Getting old Lizzie going is one thing, getting her stopped is another! These Rocky Mountain brakes are almost a must when you have a Ruckstell or overdrive. Hooks up to the regular brake pedal, and uses the rear wheels to stop instead of the transmission.

The installation instructions can be downloaded here.

Be sure to read the differences between the two types here.

Click here to jump straight to the step by step guide.

DISCLAIMER:

First let us state that the images and descriptions shown here do not preclude reading and understanding all the directions that come with the Rocky Mountain Brake kit. You, and you alone are responsible for the installation of anything on your 90+ year old car. Please read the instructions that come with the kit. We share this information to aid in your understanding. By no means is this information intended to solely instruct the car owner or mechanic to install this system.

1926 -1927 installation also ?t? trucks
Correct rear axle for the above years has an 11? brake drum and housing (ex- ception being ?t? ?t? truck worm drive) and do not interchange with the 1909- 25 8? rear axle assembly. Hassler shocks can not be used with the additional brakes. Before starting, check to see if the stock drum is close to the backing plate. Any large gap here (too many shims, incorrect parts) will show up later as brake bands will not line up on drums. This assembly is designed for ?t?s as ford manufactured. Any modified frames, as with speedsters, you will have to make your own alterations. Start by removing rear wheels.
 

Brake assembly installation
Bands are tagged left side up-right side up (left side is drivers side -u.s.a.). Start by removing the 2 bolts from radius rods. Using bolts supplied, place the front bolts thru the wheel side of the backing plate and radius rod, keep- ing radius rods in same location against backing plate. Do not attempt to place casting between backing plate and radius rods! The 2 rear most 1/4? riv- ets must be removed for the rear support brackets using 1/4? bolts supplied (not required on ?t? ?t? one 5/8? bolt) .now place casting and band assembly onto bolts. The rear spring brackets, the shortest goes on first to the top, then the longer faces to the bottom. Leave final nuts off these for now (?t? ?t? brackets are installed as assembled). Place wheel on axle without axle key. Run nut up to hub and slip cotter pin in place. This way you may spin wheel without turning the whole gear assembly. Check for any parts that may be dragging against drum because of worn axle surfaces or hubs caused by bro- ken axle keys. Over time, wheels may go on further than originally. You may solve this by grinding face of offending part slightly or add an axle shim. Install final nut on rear support brackets and adjust top bracket so there is space between bracket and band tab towards rear of car. Bottom bracket
Is adjusted with space between bracket and band tab towards front of car. The reason for this is to allow band to travel forward with the rotation of the wheels which is where the self energizing feature is obtained.

Adjusting band
Run down the top major adjustment nut until lining is tight against the drum. Now adjust the nuts that are below on the threaded 6 1/2? bolt to give the spring about 1? in length. Back off the top adjustment nut so the wheel now will spin freely with approximately 20 thousands clearance. The band and lining will conform after driven a few miles and should be re-adjusted for a more precise adjustment, but allowing for drum expansion.

Remove the wheel and replace the axle key. When doing this, be sure the axle key does not slide further up in the keyway, thereby not allowing the wheel to go to it?s seated position! You can center punch on each side of the keyway to hold it in place.
 

Installing wheel and cotter pin
Check all the bolts for tightness and spacing on the rear spring loaded brack- ets. Remember, the left band rotates counter-clockwise, the right band rotates clockwise. Do not attempt to burn in the lining. Stopping easy to break them in will assure years of quality braking. Always replace the axle seals whenever you have your wheels off. Lining is costly! Remove the pedal by taking out the 6 bolts in the hogs head. (trans cover) place rags in all the spaces in the openings around the drums. Tie wire around the brake band ears pushing down on the ped- al to get the wire very tight. Remove the nut from the shaft and then the pedal. It helps to back off the reverse nut when replacing the brake pedal. Adjust the nut on the band so the pedal will be about 2? from the floor board when pressed tight. This will allow the use of the rear brakes and, with a full pressure of the
Pedal, will engage the band brake. Also, above assumes the welding has been com- pleted on the bottom of the pedal with the extension supplied. (unless the option- al pedal has been purchased with all required items cast in with the new shaft).

