The e-brake on my 75 sucks, and, according to many members here, so does everyone else's. I saw a thread about this kit, but never a follow up... so im curious as to if anyone installed it. SSBC seems to sell a mechanically operated aluminium caliper just for parking brake purposes. Does anyone have this?

 

I was thinking about getting that last year when I was looking at doing the same thing but they wanted I think around $300 for it. When I do this mod I am going to use this Wilwood mechanical spot caliper.


http://www.spidertrax.com/s.nl/sc.2/...t.A/id.1054/.f

It isn't wide enough for our rotors but it should unbolt into two sections and you can put in a spacer to make it wide enough. The only problem is, I dont know if Wilwood still manufactures them...

 

Don't get mad at me for posting what I did. This is my solution to a problem. It actually was a simple solution.
If anyone want to try this I would sell 2 new calipers and 2 new master cylinders for $100 CDN

I used a hydraulic caliper with 2 live pistons. Since it wasn’t wide enough for our rotors I added a spacer.
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I then mounted a master cylinder behind my stock parking brake mechanism and added a spur to the exist handle. It feels and acts like a normal manual cable. You could not feel the difference.

It was a simple matter to mount the caliper on the trailing arm. It is very light weight and with the wheel on looks ok

 

i love the idea, but can you really use that as a parking brake? as a temporary use emergency brake, maybe... but i hear that hydraulic brakes won't hold under pressure for extended periods of time (as in a few hours).

 

If anyone want to try this I would sell 2 new calipers and 2 new master cylinders for $100 CDN

I'll take 'em Norval. How?

 

OK, on this hydraulic locking brakes up thingy no matter the application....

according to the maker, I forget who or where damnit, that supplied a simple inline locking valve for the FRONT brakes for my tow car GTO/lemans convertible....I used to tow a boat (at great speed) behind it....well when on the launch ramps, the car was just in park, and having seen demonstrated just perzactly what happens when it 'slips' outta park....some other poor guy......fugly site.....well I put this front brake sort of line lock in the car....

it was advertized as a temporary front brake lock ONLY with a max hold time of 30 minits....it held fast on the front calipers, and sure enough, about 30-45 minits later, on my driveway...the car would creep backwards due to loss of pressures in the hydraulics....dunno why this was so, but it sure was consistant....so it was applied by pressing on the pedal quite firm, pushing the button on the lock up device, then getting outta the car secure enough it was not sliding back down the ramp....I wet loaded/unloaded my boats...so the rear wheels were typically wet...so even IF the tranny didn't pop outta park, the entire rig COULD slip down the slop...but NOT with the engine on the front and brakes locked....so....

but that experience told ME that hydraulics will not hold over long periods of time but that makes me wonder about bucket loaders/etc parked in the up position overnight....so I dunno....then again they using hydraulic fluid, not that damn crap brake fluid....

GENE

 

I know the newer vipers have a caliper for the parking brake, whether hydralic or manual, i'm not sure. Probably not much help.

 

Mine is NOT a parking brake. For parking I just leave it in gear. It will not creep. Mine is an emergency brake in the evet my main brakes fail and also a brake for a safety inspection or a routine side of the road police check.
Used for what I plan doesn't involve long term holding. It just needs to be there for that one critical stop if the main brakes fail.

 

You are certainly welcome to a set but you pay shipping. If you want to PM me we can arrange something.

 

i take all the help i can get, thanks for the input... is there anyone that's done this? i talked to a mechanic buddy of mine, and he says kits like this for other muscle cars are out there... with mechanical calipers.

 

The lincoln had mechanical calipers and hydraulic all in the same caliper. The emergency brake just involved pulling a lever that screwed one of the pucks into the rotor. I have a set of these calipers in the shop.

 

Cool setup, Norval.

This points out the real difference between an emergency brake and a parking brake. (The Vette manuals call this mechanism a "parking" brake - I'm pretty sure because it wouldn't really do any good in an emergency).

 

Holden used a set up in the late 70's where the rear calipers had a lever/screw arangement for a mechanical park brake. Sound like Lincoln did a similar thing. I will ask a friend who has had experience with them about the efficiency of them as a park brake and/or an emergency brake.
It had a single piston and the mechanical piston on the inside. The caliper is not a match for the Vette's so I would not use it to replace the Vette caliper. It was also for a much thinner rotor and a floating design. Maybe the design could be adapted to make just a park brake out of it.

 

those ssbc punks won't sell the little mechanical calipers alone, and they dont make a kit for the corvette. i guess ill just rebuild my parking brake for now... maybe at some point ill try to weld on my own custom bracket.. i'll let you guys know if i do.

 

Then just buy the Wilwood one, you can get it from Precision brakes also, then it has their logo on it but it's the wilwood spot caliper