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Making a mechanical ebrake work, what are your ideas?

Lil'John

Former #278
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For reasons, I want a mechanical ebrake. Start a line lock tech thread if that is your solution as I will ignore those comments.

I've got two stock setups mated that don't engage enough to stop the wheels; FJ55 and 2000 E350 van. Here is the cables mated:
cables.jpg

Left side is FJ55 cable fully pulled. There is zero adjustment there. To the right is the E350 cables. I might be able to push bracket further to the right to get less slop.

At the axle, I have the following:
axle.jpg

I have never seen a 2000ish E350 van ebrake engaged so I don't know how it should look fully engaged vs "correctly adjusted" unengaged.

All parts aside from the brackets is stock. The left bracket is a temp bracket while I figure out how to set it up. Is there a lever I could do between the cables for better "leverage"? Is there a bolt style adjuster I can use to push either of my bullshit brackets outbound?
 
My guess is either the bracket with the big bolt through it rotated a little when you pulled the lever. Or that the shoes aren’t properly adjusted.
 
What Transfer Case ?
It is the Land Cruiser split case(ie FJ60 or FJ62). It doesn't have a US parking brake available. But it does have a non-US version with an 'unobtainium' tailhousing for a drum brake that is ~$1k to get; however, that style is 'junk' and has issues with shearing bolts off:
tcaseBuild1_sml.jpg

The above is an example of one that I had briefly. At the time I bought it, my source had maybe 6 NOS tailhousings left(~2 years ago):homer:

There is also the TSM disk ebrake but it has questionable holding power according to Mud.

My guess is either the bracket with the big bolt through it rotated a little when you pulled the lever. Or that the shoes aren’t properly adjusted.
I hope the bracket with the big bolt isn't rotating. It is 3/4" bolt that I was hanging off an end wrench to tighten up:shaking:

Shortly after making this post, I started looking around at the adjusters and it is hopefully looking like that may be my issue:homer:
 
As said above have you checked shoe adjustment? Every used fullsize I've bought with shoe in hat parking brakes was way out of adjustment and didn't or barely worked. 2000 E350 was 100% a work van so I'm sure it's smoked.
 
Panzer is/was having problems with the same brake just barely not holding his 20k service truck on the steepest incline in his pit.

Adjust the brakes properly and it'll be fine.
 
Waterhorse had a setup that I thought was perfect for a linear actuator to push a bell crank to pull cables.
Seemed really simple to prototype and have a very strong actuation force fully selectable using die springs on the cable connection points.

But either way you need a ball crank arm to increase force and or lessen/increase travel depending on whats wrong.

Have you adjusted the shoes in the van axle?
 
Panzer is/was having problems with the same brake just barely not holding his 20k service truck on the steepest incline in his pit.

Adjust the brakes properly and it'll be fine.
Yeah stupid parking brakes. I just put new shoes in every year and keep up adjusting them. Still haven’t found decent solution yet. Jesse was making a kit to put another mechanical brake on the transfer case but all the patterns go destroyed in the fire.

I put some stupid line locks in just to make sure we don’t get any more msha fines. Didn’t want to have this become a pattern of violations.
 
Yeah stupid parking brakes. I just put new shoes in every year and keep up adjusting them. Still haven’t found decent solution yet. Jesse was making a kit to put another mechanical brake on the transfer case but all the patterns go destroyed in the fire.

I put some stupid line locks in just to make sure we don’t get any more msha fines. Didn’t want to have this become a pattern of violations.
If you can't track down a drive shaft brake you should try hooking the park brake mechanism to a drift brake master cylinder and just using that to apply the calipers and let the ratcheting mechanism do the locking. Sure it's not a separate system but stupid rule -> stupid solution.
 
If you can't track down a drive shaft brake you should try hooking the park brake mechanism to a drift brake master cylinder and just using that to apply the calipers and let the ratcheting mechanism do the locking. Sure it's not a separate system but stupid rule -> stupid solution.
Yeah that was another option the pass through master cylinder hand brake deal. Just more work with that thing:lmao:.
 
Is there a lever I could do between the cables for better "leverage"? Is there a bolt style adjuster I can use to push either of my bullshit brackets outbound?

Dodge 1/2-tons used a pivot bar of sorts. One end pivots on the frame; the cables are attached at different points to affect the pull ratio. In your case, I assume you'd want the E350 (wheel) cable at the far end (greatest motion) and the FJ55 cable somewhere around the middle. A return spring sometimes helps too.
 
I'm working on an electric caliper solution using F-150 rear calipers. It may not be exactly what you wanted, but electric e-brake calipers are getting it done these days. It's become the standard for half ton trucks.

