Packard Forum Index » General

My hydraulic brakes adjusted according to Hoyle with the correct amount of pedal free play. But even on the gentlest incline, with my parking brake lever up nearly against the bottom of the dash, the car will roll back.

Without showing off vast engineering knowledge, in simple English, can anyone tell me how to adjust the parking brake?

I'm told the '42 shop manual describes how, which i ain't got, only the 1946-50 Packard Shop Manual, which devotes a scant half page to the entire subject of parking brake, and that only a description of how it works with a ghost/cutaway illustration of a junior tub club depicting the key parts. That's absolutely it.

The only '42 manuals I see in PI's archives are owner's and tune up.

Here is method from the 42 book.

Attach file:

---

  page11.jpeg (173.87 KB)


  page12.jpeg (187.70 KB)

Thanks, Howard, as always. But my linings are good, hydraulic brakes as mentioned properly adjusted, so the above long game is too much monkey business.

Can't imagine Packard and other garages going through all that when a customer came in with an otherwise up-to-snuff car asking for the parking brake to be adjusted, snugged.

Is there a Monopoly short game?

If you are absolutely sure the shoes are OK then the short game starts at paragraph 7.

Mike, Watch Ross Millers Speedwell Garage YouTube video on brake adjustment. It’s simple.

Due to the geometry of parking brakes, they don't hold as well in reverse as they do forward. Have you ever noticed if you forget to release the brake you can back up but not go forward? All of my old cars are like that.

Yeah, Gramps was doing a brake job on one of his bathtubs and was a'learnin' the kid a thing or three. Basically, the rear shoe does the work stopping the car going forward, he said (and I'll clean the clock of the SOB who says that I just said you can get by with one shoe). He also pointed out that the rear shoe was what did the parking brake work. So, as Don said, it'll work going forward and not work well at all going backward. Moral of the story is, park the car facing downhill if forced to park on a slope. And leave it in first gear,

I relearnt this lesson the day we off-loaded the Deluxe when it came home. Headed uphill, and the parking brake did bupkis. I then had a flashback. You can get better results - not perfect, but better - by standing on the foot pedal when setting the hand brake. Which I did, and yes, the hand brake handle is pert near hitting the underside of the dash, too. And left the car in reverse. Until I moved everything from the other side of the street and moved the Deluxe to face downhill.

As Don alluded to, the brakes are asymmetrically designed down to having shoes of different friction coefficient for the front/rear pad on the same drum, and different strength of springs holding them. (This is off of Ross's video and the 51 service manual, but it's likely the same with yours.)

The unit is specifically designed so that the front shoe helps wedge itself against the drum, at the same time helping push the rear shoe against the drum, but this effect only works when braking against the car moving forward.

I would start by watching Ross's video and seeing if there is anything you missed.

youtube.com/watch?v=T1Zc3aW18Z4

Thanks for the video link. I was wondering about wheel bearing castle nuts the other day. Couldn't remember how tight. Now I have a better idea.

My method for using the parking/hand brake is to set it tightly with the lever while my foot is on the brake pedal. I always place the transmission in reverse as the gear ratio provides better rolling resistance than first gear. Also when parking on an incline I cut the front tires so if the car does roll it will be stopped by the curb.