Rookie Rear Brake Question

**dhbfaster** · August 10th, 2014, 11:49 AM

Need some advice from the board of advisors...
I am trying to get the brakes back on the rear axle and had hoped to get the rear axle back on the car today...but I ran into a couple concerns:

1) I'm installing a new spring/hardware kit. The new spring that goes between the bottom of the two pads is the green one in the pictures. The new green one is longer than the previous one and appears to obviously mount to a different hole on one side. Comparison.jpg I thought...wow, someone came up with a new spring arrangement and make this spring now MUCH easier to put on then the old one??....but did I put it on correctly?? (See the new spring pic..) It looks like the only way that makes sense to me- and the tension seems right... unless this is just the wrong spring.
NewSpring.jpg

2) I installed a new parking brake cable...but WOW there is a lot of spring tension. You can see it's bulged out a bit in the pic I named ParkingBrakeTension..it's right above the green spring. It was difficult to install.
ParkBrakeSpringLen.jpg
ParkingBrakeTension.jpg

(Unfortunately- I made the rookie mistake of throwing the old one away a while ago...I thought I checked and made sure it was the same, but now I'm questioning.

) It seems like this much spring tension will make it quite difficult to pull the brake. I remember someone at one of the meetings had this problem...and I'm just thinking....humm...maybe this was the problem? OR, is this normal and it will be just fine after I get the cable hooked back up to the car?

Thanks for any help in advance!!

**Luva65wagon** · August 10th, 2014, 03:37 PM

It all looks correct to me. Getting those e-brake cable ends over the lever is never fun, but that's what they look like unhooked. Looks good!

**dhbfaster** · August 10th, 2014, 04:02 PM

Well...good to know- at least I feel good about the spring now. However...I found the box for the cable...it's Melvins part S2105...Rear parking brake cable for a falcon wagon or sedan delivery BEFORE 5/1/61. I'm not sure how that happened...and I'm not sure what the difference is, but I think I'm going to order the correct one and find out. If any club members can use this one, let me know.

**Luva65wagon** · August 10th, 2014, 04:39 PM

The part that goes in the drum end is always the same based upon drum diameter (I assume 9" in this case) but the other end - length of cable - varies with body length. Chances are if you were trying to connect to the e-brake parts at the tranny cross member it might be too long if for a wagon and not a sedan. Most of what I find on Falcons say the wheelbase is the same, so not sure what the difference might be.

**dhbfaster** · August 10th, 2014, 05:05 PM

Just noticed that....Mac's shows the wagon/delivery cable 165 1/2, and the normal sedan cable is 151 5/16. So, maybe I just got lucky to find this. The inside ends seemed awful long, but if it's the same...then it is what it is. At least I will know.

**PhilC** · August 11th, 2014, 07:06 AM

Don the green spring in your picture should be a shoe return spring. It would attach to the anchor above the wheel cylinder. That's what there's a long piece of straight wire above the coils, and the odd bend at the other end where it would attach to the shoe.

The old spring in the same picture is the correct one for attaching the primary and secondary shoes and providing tension to the brake adjuster star wheel.

**dhbfaster** · August 12th, 2014, 01:51 PM

Phil,
I also thought the green one looks like the return spring, BUT, the kit came with two white return springs for each side, and only one green spring for each side...which is why I was concluding it must be to replace the bottom one. ((an improvement ??)) Meanwhile...I checked a different brand kit for the front- same situation, two white springs for each side, one green...and the same green one. I'll try to upload a picture of the white ones later...