E-brake / Caliper problems?

[Andrew Sitzer]

Hey All,
  I finally got down to long island to have a look at the emergency brake
on my 86 5ks..  Sure enough, one of the cables was snapped.
  Anyways, I brought it into a trusted (but not all too bright) mechanic
and he believes the reason the ebrake cable snapped is because of a bad
caliper.
  I replaced the calipers about 18 months ago with rebuilts -- so I tend
to find this hard to believe.  Anyways, I pulled the wheel off and could
not really move the cam/spring that the cable activates easily..  However,
I was afraid to put too much pressure on it.
  So here is the questions:  1)  How easy is it supposed to be to move
that spring?  2)  He insisted that if I got a new cable it would snap also
-- how true is this? (Or would I just not be able to easily engage the
emergency brake) <Note:  The old cable was VERY rusted.. probably the
original.>

Thanks!
-Andrew S.