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Driveline parking brake

mrk5

The Sticker Guy
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Anyone done a driveline parking brake? Or transfercase mounted brake? Like the one High Angle Driveline sells. Curious what people have used for the cable and also the actuating lever in the cab.
 
Yep. I have the HAD setup on my NP205, on the rear output, so it's both t-case mounted and driveline :)

I used the factory lever inside and the original adjustment mechanism underneath. I built a short extension of aircraft cable with swages on the end, all stuff from the local Ace, to hook into the factory setup. It'll depend on your particular truck; mine being a '74 it has a slightly different arrangement than the newer ones, but it's easy enough to do. I recall using an existing hole in the frame, putting one of the factory hooks there, to act as a hinge point from the front-to-rear action of the factory pedal and cable to the side-to-side for the new caliper.

Because my '205 is clocked up, the parking brake wouldn't clear without a body lift.

The HAD setup is clever and a bit of a tight fit, but it *works*, which was not my experience with the Caddy calipers.

-- A
 
Not a park brake but could be used as one with a line lock.



Made the bracket, used a caliper/rotor from a trailer disc brake kit.
 
I have the High Angle setup already. It's been sitting on my shelf for 5 years, figured I would try to set it up since I would REALLY like to have a parking brake. Been several times on trails I wish I did.

I have never used the factory brare in the crew cab because the rear axle I put in from my K5 has discs. I kept at least some of it intact; I just looped up and thru some holes in the frame. One potential issue is the cable being way too long since this is a crew cab. I thought I might need to source a different cable.

@dremu any pictures you can post of the cable and ends down by the tcase would be appreciated.
 
I tried to use one on Penny. I hooked my stock park brake cable up to it but it didn't apply enough clamping force to hold the vehicle even on a slight incline. It dragged all the time and made noises so I eventually just removed it and threw it out.

I'll run stock park brakes at the wheels on my next build.
 
@mrk5 14 bolt? What about later model factory disc stuff with a parking brake? I have no idea if those parts swap easily but that would seem to be the most reliable option if they'll fit.
 
@mrk5 14 bolt? What about later model factory disc stuff with a parking brake? I have no idea if those parts swap easily but that would seem to be the most reliable option if they'll fit.
I had been thinking about doing that. The newer 14blt only comes in the 2500HD with 6.0L gas motor. Those aren't very plentiful around here, plus I'd be buying the axle when I already have the driveline brake.

I spoke with Jess @ High Angle earlier today and he did confirm the factory pedal is the best way to actuate. He said the lever needs to be a 2:1 ratio and most after market hand breakside levers, like Lokar, are like 1.5:1.
 
I tried to use one on Penny. I hooked my stock park brake cable up to it but it didn't apply enough clamping force to hold the vehicle even on a slight incline. It dragged all the time and made noises so I eventually just removed it and threw it out.

I'll run stock park brakes at the wheels on my next build.
I hope I have better luck. If not the 14blt like @nvrenuf mentioned will be my fall back plan.
 
If you have room on your floor you could always run a park brake lever out of a medium duty IH truck with hydraulic brakes. Not sure if you have a semi truck junkyard any where by you but I love to repurpose big truck parts for other uses.
 
@dremu any pictures you can post of the cable and ends down by the tcase would be appreciated.

It's a pain to get good photos down there, dark, exhaust and all my damn crossmembers and skid plates in the way :(

IMG_1155.JPG


Front of truck is to left. Top, driver's side frame, you can see a blue bit of metal that's some factory bit, has a piece of like 1/4" rod bent up as a holder. I use that as the turning point from front-to-rear to left-to-right.

To the left of that, above the ORD sticker, is the threaded rod coming from the factory linkage. Below the exhaust pipe you can see the aluminum swages crimped onto the aircraft cable. Basically I just did like a 6-8" cable run with a loop on each end. One loop goes onto the factory parking brake adjustment, that little U-shaped thing on the threaded rod. The other end I ran a quicklink to the lever on the caliper.

IIRC, the caliper can be oriented different ways, but I found this arrangement to make the most sense:

IMG_0992.JPG


(that's the rear view of the '205, not, obviously, in the truck :D) The nuts are temporary holders instead of a flange.

Anyway, the caliper goes on the bottom, as you see, with the lever pointing such that pulling it left (driver's side) actuates it.

Here's the T-case before a reseal / repaint, you can see the lever up front, not connected to anything. It's not as tight a fit as it looks, but you find there's a specific order in which parts must go on, and you end up taking things off AGAIN and swearing a lot :)

PC0400021.JPG


Other than my Detroit having slop, so the truck rolls a bit one way or the other even with the brake set, I find it holds just fine. It did require adjustment to get it to my satisfaction, and it has a very different feel from the original... there's no real progression of getting tighter, it just ratchets for a while, then BOOM, it's locked. ..shrug.. YMMV.

-- A
 
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