[DeTomaso] Hand Brake

[Charles McCall]

Tom - be careful about pullìng too hard on the hand brake mechanism

A functioning hand brake is a requirement to pass the yearly safety
inspection here, and it is always a weak point on my car. I adjust it for
the test and inevitably bottom out on something which knocks it out of whack
for the next test. One year I was pulling harder and harder on the lever,
trying to reach the minimum braking amount required, and pulled the whole
damn thing off! I pulled it up too far, springs popped out all over, and I
was left with a bunch of parts in my hand. 

In any case, I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever park a Pantera with just
the parking brake. I don't even do that on modern cars just to be safe...

Charles McCall
Raising Pantera Awareness Across Europe
1985 DeTomaso Pantera #9375
http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2323

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at poca.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com] On Behalf
Of Tom Shinrock
Sent: domingo, 12 de mayo de 2013 16:39
To: detomaso at poca.com
Subject: [DeTomaso] Hand Brake

After 26 years of owning my Pantera with stock brakes, I finally have a
functional hand brake.  When I replaced the seals in my rear calipers for
the first time around 15 years ago I discovered the teeth on my piston were
so worn that they would slip rendering the hand brake inoperable.  Living
without a hand brake was not that difficult but it occasionally bugged me
that it didn't work.  At that time I had a nice flat driveway so it didn't
really matter and we don't have a lot of hills in Iowa.

About six years ago I saw some stock rear calipers on eBay and contacted the
seller to see if the parking brake worked when they were on the car (he
upgraded his brakes).  He said the parking worked so I bought the calipers,
which even came with brake pads that were less than 5% worn, and promptly
put them on the shelf.  At the time I had kids that were very active in high
school and I was working so I never got around to swapping them out.  Like I
said, it wasn't a pressing matter at the time.

After moving to a different house that includes a rather steep driveway my
motivation increased.  Almost 2 years ago I disassembled one of the used
calipers and got it soaking to clean them up.  There it sat until now.  The
combination of getting tired of the calipers taking up room on my workbench
and the fact that I needed to clean up my suspension pieces after my drive
to Phoenix I decided to remove the calipers to make the clean up easier and
finally swap out the calipers.  I rebuilt them with a seal kit I had bought
at the same time I bought the calipers and put everything together after
cleaning everything up.  

I engaged the brake on the flat garage floor and saw that I couldn't push
the car while in neutral.  I was encouraged.  I promptly backed the car onto
the sloped driveway and engaged the brake looking forward to seeing the
brake hold the grade.  I took my foot off the brake pedal and the car
promptly rolled down the driveway.  I was immediately disheartened and
thought back to stories I've heard that the stock hand brake wasn't that
effective.  I thought everything I did was for nothing.

I pulled the car back into the garage, engaged the brake and again verified
that I couldn't move the car while it was in neutral.  I then looked at the
arms on the calipers that get pulled by the brake cables and noticed they
were barely pulled up.  I did three iterations of adjusting the cable length
with the adjustment barrels until I couldn't move the car in neutral and
then backed the adjustment off until I could just move the car.  I backed it
out on the driveway and was very pleased to see that the brake held the car
on the slope.  I let out a manly whoop and thumped my chest once as I cast
out one of just two demons that afflicted my car (the other being the A/C). 

Now all I need to know is what types of arm exercises to do I need to take
up so I can pull up the handle to the last click?   I'm embarrassed to say
that I need to lift the handle with my hand for the first couple of clicks
and then put the handle in the crook of my flexed right arm and lift the
handle with my arm.  To disengage I need to position my arm the same way to
lift the handle to release the tension and push the button with my left hand
so it can retract.  Looks goofy but it works.  

Now there is only one demon left, the A/C.  I switched back to the factory
fan but it's been so cool since then I couldn't really test it.  We are
supposed to hit 90 on Tuesday so I should find out if that demon is gone or
in need of more attention.

Tom
5186
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