Project Hazey

[DemonMudder]

No more word on the clicking, didn't check it out, but will wait for it to resurface before tampering (don't want to tempt fate!).

There was an excessive amount of resistance on the parking brake pedal when bought, and it didn't seem to engage well (if at all); adjusted both sides, and the left side doesn't seem to be grabbing when the pedal is kicked. After adjustment, the right side grabs just fine (for what little these parking brakes are worth any way) but the left side isn't doing anything. If I adjust it manually, it grabs, just not with the pedal. Fun fun.

I honestly dislike the parking brake design on these and would like to ditch it on both of my Ex's, and just connect a steel cable to the parking brake pedal, and run it to two extra calipers on the rear brake discs. Essentially the same function as a line lock, except it would use its own line, and its own calipers. THEN it would stay put for sure!

I'm sure the parts exist to put an extra pair of calipers on Mustang 8.8's... May be I'll actually attempt this stupidity and see what happens.

Get going, I'm sure many others will follow your lead on that as well!

 

[DintDobbs]

@DemonMudder Don't tempt me, I've been toying around with this idea for years, just never had any real issues with the weak factory brake on the Vulture. If I installed a ratchet handle besides the kick lever, I could have two parking brakes set up like this, one for the front and one for the rear. Hmm...

 

[DemonMudder]

@DemonMudder Don't tempt me, I've been toying around with this idea for years, just never had any real issues with the weak factory brake on the Vulture. If I installed a ratchet handle besides the kick lever, I could have two parking brakes set up like this, one for the front and one for the rear. Hmm...

I shall tempt you! As said, I'm sure many will follow ya, can't be the only one with a similar issue! Besides, it'll just be nicer anyway.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

I shall tempt you! As said, I'm sure many will follow ya, can't be the only one with a similar issue! Besides, it'll just be nicer anyway.

hes a bad influence... but im on his side if you post on EF you are opening yourself up to the ideas of others

 

[DemonMudder]

hes a bad influence... but im on his side if you post on EF you are opening yourself up to the ideas of others

Oh c'mon, I'm not a bad influence at all...totally.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

Oh c'mon, I'm not a bad influence at all...totally.

sure, sure mr v8 swap!!! or... i could name a few more LOL! but we all are in some way or another!

 

[DintDobbs]

It has to be possible. There's no way I'm the only one who has thought of doing this, but I haven't been able to find ANY information on this type of "performance E-brake" on the whole mass of the Internet. Honestly, why don't companies just make them like this from the start...?

Been searching on and off for years, nothing. May be I'm inept and can't find the search term, but I never had trouble searching for any thing else.

Thing spins. Grab thing to make it stop spinning. Devise most complicated method possible to negate chances of successful operation. This seems to be the way Ford was thinking, on these parking brakes.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

soeone had mentioned mustang brakes maybe it was @CDW6212R possibly.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

Convert to Mustang GT Hand Operated E-Brake

Question: Has anybody ever converted their Ex's foot activated parking/emergency brake to a Mustang Type Center Console Hand Operated Type? Any links or info appreciated.

www.explorerforum.com

 

[CDW6212R]

Most of the later 90's Fords were changing to the rear drum in disc type of parking brake. I think they all are fairly weak, but worst, do not hold well after any kind of wear or loosening of the adjustment.

To get the parking brake to work the best, it has to be manually adjusted very tight, so the rear discs actually drag a lot when you put it on after adjusting them.

I posted that I would likely adapt some spare rear discs from a 2004 Crown Vic that I got ages ago for my Lincoln. The CV rear brakes are as large as the Cobra rear brakes, but still bigger(they have larger calipers). The trouble with those is that they are rotated differently, and the parking brake cable goes in perpendicular, not at an angle. So that cable requires a bracket mounted(welded) to the rear housing, the cable has to be held still there. So it can be swapped, but the parking brake is probably not really any stronger(my guess). The 2003-2011 rear brakes are the same on all Crown Vic's, Town Cars, and Grand Marquis.

A strong parking brake would likely best come from a late 80's Ford, most Lincolns with a 302 and 8.8 rear. Those would have an old style caliper, with a screw in piston too.

 

[Explorer2.0]

Concerning the thumping sound, possibly the blend door... Our '95 does the same if temp fully clockwise. If we back off to roughly 3 o'clock position it's silent.

Good luck!

[Edited to 3 o'clock position from 9 o'clock.]

 

[DintDobbs]

@CDW6212R Thanks for the recommendation, might look into some thing of that sort! I've been toying around with upgraded parking brake options for years on The Vulture, but never did any thing because that one still works correctly. Now I might just have a reason to mess with it.

For those interested in the handle / dual-handle idea, I've heard tell that Aerostars (which share the platform with Ex's) had the hand brake, so there's a potential option for any one else who might try this kind of dual-setup, or just wants to change to a handle in stead of a kick pedal. I'd like to go dual, twin E-brakes that I can lock independently of the regular brakes, plus maybe delete the ratchet on the "front" e-brake so it doesn't stay on (allow steering control with rear locked). Or some thing. What I'll most likely do is just go with the factory setup, just find a working example and swap it over... But eventually, I really want to try this, on some vehicle. I know it's possible.

@Explorer2.0 My deal is that I can't know if the heat is flowing or not, with the temperature being so high in the summers here!

 

[CDW6212R]

If you are after a solid parking brake, not a drifting feature, you could install a line lock in the rear brake line. That would hold the rear brake pressure in when you activate it.

I had a device like that made for fork lifts, they used it for a parking brake. I installed it in my front lines of my first mail car, a 1986 Crown Vic 351W. I wired that one in so when the shifter went into park, it electrically shut the brake pressure solenoid. That one was designed so the electrical input locked it, and to release it required applying the brake harder than when the pressure was captured. That worked for me, it locked the front brakes automatically when I parked every time. Then to release it, I pushed the brake a little harder than when I had put the shifter into park.

