Emergency Brake handle... where did you put it?

Tried to search "e-brake" and "e brake", but you guys know how the search works here. "Emergency Brake" brought up non-related items. SOOO... I'll post a question on the subject.

Where did you folks put your E-brake pull/handle in your car?? I'm shovin' 10 pounds of crap in a 1 pound bag already. Model A's don't have a lot of room and even less when you shove a Hemi with a 6-speed in there and channel it. I could use some ideas on e-brake handle placement. Was thinking about squeezing it in on the trans tunnel, just in front of the shifter and to one side. Thought about the drive shaft tunnel as well, but didn't really like the idea of puting it that close to a rotating drive shaft and won't have a lot of room in that department anyway.

Would like to see what some of you have done.

If there is a thread on this already, point me to it please. Just couldn't find what I was looking for.

Thanks!
Scooter

 

on my car I mounted it right on the passenger side of the transmission (a 39 toploader) but I have LOTS more room than you do in my 32. there is also the later under dash units that you could hook up.

 

Mine is under the dash, by the drivers kick panel in a Model A.

 

got a pic of how its mounted??

 

'62-'66 (and maybe past?) Chevy and GMC pickups had a pull handle mechanism mounted horizontally under the dasy, just under the steering column. Ratcheting mechanism was on a bracket, the release is built into the handle.

Might not seem really elegant, especially with how much attention street rod guys pay to column drops and such, but it would get it up out of the way and take advantage of an unused space.
-Brad

 

I'm there with ya, Rat. Not a ton of floor space in the '33 pickup. Between seats is outta the question, 4-speed pattern takes up space. There is not a lot of room on the passenger side, already. I', love to see where you guys are putting them. My 'parking-brick', get's used in the meantime.

 

Mounting under the dash is slick, but probably not going to be possible with all the other crap that will be under their... Schroeder box, custom swinging pedals, etc. However... maybe an under dash pull type system mounted SOMEWHERE ELSE would be a possibility... hmmm... You've got me thinking.

 

Get a lever from a 40's ford for dirt cheap and mount it under the dash. Lokar makes an adaptor cable if needed. It's cheap, Works great, looks right, and is outta the way too.

 

What kind of seat do you have? That under-dash unit might fit between the driver's door and the seat, or, I've noticed that in front of the seat, between the seat and the foot well area, is never used for anything.
I first saw this when I was looking at some Targa Newfoundland racers, and a lot of them mounted a decent sized fire extinguisher on the floor, in front of the passenger seat. The passenger's legs go right over it, never touching it (or even coming close, really).
It's a fantastic spot to mount stuff. Once I get the final seats in my '62 Suburban, I'll mount an extinguisher there. Or a Malice Green Mag Light.
-Brad

 

I doubt you have the space, but just in case, I put one of the "floor mount" style ones (where the lever lays down flat) between the door sill and driver seat on my last car. I've also seen them turned 90° so they are right in front of the seat (and parallel to the front of the seat) on the driver side.

Might be a couple options.

The Lokar ones are pricey, but pretty small and easier to fit in places that junkyard levers don't fit.

Someone else told me of a deal they rigged so that when you park, just push the regular brake pedal down kinda hard and pull a cable-actuated knob to activate a lever or rod to lock the brake pedal in place. When you get back in the car to drive, just mash the brake pedal, and the lever/rod lets go (via a spring). Deal here is that you'll need to wire your brake light(s) so they only have power when the ignition's on.

 

The 42-48 Ford passenger parking brake handle assemblies are self-contained and fit well in 32-up Fords, probably work well in a Model A as well.

 

What about a t-handle style mounted somewhere else? Does Lokar or someone make a t-handle unit? Thought about the small Lokar lever style mounted in front of the seat at 90* also. I've used those before and I like them. A little pricey indeed, but nice and compact. This will also act as a parking break so it will have to be in a reasonable place.

There will be ZERO room between door and seat. Seats will have to be custom as is to make everything fit.

 

Pre 48 Chey and Mopar take up less room for a under the dash mount than a Ford unit. Not bad when the pedals are on the floor.

Haven't mounted a <48 Chevy one in my A, but it looks like it should work easy enough. Gas tank is in trunk, Pedals are under the floor, steering is transverse with the column exiting at the top of the toe kick, shift is column.

 

In my channeled '32 ford pickup I'm working on now, I fit the e-brake on the passenger side floor right along side the transmission tunnel. It's the kind of handle that lies flat when it's released. It's better than having it stick up in the air hitting the passenger in the knee. I sit pretty low in that truck, so it's easy to reach.

