RatDog

Or, Mount Dora .

-- Steve

Plasticman

Or "Hill 62" (Bill's driveway)........

John

cv67

I roll back a foot at least, easy and "can drive a stick"

Where my street meets the main road. Super steep!

Aussi-66

Guys Thanks for all your comments and ideas on the hill holder.
I got into thinking about augmenting the relatively weak park breaks on our cars about 10 years back when I was with a buddy on a club run, we were parked in a steep nose in spot with an old granite curb and a cast iron hitching post in front. In the process of backing out of this spot my buddy rolled the foot or so into the curb and the hitching post. The result was some expensive repairs to what had been a very nice car. All this despite his experience with park brake starts, the park brake just wasn’t up to the task. Knowing how soon these brakes become marginal after adjustment, I looked for a way to provide them with an assist function. What I came up with is the original Rube Goldberg as shown in the pictures below. The park brake is connected to the foot brake via a cable and spring linkage. When it is pulled on it also pulls down the brake pedal, the spring ensures that the standard park brake travel and operation is not restricted by the hydraulic assist function. The park brake is a little harder to pull on, though this is much reduced pressing the brake pedal at the same time as you pull the park brake on. It has functioned well for the last 10 years.

Park brake on
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...arkbrakeon.jpg


Park Brake off
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...rkbrakeoff.jpg

I got into thinking about the hill holder as a more elegant way to provide the assist function. I had a Hurst on my Jag which also has a very weak park brake it worked well for a couple of years but last summer I cooked the solenoid in stop and go traffic coming up to a light. Having owned a couple of Subaru’s I got to thinking about using a “pressure Hold Valve” from a Subaru not in its original hill holder mode where it is incline sensitive. By bolting it to the car vertically rather than horizontally the slope detection is end run and you have a simple mechanical PHV. My Idea was to use this device as the splitter to the rear brakes and connect its pressure release mechanism to the existing park brake mechanism at the rear of the car. In operation it would be much the same as the Rube Goldberg stand on the brake and pull the park brake on, releasing the park brake would release the mechanical park brake and depressurize the PHV at the same time. The little advantage with this versus the Goldberg is that the brake lights don’t come on when you apply the park brake, but I have installed a fix for this problem. I am sure some one must have done all this already and was looking for some pointers. If not then ok; I will post the PHV setup I come up with, it will be essentially the same for both the Jag and the Corvette. The Goldberg isn’t an easy option for the Jag.

Frankie the Fink

An ingenious solution to a non-existent problem...

Ron Miller

Oh, I don't know about that . . . . may not be a problem in your neighborhood, but must have been a problem for the original poster at least. And, he seems to have come up with a workable solution. I'll give him credit for that!



A little more thinking along the lines of the Subaru unit may also lead to a little more elegant solution in the future as well. I'm not one to knock innovation, even when it doesn't work out. A lot of ideas don't work out on the first iteration, but repetition is what separates the winners from the losers, after all!

toddalin

Seems like you would have more overall control just by holding your finger on a line lock switch mounted to the stick shift.

Sounds like it would be hard to do burn-outs and 1/4-mile launches using the Goldberg method (though Rube is a good friend of mine).

There are limitations in the Hurst instructions on how long you can hold the line-lock before you can burn out the solenoid, and they are re-buildable if you do.

00fxd

It's surprising to hear so many old dogs on this board seem to need driving lessons for these old cars. I can see it for the younger set... In the old days that feature was advertised for the ladies ...

Frankie the Fink

My 5'2" 105lb mother used to drive my 'ole man's straight stick dealer demonstrator cars up snowy hills (yes REAL hills) in Pittsburgh without all this hoopla. That's back in the '50s with un-synchronized transmissions and 3 kids in the car... Like all the drivers of the era she got real adept at manipulating the emergency brake while sliding the clutch...and she never rolled back into anybody.

You guys need to 'nut up'..

Nowhere Man

who you calling old. I'm 27 year young. in my last three three years driving manuals i never rolled back on a hill. but yet every time my father goes with a ride with me he still yells at me for my feet work between shifts

jdk971

what scares people and me today is that drivers today leave very little room between
vehicles stopped at a stop sign or what ever. since most of the drivers today do not know
how to drive a stick or remember roll back. jim

00fxd

I guess that I should have said for "some" of the younger set. They were brought up with automatics, few manuals around. The rest of you guys ... You shouldn't need the "E" brake on a hill either.