Aspire swap, EBrake question

[4cylDreadnaught]

Is it possible to just splice the cable from the aspire trailing arm to the existing fes e-brake cable? Or is that really a fundamentally bad idea?

[Safety Guy]

I made an adaptor for my recent swap on Lux. Here is a brief tutorial:

Go to the 'yard and cut off both ends of a Festiva cable where it meets the brake levers. You really should get both because you might mess up your first try or you could use the other end for another conversion. Plus, if you are ruining a Festy cable, may as well get two ends instead of just one. "Waste not; want not!" I bought a small bolt cutter to do this, and it does it very well.

Get the clevis pins, too. And the spring retainers if they are still good.

When you get these home, open up the "U" of the piece just enough to take off the cable end. Then reinstall the clevis pin with the end of a brake lever installed, to keep that end "open." That end will fit onto your Aspire swap brake lever. Chuck the other end into a vise and smoosh it. If you have no vise, use a big hammer. Smoosh it flat. The bigger the vise or hammer, the better.

You'll have a part with an open end and a closed end. Since you will only need about 1/2" or 3/4" extra reach (at the most), drill your new hole accordingly. Center it too, so it will be as strong as possible. The "long end" should not need to be cut off, since it should fit into your existing Festiva cable end. Also, you should need to only do one side. (If there is an exception, it is good to have both sides to do.)

Take off the brake lever arm from your new adaptor, install, and enjoy. Mine worked fine.

If this is not making any sense, I should be doing a pictorial on it soon.

Karl

[4cylDreadnaught]

I believe I understand (the mental walk through looks about right)

a picture tutorial wouldn't hurt

[mattswabb]

here's an idea for the brake cable extension. Go to home depot/lowes and get a piece of .5" x 3/16" or 1/4" thick steel bar. Cut 3 pieces like the pic below and bolt it all together thru the middle set of holes. The cable goes on the middle piece and the clevis end goes on the brake lever on the drum.

[Safety Guy]

Matt, even though I didn't exactly use your idea, that picture did help clarify how I modded the cut off Festiva cable end, so it helped.

I was too cheap to go spend money on new metal at a hardware store!

Karl

[mechanicaldj]

when i did my swap,

i just used my original festiva Ebrake cable and it works fine

you have to install it at the wheels first, then the lever

[4cylDreadnaught]

I had the guys at the yard yank the whole cable includint the ebrake. so I was just going to tie Dred's ebrake line into where the junction at the arm.