Braking to Avoid Braking: Part II

Bolting on the splash shields, caliper brackets, calipers and rotors were easy tasks as you learned in Part I. All of the pieces fit well and only one of the shields needed a very slight massage to fit. The emergency brake setup, however, required a considerable amount of forethought and modification on our part. We managed to do it without resorting to welding in brackets and we will show you in detail what we did, so it will be less work for you.

As stated in the introduction, our '77 T/A is getting a complete new brake system, which required new emergency brake cables. We ordered stock replacement units from Year One. The cable from the pedal to the slide, which includes the adjustment rod, is new, as are the two cables that extend to the rear calipers. The cable pass-through and the connector that joins the left and right sides are both factory pieces that were stripped and repainted. This system for 1977 does not use the hook on the passenger side that holds the cable, as earlier models did. Notice the protective metal wrap on the cable at the far right of the photo. This is to protect it from the heat of the exhaust pipe. Also note that the rear cables join to the right of the cable pass-through, as they should.

The rear cables are held in place with these clips. They then travel through the rear frame rails and exit in the wheelwell area to attach to the calipers. The cables were of high quality and were insulated and protected in all the correct places.

You'll recognize this bracket from the lead photo. According to the instructions, it is supposed to be bolted in using the bottom caliper mounting bolt, which is the large black bolt (arrow) that holds the caliper to its bracket. If the cable bracket is installed here, there is no way that the lock on the cable housing, which reaches only to the front of the axle, will reach this bracket at the back of the axle. Even if it did, the spring on the free cable end would have to be cut very short in order to allow the cable to actuate and retract into the housing. The instructions from Stainless Steel Brakes Corp. say that the stock passenger side brake cable can normally be retained. It also states that, in some cases, custom cables may be required.

After determining that the emergency brake setup provided by Stainless Steel Brakes seemed to be better suited to an early F-body installation (as you will see) rather than the Second-Gen. F-body, we decided to make a bracket so that we could retain the stock cable. We wanted to keep this process as simple as possible for us and for you, we wanted a safe system that required no welding and used readily available parts. To that end, we employed this Pontiac engine accessory bracket as a donor to make a rear emergency brake cable bracket for the passenger side of the T/A. You can find these brackets anywhere, and the metal is the same thickness as the main driver's side bracket that was provided by Stainless Steel Brakes. Flex won't be a problem.

After it was locked into a vise, the bracket was sectioned with a cut-off disc on an air tool. You could use a hacksaw, if need be. We cut two sections just in case we screwed one up. The upper right piece is the one that we used. It was trimmed on the left as well.

The hole in the end of the bracket needed to be opened up to fit the brake cable housing into it. How much will depend on size of the cable housing ends in your Pontiac.

The cable housing locks in place with small tangs that spread out once the cable is pushed through the hole in the bracket. However, due to the thickness of our bracket, the tangs could not spread out, so the hole had to be stepped in this area to fit the cable.

The small hole saw that we used requires a tiny pilot hole, which of course we didn't have since there was a hole in the bracket when we started and we opened it up further to fit the cable housing end. What we did was find an appropriately sized socket that would fit through the hole in the bracket and inside the hole saw body, to act as a guide to center it. The socket was locked into the vise and the bracket was installed over it and C-clamped to the vise. The setup worked perfectly.

Here is the finished bracket that we made for the passenger side. Note that it was bent at a 90* angle, the forward hole is stepped to fit the tangs on the cable housing and the bracket has been notched to fit around the axle tube. Though not shown here, the mounting bolt hole was later slotted to get more fore/aft adjustment.

With our bracket installed using the lower front caliper bracket bolt that holds the caliper bracket to the axle tube, the cable housing locked into place in a near stock location. As such, it will provide a proper distance to hook the cable to the caliper and to actuate and release without modifying the spring wrap. And it allows enough free area in the cable and housing from the frame rail to the bracket for proper wheel travel. We can retain the factory cable instead of resorting to a custom piece. Bear in mind that the bracket provided by SSBC could have been modified to work in this area but it turns out that this bracket was better suited to set up the cable on the driver's side, as you will soon see.

Speaking of the driver's side, evidence of this brake kit's design leaning more toward First-Gen. F-body installations rather than Second-Gens. became more apparent when we tried to install the bracket for the emergency brake cable. On an early F-body, the shocks mount with their lower bolt nearly parallel to the ground. On Second Gens, the shock stud is at a nearly perpendicular angle to the ground. As such, the bracket supplied (a template of it is shown here) will install at the wrong angle for our application. As a result, the stock cable housing end, shown connected to the extension cable above the axle tube, will not reach the bracket as installed.

