need a parking brake cable or repair

[lowrider27]

does anybody have or know where to get a parking brake cable for a 92 festy? mine snapped in front of passenger side. or if anybody knows how i can just temp repair mine till i can find one that would help too.

[mintFestiva]

You know what, I just had an idea

I've already run into that problem on my Festiva(both sides were broken).

I already fixed it by wrapping some more cable around the lever that it normally mounts to and then cable clamping the two ends of the new cable to the old one. Tightened things up as much as possible by tightening the screw by the parking brake lever inside the car. Unfortunately, I could not get this assembly tight enough to do much good.

It just occured to me that one could probably avoid the loop I made(and the resulting tension problems) by simply taking a piece of the cable andd wire clamping one end of it to the old cable, running the other end through the hole middle of the lever on the brake drum that it is supposed to be hooked up to, then putting a cable clamp on that end to hold it there. This is what I mean by cable clamps: http://www.e-rigging.com/store_Categ...Choice=Catalog

Please respond if you need a picture ....I think I'm going to try this soon

[lowrider27]

what kind of cable did you use and where did you get it?

[iceracerdude]

Ok, I've worked on aerial cable before I retired, and we called the steel cable that runs from pole to pole that the other communications cable is lashed to, "the strand"
Well they actually make a one piece splicing joint designed to connect two pieces of strand together, and be 90% as strong as the steel strand itself, which can be considerable depending on the size of the steel "strand" you're working with. I know I trusted my life to these devices, and have actually made zip line connections with them (the loop at the end that goes around the backside of the tree)
What's amazing about them is that they're designed to work like chinese finger cuffs, but with steel jaws inside, for lack of a better description. You simply push two ends into it and they won't back out. The harder you pull, the harder it'll hold on, and it's weatherproof!
You can never get the strand out, you'd have to cut the splice off.
These are known by a lot of different propriatary names like "strand vice", "wire vice", "strandlink" etc. I had occasion to use one on a broken aspire e-brake cable, where the break was right in the middle of the back axle on the passenger side. Of course you need the break in the cable to be in a place that will allow you to use the "strandlink" because the size that fits our cables is 8" long (see pics. below). I just cut the ends of the cable off to get nice clean ends, then simply burned the rubber coating off the two ends of the cable with a propane torch, leaving plenty to still keep the remaining cable weather resistant. That worked very fast, and really cleans the plastic off nicely. Then I just pushed the ends into the strand link, and adjusted the ebrake to my liking.
The brand and model number of the unit I used is:
Reliable brand, universal "strandlink" 3/16" size, with a range of .140 -.215 dia. wire. Catalog # 5039 and depending on how many you buy at a time, It cost me about $10.

I thought about making it a sticky, and have been using this repair successfully for months now, just forgot about till this post popped up.

[lowrider27]

where could i get that strand link?