g741.org

jim lee wrote:Thanks! That's a zillion times clearer than what I have. Looking at your top picture and the first one posted. It looks like there is maybe 1/8" clearance if that. Mine is more like 3/8" or more. So, as soon as I get a socket large enough for the drum nut, I'm going to pull mine off and have a look.

Oh and I see there's an anchor screw spring (by mark A) on the picture that I'm also missing. I was wondering how that all worked.

Notice the bottom of the J-Bolt. One picture shows a big O'l spring below the brake band. The other shows a double adjusting nut. I guess mine is the double nut type.

Thanks again for scanning the pictures!

-jim lee

I've been doing some research on the handbrake on my truck, and came across this old thread. The manuals aren't very clear on this, but there must have been a running change (or maybe two different suppliers?) in the design of the linkage at the brake band: some illustrations show it with the heavy compression spring at the bottom of the "J" bolt, and some show it without. Both the 1955 and the 1973 parts manuals show the heavy spring. The design with the heavy spring appears to have a longer "J" bolt, and a different design of the paired actuator cams that pull up on the "J" bolt.

I've come to the conclusion that parts from the two designs cannot be mixed.

Elwood,
I have a '51 and it did not have the heavy spring. Once we adjusted the brake I think I may have discovered why they added it. Without the spring it seemed that you were always 1/2 a click away from setting the brake where you wanted. I added the spring to put a little give to the system and allows it to work nicely.

Andy

ashyers wrote:Elwood,
I have a '51 and it did not have the heavy spring. Once we adjusted the brake I think I may have discovered why they added it. Without the spring it seemed that you were always 1/2 a click away from setting the brake where you wanted. I added the spring to put a little give to the system and allows it to work nicely.

Andy

Thanks, Andy.

Did you have to swap the "J" bolt for a longer version? And/or change the cam plates to the other style to get the brake to apply correctly?

The illustrations of the hand brake linkage with the heavy bottom spring show cam plates that appear to be taller (more leverage from the hand brake control rod), and with larger cams (more travel to pull up on the "J" bolt).

Elwood,
All we did was add the spring and reset the clearance of the brake shoe, that did the trick.

Andy

Regarding how the part may have gotten bent, the transfer case weighs around 200 lbs (the crate mine came in is stamped "210 lbs," so that would be with the crate). It is very lopsided and it wants to fall towards the side with the bent part. Perhaps at some point it was out of the truck and someone let it fall over and that part landed against something and was bent. That's the only thing I can think of.