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Remove cable from parking brake pedal assembly?

briwayjones

Manual Master
Joined
December 11, 2003
Messages
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Location
Maryland, USA
City, State
Eldersburg, MD
Year, Model & Trim Level
2000 Ford Explorer XLS
I haven't found an answer to this. Only a couple places where people asked this but didn't get a response.

I don't see anyway to remove the parking brake cable from the parking brake pedal assembly. Do you need to use Jedi mind tricks or something?
 



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I've never done it (even though I replaced a broken driver's side short parking brake cable once by shear force). However, I understand there's something you need to do in the parking brake pedal mechanism where you stick a nail through a hole in order to remove the cable.

Maybe someone else will pipe in with more info.
 






This might sound kind of messed up, but here is how I disconnect the ebrake cable

Push the pedal all the way down.
stick a screwdriver blade into the arms on the brake backer, to hold them from retracting. You may need some help holding these in place. There is a small hole in the brake pedal lever assembly where you can stick a small drill bit-allen wrench or nail into. this prevents full retract.

Pull the retract handle to release the pressure on the cable.

Under the driver door area is a cable link that can now be pushed together to unlock them from each other. This is as far as I have needed to go myself, however now you should have a fee cable, and should be able to pull some slack up into the cab. I am pretty sure the pedal end is sort of like a brake cable on a bicycle, you swing the cable up to release a barrel which sits in a slot.
 






I have the pedal assembly all the way out with a piece of the cable. The end of it does look like the end of a bike cable. Doesn't matter how you manipulate the cable, there is no way to get it out. I'll try to get some pictures of it. I don't know if they would help though.
 






This is what the Factory manual for a '99 says. Hopefully this works.

Untitled_zpslfzdgqz9.png
 






Hmm, removing the parking brake anchor pin is the problem. That's the part that I see no way to remove. I won't be able to this weekend but I'll have to study it some more. Thanks murkin!


This is what the Factory manual for a '99 says. Hopefully this works.

Untitled_zpslfzdgqz9.png
 






Hmm, removing the parking brake anchor pin is the problem. That's the part that I see no way to remove. I won't be able to this weekend but I'll have to study it some more. Thanks murkin!

No problem! Let us know how it goes.
 






Okay I'm beginning to see what's going on. The problem I've been having is the pedal itself completely blocks and encapsulates taking the anchor pin out. But there are two ratchet mechanisms on the pedal. I was hardly noticing and ignoring the second one. There's the large main one you can see on the diagram and another smaller one further to the front of the pedal. If you can actuate the smaller one it will allow the pedal to move out of the way of the pin. Doing that is difficult and it's spring loaded so it just springs the pedal right back. There must be a way to lock it after you actuate it so it doesn't spring the pedal back which I haven't figured out yet. As you guys can probably tell I'm not overly motivated to work on this. I haven't hardly messed with it for more than 5 minutes at one time. :confused:
 


















^ Understood. Just don't see any way of removing the cable without "pinning" the parking brake control first. OP, once the control is reinstalled with the three bolts shown in step 10, if you don't have help pulling on the cable, tie a line to it and place a loop for your foot to pull while inserting the drill bit or pin. Did this while replacing driver side body mounts alone. Awkward.
 






Didn't you have a post with a picture right after my post #9?

I didn't bother with those steps because he stated he already had it out of the vehicle, so they seemed useless.
 












Ok, I thought you had posted a picture that shows where to insert the pin/drill bit. I must be losing it now.

Lol nope. My only picture was post #6. @swshawaii posted that link though, which has good pictures.
 






Ok, I thought you had posted a picture that shows where to insert the pin/drill bit. I must be losing it now.
Now that you say that, I feel like I remember seeing that. Hmm. lol Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the only picture I posted. I'll check my PC in a bit, and see.
 












Does anything ever work? I got the pedal assembly with the cable installed back finally. And I'm mainly just complaining now, but I put all the new cables on to the back and it is way too long. Not even close. As far as I can tell I got all the right parts. :confused:
 






To get rid of the slack I'm going to cut the intermediate cable and put a turnbuckle in there. The problem is pulling the slack out of and holding the rear cable against the spring on the end of the cable that attaches to the lever that works the parking brake. Any body have any tricks for this?
 



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