LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

For now, I lumped all the pre-war cars together, I would LOVE for there to be enough demand to split it into groups (hint...hint, post here about your pre-war Singer)
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steves
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LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by steves »

Hi,

Taking avdantage of the winter season to do some restauration work, I have now come to the hand brake system.
Could anyone, please, tell me what the correct LM hand brake lever shape looks like ?
A considerable curve, as shown on the attached photo, does not seem right and does
not exactly help the rerlease button to function properly.

Thanks !!
Kind regards,
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Hand Brake Lever.jpg
Hand Brake Lever.jpg (85.95 KiB) Viewed 3777 times
Danish
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by Danish »

I believe that your hand brake has been bent in a past life. Should be vertical. Regards, David
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Phillip
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by Phillip »

I'll second that for sure!

It should be straight up and of the 'fly-off' variety. Pulling back on the lever releases it, whereas on the Sports 4 seaters you need to push the button on top to release the ratchette pawl.
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Phillip
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by Phillip »

OK...this got me thinking, so here is a bit more clarification:

The 1936 LM hand brake is the 'fly-off' type like the other earlier LM ones, but is a totally different design to the '33 to 35 ones, being based on the Bantam unit.

The 1935 LM hand brake shown in the Singer handbook does have a slight tilt to the left when viewed from the driver's seat.

The 1933 / 34 Sports hand brake is slanted @2 1/2" to left from vertical, measured at the top of the release button. Use a level or straight edge set on top of the release pawl to get the right angle at the top.

There was certainly a lot of penny-pinching between '33 and '36 as the early hand brake assemblies are a much more robust design.

Hope that helps!
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mothy
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by mothy »

I wonder if the previous owner bent the lever hard over to stop,it grinding into his knee! I felt like doing that sometimes. It was the same with my TR4 (RHD).
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Phillip
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by Phillip »

I hear you Roland! I'm 6' 3" and have a great time trying to find somewhere to put my left knee because of the hand brake, It might have been easier to put it on the passenger's side of the gear lever and make it their problem! LOL!
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Phillip
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by Phillip »

Been rebuilding the brakes on my 1934 Sports, which was in storage for @50 years, including the hand brake, and so removed the one from my 1933 Sports to duplicate some broken bits. Seemed like a good opportunity to photograph it to illustrate the curve of the handle for furure reference!
Singer Nine Spors Hand Brake Assembly.jpg
Singer Nine Spors Hand Brake Assembly.jpg (88.83 KiB) Viewed 3691 times
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Peter McKercher
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by Peter McKercher »

This is most likely off something entirely different. The LM handbrake is a cast piece and as such would break rather than bend to this degree.
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Phillip
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by Phillip »

For those with a handbrake fetish or an interest in the obscure...here, for the record, is the 1936 Le Mans SS hand brake lever in all its vertical glory!
1936 LM SS Handbrake.jpg
1936 LM SS Handbrake.jpg (86.74 KiB) Viewed 3684 times
It is a very flimsy affair compared to the earlier cast version and hangs off the back of a chassis cross-tube, rather than being bolted to a steel plate and two L iron chassis channels as in the earlier cars!
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cdk84
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by cdk84 »

Hello All, and Phillip in particular,

It might be the only case in all Singer history that started this thread, namely the bent handbrake lever that (appears to) interfere with the gear change lever.

I'm willing to bet there's no spec for the angle at which the handbrake lever came from the factory.

Phillip, would you be willing to make another photo of Blue Car's handbrake lever with a couple of changes? Could you put a carpenter's square behind the brake assembly with the long arm positioned vertically, aligned with the base of Blue Car's handbrake lever? If you mark a couple of degree marks on the cardboard behind the lever, adjacent and to the left of the carpenter square's vertical arm, that should give a considerable amount of information to the OP about the correct angle for the normal angle for the handbrake lever. That could also serve as a reference to anyone who has a similar problem.

Who knew that Paul Bunyan drove the OP's Singer?

Sending Smiles,

David
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Phillip
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by Phillip »

David K: No need to do all of that really. As you can see from the photo of my car in an earlier post in this thread, the lever is straight up on the 36/37 cars.

I was working on a '35 LM Speed Model last weekend and took the opportunity to snap a photo of the handbrake to complete the study:
1935 LM Handbrake Assembly.jpg
1935 LM Handbrake Assembly.jpg (137.57 KiB) Viewed 3641 times
As can be seen, the lever is angled slightly like the 4 seaters. The assembly design is basically the same and mounted on the same type of stamped steel plate bolted to two angle iron chassis rails.
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cdk84
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by cdk84 »

Hi Phillip,

The photo you posted is really helpful. From its vantage point the shift lever appears to be parallel to the brake lever. Is that accurate? I assume that changes, based upon which gear, or neutral position, is selected for the shift lever.

Looks like it sorts things out for the OP. Excellent.

Cheers All
cdk84
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by cdk84 »

PS This was really helpful to me as I had not previously noticed the angle of the brake lever. Cool!
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Phillip
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by Phillip »

Hey David K,

The shift lever in the photo was just hanging slightly to the left in neutral...no relevance to the actual relationship to the brake lever! The idea of the photo was to show the angle of the brake lever casting on the 1935 cars.

This is irrelevant to your car which should look like this:
1936 LM SS Handbrake.jpg
1936 LM SS Handbrake.jpg (86.74 KiB) Viewed 3627 times
The brake lever on the 1936/37 LM and 4 seaters is straight up.
Your Friendly Canadian Pre-War Singer Specialist, Collector & Historian,
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cdk84
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Re: LM 1935 Hand Brake Lever

Post by cdk84 »

Hi Phillip,

Seems like another very successful thread: it's not only sorted the OP's question, it's added value was showing what my car should look like in the forward cockpit.

And it reminded me that I need to get one of the vertical plates that mount to the shifter extension to hold the choke and starter cables in position.

Thank you for both!

Cheers All,

David
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