Lokars trick universal cut-to-fit parking brake cables saved the day when we swapped a rearend with Ford Explorer disc brakes into our Chevy, but they can come to the rescue no matter what car youre driving if your e-brake has gone AWOL. |
The design of the Ford Explorer disc brake is beautifully simplistic. The hat-style rotor slips over a miniature drum brake assembly, which is activated by a manual lever on the backside. The caliper itself floats on two locating pins to clamp the rotor during operation. This brake system, which is used on current Ford Explorers, will fit any large-bearing Torino-style late-model Ford 9-inch housing end, so these brakes can be adapted to other rearends, such as a Ford 8.8 or GM 12-bolt, that have been upgraded with 9-inch housing ends, a modification that also eliminates the C-clip-style axle retention. |
Lokars teflon-lined, braided stainless outer cables are assembled with specially machined fittings that attach directly to the stock Explorer brake cable bracket. The kit also includes the fittings that slip over the parking brake actuator lever. |
The Lokar parking brake assembly is comprised of two kits: one contains the Explorer brake fittings and dual cables that run up to the front of the car (A; PN EC-81FHT); the other provides the single cable that runs from the foot-activated parking-brake mechanism (B; PN EC-8001HT). The two sets of cables are joined in the middle by an adjusting mechanism. This assembly can be placed anywhere under the car, but to ensure that the brake works properly, brackets (A) and (B) must be mounted no less than 91/2 inches apart. Tension adjustments are made with the nut (C) and threaded rod. These two floorpan support braces on the underside of the car provided a perfect location to mount the adjusting mechanism. We attached the brackets with sheetmetal screws. |
Once the basic layout and length of the cables has been determined, the braided housings and inner cables can be cut to fit with a hacksaw or cutoff wheel. Note the aluminum sleeve that slides over the end of the housing and locates into the adjusting nut. No crimping is required. |
The front half of the Lokar cable kit replaces the stock cable that runs through the firewall up to the foot-brake ratchet mechanism. |
The braided cable is secured to the toe board with an E-clip. |
Got a parking brake on your car? Betcha do. Does it work? Probably not, at least not real well. Well guess that upwards of half of the original-equipment parking brakes on older musclecars dont work, either from broken or stretched cables, or because someone disconnected the whole mess and lost all the parts. Weve never actually had to use an e-brake in a real emergency, and automatic trans cars seem to do alright without one, but its kind of hard to idle a manual trans car in neutral without a hand brake. Weve tried, but its annoying to have to carry a brick in the back seat.
Surprisingly, however, the parking brake on our four-speed 65 Biscayne actually did work after we adjusted out the slack in the old cables. But when we swapped in a new Currie 9-inch rearend (How To Build A Rearend ), we had a problem. We ordered the rearend with optional Ford Explorer disc brakes, which use cables completely different from the typical drum-brakestyle spring-loaded cables the factory 10-bolt rearend used. What to do? Currie gave us the answer: Call Lokar Performance Products and get a set of its high-tech parking cables. We did and we were impressed at how effectively they solved an otherwise insurmountable problem.