I made the floor and hump out of 16 gauge steel, so it's pretty solid. You just need to make an oval shaped hole and drill four ~5/16" holes. The mechanism is under the floor.

 

Do chicks dig this arrangement? "Excuse me... I need to grab... emm... the brake."

Actually, I like that arrangement. I would like to keep it fairly central in the car and close to the shifter if possible. Just to keep controls within an easy reach. Still would ultimately like to have it between the seats, but I think it's just going to interfere with what's going on undernieth.

 

If you want it over closer to the shifter, maybe you could add sort of a raised box section on your hump that would give you a flat spot to bolt the e-brake handle down to, and raise it up higher and closer to the center to be easier to reach. It's definitely better having the kind of ebrake handle that lies flat though. The ones that stick up in the air poke the passenger in the knee all the time. You just need to make sure that the lower end of the mechanism aims straight back to an open area so you'll be able to rout the cables without a crossmember or something in the way too close to the bellcrank of the ebrake handle.

 

Yep! I agree. Actually rethinking this and maybe I actually WILL be able to put it between the seats. My tunnel will be about 4 or 5 inches wide and if I made it just a shade taller than I wouldn't have to get my whole hand down between the seats to grab a lay down type. I only need about 3 or 3-1/2 inches, 4 max, to firmly grab the e-brake handle. Just might be able to make it happen... hmmm...

 

Early Mustangs also had a under dash pull out handle.

 

Hey, what about Tri-5 Chevy's...Pull-out handle mounted to the bottom of the dash to the left of the steering wheel. A bracket mounts to the dash, a mast/tube runs to the toe board. Pull it out to set the brake, twist the T-handle and push it in to release.

-Brad

 

Let's think a bit on what the driver does and what the passenger does on a trip in a small - roadster type - car.

The driver is pretty much in one place and the right foot doesn't need a whole lotta room cuz it's operating the loud pedal.
Once he's in, he's in.
Sorta like putting on an airplane as it may.

Your passenger - beautiful and shapely I would guess - has a different situation.
She can navigate, watch the landmarks and take in the scenery as it slides it's windy way past.
She needs all the room she can get.
Doesn't have to do with size, has to do with the somewhat static situation she's in while traveling.
Make all the room you can for your passenger since she'll have to change positions more than you will.
And if she's driving and you're the passenger you'll appreciate the extra room.
She's gonna be busy anyway cuz everytime she mashes the throttle the damn car goes sideways in second gear.

To that end, put the extra stuff on the driver's side.
Make sure you're comfortable and things are reach-able as well as being ergonomically sound as far as comfort etc. are involved.

I suggest putting the ignition key on the left side as well.
Or at least out of easy reach of the passenger.
Never had a girl try to shut the engine off when accellerating hard, but a few guys tried it.
Best one was when the guy engaged the starter at about 5000 - 6000 rpm on a Rocket motor.
Didn't hurt anything, but it made a fearsome racket.

You'll note in the pic below, the E-brake on my 32 is on the drivers side just behind my size 10 shoe - and my 6'7" pal who probably wears a 13 didn't have any interference problems with the E-brake when he drove the 32.

Only real problem with the E-brake where it is in my 32 is that sometimes its hard to release when I have the creakies . . . which seem to come on more often nowadays.
Engaging the E-brake is easy.
Release is easier if you get a foot on the brake pedal, release the E-brake then strap yourself in.
The stoplights which are lit for a bit indicate to most that you're about to hit the fire-it-up-button.

You can gain points when you're building the car by dragging Sweetie out to the garage, having her sit in the seat and then show how the E-brake would be if it was on her side and how it would be if it was on your side.
Assuming you're gonna be the main driver on this too-much-horsepower-for-any-sensible-person little car.

She will like the fact you're thinking about her and we pretty much know what her choice will be when you explain it all to her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Along those same lines, the E-brake in the 32 is a Gennie Shifter.
I like it, but thought I would adapt a junkyard E-brake to the 31 on 32 rails car.

So . . . sometimes me and my pal give parts back and forth.
As noted elsewhere, not about cost or getting even, simply about need.

The Yuppie types may call it networking, but all it is, is Chuck's here and he brought cold beer.

Took a few cold ones up the hill myself.

Anyway, he swapped his no-got-no-E-brake 29 roadster mit fenders for a good looking 46 Ford sedan.
He'd had a Gennie Shifter E-brake and cable setup up on the big shelf - 8' x 30' - for a while.
He brought it down and gave it to me for the 31.

A nice gesture indeed.

