Henry published patent US 1850006 A in March 1932
The patent detailed a new improved braking system
It appears he was still sticking doggedly to the mechanical operation of brakes at this time.
You can see the full details here
As you may know the car came with a very poor quality hydraulic brake conversion, to rectify this I gathered the parts to convert the system to the superior 46-48 single adjuster system. I was however missing two grease boxes for the rear. Luckily I’ve managed to track down a pair on eBay from a nice gentleman called Al for a very reasonable cost. Hopefully these will be winging across the pond shortly!
Whilst the brake work recently we fitted a new brake light switch. The wiring done by the previous owner was pretty untidy, so with some loom covering, cloth tape etc it all looks a bit better!
Those who know my A will know that it had a pretty bad hydraulic brake conversion.
I’ve been gathering parts to rectify the mess for quite a while, whilst the car is at Simon’s it’s an ideal opportunity to get things sorted:
As always Simon did a great job on everything with a small bit of help from yours truly!
Nice evening so I thought I’d test build the front brakes before fitting in July. No wheel cylinders as I’m hoping to use the relatively new ones that are on the existing back plates. It was a useful exercise and gave me some assurance that I’ve got all the bits to fit them in anger. The shoes are the nice Bob Drake type from Miles at Jack hammer. One downside was that when I took the shoes out of the box there was a dent in a couple of the shoes. Not the end of the world, but a little miffed all the same. Now waiting for Miles to get his next order from Bob Drake so I can build up the rears at least a little. Won’t be able to do too much as I need to reuse the existing handbrake levers.
Whilst I’ve gone as far as I can on the oil pan until the next parts delivery I thought I’d do a little bit of work on the excellent set of backing plates I purchased from the States. The adjusters were a little rusted and stuck so a little freeing up was in order.
The weather is getting more spring like by the day which means those of us with limited workshop space can start working on our jalopies. I’ve spun the coupe around so that I can remove and clean the sump out. Also I can hopefully get the front axle removed and get the kingpins, brakes, dog bones and all the other front stuff whilst leaving the car in place. But as you can see, space is a bit tight 🙂
Good news on sorting my braking issues!
The hydraulic brake conversion done previously is a bit of a mess as you will have seen from previous posts. The backing plates had not been reworked for the Model A and are quite corroded. Via an advert in the Ford Barn I’ve managed to track down an unmolested full set of 42 -48 backing plates. These are far more preferable due to the simplified brake adjustment. The combined centre and heel adjustment of the earlier system is a real pain to adjust.
Just need them to arrive from across the pond and we can get cracking, in the meantime I’ll need to track down someone to reline my existing shoes as the rears are badly worn.
I’ve got the following issues with the right hand rear brake
Expecting more grief from the rest of the “upgrades” to the braking system 😦
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