm betting it's a Bendix brake setup and they used it up to the 1967 model year in 1/2 ton trucks so the cables & small parts should be easily available . Go to the old car manual project and look at the diagrams until you recognize the brakes on it now .
park brake cable As far as the cable from the crossbar to the rear end is concerned , Lokar makes a conversion cable. It has the stock end for the cross bar and the 10 bolt end for the emergency brake. It's about 100. for both cables, it sound like alot until you find that 10 bolt cables that you have to modify somehow are about 35. each.
Here is what Andy "chiro" is talking about as far as a post on this subject. The rod that runs from the foot pedal back to the tubular cross shaft is cut off and threaded for several inches. The banana shaped equalizer the cable to the backing plates runs through is installed onto the threaded rod along with double nuts to adjust the slack in the cable. I have a very large bolt cutter size crimping tool for putting on factory battery cable ends that I join the two cables together with but you can use a piece of steel tubing and after running the cable in from opposite ends braze the ends to join them together. This sounds muddy but the pics will show how easy it is and you keep your factory E-brake. There are numbers stamped onto the top of the axle tube, very faintly sometimes, that along with a Hollander will identify the rear end. Once you know what it is the better parts stores have a "Lazy Susan" rotating rack that has every conceivable piece of brake hardware. We have thrown away many of the six lug rears from people switching to five lug or looking for shallower gearing. I say this because there's a good chance you can find a discard cheap.
Thanks Evan, I have been focusing on the system too far back, while the answer may be up front. Steve
I was trying to find the Lokar website, I found a few outfits who sell their products. Is there a specific website for Lokar products or can you only buy through their vendors? I found one set of cables at the price you mentioned for a 50"s chevy but they were 96" I don't think I need much more then 40" cables. Do you happen to recall how those cables were listed with them? Hooking up a custom cable to the old clevis end and going into the backing plate with a proper connection for the 60's e-brake would just be too simple!! Thanks for your response....Flashlight
http://www.lokar.com/interior_pages/tc_kd.htm Lokar sells through dealers. That's why you see so many dealers on line. The Lokar link will display products but without prices. They let the dealers set the prices. Therefore check around for prices. If your 10 bolt rear is from a Camaro/Firebird mid 70s mid 80s you can bolt on 2000 Firebird discs with no trouble. They will have a emergency brake lever that you can hook up your cable to.
The Lokar part # is EC-8004U for the chevy truck 42-54 black housing, the EC8004HT is the same cable only with stainless braided housing. Hope this helps, sorry for the delay in answering, I been working on the truck and not on the computer. Jesse lokar.com
