Front Brake Actuating Lever Lateral Play

B

Banditorama

Senior Member
I've got a fairly excessive amount of back and forth play in my brake lever arm on the driver's side. It rattles pretty bad while driving and it's developed a sharp lip that's worked its way over the top of the rod that it resides on

My first question is where can I find the arm? I called Mike's A-ffordable and apparently there's a national backorder on them

Second question is can I use the ones where the brake rod attachment point is offset like in the following link?

https://www.mikes-afordable.com/product/A2084.html

I attached a picture of mine as well. As you can see, the brake rod attachment point is centered as opposed to offset. The tech guy at Mike's said that no one ever made a lever that was centered. Which obviously is not the case.

Thanks for any help!
 
Bob C said:
According to the Judging Standards the offset arm started in Jan 1930.
Click to expand...

Makes sense, mine is a '29. Kind of weird the tech expert at Mike's didn't know that, but oh well

The judging standards doesn't happen to have a part number for the non-offset arm does it?
 
The Master Cylinder said:
Maybe the Mike's guy meant that no one ever made a repro centered lever, just the offset ones? Or did he say "Ford" never made one?
Click to expand...

I didn't think to ask. Apparently they're interchangeable so, knowing that now, I'd assume he meant no one made a repro one. I didn't know the offset one superseded the original design for repairs
 
You can also use the longer ones for the rear but you will have to add a sleeve and do some other modifications. The advantage is greater braking in the front. The disadvantage is more sensitive brake adjustment.
 
Just wondering, why the change to the off-set arm? Looks like the straight is a better design.
Joe B
 
nkaminar said:
You can also use the longer ones for the rear but you will have to add a sleeve and do some other modifications. The advantage is greater braking in the front. The disadvantage is more sensitive brake adjustment.
Click to expand...


You can also use AA arms as the are longer than the A ones.
 

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I remove the rivet and the arm. I braze up the worn parts and either redrill or file the shape back to size and fit things back together. Buck in a new rivet and it's ready to go.

I haven't had a problem with a repaired one yet. The last one I found loose was under a lot of pressure due to a bent front axle. The other side was still tight.
 
Just an update:

Removed the assembly and drilled out the rivet to remove the arm from the brake actuator. There was what seemed to be a metal shim put in where the lever arm presses onto the actuator. Which leads me to believe this was a problem that was halfway fixed by the previous owner

Idk anything about the history of the car, I just won it at an auction. Someone loved it and poured a lot of money into the body/paint/interior decades ago. But, mechanically it was a mess. This is just another one of the bandaid fixes I've had to correct on it

My plan of action is to take it to a machine shop tomorrow and have them get those assemblies to fit together correctly

Thank you everyone for your help! As always you guys have been great
 
Bob C said:
Is it possible you were seeing the dust ring?
Click to expand...

No, it was a shim where the round piece of the lever arm slides over the shaft on the actuating arm. Just a thin piece of metal that went in between the two pieces
 

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