P20 Parking Brake Operational Again

[medium_jon]

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?

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2017 by medium_jon
because I can

[Andydodge]

Good to have a working handbrake..........regarding the driveshaft boots, the originals were leather that were "sewn" around the ball & trunion assembly, and turn up on ebay & part suppliers and their are rubber replacement boots that are similar to rack & pinion boots...........personally I'd be looking for the sliding yoke setup that was used on various mopars that has a normal "spicer" style universal joint, the original driveshaft with the ball & trunion attaches to the handbrake drum and rear axle via 4 bolts on a flange, the "spicer" style setup uses the same basic 4 bolt flange with the sliding yoke normally towards the front..........for me the benefit of the spicer uni joint is that it doesn't have a leather or rubber boot that tears itself apart loosing grease everywhere and that the spicer style uni joints are much easier to obtain and replace...........but yeh they may not be exactly original to your car but are much more civilised to live with......lol..........andyd 

[medium_jon]

2 hours ago, Andydodge said:

personally I'd be looking for the sliding yoke setup that was used on various mopars that has a normal "spicer" style universal joint, the original driveshaft with the ball & trunion attaches to the handbrake drum and rear axle via 4 bolts on a flange, the "spicer" style setup uses the same basic 4 bolt flange with the sliding yoke normally towards the front.

That sounds perfect. I'm only concerned with outward appearance. Nobody I've met thus far even knows what year my car is let alone have they crawled under and complained that I don't have the leather boots. Hah   We bought it to drive and that sounds reliable. Thanks @Andydodge

[medium_jon]

After driving with the parking brake engaged more times than I care to recall, I finally wired up a buzzer. 

I started with a NOS parking brake switch that I bought on eBay several months ago. Mine came, if I recall correctly, with just the switch and a red lens for a hole in the dash. I couldn't figure out it actually mounted before I bought it, so here is what it looks like mounted. 

I bought an inexpensive (< $7) beeper from Amazon.com: uxcell DC 3-24V 12mA Industrial Discontinuous Sound Electronic Buzzer  http://a.co/a8CAAH7 

And added some connectors to the ends of the wires. That is more Chinese than I've seen in my car.

On the plus side, I'm switching to 12 volt in the coming year and this beeper can handle it. Heck, it will beep attached to a single AAA battery, just not very loud. 

Then grabbed a piece of galvanized tin from the scrap pile (didn't even need to trim it). Drilled a large hole for the bolt in the car and a couple of small ones to hold the buzzer and ground wire. Put a 45º bend in the tin. Coated the connectors with Deoxit and mounted it:

The power lead is going to a connection on the back of the ignition switch that has power when the key is in the run position. From the back, this is the left side of this next photo:

Hopefully, this helps someone else. And hopefully, I no longer drive with the parking brake still engaged. 

 

Edited August 7, 2017 by medium_jon
clarification

[knuckleharley]

Nice!