What Was Wrong With Parking Brake on Driveshaft?

in-too-deep · Feb 5, 2012

IH pickups and heavy trucks had em...possibly other flavors, too. Why'd they quit? Shorter cable, up out of the salt and mud, more accesible, half the parts, just better all around if you were to ask me.

Don Hopf · Feb 5, 2012

With the emergency brake on the rear of the transmission, when the driveshaft or u-joint would break there would be no emergency brake.

old · Feb 5, 2012

I have a ford 1 ton with it and it has never worked. They where hard on the U-joints and if you tried to to use them to stop a truck you could end up with a broken drive shaft or U-joints

Dean · Feb 5, 2012

The driveshaft brake provided a brake on a single wheel in many circumstances but the design was discontinued due to the increased cost vis a vis that of adding theh parking function to the existing rear wheel drum brakes.

Dean

Roger in Iowa · Feb 5, 2012

When parked on ice, one wheel will turn forward and other backward and the car/truck goes down hill. Saw it happen. Can still happen with car in park.

With park brake set on both rear wheels two wheels have to slide.

Fritz Maurer · Feb 5, 2012

One problem might be if the vehicle has a open differential, if one wheel is permitted to rotate backwards in slippery conditions, the truck could still move. I'm with you, though, it was certainly adequate in 99% of the cases it was used. I'm reasonably certain the DOT had something to do with it's demise. The same scenario exists with today's automatics, but they're all equipped with wheel parking brakes.

rrlund · Feb 5, 2012

When I was abou 2 years old,I found the problem with them. There was a hole in the floor of Dads milk truck and I sat there with my foot on the drum until my mother smelled something burning. It was the sole of my shoe.

Bob Bancroft · Feb 5, 2012

A few years back a friend bought a new low profile Navistar delivery truck for his egg farm. They couldn't keep the output seal in the auto. tranny. I'll never forget backing up to a store(with a SLIGHT incline), pulling on the old fashioned driveshaft parking brake, letting my foot off the brakes, and the truck creeping forward!

PJH · Feb 5, 2012

Well - I always thought it was due to the increased speed of the driveshaft compared to the wheel. If the wheel is turning 50 MPH, the driveshaft is turning 200, or thereabouts. Plus the differiential action allowing one wheel to slip as others said.

I'll never forget riding in our '53 Chevy firetruck when the brakes failed. The firechief was sitting in the middle and had both feet against the dash as he pulled with all his might on the floor mounted E-brake lever. I think the harder he pulled, the faster we went. God was watching over us that day. . .

Owen Aaland · Feb 5, 2012

If the truck has air brakes it was simple matter to include a parking brake as part of the air brake system.

GM used a drive shaft mounted parking brakes with hydraulic brake systems until the quit making medium duty trucks.

Ford built a lot of their medium duty trucks with Lucas Girling brakes on the rear. That system used a spring applied, hydraulically released parking brake on the rear drums. The parking brake system is a lot like wedge style air brakes but used hydraulics rather than air to release them.

Russ from MN · Feb 5, 2012

I have vivid memories of my dad and I going down the hill in our 48 IH K6! There seemed to be no foot brake at all, and dad had forgotten to slow down at the top. Like someone said, I had both feet on the firewall and pulling! Dad said, you know, if no one is coming down the highway we might make it! Well, there was someone coming so we put it in the snowbank. Had to walk home and get the tractor to pull it out! Memories!

heavyhaulertoo · Feb 5, 2012

I* owned a 1973 chevy twin screw two stick 427 5x4 tran, it had a disk brake on the driveshaft, with no air parking brake. That was one reason to trade it off, it wouldn't hold on a slite grade!! It wasn't a good thing, it would role right out the elevator driveway!!!

D15DAN · Feb 5, 2012

We have a 2000 F650 with a driveshaft brake. Won't hold on a hill if its loaded. I really don't even trust it to hold when its empty. Thats whats wrong with it.

mkirsch · Feb 5, 2012

(quoted from post at 13:09:37 02/05/12) IH pickups and heavy trucks had em...possibly other flavors, too. Why'd they quit? Shorter cable, up out of the salt and mud, more accesible, half the parts, just better all around if you were to ask me.

Yeah, they were better in every respect except one: They didn't work.

JOCCO · Feb 5, 2012

All have some good points yes they were hard to keep in adjustment so no did not work well. If driveshart failed no e brake. ice and one wheel would slip yes. BUT ON BIG TRUCKS YEARS BACK THEY HAD A 2 SPEED AXEL BIG PROBLEM WAS IF REAREND POPPED IN NEUTRAL AS VACUME SYSTEMS DID YOU WERE IN FREE WHEEL. It was old desinge from 20's 30's and got us buy but newer systems tend to be better (ie air brakes)

Bryan inIowa · Feb 5, 2012

I have fleet of chevy W4500's that i work on . 2005-2009 all have trans mounted driveshaft parking brake .

JDseller · Feb 5, 2012

I remember fixing the fence where the milk truck went through it. He had started to pull out of the drive way. He popped the u-joint at the transmission. The drive shaft whipped around and cut the brake lines. He had no brakes at all. He rolled back down the driveway between the barns and went into the pasture. Grand Dad said it look like he was going 50 mph when he went by the barn.

The transmission mounted parking brakes needs adjusting often. Plus alarms where not in use then so many where ruined by driving with them on.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 5, 2012

I had a '53 Chevy 2-ton with the e-brake on a drum behind the tranny. I was hauling a load of hay one time and ran a rope over the cab to the front bumper. The cab started filling with smoke, no extingusher, on a back road. I stuck my head out the window and kept going another mile to the main road. I had squashed the rotten cab onto the break drum and the grease under the cab was on fire. Luckily another truck stopped with an extinguisher.

big fred · Feb 5, 2012

On a truck with a vacuum 2-spd axle, the axle could slip out of gear with the engine off if you didn't have it in the right position when you shut off the engine. When that happened, you had no parking brake anymore...

Ultradog MN · Feb 5, 2012

They also eat horsepower.
Think about spinning that 10 lb drum over a thousand times a minute. In this day of trying to increase mileage it is just plain inefficient.
Future generations will never know what a Johnson bar was.

Bob Bancroft · Feb 5, 2012

That reminds me!- I remember my family telling about a field of grain and straw burning because of a truck driven across the field with the parking brake on.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 5, 2012

Isuzu NPR's, and chebbie cabovers of late vintage have them, I have an NPR, with 100K miles on it, never had a problem with it, knock on wood!

john *.?-!.* cub owner · Feb 5, 2012

Try using a drive shaft mounted parking brake to hold a vehicle on a hill while you jack up a wheel to change the flat tire.

ShadetreeRet · Feb 5, 2012

As has already been covered, most of them didn't work properly. You only had one brake around he driveshaft as opposed to two on the rear wheels. Internally expanding brakes exert a greater amount of pressure than a wrap around band.

36 Coupe · Feb 6, 2012

Same thing happened to a lime truck here.He lost the driveshaft and brakes 2 miles from the iter section.He had an uphill spot where he could have gone into the brush but kept on.The truck got thru the intersection but went into the ditch.Body broke off and took a post off the porch.Gas tank cme off and took fire.When the band had to be replaced you had to punch a hole in the floor to get the long mounting bolt out.It was hard to adjust the band so it didnt drag and heat up.

What Was Wrong With Parking Brake on Driveshaft?

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