The Parking Brake Challenge

[pdub]

It's a boring subject, but I was out there again tonight, trying one more time to make Red's parking brake work. The real guys at the real shop couldn't do it. But I played with it yesterday enough to just disconnect the cable going to the passenger side. That's the culprit.

These are SSBC fancy rear brakes, custom hand built to go on a 2005-2009 Mustang. With the parking brake attachment. Costly. And waitful, it takes 6 weeks to get them if you really want them. You have to want those to order them, and don't have the car already up on jack stands when you call them, it's gonna take a while, quite a while.

That's all well and good, but the spring for the parking brake, it's outboard. There's a whole row of holes drilled on the outside of the caliper for you to choose from. Which hole to stick the end of the spring in. What the parking brake arm does, it jacks the cylinder piston in to hold the rotor. You pull the handle which pulls the cable which pulls the arm and the brake is engaged. The spring is supposed to move the arm back when you're through using the parking brake.

I can "see" how it's supposed to work, anybody can see that. But the spring is not strong enough, I don't care who ya are. It just isn't. And it's a wrestling match even if you have the caliper off of the car in your hand....which hole.....maybe this one?.....and don't breathe on the parking brake arm, if you touch it at all the piston extends. Does it press back in or does it screw back in?

Nobody can fix it. Nobody can. We were at Vic and Terri's a few years ago and Victor messed with it enough in his shop to get one side working, sort of. At that time the cable going to the passenger side was seized up from age. So I got new cables and put them on there. I was proud of that, I actually did that.

But then.....no, nobody can fix that parking brake.

I had an idea tonight, since I've disconnected the cable going to the passenger side, maybe I can make the driver side work. No, the way the linkage is, on a swing arm in the middle of the car, they both have to work together, all or none.

It's all about a wooden chock under the wheel. Isn't that what a hotrod is supposed to be? Something wrong with. Something basically functionally wrong with it. All because I modified it, of course.

[74NovaMan]

LIne lock?

[pdub]

LIne lock?

No, not unless you're talking about the front end of the car, the thing you put on there to do a static burnout.

I'll do THIS: I'll pay anybody 100 dollars in cash to fix the parking brake. I will not pay travel expenses. You can use our garage and my tools. But you fix it. I'll jack the car up and put it on stands, all four corners so you can see what's going on underneath it. I'll take the back wheels off. And then I'll sit there in a chair with a cooler full of beer smoking cigarettes. I won't say S***. Not a word. I just wanna watch.

[corvettedad]

I'll put it in my think box, at the worst I don't figure it out and we drink beer and cuss it, if I do keep your $100 and we drink more beer! So now I've got GTO and a Mustang to figure out, so much for Retirement!! Lol
By the way I'm at the lake, it's awful quite.

[pdub]

I'll put it in my think box, at the worst I don't figure it out and we drink beer and cuss it, if I do keep your $100 and we drink more beer!

What day Perry, what time? We've got a book here for you already.

[RockJustRock]

You can be a Consumer Advocate. EVERYWHERE you see ANYTHING concerning SSBC you need to go to the product ratings and say "These Brakes BREAK and the Parking Brake WON'T.". Already nobody at BangShift will buy them. Go to American Muscle. Go to Amazon. Search out everywhere that sells them. Sooner or later maybe SSBC will wake up and make good! AND they ruined your rep as a master mechanic and parts picker outer!

Edit: Also make a BIG wheel chock that says SSBC Parking Brake on it and use it wherever a photographer is near.

[pdub]

You can be a Consumer Advocate. EVERYWHERE you see ANYTHING concerning SSBC you need to go to the product ratings and say "These Brakes BREAK and the Parking Brake WON'T.". Already nobody at BangShift will buy them. Go to American Muscle. Go to Amazon. Search out everywhere that sells them. Sooner or later maybe SSBC will wake up and make good! AND they ruined your rep as a master mechanic and parts picker outer!

Edit: Also make a BIG wheel chock that says SSBC Parking Brake on it and use it wherever a photographer is near.

