Posted by Caleb in Manhattan KS [70.184.232.53] on Thursday, August 21, 2014 at 13:47:56 :
So far the 2 week search to find a replacement drum for the parking brake on our 79 F600 fire truck is coming up empty. Though the drum has been gone for...and I quote "Who knows how long", it is a serious safety issue if responding solo and being unable to leave the truck to chock the wheels. And the truck is to stay running at all times when on scene so cant just leave it in gear.
I am playing with the option of setting up a mechanical driveline brake using a disc and mechanical caliper. I have installed them on a couple of rock crawlers for friends and they sure work great...better than the regular parking brake. Being a safety item, I don't think they will scoff too much at putting one together at 3-5x the price of a replacement drum (if we found one)but the problem I am having is finding a more "universal" kit that I can fabricate a bracket for. Any ideas?
BTW, figuring what happened is that someone got excited and took off in low with the brake on...instead of slipping, it sheared the bolts and the drum worked its way off.
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