I don't know how automotive line locks work completely, the device I bought worked for what I needed it for(safety to prevent a roll away). You have to be careful with the main brake lines of all vehicles, and ABS complicates things like modifying them. Such a device has to be placed down stream of the ABS module.

 

[DintDobbs]

@CDW6212R I saw a lot of line-lockers on the Jeep forums who had switched to Ford 8.8's, because of the 8.8's weak parking brakes, but a line lock is the exact opposite of what I'm looking for. I require an EMERGENCY brake, not so much a parking brake. A drift brake with a ratchet handle (factory P-brake pedal would be fine, for rear-only setup) would be the most desirable option, for me. In the event of a rear brake failure, the line lock would serve no function, thereby defeating its purpose. But when rolling, at least with the 4.10's and/or oversized tires, the parking brake is woefully inadequate for slowing such a heavy vehicle. To keep it stopped, when already stopped, the weak factory brake is probably sufficient.

Even so, I also found the line lock to be an excellent option for a PARKING brake. But an alternative braking system for emergencies is my goal, and since the factory parking brake is about worthless any way, it just makes sense in my mind to take out the bad and use the space better.

 

[CDW6212R]

Not many parking brakes are adequate for any emergency usage, it annoys me when people call them emergency brakes. It takes some serious force to slow down a vehicle, and bigger wheels and weight is even harder to deal with. I'm not sure what would be a good answer for an emergency brake system to upgrade to for these trucks.

I think a first step should be to make the existing brakes more reliable. Find stainless steel hoses to replace the flexible ones, and one upgrade for the 95-01 brakes is to swap the spindles from a 2001 and up Sport or Sport Trac. That gains a one inch larger rotor, without changing the calipers or pads.

 

[DintDobbs]

@CDW6212R I agree, people with no understanding of the difference between a parking brake and an emergency brake irritate me as well.

The factory brakes are sufficient for the 33's on The Vulture; I can dead stop all four wheels on dry pavement (ABS kicks in). When they wear out, I plan to switch to same-size drilled and slotted rotors (and possibly calipers and pads) by PowerStop. An emergency brake is really my only concern. I've contemplated full custom jobs, but of course always hit the dead end that I can't find any reasonably-common setup that uses anything similar to my idea. I thought may be some race car shops might be helpful, for the experience of drift brake functions, only major difference here is that I'd use a ratchet handle in stead of a free handle.

How hard can it be to rig up some device that just uses the pull of a cable to make the caliper grab the rotor? I'll try to figure it out, but with some big wheeling coming up for The Vulture in the next few weeks, I've got my priorities elsewhere for now. Dual caliper setup for a Mustang 8.8 is still my favorite idea for adding another set, if a kit exists; otherwise, I'll probably have to go full custom here.

Useful bit of advice for the '01+ Sport/1st-gen Sport Trac brake rotors, nice to know that they'll fit with the same calipers/pads!

 

[CDW6212R]

The factory rear calipers on the drum style of parking brakes have no connection to the parking brake cables, they are hydraulic only. So to control a caliper with the cables will need to be the old type of caliper that uses the cables to engage the caliper pistons for the parking brake function. I'd be looking at the late 80's cars for a small rear caliper with the largest pistons possible, in a small package of course. Then you might find an 8.8 rear brake style that has room for another caliper mounted on the same rotor. But that might end up being redundant, those brakes will likely be the cable operated style(no inner drum parking assembly).

FYI, the trucks often have larger caliper piston sizes, for example the Mustang Cobra uses a rear caliper that is about 1.5" or so in size. The 2nd gen Explorers are about 1.8" pistons, and the last Crown Vic's are there too, maybe they were 1.9", but in the end, larger than the Mustang's. The Mark VII's all had rear calipers, and the 1st generation(1984-1989) had what I consider a little more robust caliper, the screw in pistons, a popular design of the 80's. The 90-92 models had the smaller type which later went onto the 1994+ Mustang rears, kind of fragile(more pad wear issues).

 

[DintDobbs]

@CDW6212R Helpful information there, will definitely be useful in selecting the hardware. As far as "redundancy" goes, I'll be ditching the factory parking brake in favor of this emergency brake, if/when the time comes, and hopefully rig it to the factory pedal. Brake failure is one of my worst fears, and the absence of a real brake to use in case of failure lingers in my mind. Not that I'm afraid I won't be able to control the vehicle in that event, but that I'm scared of the insurance payment for the guy's Range Rover that will invariably reach out and touch my Ex if it ever happens.

 

[DintDobbs]

Update concerning the clicking inside the dash: it seems to be associated with running the A/C temp close to the external temp. Possibly short cycling and/or alternating between A/C and heat? Not sure, automatic climate control isn't something familiar to me. I ran the heat on a cooler day just to see if it works; A/C works on both hot and cold, so that's good to know for the winter. (Still don't know about the seat heaters, though.) Doesn't seem to cool or heat when in "Vent" mode, so I'm guessing that just blows outside air into the cabin. I'll check up in the manual some time, when I have time.

I'll be breaking this baby in for real when the sun comes up, going to take Hazey for a long-awaited road trip to NC's scenic barrier islands to see the wild horses.

If I'd taken my vacation a week sooner, I could have met with @donalds , he'd have been within just a few hours of this area. Some day, I will see the legend with my own eyes...

 

[CDW6212R]

Enjoy that trip and I hope the truck does great. The VENT position does just bring in outside air to the dash vents, no cooling but it should heat when the setting is warm enough.