FEOA Forums banner
21 - 24 of 24 Posts
I was glad to see the part number, and see them on ebay.
I have to free mine up about each 5 or 6 years. I have five 2nd gen. Escorts, so I do it to a couple of them at a time. The left side and right side ones are a mirror image of each other. I remove the part (Ford calls it a handbrake actuator in the Service Manual) free them up, and once the solvent (old gas) has dried off, I spray them with a liquid molybdenum, which dries up, leaving a nice coating that is non sticky, but wont melt away.
When I asked about these at the Ford dealer about ten years back, they could order the handbrake actuators for about $53 apiece.
 
I was able to cleanup my OEM using steel wire brush as an attachment on a high speed A/C powered rill. Once cleaned up, used bearing grease between the contact surfaces.

The next problem I experienced, wasn't them seizing again, but all the teeth being worn out. I noticed during the first couple of times I was in it, that they were gradually wearing away, starting with the teeth you come across as it self-adjusts.

Once your automatic adjusters are stripped to a point, the e-brake can no longer self-adjust to the point of being effective. Unable to locate new replacements at the time, I picked up another set from a wrecked 'scort in the junkyard. If push came to shove, I would've considered cutting new teeth on the thing.
 
I have a couple of very small files, that did a good job of cleaning up the teeth on the self adjuster pivot.
I should probably buy a set of new ones, just to have against some future dark future day.
 
21 - 24 of 24 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top