Two things.
First, check the emergency brake switch after a long drive. A Thunderbird I did electrical work on had this problem, and in trouble-shooting an eletrical short that resulted from harness-hacking (ie. a ****-poorly installed remote start system), I found that the emergency brake switch was generating heat. It is excess heat that causes the rubber pad to melt (devulcanize).
Whether the heat that was being generated was enough to cause the pad to devulcanize - or the direct metal-to-metal contact between the emergency brake pedal and switch that occurred after the pad melted was providing a short-to-ground path - I don't know.
Second, while Kevin has come-up with an innovative way to replace the pad (which you cannot buy from F***) - I personally would not use a setup that uses a metal-to-metal contact between the switch and stop, or anything that incorporates a rounded head. The intent of the rubber pad is to absorb the blunt-force when the emergency brake abruptly retracts. Also, using a rounded-head bolt/screw will cause lateral deflection of the switch and eventually break one of the two mounting-points.
If you will look at the pad on a good emergency brake assembly, you will see how the small steel button on the emergency brake switch creates an indentation into the rubber pad, and how the design below would cause/place a lateral-load on that small plastic switch.
Kevin - nice job restoring the emergency brake assembly. Did you bead-blast or sand blast it? Paint or powder-cost it? It looks really nice.