Anyway, I have a slightly different idea for mounting it.
Keeping in mind that I want Sweetie to be comfortable and have a good time in the 31 once it's up and running I'm going to put the E-brake handle on my side once again, but this time around it gets mounted transversely on the floorboard, just in front of the seat with the release button to the left.
Since it's sitting on a 'hat' type channel that's part of a floor support it will be well braced and the cables will leave the E-brake mechanism heading right, cross over the trans and hang a right toward the rear end.
The left side E-brake will require one cable to cross back over the driveshaft, but it will be in an area where the driveshaft is well contained by an NHRA/SCTA mandated driveshaft loop.

I expect the E-brake handle in the 31 to be very easy to operate when it's place where noted.


Make a point as well to set up a couple of door pockets and dedicate one to Sweetie for her stuff.
I did that, got points and she never uses it.
Which means, in the end I got em both and earned those ever elusive 'husband points.'

Roadster runnin' be easy if you pay attention right up front....

 

How about a line lock? It's a valve that gets installed in the brake line - sometimes intended for the front wheels on drag racers, but probably suitable for a parking brake. Maybe not an emergency brake, since it's not using separate cables, but fine for parking on a hill. Not all of the solenoid versions are suitable for leaving on for an extended time, as a parking brake would be. I think Hurst in particular makes this disclaimer.

Here's an electric one

Here's a hydraulic one

Andrew

 

C9... GREAT READ! LOL!! I enjoyed that! You're lucky... you have a roadster. You can operate the ejection seat when "sweetie" gets mouthy! BWAAAHAA!! Seriously though. I thought about mounting mine like you did yours, but up just a bit.

That's pretty interesting. That would certainly take a whole lot less room. Doesn't really help if you have a brake line issue or something though.

Anyone have any experience with line locks like Andrew mentioned??

 

Here's the view for now...



The tunnel will conform to the T56 as much as possible, there will be a schroeder box above my toes and the hanging pedals and masters will take up the rest. I actually really like the idea of the Tri-five t-handle parking brake or something simple. I'm going to have a BUNCH of stuff over on my side unde the dash already and may even have to mount the master cylinders at 90-degrees under the passenger dash and run remote links to the pedals if the schroeder box interferes. Just not sure I want to add anything else to the dash.

Going to be working on the floor more in a few weeks. Going to be keeping all these things in mind when doing so...

 

The ejection seat is hard on the cloth top....

With a dual chamber M/C I shouldn't have to use the E-brake, but if I did the handle is reachable, just not the most convenient place for one.

I had a line-lock style parking brake on my short bed half ton 63 Chevy pickup - 327, Corvette 4-speed, 4.11's etc.
It locked all four wheels due to the single chamber M/C.

I installed it because I was towing a 32' sailboat at the time and launching it by myself now and then on a fairly steep launch ramp.
That due to a couple of almost always late running 'friends.'
They got over that when I left them at the dock when the salmon were running just up the coast a couple miles.

"Hey man, you didn't answer your phone - in the days before cells - and I didn't know if you were coming or not."
(One of them always made it late cuz he hated the assembly - mast up etc. - and launching bit, but he did love to fish.)

Anyway, the hydraulic parking setups are intended for temporary use and not to be used as an emergency brake.
I'd seen a Chevy pickup like mine, E-brake on, in low, start rolling backwards down a moderately steep dirt road with no one at the wheel.
The owner was lucky, the truck rear bumper hit a big rock so it didn't go off the road and down the almost-a-cliff about 200' to the bottom of the canyon.

Anyway, one day I got the boat launched and found I couldn't release the hydraulic lock.
Due to probably too much foot pressure on the brake pedal when I set it.

Had to get Sweetie to sit in the truck just in case and I popped a front bleeder screw open momentarily.
That did the trick, but after that I didn't set the brakes any harder than necessary.

I'm pretty sure California's vehicle code doesn't allow the hydraulic system to double as an E-brake.
Other states are probably similar.

A mechanical E-brake isn't all that hard to set up anyway.
Gennie - and probably Lokar - have nice cables.
Expensive, but they make life easy and it looks to me like they'd be adaptable to a lot of different makes of junkyard E-brake handles.

Tough part about finding the right candidate for an E-brake handle is that most of them have the whole locking system etc. sitting above the floor.

Far as economical cables go, original style cables with fairleads if required would do it.
The cables are not difficult to shorten.
Several good ways to do it.

Another - maybe - way out could be to take a look at the heavy duty Harley clutch etc. cables.
I think you can buy them in bulk.
Only other thing you'd need is the little bushing at the end that fit's into the brake drum E-brake operating lever.

