How To: Ford CMP "Blitz" miscellany

[Jacques Reed]

Good Day,

While sorting out the speedometer cable length and route I thought it would be a good time to sort out the handbrake lever bracket.

The parts manual shows washers *C351399S, 0.40" ID x 0.18 thick between the sector and the transmission bracket. I discovered a long time back that these washers move the arm further outboard, and in doing so moves the handbrake rod away from the transmission crossmember where it passes through it.

I used a pack of about 4 washers at each bolt to achieve this but it was a right pain to get everything lined up and not drop any of them on the deck.

So instead, I just made a spacer out of 1/4" flat bar as shown. It is a lot easier to handle and gives better support to the sector. Sometime you just have to deviate from original to make things work better.

As a matter of interest I've had three of these handbrake assemblies and all three were missing the spacer washers. Just shows some of the many small bits that goes missing over the years.

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

Good Day,

Decided to do something about a part I have been tripping over in the shed for the past year.

I noticed the extinguisher bracket had been bent at some stage from a hit to the left side of it. The extinguisher was contacting the left side of the bracket but clear on the right. Despite having a 12 ton shop press I could find no way to access the bracket to press it straight so I resorted to threaded rod again.

As per photo, I was able to push the left side back into alignment and improve the curvature of the rear support.

Now I just have to wait until I can travel a reasonable distance again to fabricate the retaining band and latch mechanism. The nearest steel merchant is 10 km away but we are restricted to only essential travel within a 5 km radius.

A fellow MLU member sent me photos months ago of an original retaining band with some measurements, Thanks David. I have been drawing it up the last couple of days. Looks fairly straightforward, although the latch mechanism is a steel pressing which will have to be replicated without using a complex die.

Of interest is the way the anti-chafe material is secured to the back of the bracket. It looks like brass brake lining type rivets were used. I am wondering what material was used to prevent it chafing?

I thought maybe 3" fire hose was used. That has been used for years on everything from boat trailers to delivery trucks for that purpose. The band is 3" wide too so it would fit nicely and the rivet heads could be applied from the inside of the hose to prevent metal to metal contact with the extinguisher. Just a thought anyway, and may do that in lieu of any other information forthcoming.

Hope this is of some interest.

Cheers,