Parking Brake

The parking brake wasn't working when I bought the car, so I decided to tackle that next. Sorry, but there are no pictures - there was hardly enough room for me under the car, let alone a camera and enough distance to get a shot that was more than a blur of rust-colored haze. 
Anyway, I jacked the car up, got on my super cool Chinese-made creeper I got at Harbor Freight for like 80 cents, and rolled under the brake lever. If you've been under any old car, you know what the parking brake cables look like: "Y"


It was actually a super easy fix. The cables were in good shape, the springs were in place, and the brake lever itself worked fine. The cables just needed  to be tightened, so I could get more tension when I pulled the brake lever. This in turn would engage the brake. I tightened the pull cable using the nuts already in place. I turned them away from the spring, so there would be more tension on the cable, but it wasn't enough. I needed a way to increase tension on the cable going from the Y to the wheels.


A buddy of mine offered me a short length of 3/4" brass tubing. I disconnected the tension spring, took off the locknuts, and slid the tube over the threaded rod. I put the nuts and spring back on. Essentially, this made the my thread rod a few inches longer - perfect for getting the extra 3 inches of travel I needed to get the tension right. After some minor adjusting and testing, the tension is just right. Now I can park on on an incline without worrying about rolling into things!


Total cost for fixing parking brake: $4.28 for Slurpees and a Chico Stick for my buddy who gave me the brass tube