Pedal welding
The extension is to be arc welded to the bottom of the pedal in line with the rivet and between 6 and 7 o?clock. It may be required to remove the starter cover and/ or bendix to replace the pedal assembly.

Equalizer assembly
New design sliding clevis attaches to the arm of the eouallzer. Hang the equaliz- er in front of the parking brake cross shaft so it just swings freely with the self- locking nuts. With the bottom portion of the equalizer more inclined to the rear of the car, adjust the pedal linkage so the pin in the sliding clevis starts to move the equalizer arm. Hook the spring supplied to the pedal and to the radius rod junction which is where the radius rods meet on the drive shaft behind the uni- versal joint.
 

Adjusting brake rods
Bending may be required on some models (note! Do not support rods or bend near threads. Damage may occur) .adjust to take up play between brake arms and equalizer. It is best to remove stock rods while adjusting and then replacing. Check to see if equalizer assembly hits oil pan with pressure applied. If so, shorten rods. The following is to clarify the welding and drilling of brake pedal.
 

Measurements are from center of brake shaft. From center down to extension
2 1/4? drill 5/16ths hole. From center up 1 1/2?, drill a-1/8th hole near edge for pedal spring
 

Final notes: brakes do not self energize in reverse as with some modern cars. Have you ever backed up with the brake on only to find out to go forward the emer- gency brake was on ? Also, large amounts of water will cause brake fade on any brake system. Exercise caution under these conditions. Riding pedal a short dis- tance helps return braking.

Rocky mountain brake co ., inc. Assumes no responsibility for the installation or use of rocky mountain brakes. There is no expressed or implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. Purchaser understands this product is intended for use in addition to the standard original brake system.
 

Rocky Mountain Brake co., inc. Additional information

Do?s and Don'ts

Our product is manufactured with the finest materials available. With care, your new braking system will last many years. We recommend the following maintenance procedures.

Do?s
Keep all mechanical moving parts lubricated. On the 1926-27 and ?t t?, clean brake drums of any paint , rust or any other foreign matter. If you find your equal- izer yoke assembly hits the engine pan, you have not made your adjustment of the emergency brake correctly .bring lever back for the pawl to just touch the clutch adjustment bolt. Brake pedal clevises can now be adjusted with the foot pedal that is in it?s completely seated position. Install brake rods to equalizer
And brake arms. Recommended clearance between lining and drums is at least .020 (twenty thousandths), cold. A feeler gauge is a good tool for this, if available. Remember heat expands drums which means lining actually will become closer when hot .

Mechanical brakes, as in days of old, are susceptible to fade out when large amounts of water are encountered. To overcome this, ride brake pedal a short dis- tance to dry out .

For the first 100 miles, allow lining to ?break in? stopping with slight pedal pres- sure. Burning them in will cause lining to glaze and poor stopping will occur.

Don?ts
Don?t allow paint to be sprayed on lining or lining contact surface of brake drums. Use masking tape to protect these areas when painting. The small amount of primer on the 1909-25 drums is insignificant. Don?t install your new brakes if your axle seals show any sign of leakage. It is best to replace them at this time.
 

Rocky Mountain Brakes:

A Step By Step guide...

Written by R. Peterson

The car used in the following demo is a 1917 torpedo runabout, a car that has been in the family since it was purchased from the original owner in 1951. The car gained a set of Hayes wire wheels in the 1950?s, and the Ruckstell axle was installed in the 1970?s. The car has now been in the family for 66 years, and we want it to be safe for future generations.

Before starting the installation we painted all the parts black and read the installation instructions carefully.

The first step is to remove a rear wheel so that the brakes can be added. We jacked the car up, installed a jack stand, and pulled the left rear wheel. The Hassler shocks on the rear axle will not work with the Rocky Mountain brakes so they will have to be removed.

The Hassler parts removed, we can continue with installation.

Our car has Hayes wire wheels, a popular and attractive period accessory. The Hayes rear hubs have a special, smaller diameter bolt pattern holding the parking brake drum to the wheel. We will have to drill the Rocky Mountain brake drums to match.

