downwardspiral
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2010
- Messages
- 307
- Reaction score
- 4
- Location
- LI, NY
- My Car
- 1973 Mach 1
2011 Mustang GT- Vortech v3 kit, custom tune and intake. MT ET Street slicks. Goes good
04 Mountaineer - daily
I've owned my car for almost half my life now, and the emergency brake has never seemed to hold. I even replaced the pedal years back and it still just popped out whenever I stomped it down. It's been parked in flat garages for years, but now it is an issue because I failed inspection lol. After a quick analysis it seems that the pawl that locks against the "geared" tooth on the pedal slipped out on one side and was crooked. Whenever any kind of load was applied to the pedal the ratcheting mechanism was defeated as if the release handle was pulled. In order to fix this I welded a plate to limit the pawl's side to side travel. It seems to be holding even when I pull on the pedal, so I'm pretty happy for the $0 and 15 minutes I just spent.
The problem- This guy (pawl in a ratchet mechanism) was falling into the V shaped slot and riding crooked on the "gear" of the pedal.
The solution- cut a small plate out of scrap sheet metal using tin snips and weld in place to keep the pawl centered over the gear.
I'm obviously not a welder but it works! I just needed to tweak the clearance by bending the plate slightly with a screwdriver to allow the pawl to move freely.
The problem- This guy (pawl in a ratchet mechanism) was falling into the V shaped slot and riding crooked on the "gear" of the pedal.
The solution- cut a small plate out of scrap sheet metal using tin snips and weld in place to keep the pawl centered over the gear.
I'm obviously not a welder but it works! I just needed to tweak the clearance by bending the plate slightly with a screwdriver to allow the pawl to move freely.