Emergency brake cables.

[Jay Kempf]

Wow, the parking brake cables. What a giant pain in the neck. Well, I 
live in Vermont and the car has been in Vermont for a long time. So when 
it came to unfreeze the brakes, cables, etc... it was a huge project. 
The project started with just cleaning out underneath. Then after that I 
removed and rehabbed the calipers: blast, paint, reseal. I also had 
rotted out brake lines to the back so I pulled them all and put in new 
and got rid of the proportioning valve. Then I removed all the covers 
and sheilds underneath all without removing the driveshaft. At that 
point I was able to cut out all the existing cables using rotary tools, 
dremel, hack saw, cutters... And then I started cleaning and rehabbing 
all the cable mount points. At that point I discovered that there was no 
way I was getting the nut off of the hand brake shaft so after a bit of 
research I disassembled it from the front and went to the web to get a 
clean handbrake handle, nut, threaded shaft, etc... I then started 
cleaning and hitting things with paint to make them last longer and I 
installed the new emergency brake handle and threaded the new cables in. 
Had to find an online supplier for the little clips that hold the cable 
to the front bracket near the back of the hand brake handle and pull 
rod. So then I had everything back in from the front all the way to the 
caliper. I then measured and bent up new brake lines to the back tee. 
Then installed the calipers and hooked up the new brake cables. Then 
measured and fit new brake lines across the rear crossmember to the 
calipers. This took forever and I had a lot of sessions under the car 
with torches and tools on my back with it raining rust flakes and road 
grit. Now I have to go back in for a rear diff seal and I am not happy 
about that but now have all the parts here to do that.

If you don't disconnect the rear driveshaft and get it out of the way it 
is tight up there for hands and/or arms. I used about 5 wobbly 
extensions and a deep 10mm socket to tension the cables up at the end. 
And when I got done because I had rebuilt the calipers I couldn't get 
any brake action out of the emergency system. So I freaked out and 
wondered what I had done wrong for a while while I drove the car around 
a bit and bedded the new brakes in. After a few miles of braking and 
pulling on the emergency brake handle they tightened right up and I was 
able to do a final adjustment.

As far as the cables, part numbers, lengths and all that someone put up 
a great writeup a bunch of months back. I had brake cables I bought like 
10 years ago just in case and I think I got them from autohausaz.com. 
Etka has the correct numbers but I think the minor length difference can 
be accomodated.

If you have any questions give a shout any way, through the list or with 
either contact below. BTDT and then some.

Regards,

jfk

802 272 5868
jkempf at madriver.com