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Handbrake conversion. Modify Knob and Rod to non flyoff type


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This may be heresy but I am converting my Fly-off handbrake to Non Fly-off. ie. NORMAL!!!!  Knob and Rods of various types are reported unavailable on main supplier sites.  I have a kinked handbrake lever on my TR4A.

I therefore attempted to reshape the existing fly-off hooked end to Spoon end which also involved adding a kink to the rod. Not very successfully as shape and length are critical to prevent any jamming. So I attempted (again unsuccessfully) to put the hook back in and return the rod to straight. You guessed it….made a hash of it and now unusable.

So went back to searching for the reported unavailable part and managed to find a spoon end rod for a straight lever from Canley Classics, Part number 132588.  Now I need to kink it to make it suit my kinked lever. To become Part 148082.

Can anyone kindly assist if anyone out there has a 148082 available. Two dimensions but I appreciate rod needs to be dismantled from the lever. The angle of the bend and distance from inside of the knob to the bend. as the attached crude sketch. 

Or a photo taken from above of the item so I can scale it and bend to suit.  

 

Many thanks, David B

image.png.495a0ba74ddc7d32eb57b2fc97f5cadd.png

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Easiest get out is buy a S/H TR6 handbrake from any of the usual suspects;)

Stuart.

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Stuart

Thanks for response but I have struggled to find SH. Wingco and TRtrader show lever assemblies on eBay but both without the knob and rod which is the missing part I need.  Moss and Rimmer show new and SH unavailable. But.......

Jim,

Thanks for the link to the item on the Revington site. Didn't see this assembly in my search, only the lever. However, the assembly is £218.76 (Ouch) and the part I need, the Knob and Rod, I purchased for £6.49.  I have used the photo you linked to and kinked my straight rod to match the photo, rebuilt the assembly using a clevis pin through the lever and pawl and it works perfectly. 

Result a satisfying series of clicks when the handbrake is engaged.

Thanks all, David B

Edited by David B2
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Peter,

Thanks Peter, It looks like it would. Didn't find this on my TR handbrake search and picture of pawl shows the the rod is hidden and therefore non flyoff.  But my job is done and fitted now so may be useful to others. 

Early Spitfires used the fly off type but the MkIV reverted to non flyoff. I wonder why !!!!  The knob and rod that I used was also on the Herald. 

David B 

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18 hours ago, David B2 said:

Early Spitfires used the fly off type but the MkIV reverted to non flyoff. I wonder why !!!!  The knob and rod that I used was also on the Herald. 

David B 

Because owners by that time didnt have a clue how to use a fly-off lever.

Stuart.

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That Spitfire lever arm looks rather short to me - but I am a weak octogenarian, so need greater leverage!

Ian Cornish

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When, in 1962, the Comps Dept were forced to move the handbrake lever from the floor to the prop. shaft tunnel (because steel sheet welded to the unerside of the chassis meant no access to theend of the lever beneath the floor), special fly-off levers were produced - obviously not from TR4A as such a vehicle did not exist.  When rebuiding my car, Neil Revington told me he had no idea of the source of the levers.

I have measured 4VC's lever and, with handbrake disengaged (so knob protruding),  it is 10" from top of knob to centre line of fulcrum.  Tony Sheach tells me that the lever on 5VC is somewhat longer, but we cannot say whether this was done by the Americans when the 3 cars went across the Atlantic early in 1964 for the Canadian Shell 4000 Rally.

I find that with extended levers at the backplates (thanks to Phil Barnett in 2016, now available from Tony Sheach) and the cable now secured closer to the fulcrum (pivot point), a change I made by drilling a hole a year ago, I have a very useful handbrake for my not-very-powerful left arm.

As we know, because of its design, which permits the wheels to flop about independently of one another, the handbrake on the IRS cars is not as powerful, so needs every extra bit of leverage which the owner can contrive.

Ian Cornish

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