GoodOldsGuyDougie

Ughhh!!!!


I'm presently working on my car and decided this weekend to fix the emergency brake that for some reason, someone disconnected under car. The front cable(line) was hanging down underneath and not attached to the Rear Cable. I bought the part that holds the two cables together just under the drivers door.

I couldn't get any slack on the front cable too hook the too up and the line appears to be to short to work. I looked inside at the parking brake in the car and noticed the cable was not attached. I got down underneath the car and noticed the cable was going into the frame at what I think is the correct place but the cable was wound up inside the frame and then going straight up into what looks like the floor board about 1 foot back from where the Parking brake pedal is.

I'm thinking some one took this off when they were restoring the car and didn't know how to reattach it and just left it where it is and rolled without a parking brake. I was going to just cut the cable out of the frame area and get a new one and try to install it the correct way. I called a few places that have the front parking brake cable and they wanted to know if I had a 400 or 350 Trans? I couldn't for the life of me figure what that has to do with anything. The cable for the 400 Trans is 50" long and the 350 is 45". I'm thinking that is really to long but it may be correct. I have never had to fix this type of problem before so if anyone can make a few suggestions on this job I would appreciate it greatly. As always thanks in advance for your time everybody.

Lady72nRob71

I believe the assy manual had the exact routing for the cable. I remember looking at it also when i changed speedo cables.

Rickman48

I've had pretty good luck with penetrating oil down both ends of the cable, and getting them free, but it takes a while, and patience!!

MDchanic

Here are two pictures of roughly how the cable runs.

The front cable, from the pedal, has a threaded rear end, which serves as the adjustment, by pulling the cable that runs to both wheels tighter.



The cable is routed through hooks that sit in holes in the floor structure and / or the transmission crossmember (hence the different lengths for different transmissions).



Exact routing and hook placement may vary between GM divisions and car models, but so long as the hooks take out enough slack, but not too much, it'll work fine. If you're a perfectionist, then you should have bought and read the Assembly Manual from cover to cover already .

- Eric

joe_padavano

That has EVERYTHING to do with it.

The e-brake cable hangs off the trans crossmember. The TH400 requires the crossmember to be located further back than does all other transmissions that year. The TH400 requires a longer front cable and a shorter intermediate cable than for other transmissions, thus the different listing. I'm impressed that you found a parts store that knew that. Again, both the front and intermediate cables need to match. The rear cables that go to the backing plates are the same for all transmissions.

GoodOldsGuyDougie

Thanks everyone.... the new Cable will be here in a few weeks and then I'll let you know how it goes.(Pray for me)

Lady72nRob71

See if this picture helps any. This is for a 350 backed to a 350 for 72...

GoodOldsGuyDougie

yeap I definetly have a 400 trans so its looks different than that 350 pic. My crossmember is further back. All of the cable is hooked up in the rear. Its just a matter of connecting the cable to the Emergency brake pedal and running it through the frame and hooking it to the rear cable. What I need if anyone can help is to know exactly how the cable snakes up to the parking brake pedal. Mine goes through the frame at the correct place and then doesen't appear to go up through the firewall but straight up and that puts its under the carpet and then it looks like it would need to forward to the top of the Emergency brake pedal. I'm just not sure. Thanks everyone for any and all assistance.