We also decided to try and mount the cable bracket from the passenger side on the top caliper mount bolt and then feed the stock cable end through it, as shown above the axle tube. You can see where the extension cable attaches to it and then runs under the axle tube to the caliper. If the cable end of the extension cable was pulled down to be locked into the supplied bracket from the shock, the pull angle between the two cables would be severe.

We decided to approach the situation from another angle, using the parts that we had without resorting custom cables. So, to begin with, we heated the supplied bracket with a torch and bent it in a vise. Then we let it air cool. Then we bent it again in another location.

Since we were using the bracket backwards, we needed to both enlarge and step the end hole to accept the lock on the extension cable housing.

We used the same method discussed earlier.

Here is the completed bracket painted and ready for installation. The left bend is 32°, as measured with a protractor and the bend on the right is 65°. The total bend from tip to tip is 96&176.

Since our plan included mounting our brackets under the axle where the axle bolts to the shock mounting plate, we needed to use different nuts on one of the studs to add some adjustability to the system. Shown is the stock nut and washer for the rear's U-bolts with a pair of shorter nuts and washer on the right. As you can see, thread coverage will actually be slightly more than stock with new nuts. Just make sure that you use suspension grade nuts from your auto parts store.

Here is the setup that we devised for the driver's side. The front bracket (left) is the piece that was originally supplied by SSBC for the passenger's side. The end was opened up and stepped to fit the cable housing end and locked into place. The stud hole, which allows it to attach to the shock mount plate, was slotted to add adjustability. The rear bracket is the SSBC piece that we modified by reversing it and bending it. This configuration works under the axle and is a bolt-in with no welding required. It fits with a 15-inch wheel installed with no problem.

Another problem that was easily fixed was the fact that the stock cable end was too thick to fit into the connector for the extension cable as you can see here. While we heard that the connector is available with a large/small side combination, the two auto parts stores that we tried didn't carry it. We just turned the cable end down to size carefully on a bench grinder and then clipped it into place.

From the back side you can better see how the brackets are configured and you can see the nut/washer combination used on the front bracket stud to attain the correct height in relation to the rear bracket. Notice how the stock cable and the extension cable are attached to one another and how each cable locks into the connector. The protective spring on the exposed cable was trimmed slightly for a proper fit; care was taken not to damage the cable inside. The connector just touches the rear extension cable housing end but there is no tension on it and it causes no problems as the brake is actuated by pulling the cable forward.

This angle illustrates the path of the extension cable and how it wraps around and goes to the caliper. At the caliper, the extension cable housing end can be held in place with a small clip and the cable itself is captured in the caliper's arm for the emergency brake. Though some may think that the cable loop looks too severe, this is not the case as the cable operates smoothly.

We ordered a set of stainless steel brake lines from Classic Tube for this project. A stock configuration was maintained with front disc and rear drums so we could still illustrate the mods needed to install the rear disc kit on what otherwise would be a stock braking system like you would have. The Stainless Steel Brakes' kit is delivered with a pair of brake lines to be used at the rear. The instructions tell you to bend them as needed for installation.

Retaining the stock drum brake lines and bending them to connect with the brake hoses was easier for us than bending and installing the new lines. We used a tubing bender from Year One, with great results.

This is what we did on the passenger's side. If you so desire, you can cut, re-double flare and re-bend the line for a straight shot to the brake hose, but this setup is much easier and should work just as well. Since the whole system is solidly mounted to the axle, there will be no undue stress on the lines.

The passenger's side stainless-steel line runs across the axle tube and up and around the differential to this junction block on the driver's side axle tube. A short axle line then runs from the block to the driver's side caliper.

On the driver's side, our re-bending session with the brake lines resulted in this configuration, which will work well.

Here is the near completed rear disc brake system. We still need to cut and double flare the front to rear line to install the adjustable proportioning valve and connect the flexible differential hose to the front to rear line (I have to find the bracket that I lost). Then of course, we have to bleed the system. However since this is a complete brake rebuild, we still have a lot of lines and the brake booster, master cylinder, and combination valve to deal with. Not to mention the front rotors and calipers. So tune in next issue as our brake story continues.