Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting E-Brake cable TSB... need help...

Excellent link!!!! That helps all of us. Thanks

I assume you're referring to the replacement of the 2 cables which attach to the rr calipers. You can jack on the forward rear control arms, but NOT THE toe control arms. Or find the strong point in the rear chassis IIRC close to where the longitudinal suspension arm connects to the chassis.

Yes it's necessary to drop the exhaust to gain access to the junction point where the 2 cables connect to the "Y". You'll also need a big wrench to lever the arm where the cable attaches to the caliper. A helper works too! BTW-the boots on the cable ends don't do much. I had a repeat of this problem with the new & improved cables. However, since I added my own extra helper spring for the cables I've had no repeat on this problem.

As for your rear suspension "clunk" it's usually the rear sway bar making contact with the subframe. Is your car lowered or does it have an aftermarket rr sway bar? If the answer is yes to either, that will be a mitigating factor. If not, check the rr end links and/or sway bar bushings-they fail regularly.

I changed my cables, and DID NOT drop the exhaust. Mind you, it was a PITA, but I was able to slide the heat shield out without moving the exhuast, and get to the y-split for the e-brake cables.

I'm one step closer to getting that old HOW TO.

If you have a few more days to wait, we may be able to get it. I've found the owner of ceg.dyndns.org, and have PM'd him in regards to the webpage. I'll keep you posted.

Also, on a regular Contour, there are little arrows pointing to the jack points of the contour, if you're using the OEM jack.

Radioactive... good link... that helps a lot. Thanx.

Bradness, yes I am talking about the e-brake cables that split from the "Y" above the head shield and extend to the rear calipers. As far as jacking up the car from the control arms... no thanx. I know which arms you are talking about... the thicker ones, but those baby's are still way to thin for me to be jacking up the entire vehicle weight on. As far as trying to jack the car from the center junction where the control arms are attached to the body of the car... that is NOT a stable place and WILL bend if you jack the vehicle from there, even a slight deformation is a bad thing when dealing with suspension as we all know. I have seen cars that have been jacked from that center suspension mount and they are all bent up. This can't be a good thing. I guess I will just jack the car from the drip sills which I really don't want to do since they usually get crushed, but I'll see if I can figure some way around it till I get the jack stands underneath there.

I'll just drop the exhaust completely off... it's only 2 bolts further than lowering it and I can imagine that it will be a TON easier to just take it off than to have to work over it. We'll see. Yes, I TOTALY agree with you, the new "improved" cables don't do jack. I HAVE the new cables (98')... I looked at them when getting my tires rotated and balanced... they have the rubber boot on them, but are still definitely bad.

As far as the "clunk" is concerned... my car is not lowered... no suspension mods what so ever are done in the rear. I have new springs in the rear... only about 9k on them... one spring broke last time I had the tires rotated and balanced (for whatever reason... probably a defect), so I replaced both rears. I did notice though when the tires were off that neither side has the cables attached to the control arm like they are supposed to (from the TSB pics). Also, the driverâ??s side, where the clunk is prevalent... there is no rubber 'star' pad thing at all on that cable. I am thinking that this might have a lot to do with the suspension clunks... if not then I am willing to bet it's sway-bar or end-link bushing related. We'll see what happens when I get under there to check it out.

Thanx for the help guys, all of you... I'll keep you all posted as to what happens. I'll take pictures and write a new tutorial through it. I think it would be a nice addition to the tutorial collection.

Just got a reply.

That link is now up and running. It should help you out. However, it will only be up for a little while. I'll post the text in a few minutes in case it goes down.

http://ceg.dyndns.org/archives/9812/msg00003.html

Add some pictures with it, and we'll post it up here.

Also, taking off the exhaust bolts is often harder than you think. Many times you need to apply heat to remove those bolts. Eitherway, good luck.

Good work... thank you very much! I copy/pasted the instructions into a word document. I will clean them up, see how they go (using them), make any neccessary corrections (if needed), and then add the pictures and send it to a moderator for review and they could post it in the tutorial section. Beleive me, I am well aware that exhaust bolts can be a bugger... I can't even count how many Mustang exhaust systems I have taken on and off, let-alone just on my car alone! I just remember when I took this factory exhaust off for the SVT, it wasn't bad at all compared to what I was used to.

Thanx again for all of your help guys. I'll let you know how it goes and keep you all posted.

link no longer works. can someone who copied and pasted paste what they have on here.