Right after installing my new radiator (old one cracked), my parking brake broke. I think its just the cable cause as i was pulling up on the brake, it made PONK noise and now theres no tention (or stopping power) behind it.

How much for new cable ?
Hard to fix ?

 

Hmm, go to your rear brakes and look at where the EB cable connects to the caliper. The spring could have popped off. The braking system works on a pivot so if one side goes, then all tension is lost. You may just need to reconnect a spring, its a bitch though I am warning ya...

 

so you think its probably the spring rather than the cable itself. Is this job more of a pain in the A$$ then changing plugs?

 

yeah he's right its a real pain in the but if its disconected on the caliper side. If its not that and its not the cable. There is also a ratcheting style mechanism on the arm itself sometimes that goes out, you have to pull the center console out to check it, so i would check that last.

Good luck Mike

 

My brothers is still broken on the caliper side, he just puts his car in gear when he parks it. I think plugs are easier... There HAS to be a tool to compress the emergency brake caliper spring though, we didnt have it if there is one. I was trying to use a vise grip to compress mine but the grip part failed and I almost passed out and looked like an indian for the next couple days. Right between the eyes....

 

Ouch! this is gonna suck

 

Did you bring the lever all the way back down and then up again?

 

yeah howcome ?

 

Sometimes the mechanism that actually pulls the cable doesn't engage properly, and you just have to set it down to get it to work again.

 

Hey man, I had the same thing happen. Jack your car up (or squeeze under there) and follow the cable from where it exits under the console to the point where it connects to the T-bracket right in front of the rear axle and above the drive shaft. In my situation, the cable-end had popped off and I had to simply replace the parking brake cable from the interior lever to the T-bracket. It was like $16 from gmpartsdirect.com and requires removal of the console and crawling under the car. No big deal really. Took me just about an hour to replace it.

If I wasn't moving from Orlando to Kansas City the end of this week, I'd come over and help you fix it.