I received some C-Clips form McMaster yesterday and tried them on the NAPA emergency brake cables in place of the poor engineered and/or manufactured clip. The machined groove in the cable housing is just too close to the backing plate to get a C-Clip to go into. The final reality is the NAPA $50 each parking brake cables just do not work due to engineering and/or manufacturing screwing up the attachment clips. So, I cleaned up the old ones and oiled them well and used them.
The other issue I ran into was when installing the shoes. The pins in the NAPA kit turned out to be too long. I suspect that they are for the 3-inch shoes (drums) and not the 2.5 shoes. They are about a fat 1/8 longer and the springs do not compress. I had to fish out the old ones and wire wheel the rust off and hit them with some Tank Tone and use them. I checked the part number for the kit, and it shows cars that we know have 3-inch drums and cars that we know have 2.5 drums all listed under this kit. Oh well.
Other than that, it is so much fun putting the springs on when the backing plate is just sitting on the bench. It has need 25 years since I did a Bendix brake rebuild. All my ‘40’s stuff is fixed anchor.
So, take a look folks and let me know if it looks like I screwed anything up.
Best, James.