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Shocks and brakes

BKW

Ford Parts Guru
I actually have tried not to use my e-brake since Scott's froze in the driveway and we had to defrost it with my hair dryer. I don't always carry my hair dryer with me. I do use it sometimes but not very often.
Carry a hair dryer with you? Why, you'd fit right in here in LA LA Land. Ppl here drive merrily along at around 80 MPH putting on makeup, reading, shaving, you name it. Using a hair dryer wouldn't surprise me a bit. Using one as a defroster would, it hasn't snowed here since 1949.
 

03Explorer

Missouri Chapter member
Carry a hair dryer with you? Why, you'd fit right in here in LA LA Land. Ppl here drive merrily along at around 80 MPH putting on makeup, reading, shaving, you name it. Using a hair dryer wouldn't surprise me a bit. Using one as a defroster would, it hasn't snowed here since 1949.

They do the same here. I actually got rear ended a few years ago by a lady that was eating her breakfast on her way to work. She caused a 4 car pileup.
 
Not trying to one-up ya, but try it sometime on an 18 wheeler! We keep roasting pans and charcoal in the shop for those special times, as even my industrial strength HEAT GUN won't unfreeze them fast enough.
BTW, scott, you can get one of those guns at Home Depot, even Wally World, with the Wagner paint stuff. Don't let pam use it on her hair, tho...
And YES, I carry one with me.
 
......To pass a safety inspection doesn't your e-brake have to work properly? I'm just wondering if my brake didn't work how it passed inspection.

In MO they are supposed to check everything. I know for a fact that they don't always. My old ranger has 198,000+ miles on it and my brother just got it inspected in Springfield. No way will it pass, but it did (two years more).

To find out if it works, set the E-brake hard, put it in reverse and give it gas. If it takes off, it does not work. If it stays put, it works.
 
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My E-brake hasn't worked since I got the dually, lol... the shoes are good, but some gorilla tromped the pedal too hard and broke the bracket. The guy who does my inspections has never said a word about it.
Then again, you have stiffer inspections in St Louis area. Here for 12 bucks I get told that my lights and horn work, my glass is there, the brakes in the front are OK and my tires hold air.
 
That test is good on a newer model, brian, but on older ones it won't work. The E-brake on older cars and trucks only activates the forward shoe, which in reverse is easily moved.
 
Brian, by "older" I meant OLDER.... hehe... and that was for clarification for others reading the thread, was all. Hers needs fixin, tis sure.
 
Brian, by "older" I meant OLDER.... hehe... and that was for clarification for others reading the thread, was all. Hers needs fixin, tis sure.


Got it.

If they are OLD enough, they don't have an emergency brake even.

Mine has a hand brake. You pull and release the handle by hand, not by foot.
 
I think it was the HUDSON that had a "Safety Brake" system, that employed a four-wheel cable backup to the hydraulics... I may be wrong on the brand, but remember seeing one many years ago... Yet did not have a parking brake.
 

BKW

Ford Parts Guru
I think it was the HUDSON that had a "Safety Brake" system, that employed a four-wheel cable backup to the hydraulics... I may be wrong on the brand, but remember seeing one many years ago... Yet did not have a parking brake.
Right on the money. When Hudson went to hydraulic brakes in the 1930's, they kept the old cable system as a backup right up thru 1954.

That's right, before juice brakes, cables were used by everyone.

What was the fastest, best road handling car in the mid 1930's?

Hudson Terraplane (nee Essex).

It was a favorite of that well known Indiana native = John Dillinger.

Old slogan: Hudson made three models: The Dudson, Assache, and Terriblepain
 
In 1977 I knew a man in San Jose, CA, who at 88 years old, still drove his Hudson every day to work. He was a tool and die man, and drove that green beast there faithfully every day til he passed away. He was the guy that told me about the dual system.
 

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