Parking brake cables

[Bitsyncmaster]

Today we fixed the parking brake on a D. Turns out both cables were not attached to the brake handle. Don't know why they were off. But did get them back on by removing the drivers seat, handle (two bolts) and the bracket that holds the handle (two bolts and three nuts). The three nuts are under the car just like the seat nuts.

With the seat out you can move the bracket and get the two ends into the handle. Maybe some cars would require backing off the adjustments at each wheel but this car it was not necessary.

Once the cables are attached, put the bracket back in and bolt it down. Then bolt the handle down. Don't forget to attach the light switch wire and test your dash brake light is working. This car the light did not work so we tried shorting the wire to ground and it still did not work. Must be a bad bulb or connection elsewhere.

Jack up both rear wheels and add one click of hand brake. Both wheels should move by hand. Keep adding clicks until one or both wheels are locked. You need to adjust one or both parking brakes at each wheel to get them grabbing at the same time.

[DMCMW Dave]

If they get way out of adjustment, or yoiu lose a pad, the cables can fall out. Usually once one falls out the other one does not work either.

[DCUK Martin]

And often when one does fall out, it lets go with a clunk that makes the driver think the cable has snapped.

[outatym2001]

Or you can do something stupid like I did and over torque the nut at the end of the parking brake cable and shear the threaded end of the bolt off.
As you can see in the picture this part is not repairable. The bolt is a specific size and fits into the hole perfectly and has a cable running through a hole in the head of the bolt. There is a piece of metal swaged on the end of the cable by a machine and it would be very difficult to permanently reattach another one. The far other end of the cable also has a piece of metal swaged on.

The entire parking cable assembly cost me $51.25 for my stupid mistake and I installed it myself. First I jacked up the rear end and put it on jack stands. Removed the driver seat then detached the Parking Brake Mounting Bracket from the body of the car. Removed both rear tires to make sure the parking brake pads on both sides grab evenly after I installed the passenger side Parking Brake Cable.