• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Parking Brake Help

DARKONE

CEG'er
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
50
Location
Detroit, MI
Im having A problem engaging my parking brake. Its real loose, I cannot use my break when in Neutral I have to put car in gear. Can anybody give me a lil info on how i can possibly fix this problem.
 
There is an adjuster wheel by the handle some times that works(all of mine) some times it doesn't (Contourpowers)
 
Rusty ebrake cables. 99.9111999 percent sure. get BOTH sides. they are the same length. Dont buy Orielly CRAP. NAPA FTW. bout 45 dollar investment at Napa. thier like 22 bucks per cable, u need 2. one for right and one for left.
 
Adjuster (kinda) Is a gear mechanism on the handle itself. The handle is a self adjusting unit, so no adjusting is nessesary on our Ebrake handles. Sometimes the line gets kinked inside the gears and gets stuck. That maybe happened. But highly unlikely. Mine bound up in the gears cause my cables were rusty. wich gave no slack to the handle, so you keep yankin on it...hopin it will work, but you just wind up wrecking the handle and binding the cable and stuff. DONT YANK TOO HARD ON THE HANDLE TO TEST THE LINE.

You have to take out your center console to look at the handle mechanism.

Have you even seen your brake cables before?

Im talkin jack your ride up go under there type of thing?

The cables run under the Heat Shield and attach to the equaliser on the handle.

It is very easy to do this cable job. and requires low skill.

A new handle from a junk yard is about 30-50

from Ford its like 99.00

Online can be had for like 75 or so.
 
Last edited:
Ive looked under but really didnt know what I was looking for. Hell if i can save from taking it to the dealer i'll do it myself!
 
Youre looking for the line that connects to the "banana" looking U dealio on the caliper.

First remove all those cheezy healtshield bolts off.

You must drop the mufflers down off their respective hanger.
Put a bucket under each one to brace the fall, they are kinda heavy.
Take one hanger at a time, spay some wd-40 on the hanger or soap or whatever to slide the bracket/muffler off.

then you must remove the heat shield. (of course)

Then you have a great access at the lines.

The Equaliser that is attached to the handle and Ebrake cable, pulls back to give you some slack. Pushing down on the handle a wee in the car helps to unlock it. Just pull back towards the rear bumper to give some slack.

Take the Ebrake cable off equaliser.

Remove other end of cable from Caliper.

Reinstall new cables.

There is better how to on this somewhere. But basically its pretty straighforward man.

Whatever you do, DO NOT remove the handle to give you slack. Keep it bolted in place. If you bought some cables and the dont fit quite right, they are too small. You WILL be able to simply pull back on the equaliser to get them darn cables on.

Reinstall Id say, if I remember right, EQUALISER FIRST...Then attack the CALIPER.

The NAPA ones come with Heavy duty zipties. But maybe you could attach a couple more some places.

Good luck if you decide to take on this mission. You really wont need it lol.

Get a second opinion on those cables at your local brake shop if you have a spare minute, get a quote type of thing. and watch how much youll save yourself, or not. lol.
 
Youre looking for the line that connects to the "banana" looking U dealio on the caliper.

First remove all those cheezy healtshield bolts off.

You must drop the mufflers down off their respective hanger.
Put a bucket under each one to brace the fall, they are kinda heavy.
Take one hanger at a time, spay some wd-40 on the hanger or soap or whatever to slide the bracket/muffler off.

then you must remove the heat shield. (of course)

Then you have a great access at the lines.

The Equaliser that is attached to the handle and Ebrake cable, pulls back to give you some slack. Pushing down on the handle a wee in the car helps to unlock it. Just pull back towards the rear bumper to give some slack.

Take the Ebrake cable off equaliser.

Remove other end of cable from Caliper.

Reinstall new cables.

There is better how to on this somewhere. But basically its pretty straighforward man.

Whatever you do, DO NOT remove the handle to give you slack. Keep it bolted in place. If you bought some cables and the dont fit quite right, they are too small. You WILL be able to simply pull back on the equaliser to get them darn cables on.

Reinstall Id say, if I remember right, EQUALISER FIRST...Then attack the CALIPER.

The NAPA ones come with Heavy duty zipties. But maybe you could attach a couple more some places.

Good luck if you decide to take on this mission. You really wont need it lol.

Get a second opinion on those cables at your local brake shop if you have a spare minute, get a quote type of thing. and watch how much youll save yourself, or not. lol.
Thanks im gonna try to tackle it on my own.
 
Back
Top