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E-brake Help!!

S

SVT_22

CEG'er
Joined
May 16, 2004
Messages
68
Location
Dickeyville, WI
The other day i went to change my oil, and i put my car out of gear and pulled on the e-brake and it was as firm as it usually is and then pop all of a sudden the e-brake was loose. So i took off the back wheels and adjusted the cylinder on the rear calipers and this didn't help. (We just put on new brake pads and rotors and didn't adjust the cylinder). Well while i had the wheels off i noticed the drivers side cable was rusted and was froze up. So i got a new e-brake cable from Advance about $35 and i put it on now the e-brake is still loose but it will actually grip the brakes when it is all the way up. I was wondering if it is possible if the cable going into the handle could have slipped back. I was also wondering if there is supposed to be a spring where the one cable from the e-brake meets the 2 rear cables. I was looking on the old forums and there was a pic from the autozone site and it had a spring there. Any help would be awesome thanks.
 
You my friend will need a new e-brake handle, which will come with a new cable and connector for the rear cables. I had the EXACT same thing happen, the POP sound was the cable braking free from the runner guide on the handle itself. No real way to fix it that won't lead to it failing again, so just spend the money and get a new e-brake handle, and while your at it, you might as well buy a passanger side cable so you never have to revisit this problem again.
 
I can't speak for the US chain stores, but I checked a couple here in Toronto (Canada) and none of them had the e-brake so I had to go to Ford, iirc it cost about $150'ish CAN taxes in. The rear brake cable kit (left rear cable, right rear cable, 2 springs) ran $113 CAN before taxes. So all in all ~$300 CAN and you have a completely brand new e-brake system. Also, don't forget to ratchet the e-brake up and down a few times to take up the slack on the cables.
 
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