pre 39 Ford brakes

G

gmcbuffalo

Junior Member
What are most of you doing about the Mechanical brakes on their pre 39 Fords? Change out to hydrolic or staying with mechanical.
 
37-38 Ford cable brakes... no question at all. Install floaters to make your brakes better, safer, more reliable than any hydraulic system up to at least 1949.
 
The cable brakes on my '37 Fordor work great and would probably lock up all four wheels at 55 plus if I tried it. They are extremely light to the touch. The car has only about 59,000 miles on it and the brakes were recently relined.

The brakes on my '34 roadster are almost as good but it requires a bit more pressure than the '37. I had these relined about 15 years ago and added floaters to the front wheels only at the time. I have driven it only about 8,000 miles in this time.
 
I have mechanical brakes on my mostly all original '35 fordor sedan and would never change it to hydraulics. I try to keep the mechanical system properly adjusted. The stock system works good but I am concerned about how well I can stop in a panicked situation. I am planning to change the linings to the woven type and also add equalizer/floater assemblies as well.
 
gmbuffallo, there are floaters, and then there are floaters. Depends on what car you have as to the type of floater. Flathead Ted sells what he calls a floater, but that's for the '32-'34, and I'm not familiar with that one. The '37-'38 floater is a star wheel, adjusted by a brake spoon. The star is on a shaft threaded left one side and right the other. This replaces the original wedge, which was intended to float, but in fact only floated enough to provide erratic braking action.

The original shoe return springs were a set of 4 color coded springs of different values. The bottom 2 are still used with floaters, but the top 2 are replaced with a single 91A spring, connecting shoe to shoe rather than shoe to backing plate.

After installation of the star floater, you're left with an empty adjuster nut hole on the backing plate, into which you reinstall the original adjuster after it is cut free of the wedge. (It is of hardened steel, so you need to use a cut-off wheel.) On the Concourse then, your floaters are undetectable by the Judges.

A final note here on quality of the part: The floaters I used required a bit of tweaking in order to not bind up on itself as the shaft turned within the threaded portions, as they had been manufactured slightly off center, producing a wobble in use. I found mine at a swap meet years ago, yours may not have this problem.
 
Mechanical cable brakes on my 37, no floaters, I can lock up all 4 wheels if desired.

Mechanical cable brakes on my 38, no floaters, I can lock up all 4 wheels if desired.

As Henry used to brag, "The Safety of steel from pedal to wheel"
 
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i am picking up my shoes and drums tomorrow, then maby get the rear brakes put back together i have been thinking about replaceing the shackels and the kingpins . know is a good time to do it , i have taken off the backing plates to clean off all the grease
 

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my 37 brakes are crappy.....i am jealous of people who say that they can lock them up.....i guess i know what my winter project is
 
Okay. When I bought my 37 pickup, a previous owner had done a bad conversion to hydralics. Some of the mechanical parts are still there. I ned to make a decision soon, do go back with mechanical, or, buy one of the kits and reinstall hydraulics? This will never be a show truck. I just want it to look original and I plan to drive it often. Any advice on the best kits to buy?
 
3738 said:
Mechanical cable brakes on my 37, no floaters, I can lock up all 4 wheels if desired.

Mechanical rod brakes on my 38, no floaters, I can lock up all 4 wheels if desired.

As Henry used to brag, "The Safety of steel from pedal to wheel"
Click to expand...



3738, Locking up your brakes is not the preferred method of stopping unless an 18 wheeler is coming at you head-on. A smooth controlled stop saves your tires and your nerves. Oh, by the way, regular shoes, not woven. Woven shoes are for panic stops.

Also, you might be interested in this: Mechanical rod brakes ended on Ford cars in 1936.
 
Speaking of brakes, where can you buy a complete set of shoes that are already riveted and ready to mount for my 33 coupe?
 
Ford38V8

Don't lock up my brakes to stop, but they can stop when needed.

Rears are still woven, fronts are regular riveted.

Guess I had a senior moment..... just took a flash light under my 38, it has cables not rods. ;)
 
It is clear that mechanical brakes are superior to hydraulics... which is why ultra-die-hard Ford finally went to hydraulics in 1939... and why all modern cars have mechanical brakes...??? :>)

At least with mechanical brakes, don't have to argue about which type of brake fluid to use...

AND I have had semi-reliable reports from some Canadian customers who say
that apparently some late Canadian-built 1936's came from the factory with 37-38 style cable brakes and one guy even has one? They claim that it is not a case of a 1936 body transplanted to a 37-38 chassis, but a legitimate factory-built car. Anybody know anything???
 
3738,

I know the feeling, I have those moments more frequently the younger I get.

Rears woven only? Wow, I don't know how you keep from laying down streaks of rubber.

Glad you got things covered, it's a shame how many guys give up, just assuming that mechanicals don't stop a car.
 
Richard,

The Kanuks have been known to test their southern neighbors with outrageous jokes in the past, and I think they got you with this one! The switch from rods to cables required many changes, not simply substitution of the cables.

Still, if you can track the story down, the frame number will tell the truth if you can decipher the Canadian serial numbers. I'd better stop short of saying it didn't happen, but...

On a related note, the 1936 Lincoln Zephyr sported the first cables. All Ford Motor products went juice in 1939.
 
Alan: I have heard this (story???) from more than one source... An interesting thing is that a customer with a 36 with "later" version frame sent me photos, and the brake cross-shaft is in its usual 36 location, but the REAR bulkhead of the center of the x member has some extra holes that are laid out in a pattern that suggests maybe a future plan to install a cross-shaft at the rear? ...which on typical 37's the cross-shaft assembly is instead of the rear bulkhead... Since Ford did not always make changes strictly at model year
changeover, it causes me to wonder??? And... I have lots of Canadian customers and most of them are semi-straight shooters??? (HAHA) I think
this came up when one of them called me for a hydraulic conversion for a 36 and we got into the details and they said it had cables FROM THE FACTORY and
this was not the only one... Maybe somone can track this down better than I?
 
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