The Hayes brake drum has both Ford and Hayes bolt patterns. This allows us to bolt the Hayes drum to the Rocky Mountain brake drum to properly align the two. We drill the six 3/8″ diameter holes on a drill press using cutting oil and low speed. The Ford brake drum is placed inside the Rocky Mountain brake drum. The bolts are cleaned in MEK, dried, and then green semi permanent thread locking Permatex compound is applied to the bolts before the drums are secured to the wheel.

In the photo above a yellow arrow points at an axle shim that is needed to compensate for the additional thickness of the added Rocky Mountain brake drum. The shim is .020″ thick, it moves the axle .090″ out from center. The shims are not included in the RM Brake kit, you must purchase them separately or fabricate them yourself. The Rocky Mountain brake parts are assembled per the instructions using the new hardware supplied in the kit. The rear wheels are installed and the axle nuts tightened and new cotter pins installed.

Next we removed the floor boards and the transmission door so that the brake pedal could be removed. Our 1917 had a starter added, so the bendix cover had to be removed in order that the brake pedal could be removed and replaced.

There is a piece of steel plate included in the kit. You must drill a 5/16″ hole in the plate to accept the brake clevis. The plate must be beveled on the end to be welded in order to allow a larger surface area for the weld, making it stronger.. A flat spot is ground on the bottom of the pedal so the plate will have full contact in the area to be welded. I took my pedal over to my friend Nolan?s house. Nolan skillfully used his DC Arc welder to put a nice fat bead on both sides of the plate.

Another view of the plate installed on the bottom of the pedal. The pedal assembly can be painted if you wish, but given the environment it lives in there is little reason to believe it would ever get rusty.

The brake rods and clevis assemblies from the Rocky Mountain kit were assembled. The equalizing assembly is installed on the forward side of the Model T parking brake shaft. All the clevises are hooked up with no cotter pins for now.

Above, an overview of the installed brake pedal and equalizer with the brake lever as far forward as it can go. It is important to properly adjust the Ford parking brake before connecting the Rocky Mountain Rods. The Ford parking brake lever when fully forward should leave the brake cross shaft clutch arm just barely clear of the clutch adjustment bolt. When the parking brake is applied with the Rocky Mountain brakes disconnected the Ford brake lever should be vertical, not all the way back against the seat.

In the above photo we see just a little clearance at the sliding clevis pin (yellow arrow). The Ford brake pedal is adjusted so that when applied the brake pedal is fully engaged and will stop the car with the pedal about 1″ above the floor board. Test drive the car with the Rocky Mountain brakes completely disconnected, make sure that the Ford brake functions properly when going forward and reverse. In this photo the parking brake lever is all the way forward, note the (red arrow) clutch adjustment bolt just clearing the brake cam.

Above, another view showing the controls in the driving position with brakes released.

Above, the view of the equalizer under the car with the brakes released and properly adjusted.

Above, with the brake lever applied the equalizer assembly is pushed forward by the Ford brake lever shaft. It moves the brake rods approximately 1/2" with everything adjusted properly.

Once you are happy with all of the brake adjustments double check all of your work. Make sure all the bolts and nuts on the brakes at the rear wheels are tight and install all the cotter pins, but don?t bend them fully quite yet. Take the car on a test drive for a few minutes. Make sure the car will stop while backing up. Make sure the brakes hold well on a hill, going backwards and forwards. Some additional fiddling and adjusting will e necessary, I played with adjustments for nearly half a day before becoming satisfied. When you feel that all is right then get the car up to cruising speed, with no traffic around and dry streets. Perform a few panic stops to see how it feels. The car should stop without pulling to one side or the other.

One thing that I found after the first test drive was a horrendous oil leak. When I removed the brake pedal I had removed the starter bendix cover to get clearance. It was removed again to try and figure out why we had such a big leak. With it all apart again we were surprised to find the gasket appeared to be perfect and no apparent problems. Everything was cleaned with lacquer thinner and gasket sealant was used on the next attempt. There were no leaks from the bendix cover after that.