ZZtop2

I just finished relocating my trailing arm parking brake brackets to the top of the arms for wheel clearance, put everything back together, and now there is too much slop in the cables. The brake worked before the brackets were relocated.

I can see the front cable pull when the parking brake handle is raised, but the adjuster under the car is all the way forward and it still does not pull the rear cable.

My thought is that relocating the brackets and routing the cable to the inside of the trailing arms shortened the routing distance to the brakes and caused slack in the rear cable. So, what to do? Is there a way to cut and shorten the front cable with a type of clamp/union maybe?

Danish Shark

Move the brackets towards the rear.
It's easy, and the next guy replacing the cable won't be scratching his head wondering what's wrong.

ZZtop2

Which brackets towards the rear? Could you explain please. I have already relocated the brackets to the top of the trailing arms.

Danish Shark

First: I made a booboo in my first reply, the brackets should be moved forward to shorten the cable.

It's the parking brake brackets that you moved to the top of the traling arms that should be moved forward.
As you moved the brackets to the top of the trailing arms you didn't maintain the same distance from the wheel hub to the bracket as before.
Moving the brackets toward the wheel has the same effect as lengthening the inner wire.
Moving the brackets away from the wheel has the same effect as shortening the inner wire.

Check out this article (pdf file):

http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/MoreBite.pdf

Regards
Karsten

ZZtop2

You are correct. I did place the brackets closer to the hub of the wheel when I relocated them to the top of the trailing arm. I did this because the top of the trailing arm is not wide enough for the bracket if you keep them in the original position and you cannot get a good weld (plus it wouldn't look good with the edges hanging over).

Surely someone else had run into this problem for the same reasons I did. Is there another solution someone has had success with other than removing the cable and finding someone to shorten it?

Mgrad92

I have the exact same problem. Maybe it's the parts manufacturer? Where did you buy your cables from?

Bob Heine

ZZtop2,
You're right about the trailing arm being narrow where the bracket needs to be re-mounted. Once I cut mine off the face of the trailing arm, I squeezed the legs together in a vice so it matched the new trailing arm location. At the time I did this, I didn't have a welder so I had a nearby pro do it for $20. You can see traces of the original weld and I don't think it was as beefy. My guy welded it inside and out and along the face of the bracket.


The cable housing slides in place with no problem and the adjustment range on the parking brake cable is the same as it was originally. I don't know how much a custom cable would cost but I suspect it's more than relocating and re-welding the bracket.

ZZtop2

Yeah, I put my bracket closer to the hub. The face of the bracket is about inline with the center of the hole in the brake line bracket. It made for a very nice mount and allowed me to angle the bracket slightly towards the caliper, but I still had to squeeze the ends in like you mentioned to get a good fit. I mig welded it and it came out real nice. I really don't want to move the bracket.

I will have to see what I can do about the cable. I have not taken a look under the car or tried this to verify, but I am wondering if the plate on this rear cable that goes through the adjustment rod near the center of the car could just be rotated 180 degrees (essentially putting one twist in the rear cable near the center of the car) and work without binding.

The other thing I am wondering is if moving the cable mount on the frame, near where the trailing arm mounts to the frame to the other hole in the bracket would take the slop out. Not sure if the cable routing would work from this hole. What is that additional bracket hole for anyway?

Here is the bracket I am referring to:

Alan 71

Z,
Same bracket is used on the right and left sides, thus holes in 2 directions.
Regards,
Alan

Bob Heine

It sounds like you have lost about an inch of adjustment on the main cable. I would disconnect the main cable, remove the jam-nut from the front side of the cross-bar and put a 1-inch spacer up against the back of the crossbar. Use the nut and jam-nut on the back side to get your lost adjustment back. I'd get a piece of thick wall tubing but you could also just stack up an inch worth of washers.
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ZZtop2

Bob, that is a good idea. This will put the crossbar forward of the threaded rod, essentially floating on the cable since it does not have a jam nut on its front side. Is this ok? The only thing I can think of might be wear of the crossbar on the cable over time from vibration while driving. Then again, there is some metal forward of the threaded section, so if I do not need too much adjustment the crossbar will not be contacting the braided cable.

I will definitely use a metal spacer or thick wall tubing.

Bob Heine

ZZ,

If you only need an inch-long spacer, it might be possible to thread the jam nut so it's inside the crossbar. That would probably mean putting it all together to test the spacer and see if there's any threads available inside the crossbar area, take it all apart and then do it all again (turning the nut inside the crossbar an 8th turn at a time).

Good luck with the fix.

gbarmore

I had the same issue and did basically what Bob outlined. This worked like a charm and it doesn't take that much to get your adjustment back. Remove the first nut that is against the bracket, replace with washers or tubing but washers make it really easy to fine tune.... As you can see in my pic I left an 1/8" of the cable crimp exposed to avoid abrasion of the cable itself. I the pic I don't have a second nut on but put one on to lock it or use a Nylock nut. Easy fix and you don't have to weld!



Greg

ZZtop2

Thanks Bob and Greg. This is exactly what I was looking for!

What a great forum!

DEEPSEA70

I sent mine to a local cable manufacturer. They cut two inches out and re-crimped with a ball on the end. Works great.