Take a look at the pic of my 31's trunk latch release cable.
(It gets covered by sheet metal later on.)

It has a 1/4-28 threaded piece of stainless bolt that's had the head sawn off and drilled a few .001's over 1/8".
A few places roughed up on the wire, the small drilled hole is rough enough inside and once cleaned with lacquer thinner or other non-petroleum based product a little JB Weld holds the whole thing together.
Note the 1/4" female Heim end.

Makes for a nice way to terminate a solid cable and if you tinned the end of a stranded cable & cleaned it well it would also work well with the same headless bolt setup and JB Weld.

I've also made these threaded cable adapters and threaded them transversely with one or two threaded holes in 8-32 for a setscrew or two and never had a problem there.

If you don't want to screw around with a threaded end piece on the cable a drilled block like Gennie Shifter uses where the cables pass through and are retained by a single set screw works fine.

2nd pic shows a different angle view of the E-brake handle.
As you can tell from the carpet dirt pattern it does'nt confilct with your foot.

Your proect is looking good.
Didn't see the pic yesterday.

An under the dash edge T-handle may be the way to go.

You may want to take a look at a foot operated E-brake.
The one in my old Ranger looked like a good candidate for a hot rod.

Trouble with either the T-handle or foot E-brake is the cable has to go forward in many cases, without too sharp of a curve and there could be a conflict with the firewall.
You could probably get either style cable to exit the toeboard and that would't be too visible from the outside.

Some of the foot operated E-brakes - and maybe a lot of them - have the cable go straight down so that could be a good answer as well.

Don't be afraid to mount the foot E-brake a little higher than stock so your foot has a little room.

Another place where you'll lose foot room is with the front side panel upholstery.
I thought I was in Fat City with my 32, but didn't realize I had my left foot against the body's inside surface.
Running the upholstery panel straight across there took quite a bit of room away.

Knowing that - experience is such a great teacher - I plan to make a stepped upholstery panel on the 31 so as to retain as much room as possible.

Ain't building cars fun?

And all this time I thought you had to go to college to be an automotive engineer....

 

C9...

Here's the one I'm running in my other car above the drive shaft:
http://www.gennieshifter.com/images/loline.gif

Looks like the same one you have. I'm thinkin' I will run this again. I used the Lokar cables last time and cut them to length. I'm thinkin' seriously about just trying to make it work on the tunnel between the seats and as far back as possible. Maybe put a guard on the bottom side to protect the cables and junction in the even (god forbid) that the drive shaft would get away or something would find it's way up in there. This would also keep any extra stuff off the dash and use up vacant space on the tunnel that would otherwise probably not get used.

Building cars if fun... designing your own AND building it is even MORE fun! You get to start with a clean slate and figure out all the things that you like, need and want in the car and then do it the best you know how. Bitchin' for sure!

 

Same E-brake I have, it works great.
14 years and 47,000 miles down the road with no problems.
Only problem was when I got the first one.
If I remember right I had to file something a little bit so it would operate properly.
Just run it through it's paces off the car and make sure it engages and releases ok prior to the install.

A piece of tubing would make for a good E-brake cable guard in the trans tunnel.
I'd use .090 wall tube or a little heavier.
Driveshafts have a way of tearing up stuff when they come out so install and brace accordingly.

As shown when my 335" Rocket powered 50 Ford coupe tossed it's driveshaft on the 1st - 2nd shift one bright and sunny day.

Bent the Cad-Lasalle tailshaft, broke the tailshaft housing, broke U-joints at both ends, made a helluva noise.

Slicks and home-made traction bars on the street contributed to the problem as well as my willingness to shift when the engine hit six grand....

I was lucky when a local circle burner/stock car racer (50 Olds coupe) let me go through his stash of Caddy trans parts and take what was needed for repairs.

The Caddy trans stuff was getting scarce even then . . . 1963....

 

YEP! I have something along those lines in my head. I have just the tubing to make it happen also. I'm VERY excited to finish off the drive shaft loops, sub floor, and start making floor pans for this thing. It will REALLY start looking like something inside then. Some mock up seats will help me locate the brake lever. Needs to be just right and if I have to take extra time just to sit in it and stare, I will do that. I hate doing stuff twice...

 

Here's the one I have in my Model A, mounted to the side of the 39 3 speed. It's a 30/31 handle with a custom bracket that uses the stock Model A crosshaft to actuate the cable to the rear wheels.

 

Mines crossways just in front of the bench seat. '33 Chevy coupe with flat floor.

 

My car's stock location is left of me next to the door. Just enough room to squeeze my hand in there, usually I open the door to use it. But it is out of the way when driving.