Much better than a line-lock
 
I've tinkered with the adjusters on one wheel to the point that it is difficult to move the wheel even with the "leverage" afforded by a 35" tire. When pulling the handle out and the tire off the ground, it won't bog the engine at all. This tells me there is an at axle adjustment I need to screw with but also I don't have enough "pull length" provided by the FJ55 pull handle.

Dodge 1/2-tons used a pivot bar of sorts. One end pivots on the frame; the cables are attached at different points to affect the pull ratio. In your case, I assume you'd want the E350 (wheel) cable at the far end (greatest motion) and the FJ55 cable somewhere around the middle. A return spring sometimes helps too.
I'll have to look at this. The pivot bar almost sounds like what I'm looking for. If it exists, I'd rather buy existing than recreate the wheel.

I'm working on an electric caliper solution using F-150 rear calipers. It may not be exactly what you wanted, but electric e-brake calipers are getting it done these days. It's become the standard for half ton trucks.
I'm intrigued by this somewhat. Would you provide some more details about how it works?

Is this a "as long as there is power to the caliper, it holds" type solution? Or is it a toggle that requires no power? If it is the rig has to have power to hold, I would call it a bit better than a line lock in that it doesn't rely upon the brake hydraulic system.

Also, is it a "on-off" application of the caliper? Or is the caliper gradually applied? If it is the first, it sounds like a good parking solution but might be a bit sketchy as a "I lost my brakes" solution(ie, lock up the wheels and pray not to spin)
 
I've tinkered with the adjusters on one wheel to the point that it is difficult to move the wheel even with the "leverage" afforded by a 35" tire. When pulling the handle out and the tire off the ground, it won't bog the engine at all. This tells me there is an at axle adjustment I need to screw with but also I don't have enough "pull length" provided by the FJ55 pull handle.


I'll have to look at this. The pivot bar almost sounds like what I'm looking for. If it exists, I'd rather buy existing than recreate the wheel.


I'm intrigued by this somewhat. Would you provide some more details about how it works?

Is this a "as long as there is power to the caliper, it holds" type solution? Or is it a toggle that requires no power? If it is the rig has to have power to hold, I would call it a bit better than a line lock in that it doesn't rely upon the brake hydraulic system.

Also, is it a "on-off" application of the caliper? Or is the caliper gradually applied? If it is the first, it sounds like a good parking solution but might be a bit sketchy as a "I lost my brakes" solution(ie, lock up the wheels and pray not to spin)

This requires no power to hold. The same as a modern car. It requires power to actuate - as it's effectively a jack screw.

The controller is made by Pantera Electronics - I'm sending the owner some F-150 calipers to do a calibration on the controller. My research shows that Ford uses the same brake module on Focus, Explorer and Escape (different calipers but same drive for e-brake) so there is some variety in caliper bore and rotor thickness.

It's way better than a line-lock - better for your hydraulics, easier to install and far more resilient to failure.
 
I've tinkered with the adjusters on one wheel to the point that it is difficult to move the wheel even with the "leverage" afforded by a 35" tire. When pulling the handle out and the tire off the ground, it won't bog the engine at all. This tells me there is an at axle adjustment I need to screw with but also I don't have enough "pull length" provided by the FJ55 pull handle.

You need to pull it apart and probably replace the shoes. They are more than likely delaminated or so covered in rust they don’t grab. Give everything a good cleaning and shoes and it should work fine for you little vehicle.
 
You need to pull it apart and probably replace the shoes. They are more than likely delaminated or so covered in rust they don’t grab. Give everything a good cleaning and shoes and it should work fine for you little vehicle.
There is a very good chance this is the issue. I haven't tried dicking around with the ebrake stuff in probably 10 years with new rotors and ebrake shoes:homer: I just got a bug up my ass to finally finish that part of the rig up:shaking::emb: But to be honest, I don't recall seeing any rust in the hat when I pulled the rotor. I'll check pass side when I pull today.
 
Lil'John it's #13 or 17 at this link. Not much to it. I'd take a pic if I weren't away at work.


I'm quite sure dodge uses it the opposite way; to multiply force rather than travel on the 11" drum. 12" drum doesn't use it. Can't see why it couldn't work the other way too.
 
You could use a wilwood electric caliper or a tesla one.

Only requires a momentary switch.
 
I know the FJ40 e-brake handle just doesn't pull the cable far enough. Maybe play with the linkage in the handle so it pulls more distance? I know a FJ60 handle pulls further, but its a floor mount and might not fit under your trans tunnel.

What about a linear actuator to pull the factory cable further than what your handle pulls?
 
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