Technical I drove for 10 miles with the parking brake on

A big stupid one, that's what kind..

So now it does almost nothing. Car stops OK, might just be the front brakes. Could the shoes just be glazed or are they toast? 'Cause normally, if you ride the brakes down a long hill they still work OK.

 

Adjust them and see if they are still OK. Or to put your mind to rest pull a rear drum and inspect the linings to be sure they are not fried and crazed or cracked.
That's nuthin. I once drove 30 miles with my left blinker on.
Crazy Grampa.

 

That’s a drag.

 

Oh, shoe't....

 

You're not the first one to do it.

 

The car behind you got a nose full of stank.

 

I did it for about ten parking spaces last Friday night before I realized it.

 

I've done it several times. The darn things won't hold well enough to stop me. By the time I smell the stink, things have gotten hot. I now put a magnetic dash plaque on my dash when I engage them. It reminds me to release them before I take off......most of the time.

 

I've gone further than that. When you don't stop, you leave the burning smell behind, but the car makes up for it when you stop. But, if you're old, you kinda have a built in excuse

 

That's for sure.
When I bought my brand new '66 Fairlane when I got home I discovered exactly that. Where I bought it had put the e brake on. Checked the rear brakes and all was still good.

 

Former NASCAR driver?

 

Don’t worry too much about it,,,,,,sounds like they weren’t working very well to start with .

Tommy

 

and no rust in the drums!

 

Getting old's a bitch. A friend was sure his clutch took a dump. Turns out he left the e brake on too. We've ALL done it at some time.

 

That's okay, your brake shoes fit the drums really good now.

 

I was drinking soda when I saw the above post; gave my keyboard a diet coke shower..

 

Welcome to old age.

 

Right on!

Ben

 

Likely just need readjust! If they were not smoking/burnt.

"Time for way back story"
I was on vacation with my wife in 1969 just out side of Atlanta Ga. an had one of the muffler shake off my Aunt's old 1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV,she let us use,she gave me this car later!!.
So stopped at a Midas Muffler shop to have it fixed in town< thinking at least they are also in my home town [ MIAMI FL ]
They said,we'll fix,but lets us look at your brakes for safety! I said don't bother with my brakes,but they refused to do muffler if they could not inspect brakes. Fine,look,but don't do anything to them.! I said.
They said it'll take a few hours!!
Wife wanted to go across the street to Sears n shop!! So we went.
Got back two hours later,car is still up on rack!! with wheels n drums off. WTF
The saleman is pointing at my brake shoes that were new last month by me,before going{ they are still fine!] and telling me"These are going bad,we should fix this for you also!!" At that point,I told him,thanks,but there nothing wrong and put it back together ,so I can pay you for fixing the muffler!! He said it'll take about a hour!! What a load of BS.
So we finiely get out of there!
About the time I'm running north to Ga. state line,a guy runs up beside me honking horn,rolls down his window an tells me"Your car is smoking bad"
I look an sure enough he was right!!
Smoke rolling out of right rear .
I pull off road stop an walk around to right rear,sink-O an smoke still rolling out.
After a few min. it stopped and I jacked it up,too find out what's going on!!
Midas was so pissed off,that they could not rip me off, for new brakes,they clamped the rightrear E-brake cable under the a muffler pipe clamp.
That big ass monster Lincoln Continental Mark IV. didn't even feel the drag of e-brake on left rear.
I fixed that,adjusted it,an off we went.
Yup,I did tell Miami shop;;,that guy replace my left rear shoes free!

 

one time I did this with a OT pick up, heard car behind me honking horn - pull over and smoke is coming out from under rear - not near anywhere to get help - long way from home - stop at no mechanic gas station and water hose not working - across street from fire station - easily taken care of - found a garage that put it up on rack - one brake shoe shot - oh well, had them do the work -

 

Learned this trick on a import car a couple of years ago that I bought. It had sat for about a year with the
ebrake on. It had disc brakes in the rear, and the rotors were pitted and raised where the brakes shoes
pressed against them due to the build up of moisture. I was ready to put a new set of rotors on since
the pedal was pulsing like crazy when the brakes were applied. My buddy said, "Let me drive it and you
ride along." Went onto a side road, sped up to 50mph and he pulls the emergency lever up, hard, until
the car comes to a stop. Totally resurfaced the rotors, no more pulsing, and like new. Cheap fix.!!

 

We call that “seasoning the shoes”

 

That’s the reason they put a light on the dash now that stays in when the ebrake is on. You ain’t the first to do it! Sad thing is, I did it once in my pickup, with the damn light shining bright on the dash, I never noticed it!

 

I have an issue with symmetry so when it came to the warning lights on my 41 ford PU I had one light left over. So I mounted a micro switch on the locar e-brake. I will run the ground for the jeweled dash light through the switch. Pull the handle light comes on. The PU is for my wife to enjoy as well and she would never remember that brake.

 

This is strange to me. I did a normal brake restoration on my '51 Ford with turned drums, relined shoes, the whole bit. A car this old doesn't have self-adjusting brakes, so I go over them every year. I usually use the emergency brake when I leave the car for any period of time. If I forget to release it, the car will back up OK, but as soon as I try to go forward, it is IMMEDIATELY apparent that the emergency brake is on. I then release it and go on my way.

I believe that your brake system is not performing to factory specifications, even before this boondoogle. Who knows what else may be wrong. My suggestion is to get in there and fix whatever is amiss.

 

I lucked out- amongst the spares @Nikkerton sent me was a switch, blinker unit, light and optical factory brackets for the 1952 parking brake warning light.

So, I'm all factory optioned out now with that. The light stays on with the ignition, but when the revs come up so does the generator voltage and it begins to blink the light.

HEY DUMMY YOU FORGOT SOMETHING!

It's one "idiot light" I'm happy to have. Mind you, the parking brake is quite fierce when adjusted right, you do notice it wanting to stop the car...

Phil

 

Redneck shoe arcing.

 

If you didn’t notice then perhaps they weren’t adjusted well enough so you could notice the drag which is a drag. Now you’ll get them to spec!

 

Me too, but more than once.

I recently bought a (just O/T) '67 Holden wagon. It has a factory flashing yellow light on the dash for a handbrake warning. Love it. I can ignore a constant light, but the flashy flashy one gets my attention. Reckon it would be worth the effort replacing the constant-on dash bulbs with a flashy flashy one (or a flashing LED... though not so HAMB friendly).

Cheers,
Harv