I don't want to bash them. Lots of folks use SSBC. If they had only left off the parking brake attachment, I would have bought those brakes anyhow, I wanted them. And I would have accepted that I no longer have a parking brake. But they added that parking brake attachment and it doesn't work with the linkage that's on the car. Well, don't blame the linkage....ok, that shit doesn't even work. It works, but.....it doesn't work in real life, how about that?

[RockJustRock]

C'mon, how many times did they just plain BREAK? Do you think Brembo or Wilwood would sell Ford, Dodge or Chevy Brakes like that? Imagine if every SRT, Shelby or 1LE owner had your kind of problems..... SSBC, Bad Brakes!

I'd bet if Brembo or Wilwood ever look at BangShift they will GIVE you brakes to endorse. Maybe RideTech will see it. Don't they install a LOT of Brakes?

The whole sequence has me wondering about (don't say it, don't say it)... I'M SAYING IT! American Muscle!

Maybe if you shopped Jeg's or Summit your parts would just march off the UPS truck and jump onto Red!

C'mon RideTech, make Red your next Week To Wicked! New short block, headers and cams and better STUFF!

[pdub]

Rocky (I love that, what Monster coined), you're finally off of your rocker.

[malc]

Have you contacted the manufacturer and told them they sell a product not fit for it's intended
purpose ?
I just wrote a bad review on Amazon.com about the five pack of relays I bought and the first one out of the box was a dud.
They are reviewing my case.

[pdub]

Have you contacted the manufacturer and told them they sell a product not fit for it's intended
purpose ?
I just wrote a bad review on Amazon.com about the five pack of relays I bought and the first one out of the box was a dud.
They are reviewing my case.

Well, it's been so long, some years. They're great brakes, I love them. And for an extra $100 they powder coated them red.

I "see" how it's supposed to work. And it WOULD work, but you'd have to be psychic to make it work. You'd have to already know which hole to set that spring in while you still have the caliper off of the car. And do NOT move that arm while you're messing with it, and that's the impossible part of the equation. It's like a sadistic puzzle. It's simple, right in front of you, but hateful.

And at the AMP race track, the right rear blew fluid out on TWO different stock calipers. That's why I got these SSBC's, but the SSBC's did it three times at AMP, always the right rear. So I can't blame the brakes. Well. I can't blame anybody but me for continuing to try. When I called them and told them I need another seal, the second time, they were mystified, like, do WHAT? And Superman rebuilt the caliper for me each time and he said there was nothing wrong with the seal, not a thing. Mystery loves me, it follows me around everywhere I go.

[silver_bullet]

Perseverance will see you through Pdub!

[pdub]

Perseverance will see you through Pdub!

None needed, we just need to avoid any un-level parking spot. By now, I've got about ten times the brakes.....TWENTY TIMES the brakes I need to slow down to make that first turnoff at the land speed event. Is it the end of September yet? tick, tick, tick.....

Wash job complete. Clay bar and wax on the way. That's worth another millionth of a mile per hour. Coming up, ongoing. Is to be. Slicker is quicker.

[BigAL]

I just upgraded my '99 Z28's front brakes to Wilwood 13" rotors and 6 piston calipers. I was going to get the rears too, but read that putting a fixed caliper on a C-clip axle was a bad idea, because the axles move side to side and you get pad knock back. So I stayed with the stock rear brakes which use a floating caliper and just got drilled and slotted rotors and EBC Yellow Stuff pads. According the the F-Body guys the rear brakes on those cars are good enough and really don't need to be upgraded. Not sure if that is the same on the Mustangs.....

[pdub]

INot sure if that is the same on the Mustangs.....

I think I only "thought" I needed exotic brakes on the rear. Like, why not throw some more cash at it? But in the end I've got 14's on the front with 4 pistons and 13's on the rear with a single piston. GYAH that thing will stop, and that's a really heavy car. I guess it depends on what you're going to do with it, how you should set it up. Yes, of course, I went way overboard, I sure did. "Got" brakes now by golly.