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Jedi Hopeful
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My wife and I have different techniques for parking the car.
We are in Florida, so there are no hills in the equation.
One of us leaves it in neutral and applies the parking brake, the other leaves it in second gear and applies the parking brake.
What do other people do, especially flatlanders?
 
I never use the parking brake.

And, my wife never drives my car.

Ever.
 
In normal, day-to-day use, I put the hand brake on and then I put it in gear (first or reverse).
After that, I depress the clutch so that there is no unneeded load on the trans while it's sitting there, but it will hold the car back if the parking brake fails.

In our family, the use of parking brakes (or "E-brakes" as we say here in NJ), has often been point of dispute.
I maintain that if you use the parking brake, the cable will keep getting "cycled" on and off and will not stick. Others, like my Dad and few of my brothers like to "save" their parking brakes. But I notice that my parking brakes works smoother and more reliably than in their cars.

And there is a viewpoint by some that you will wear out the return springs in the rear brakes if you use the parking brakes. But the motion of the rear brakes springs is much less than the distance required to reach the permanant "yield point", so that is unlikely.

If I park a car "long term", I use wheel chocks and leave it in gear with hand brake off, since the brake-friction surfaces may rust together.

I don't worry about sharing: no one else *wants* to drive my cars. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
70herald said:
TR6BILL said:
I never use the parking brake.
Click to expand...

Is it rusted into place yet? The main purpose of putting on the parking brake it to prevent it from locking up from built up rust.
Click to expand...


I should have said, "I never use the parking brake ... to park."

I engage it on a fairly regular basis to keep it "loose".

I have noticed that I have had to tighten my brake once since installing new (all new). There is a certain amount of wear on the pads as well as stretch in the cable. Nice to have a working emergency brake, if ever needed.
 
When parking I put it into reverse. The thinking being that this is the lowest ratio gear and would provide the maximum reistance to movement.

I park on a slight incline so I turn the wheels so if it rolls it'd run into the curb, and I use the parking brake.
 
Then the cheapo DPO Pedro who "saved"
wear and tear on his emergency brake by
disconnecting the cables from both rear
wheels.

What a man!!

tinster
 
70herald said:
TR6BILL said:
I never use the parking brake.
Click to expand...

Is it rusted into place yet? The main purpose of putting on the parking brake it to prevent it from locking up from built up rust.
Click to expand...

I set mine one cold night when I lived on top of a mountain, and the next morning it had frozen, not from rust but from water that collected between the cable and the tube it ran through underneath the car (to keep it from rubbing on stuff, I guess.) I had to have the car towed, put on a rack, and then thawed out before it would release. I never set the handbrake again. It finally rusted solid in the "off" position.

- Steve Richardson
St Louis MO
 
As per the manual, I do what James does: engage reverse, "load" the driveline and apply the handbrake. If on incline, wheels to curb.

And I'm a flatlander too.
 
1st gear w/e.brake



I usually use the parking brake if I'm taking off from a dead start on a hill with a car behind me...
 
JamesWilson said:
When parking I put it into reverse. The thinking being that this is the lowest ratio gear and would provide the maximum reistance to movement.

I park on a slight incline so I turn the wheels so if it rolls it'd run into the curb, and I use the parking brake.
Click to expand...

I've been thinking about this reasoning. Isn't the lowest ratio gear going to have the least resistance to movement?

My driveway has about a 4 foot rise over 30 feet. I usually leave it in 2nd, but have been thinking about puting it in a higher gear. The cables have stretched too much to provide adequate resistance, so I chock it too.
 
Park where ever you want, just don't block in my TR6.

I've always used a forward gear, and the parking brake.
 
I ALWAYS use my parking brake, and usually leave the car out of gear when on a flat surface.

If I am parking on a hill, I will put the car in 1st or reverse, depending on if I am facing the grade or not, AND use the parking brake.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:] I've been thinking about this reasoning. Isn't the lowest ratio gear going to have the least resistance to movement? [/QUOTE]

If you have a 1:1 top gear then one turn of the drive shaft would produce one turn of the crank. With, say, a 10:1 reverse then one turn of the crank would try to force the crank to make 10 turns.

So rolling the car a given distance in top will generate fewer RPM than a lower gear; and less resistance due to compression.

That's why downshifting provides engine braking when you want to slow down....

I think....
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]It finally rusted solid in the "off" position.
[/QUOTE]

The e-brake is one of the things they inspect during the annual MOTs here. If it doesn't hold properly they'll fail your car....

'Course it is useful up in the highlands and around hilly parts of Glasgow....
 
I like to save wear and tear on everything so I just pull up to and rest my car against the car that is down hill from me. So I am really glad everyone is so concerned about how to keep their car from rolling downhill.

JUST KIDDING!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
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