e brake handle

[Patrick K Smith]

I saw a pic of a car with the e brake handle standing up rather than lying down. It seems a great way to get access to an e brake so far forward. Anyone else know about this?

Thanks,

Pat

[Larry Murphy]

 Pat, The only VW based car I have seen with the E-brake handle any where close to vertical is the London Roadster and only the ones built on their custom pan.

 Classic Roadster Duchess,which uses a bench seat gave instructions in the assembly manual how to modify the handle to be at an angle of about 30 degrees from the floor. You may be able to find it in the download manuals section.

 I modified the e-brake handle in my London Roadster on a VW pan by cutting a V section in the handle and welding it back together.Not exactly perfect but a big improvement.

See Edsnova’s post for a step by step story on moving the handle to a position between the seats.

[edward ericson]

If  I can do it anyone can.

Here’s the original thread with Washington Will’s effort as well. He’s the pioneer on this.
edsnova40650.3682407407

[Paul Mossberg]

Hi Pat,

Before you drive yourself crazy looking for them…the Classic Roadsters manual does not have instructions on moving the e-brake handle to an upright position.

It’s a bit of a stretch, but I can reach mine easily, with the e-brake in its original position.

If you choose to do so, modifying it is pretty straight forward. You cut the bracket free from the chassis tunnel, bend it up and weld in triangles of steel to fill the gap caused when you bend it up.

PMOSSBERG40650.0133101852

Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica Roadster

If you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)

[edward ericson]

bump

[Olimon Ricardo]

The MP Lafer’s also have a vertical handbrake. If I recall correctly their

modification is only to the handle itself by repositioning the “ratchet” gear

and by adding a couple of tabs to attach the brake

cables17_214221_hand_brake_2.jpg”>04-17_214253_hand_brake1.j pg”>

[Patrick K Smith]

calafer,

thanks for the pictures they are inspireing.

[Olimon Ricardo]

Sorry , forgot to resize original photos…

[Olimon Ricardo]

[edward ericson]

Very clean job.

[Paul Mossberg]

Really nice work Calafer!

Like the disc brake front end too!

Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica Roadster

If you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)

[Larry Murphy]

 Great job Calafer! Those pictures were worth 1000 words. Do all the MP Lafers have the master cylinder relocated near the pedal assembly or is this your personal design? Also ,are the body and fenders molded in one piece?

[Dale Schumacher]

Wow – that pan looks new – I wish mine looked like that when I started

[Olimon Ricardo]

Thanks for the positive comments on the pan!! Several years ago I bought a

fairly beat up but as it turned out, very complete, Lafer on ebay because my sons

wanted to rebuild a car. Their interest lasted about 3 days but I was hooked and

after a few weeks of indecision decided to rebuild it from the ground up. Thus I

ended up with probably hundreds of pictures of all aspects of the car.

In regard to the questions of the pan I ended up installing new disk brakes on all

4 wheels along with new master cylinder and brake lines. I believe all MP Lafers

have the master cylinder located on the pedal assembly bracket while the brake

fluid reservoir itself is located in a more convenient location in the front trunk

area connected to the master cylinder via a hose.   

As far as the body is concerned it is a one piece fiberglass unit with both the

front and rear fenders already attached.

Here are a couple of additional pictures of the Lafer brake handle, I hope they

help..

[Paul Mossberg]

Hi folks,

If you are looking for the disc brake conversion discussion that began under this “e brake” thread, I moved those posts to a new thread titled “Disk Brake Conversion”:

https://tdreplica.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1502& PN=1

If you are starting a new topic, please start a new thread.

Remember, we are building an historical library of very useful info here. To have the disc brake discussion under the “e-brake” subject would make it difficult to find for those that come after us.

Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica Roadster

If you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)

[newkitman]

Calafer,
Did you do the e-brake handle mod yourself? Was it difficult moding the ratchet portion of the ebrake handle? The two cable brackets seem easy enough to handle?

Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The Shack

[Olimon Ricardo]

No, I didn’t do any modifications, I assume its the standard Lafer design. I

believe that the only modification to the handle are the cable brackets. On

the chassis there is a hardened steel gear rack ( like a section of gear) that

needs to be rotated about 40-50 degrees in such a way that the ratchet

tooth already existing inside the brake handle (this ratchet tooth is

connected to the button you push to release the hand brake) meshes with

the gear rack when the handle is in the near vertical position (hence the 40-

50 degree rotation) . In my car the hardened steel gear rack was removable

(1968 chassis) but I’m not sure if this is true of all VW chassis.

[Anonymous]

The transporter parking brake looks like it could be adapted to our cars.  I think I will look around the yards for one.

[Author]

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