Parking Brake Upgrade

Last weekend's trail carnage has me thinking about parking brake options.



Until now, I had always been satisfied with the stock setup. Once I got the rear yoke to stop leaking it worked very well. Obviously the low clearance and lack of protection finally caught up to me though. I am now trying to decide if I want to stick with the factory setup or try to upgrade.

My first thought was a disk mounted on the transfercase, but in looking at what others have done, it seems this isn't really an improvement in ground clearance? The drum is about 8.5" and from what I have seen most conversions use an 8-9" disk. Has anyone tried this with, say, a 6" disk? I am a bit skeptical about how much braking power a small disk could provide. I want to be able to trust this on even the steepest of hills.

The third option is to go with 11" rear drums with parking brake provisions. I don't really want to go that direction as I am pretty happy with the performance of my brakes and don't want to mess with them. I am also unsure if the original cane handle provides enough advantage to activate them and I don't want to change to a different handle or lever. Can anyone comment on this?

 

I started a similar topic last week.

Parking Brake Delete Questions

I already have 11' rear brakes so I'm more looking for ways to activate them.
Howards post above looks like something I could make.

Howard, Do you think that long cable is available? Do you think it would it attach to '73 11" drums?

 

I’d have no hesitation is trusting the strength of a rotor from a snowmobile, and a caliper from the front wheel of a modern dirt bike.
On the flip side, I’m not sure about the legalities of a hydraulic parking brake. I think they need to be mechanically applied. Maybe somebody makes a cable-actuated caliper for a snowmobile?

I started going down the “parking brake alternative” path many years ago with the rear rotor and a front caliper from an 80’s Subaru. The rear rotor is 9” wide (it’s bigger than what you’re after, but a heavy unit that would resist damage) and has a 4-bolt mount that would be easy to adapt to, and the front caliper has the manual e-brake assembly built in. Right as I was about to go forward with it, I grenaded the D18 and swapped in a D20. I still have the parts 20 years later...

 

I used Toyota stuff and fabbed a disc parking brake on the transfer case. I also used a foot pedal from a 75 Blazer to engage.
Disk brake on transfer case

 

Wilwood makes some mechanically actuated calipers: Wilwood Disc Brakes - mc4 mechanical Calipers

Not super cheap but specialty things never are.

 

Howard and FinoCJ, thanks, that is great info.

Strength as in brake torque? Or as in durability? I'm looking strictly as cable systems. I wonder if a combination hydraulic/cable caliper would work without the hydraulic system hooked up?

What is the diameter of the rotor you used?

 

If you did that kind of damage to a D18 parking brake drum, why would you want two cables hanging down there to rip off?

I know around here, parking brake cables wouldn't last long.

 

Why not just improve your skid plate? The original will and does bend then doesn't provide any protection to the drum at all. Just bolt a additional 1/2" plate to the original skid plate and add more length and width to cover the drum setup. The 11" rear drum plate backing plates for the more modern ebrake setup are made from unobtainium.

 

Holding power.

 

Repair the current set-up and install the skid plate.

 

Mechanical calipers are all over the place in ATV's, Snomobiles and Go-Karts, they're not hard to find, and won't break the bank, if that's the direction you want to go.

Manual Brake Caliper - GoPowerSports.com

If you're just using it as something to act as a parking brake, I've no doubt this thing would generate enough force to hold a vehicle in place. Not sure I'd trust it to *stop* the weight of a moving jeep, but I'd trust it to be there when I got back, in an application like a driveline brake.

 

Fair point. I will definitely be improving the skid plate if I stick with the drum brake. I found this picture of an extension to cover the drum.

I'd want some extra support back there though, since like you said the factory skid already has a tendency to bend.

I figured the 11" drum ebrake setup would have less vulnerable parts hanging down, but I have never actually seen it in person so maybe not. I was certainly surprised how little it took to break the drum!

 

Don’t overlook the fact that the driveline-mounted brake has a (axle ratio):1 mechanical advantage over the brakes at the wheels, so it’ll take less effort to hold the load there than it would at the wheel.

Stopping is a different story, since it’ll build heat that many times quicker.

 

did you drop it on a large rock