Service brake cross shaft

J

J Wade

Senior Member
My 28 has the old style cross shifts and equalizer. The bushings under the frame are worn out. According to the service bulletin Ford replaced this setup with a one piece shaft. I also have the multi disc clutch. Should I replace the 2 piece with one one piece. Is it safer and can I get it and everything necessary from one of the suppliers. The biggest problem I see with what I have is the bushings under the frame. Thanks guys
 
I converted my '28 pickup from the equalizer system to a one piece crossbar many many years ago. There is a page in the service bulletins that addresses the change. You have to "invent" a parking brake lever on the one piece - see service bulletin.
 
Thanks Ken I had read the service bulletin. It appears there never was any bushings on the frame bracket for the cross shafts. I don't see hoe that could work very well. I will call Berts to see if they have everything to convert it
Jim
 
On a friend's car with the same 1928 split brake shaft system, I used frame welt material to create a wrap-around cushion bushing with grease inside to lube the shafts. As I recall, it took only one or possibly two wraps of trimmed frame welting to approximate the thickness of whatever had been in there from the factory. This has worked well for about 20 years. I advise him to check the tightness of the bolts every year as the material wears slightly and will loosen up inside the mounting brackets.
Probably not an ideal way of repairing the problem, but short of doing nothing, try this method. 'Sure beats listening to rattling brake shafts!
Marshall
 
'A Variation on Marshall's Repair'

I had the worn areas on my brake cross shafts welded & ground back to original diameter. Greased the outer shafts & just before I tightened the cross shaft brackets, I made a rubber shim to fit between the frame and the center of the upper, thin bracket. This provided a little tension to hold the cross shafts snug. No rattles, nice rotational movement.

I probably got my shim idea from Ford;

'A-2479-AR Brake shaft frame bracket shim '

JB
 
The original conversion has the attachment point for the left hand brake but other than that it looks just like the later brake cross shaft and fits the same as those do. It is an easy change to make and gives you better brakes.
 
A number of years ago I found that the split 'Brake Cross Shaft Bushings' (Bratton's part # 3360) ID is the same as the OD of the ends of the 3 piece cross shaft where the supports go to hold them to the frame. Therefore I used a set of these split bushings at each end and a set of the cross shaft brackets (Bratton's part # 3370) to hold them in place. This took a lot of the slop out of the 3 piece cross shaft system.
 
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