From: peter zimbelman (peterz@dnet.net)
Date: Sun Nov 09 2003 - 09:03:27 PST
I have not found useful the brake pedal compression "strut" (used to hold
the brake pedal down while winching, etc.) for more than temporary use
because long term use under heavy pressure forces brake fluid around the
piston of the master cylinder. I have three M35's and found this to be true
on all of them and therefore imagine it to be fairly typical. They all have
good brakes, otherwise. I ground-down one set of parking brake linings
attempting to get that unit to hold-in-place when working by myself. The
manual I have shows to use wheel chocks when using the winch for other than
self-recovery. My fix to try for next Spring will be to mount a secondary
parking brake assy. on the front drive train; the majority of the unladed
braking power on the M35 seems to be in the front wheels - when using the
compression strut there seems to be enough slack in the front drivetrain to
start the truck to slide a little and then the rears don't seem to grip well
after that. The compression strut is easy to fabricate: I used two of the ¼"
thick (metal dia.) PegBoard type screw-in, fork-ended broom brackets with a
2" opening. I then cut off most of the wood threads and welded them to a
long ½" clevis rod. I spread one end to accommodate the brake pedal and push
against the driver's seat upright (right side). If anyone has a surplus
parking brake unit they would care to donate for this project or sell
cheaply, please contact me.
In 1982 I was charged with fabricating generators for thirty of the Mardi
Gras tractors that pulled the large parade floats. As the parades varied in
speed too much to use a constant rpm I devised a drive using a large
sprocket from the PTO to step-up the speed to a torque converter (surplus
snowmobile units) running backwards to power the generators. A little bit of
experimenting with the engagement weight springs allowed us to keep the
generators at 60cycles throughout a wide rpm range. Since then, many more
units have been built. Hope this is useful info.
Peter Zimbelman Robbinsville, NC 28771 peterz@dnet.net
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