'54 Convertible E-brake Spring Mystery

Posted by Don Shields On 2012/4/10 0:05:47

The hand brake isn't working on this car. The cables pull, the shoes seem to grip, but the brake won't hold. Also, I don't hear or feel any ratcheting action when pulling the handle. I found that the toggle to handle spring shown as group 1.1045 on Plate 40 of the Parts List was missing. I've purchased this spring; now the mystery is just where this spring fastens. Plate 40 shows it floating in space below the toggle assembly, so that's no help. The illustration in the Shop Manual (page 1 of the brakes section) compounds the mystery. It seems to show it attached to the toggle where the rod going down to the relay lever is cottered. On this car, the rod's cotter pin and a washer are flush against the toggle body, with no wiggle room to fasten a spring to. The illustration also shows the toggle spring bottom end attached to a much larger coil spring that is just dangling there, unfastened to anything at its' bottom end. I've been unable to find a listing for this spring anywhere in the parts list.

So to me, the mysteries are where the toggle spring is fastened, the approximate size of the unlisted spring and where its' bottom end fastens. Does anyone have solutions to these mysteries? Thanks.