removing or relocating emergency brake handle

Have sence,patience,and self-restrain,and no mischief will come.

And what would that be?

Get out the cell phone and call for help as you are coming down a mountain with no brake pedal working???

Mike

--snippy--

We have had people do this...

Earle

Be careful. In many states, a vehicle without an emergency brake will not pass safety inspection.

I don't know why you would want to do this. There are lots of off-road situations, and occasionally on-road situations (such as driving in San Francisco,) where you will want to be able to hold the emergency brake on it and slowly feather off it while engaging the clutch, so as to prevent you from rolling backward while shifting into gear.

This is MUCH easier with a hand-operated emergency brake than with a foot operated brake. (Think about it, you're trying to work the clutch, gas pedal, and brake release all at the same time. That's three pedals. And unfortunately, most people only have two feet.)

I've wished many a time that my CJ had a hand operated brake instead of a foot pedal. Eventually I will probably get annoyed enough to convert it, but right now I've got my stereo in a Tuffy console where the brake lever would go. *sigh* Maybe I'll mount it on the roll bar.

Oh, pulleeze! If you need the parking brake to hold you on the hill, maybe you ought to reconsider having a manual trans. Especially for street driving.

The idea is not to release everything all at the same time. The idea is to release the clutch partially until it can hold your car, then -- and ONLY then -- transfer the foot from the brake pedal to the gas pedal, then gently release the clutch the rest of the way while applying enought gas to get going.

There are times on the trail where it would be nice to have use of a hand brake to prevent rolling back, but serioulsy, on the street?

How about installing a hand throttle? Then you could use your feet to work the pedals, and operate the gas with your hand. Mount your hand throttle to the shifter, near the top. A gear change lever, or a brake lever, and cable will work really good for this.

Thanks everyone. I think I'll just leave the lever where it is and find somewhere else to stash my quarters.

Ed - Chicago

As I said in my original post, this comes in handy frequently off road, and perhaps occasionally on-road, such as if you are driving in San Francisco.

If this strikes you as unreasonable, I wager that you have never driven a manual transmission vehicle in the hills of San Francisco.

Approximately 8/26/03 14:43, sm3gurpal uttered for posterity:

Or watched Nash Bridges or Bullitt, or Streets of San Francisco, or Dirty Harry or... or... or...

I suspect it would take a compression ratio in the 30 or 40 to 1 range to hold a car on several SF streets with nothing but the manual transmission and engine.