Got the handbrake cable fitted today but feck me, that is not a job to do on axle stands. I was practically licking the torsion bar with so little ground clearance. Damn fiddly as well around there and with everything about 3 inches from my eyes, it could easily be classed as torture!
Here is the old cable looking rather broken (you do have to look close as I laid the broken bit down near where it snapped!):
Not a job I ever want to to again but here is a brief synopsis.
Removed the guard plate (4 x 17mm bolts) to get access mid torsion bar to where the short cable joins to the long cable. Took an eternity to find the retaining clip with eyes so close to target and not enough room for a full finger wiggle. Eventually it came off quite easily. Then I could remove the 10mm nut and bolt that holds the cable on and remove the broken cable. Magic. So I thought, I'll just get the new cable attached here and then we are plain sailing at the wheel side to deal with the hub. Utter torture with no clearance but I finally find a way to contort myself and get the nut and bolt done up. All good. Then I have to slide the rubber boot back on the cable, as it had to be pulled back to get the cable through the tight as a gnat's chuff bracket. This took half an hour and a whole plethora of swear words to sort, did I say there was no room to work, yes I think I did!
All happy with myself at this point, I remove the caliper and brake disc, and realise all the handbrake shoes and gubbins need to come off, never mind, easy enough, done that only a few days ago. So I charge on, strip it all off and the lever bracket thing comes straight out, still attached to broken bit of cable. I have this in my hand when I realise I hadn't taken a mental note of the orientation, bollox! After much fiddling and f'king about I sussed out what was needed. Great, let's feed the new cable in now. Not great, the f'king thing doesn't go far enough to allow me to connect it! Super duper, I'm having a quick break contemplating removing the cable again (was not fun) and was most pee'd off with proceedings.
Then a bit of a eureka moment, maybe I can adjust the cable in car and let out some slack? Nope, here's a better idea, just unbolt the handbrake lever, it's only 2 x 13mm bolts and then we should be good. Anyone ever tried this without removing the seat? If not, don't, it's a nightmare. Anyway after performing miracles under the torsion bar I was undeterred, and got the thing off, seat in place, and hey presto, just enough room now to get the cable connected at the hub. An absolute canter to connect the cable back on, much like assembling a Kinder Egg toy, then set about the handbrake shoes and springs. They were not playing ball, took me ages and lots of swear words to get the bottom spring in, and then the rest was easy. Until I had to reconnect the handbrake lever with seat in place but 10 minutes of slick finger action sorted that. Time to whack the back disc back on now.
Then took another short break before plucking up the courage to try the lever, have I f'ked anything up, entirely plausible after the 3 hours of Hell and confusion I had just came through...........f it, here goes, and it worked! How good did that feel!
Back to the wheel and put the caliper on. Those spacer washers on the rear calipers are also torture by the way, but they gave in quite quickly thankfully. Then it was just one more potholing trip left to bolt on the guard plate and stick on a couple of cable ties to secure the cable to the beam. Boom, job done, easy!
I need a lie down.
Stuart
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