MTFCA Forum

My handbrake pawl has never “grabbed” the teeth of the controller quadrant. I have lived w/o a locking handbrake for 5 years. Time to fix this! The teeth on the quad are excellent but the pawl is rounded and barely touches the teeth. I have read several forum threads on replacing the pawl and all seem to lead me to “remove the whole hand brake arm and cross shaft from the car to do the work”. Sounds easy enough, but I am not clear exactly how that is done? Anyone have some photos and steps by step to go through this? I do have Rocky Mtn Breaks that may add some issues… Appreciate any advice.

That entire handbrake shaft is easy to remove. Just two bolts on each frame, can't remember if there's anything else, per se, but the kit and caboodle will tell you once you start removing it. Obviously you'll disconnect the two brake rods first!! It's no problem.

Once the control shaft is removed don't forget to clean out and maintenance the oiler holes
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/82 ... 1542391088

The equalizer of the Rocky Mountain brakes hangs loosely from the shaft of the hand brake. If you just remove the two straps and remove the pins and the shaft, you should be able to re-install the shaft without making any other brake adjustments, unless you need to adjust the brakes anyway.

After you replace the pawl, when you apply the hand brake, squeeze the lever and pull back without the pawl contacting the quadrant until you get it back all the way, then just let go of the squeeze and pull it as far as you can. Usually just one click. That will extend the life of your new pawl.
Norm

You can refer easily to Ford Service, paragraph 59 to remove and paragraph 67 to install that control shaft.

While you have it out check the flat spring on the handbrake handle, Mine just broke the other day and it would be a lot easier to replace with the whole assembly out of the car. In other word if the pawl is worn out the spring more than likely is also. Fix it while it's easy. Jim

Thanks all. Dan - I looked all over the darn manual for that page - One would think "handbrake" or Pawl or control quad etc would have pointed there! Anyway looks and sounds easy enough. Thanks!

As pointed out before in past posts there is a small felt in the 2 small oiler holes. I found that out a few years ago when reading the forum. The felts act sort as of a wick for the oil to seep into the shaft.
I’ve had a few of the handbrake assemblies out of the cars
I have worked on and thought I was cleaning out dirt or gunk out the holes which was the remains of the oiler felts!
I don’t know if any of the parts suppliers have them and lots of T’s don’t have them after a clean up the the handbrake.
It’s an overlooked item that usually doesn’t get put back in.

Just cut a piece off of the fuel line felt thing that goes to the carb fitting. Works just as well. Or buy any felt anywhere. No need to complicate it.

They dont all have felt or holes. A drop of oil on both sides of the pillow blocks will do the job.

TRDxB2 wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 20, 2021 8:29 pm

Once the control shaft is removed don't forget to clean out and maintenance the oiler holes

speedytinc wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 21, 2021 11:16 am

They dont all have felt or holes. A drop of oil on both sides of the pillow blocks will do the job.

Don't get excited if they are not there, they disappeared for a short time in 1921 (4-1-21, APR 1 Acc. 575, Box 14, #832, Ford Archives
Oil holes in the frame rails for the brake lever shaft discontinued.) and were reinstated not too long after that. I could never find any reference as to when they came back, but they did. Most have them but all do not.

Get it done! I had a collision recently because the handbrake lever slipped forward and the car went into high gear. This is dangerous, and a must do repair! No joke, Bill

It's Bill wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 21, 2021 5:02 pm

Get it done! I had a collision recently because the handbrake lever slipped forward and the car went into high gear. This is dangerous, and a must do repair! No joke, Bill

This happened to our vegetable man during the 1940's. He used to go to the top of the hill, turn around and then make his stops on the way down. He was in front of our house and he had a piece of corregated cardboard on the floor board with a stick pushing the brake handle back. Now I presume the pawl and ratchet were worn out. As he was out of the truck at the time, the stick slipped and the truck went into high gear going down the hill. He went running after it and it crashed into a pole. He only came back one more time on foot to collect the money some of the neighbors owed him. Someone asked him how old he was at the time and he said 76.
Norm

Absolutely! A good pawl and quadrant is a must. Some T’s over the years have there quadrants worn almost smooth by years of people pulling the hand brake back and not pressing on the pawl release. It’s amazing at looking at the remains of T frames over the years and seeing how bad some were worn. I have 2 10 ft garage doors and when I start my T’s I always raise the doors. After all that’s holding your T back is that pawl!

Steve Jelf wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 21, 2021 3:04 pm

If you squeeze the handle when you apply the brakes instead of dragging the ratchet along the quadrant, both ratchet and quadrant will last longer.

Always in my Ts, and my father taught me to do the same with modern cars too. Even as a teenager, I always held the button in while pulling the parking brake on in my VW Bug. I still do the same with my TDI Jetta Sportwagen. But now that I think about it, I have never held the brake release while applying the pedal-style parking brake in any of my modern (1960 through 1999) Suburbans. Funny thing, that…

Eric

My Kamper has a welded pawl done by Stan Howe when I was in Montana.
When the Kamper was being restored I gave it to my welding mate who passed it onto his apprentice, he MIG welded it (poorly) . Just before I reached Montana the tip broke off where it was welded, luckily Montana is pretty flat, lots of places it could have been a big problem. It took myself and Stan about an hour to remove the whole lever mechanism weld up the pawl tip and replace it all back together. Actually longer as we did lots of chin wagging in between.

Just about a side of the road repair (except for the actual welding ) so no major fix. Good advice holding the pawl away when pulling on the brake lever.

After you get the old felt out, clean it out real good and flush it. Don't forget to put a new felt in too. Some years have a larger square felt.
There were two types of pawls. The early ones I think were forged. The late ones were folded somehow, and probably heat treated.

I want to reinforce what Bill has said about replacing the worn pawl. A friend of mine named Brian Roberts had a worn pawl on his 1923 Roadster. One of his goals for this Winter was to replace the pawl as it had slipped into gear on several occasions. Brian was scheduled to take his Model T up to the assisted living facility n Chadorn, for rides and display for the folks living there. When he did not show up they went to look for him. He was found pinned under the Model T and was not responsive and could not be revived. The corner determined that he was in front of the car cranking the car when it started , the lever slipped into high gear and crushed him between the car and the wall of the garage. This happened on October 16, 2021, he was 63. I have been told of close calls by two other Model T owners of similar events with a worn brake pawl on their Model T. It is one of the most important repairs to make and an easy one at that. Bill is correct, it is "no joke".

Even if the pawl is good, it is a very smart idea to chock the front wheels when cranking the car, because they can slip when unexpected. Also pertains to parking on a hill. If there is no curb to turn the wheels, a chock should be placed in the direction the car would roll with the brake off.
Norm

To add what I posted about opening the garage door when I’m starting my T’s I always put a 2 by 4 in front of my cars when I start them to run them when I get out of the cars to warm them up or to run them a good while. The above post can happen if you take for granted the hand brake and it’s condition.
It’s sort of like working on a car when we use to use a bumper jack alone to hold up the car so you could crawl under it. We would trust the bumper jack not to fail. And I only did it a couple of times that I can remember! I guess I was young and dumb! No doubt about that.