I vote to close it up a little!
Butt-watt do I know.........I've disconnected my E-cable a loooong time ago.
With the vibration associated with exhaust systems and road conditions the cables will constantly be rubbing-scrubbing on the exhaust.
  How long before the cable rubs through the pipe????? 10-20-30 years? Who-nose.
Might as well fix it now and have one less place to rattle and vibrate 
6sal6

Tighten until all slack is removed with handle in unapplied position.  You can feel the ebrake levers on the calipers to be sure they return to their stock position with no tension on cable.

If you have not exercised the ebrake levers through several set/release cycles, there will be excessive travel in the cable. I put vise-grips on the levers and cycle them until they are tight. Then adjust cables.  That is why calipers with integral parking brake MUST have the parking brake hooked up and exercised occasionally. It takes up slack created by brake pad wear.   You might have to exercise the levers up to ten strokes to get them adjusted properly.  You will definitely feel it when they are adjusted. At that point, your parking brake will start working quite effectively.

I must have a basic problem somewhere. I worked each parking brake lever about 15-20 times. The most I could get was about 3/8" movement on each lever, which seems like it would be enough.

With the levers actuated, I was able to push the end of the cable down with my finger, so both cables move freely. 

When I adjusted the equalizer to the point where the slack was just out of the cable, I could get 4 or 5 clicks out of the handbrake, but the wheels still turned easily by hand.

When I adjusted the equalizer to make the cables tight to the point where you could pluck them and they vibrated like a guitar string, I could only get 2 clicks on the handbrake- which took a huge amount of effort- and there was finally some drag on the rear wheels, but no where near enough to hold the car.

Post a picture showing where ebetything is hooked up to the lever.
Also, have you verified the roller wheel had not separated on the front of the front of the underdash apparatus?   Mine was broken when I first bought my 66 in 1992.

Any chance you have tight bends in the cables where they are routed above the mufflers?

I just took a look at the Cobra cables listed on MS' site and it does not look like the cables are coated? 

I wonder if the coating on my cables IS the problem?


2012 carrera s 0 60

The cables came from Street or Track several years ago, although current pics of the cables on SoT's site don't show the covering on the cables.

I will pull the cables out and see if I can peel off the coating and see if it makes a difference.

Last edited by Chaplin (7/07/2020 11:47 AM)

Lever looks correct.
Check the pulley on the underdash piece?

To test cables, just disconnect one end and see if the wire slides Easy.  It will have SOME resistance as normal.

Appears you are using MDL crossmember for T5?
With their kit (assuming not changing rear drum brakes) they include a 1” spacer to compensate for the shift of the crossmember rearward.

I noticed your adjustment nut is at end of travel to take slack out of rear cables running to calipers.
I would at least readjust that it is near center of threaded section.

I made my own horseshoe cable and I kept the spacer...just in case I switch back to a c4 transmission. 🤣

My horseshoe was also pinched closed loosely around cable as well, don’t know if required but I put mine back the same way with new cable.  I didn’t cut old cable, just opened the ends and closed around new.

Nos681 wrote:

Appears you are using MDL crossmember for T5?
With their kit (assuming not changing rear drum brakes) they include a 1” spacer to compensate for the shift of the crossmember rearward.

I noticed your adjustment nut is at end of travel to take slack out of rear cables running to calipers.
I would at least readjust that it is near center of threaded section.

I made my own horseshoe cable and I kept the spacer...just in case I switch back to a c4 transmission. 🤣

My horseshoe was also pinched closed loosely around cable as well, don’t know if required but I put mine back the same way with new cable.  I didn’t cut old cable, just opened the ends and closed around new.

 
Thanks. Yes, I have the MDL cross member for the T-5, but I did not get any spacers with it.

I did have the adjustment nut at the end of travel in that pic, but that was only temporary. I was messing with the adjustment to see where the best place was to set it to give maximum clearance on the cables from the exhaust and Driveshaft.

When I do the final install, install I am going to shorten up the cable that runs through the horseshoe so that the final adjustment winds up more in the middle of the travel.

Last edited by Chaplin (7/07/2020 8:04 PM)

Thanks for the pic.  I see some differences.

Aside from shortening your lever, your lever has 3 holes v 2 on mine. Even my original lever which I had on before the one you see in the pic only has 2 holes. 

Did you add the third hole to the right of the adjusting rod that your spring is hooked into?

And it looks like you've got the spring secured on the tranny v. going to the p side of the car in the stock position?

My spring has A LOT of tension on it. Re-routing the spring as you did could make a big difference.

In order to keep the equalizer centered and moving in a forward direction when the lever is pulled by the handle under the dash, what do you think about boxing in the bracket that the lever goes through and running a bolt through the lever?  That way, the lever will pivot around the bolt like a hinge instead of slipping out of the groove and moving towards the driver's side of the car when the handle is pulled.

Something like this?

That is an after market lever in the picture, but I also have the original factory lever which I had on previously.

I know the lever is "supposed" to pivot at the notch, but regardless of which lever I use (OEM or aftermarket), when you pull the brake handle, it pulls the whole lever towards the driver's side of the car, effectively pulling the "v" notch to the left of its pivot point on the cross member bracket.

When this happens, the passenger side wheel does lock up- because the additional movement of the lever towards the driver's side of the car puts additional tension on the cable going to the passenger side- but the driver's side wheel doesn't lock up because the lever pulled that cable more towards the driver's side of the car than it does pull the cable forward to pull the cable, so that cable is not as tight as the p/s cable.

If I could run a bolt through the lever creating a fixed pivot point that prevents the lever from shifting towards the side of the car when the brake handle is pulled, in theory it should result in more of a forward pull motion on the cables and more equal tension going to both rear brake cables than I have now.