Brakes Why Do Some Say Modifying The Parking Brake Is Necessary With Disc Conversion?

JohnnyK81

Member
Sep 17, 2007
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Just curious about why some people (and a specific kit) say the self adjustment mechanism needs to be disabled when switching to SN95 rear discs.

If you do NOT disable it, you are in essence just using an SN95 parking brake handle. And since you are installing SN95 rear calipers, they should mate just fine.

So what is the deal, and why do some say this is necessary? (I have installed a self-adjusting parking brake handle on my 1967, in addition to SN95 rear calipers, hence my wonder).

Thanks guys.
 
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What is special about the cables? It's only the cables that necessitate welding the parking lever?

When I did this mod to the 67, I believe I used a Generic cable from the lever.. It then went into a custom built 'equalizer', that has 3 adjustments. 1 for the front, and 2 for the rears (1 per side).. Then I had to cut down some SN95 cables, or whatever cables I used from the equalizer to the caliper.

So its only the cable that makes this necessary? What is different about one or the other?
 
The main difference between the unmodified Fox handle and an Sn95 handle is that the SN95 handle has a stopper that basically stops the self-adjust mechanism from working. So there is a difference in the two handles. The modification to the fox handle sort of duplicates this by tacking the adjust mechanism in place so that it is defeated.

Why is this critical? Well, with the self-adjust mechanism functional, there is a risk of it activating when you don't want to and slowly tightening up the cables to the point the rear disks start to drag. This is rare, but something to keep in mind might happen under certain scenarios.

I prefer the Sn95 handle because you can manually adjust the tension from inside the car, vs crawling underneath to adjust a nut on the cable used on Fox conversions. ALl you need to do is remove the adjuster stopper, set your tension, and reinstall the stopper.

The welded fox handle is, well, welded, so you really cant do this. Under the car you go.
 
The welded Fox e brake handle and FMS adjustable cable will often rub the driveshaft if you use the large FMS aluminum driveshaft. I have several scrape marks on mine for that reason.