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Hello, After driving around my 1954 plymouth with a powerflite trans for abit i noticed my hand brake dragging. so I took it apart. It turns out the previous owner never bolted the brake drum hub down to the trans output shaft!! He just put the u joints on. Im looking st doing a full rebuild. i found pads and springs. What aboyt the flange nuts ?? thanks

I got to spend 4 July working on my Plymouth. The task at hand was completing the Parking Brake repair on the P20. When I bought the car it was only barely functional. The brake lining was worn very thin, the cable was at maximum tightness, the return spring was missing, the cable under the dash was badly bent from no return spring, etc. I ordered a new cable (I don't remember from where) but it turned out to be 5" short, so I had to extend it with a threaded rod and coupling nut. No pictures of it yet. I also ordered a remanufactured parking brake band assembly with a fresh lining. That seems to have a slight bend in it that doesn't quite match my drum. I'll have to watch it. But my release springs were rather smushed and crooked. Was this from being over tightened? The picture below has them on the adjusting bolt in the wrong order... I couldn't find replacements of the lower one and the upper (longer one) that I found was $13 (without shipping) so I decided to make my own. I found some springs with similar wire size and coil diameter at a good True Value hardware store in town. I measured the length of my existing smushed springs, added 10% and 1/2 coil and then cut with a Dremel tool. Held the cut coil with pliers and heated with my torch. Finished with this: Installed they looked like this: My car didn't have the hand brake lever return spring, and thus caused some of the problems with the cable. I had asked here on the forum where it attached to the car. I got the impression it didn't much matter so long as it was behind the parking brake mechanism. This bolt from a seatbelt was available. I had ordered some random springs several months ago, but they seemed ill-suited for this job. A different local hardware store had this spring (only one, no price, no UPC, no markings, not in their cash register system) and sold it to me for $3.50. It works great when I release the lever. I did the adjusting with the 0.020 feeler gauge, but I feel like I'll need to revisit this soon because the shoe doesn't fit the roundness of the drum perfectly. I tested it in the driveway and I can kill the engine with the parking brake. And I tested it on a substantial hill, and it will hold the car without it being in gear. Good enough for me -- not likely to do either thing in real life. I have the Mopar parking brake switch installed, but I haven't wired up the buzzer yet. Will do that soon. OFF TOPIC QUESTION: My drive shaft universal joint boots are ripped and the grease has been thrown out. What is involved to replace the boots?