1961 Buick parking brake issues

The wife pressed the park brake this morning and pushed it down as far as it would go. I could not get it to disengage. After a lot of trial and error I had to drive it back in the garage so I could get it up in the air. This is what I found. I pounded it back into the notch and the ebrake works fine. My question, what caused this? And what can I do to prevent it from happening again? Its her 61 Buick. And it only takes 5 clicks to engage the park brake which she probably did 10. She always uses the ebrake .so I'd like to make it safe for her

 

anyone?

 

I was wondering if there was something in the pedal mechanism that should stop you from pushing the pedal down too far..

 

I would make sure everything is lubed up. Remove the cables themselves, clean off the rust. I did the ones in my Ford with white lube. Is there a separate front cable that comes off the pedal? As a last resort you could bolt a piece of angle iron over the slot so the tab would be less liable to pop all the way out.

 

I was thinking about that bob. might be a good idea. How's your 59 coming along? Save me your spare parts! when i'm finished with my 51 pickup i'll start restoring my galaxie.

 

The '59 is going back together finally and I'm sure I'll have some leftovers at the end!

 

How is the rear brake adjustment
my guess would be if adjustment is set the peddle should not move that far.

 

Actually I thought I had the brakes adjusted a little too tight. Pretty much adjusted them and with tires on, i'm able to spin it one complete turn, then again, i'm not really an expert on adjusting drum brakes.

 

When I adjust them I like to tighten the adjuster as tight as I can then back them off wile counting how many turns tell the wheel turns with a light drag then do the other the same so you will be close right to left and not have a brake pull one way or the other.
Then I adjust the park brake as needed.