jpressick

Several months ago I dismantled my 57 and in the process violated the cardinal rule to take pictures prior to starting. The hook up of the emergency/parking brake cable has me completely stumped. The handle has been installed but when the end of the cable is attached to the activating arm there is an excessive amount of cable drooping of approximately 5 inches. If someone has a picture of what this hook up should look like I would really appreciate it.

Pilot Dan

Do you have the long return spring hooked up between the lever and the left frame rail?? That would take the slack out of the front cable assuming you have it connected properly at the handle. There is a picture of the set up in the AIM (assembly information manual) and the ST-12 servicing guide which would be good books for you to pick up if you are going to work on the car. Pilot Dan

jpressick

Thanks for your reply. I do have the red, white and blue cover assembly manual but it does not show , in detail, the cable hook up. Also the return spring is attached to the left rail. Everything seems to be in place and that is why it is so frustrating. I am going to Carlisle so maybe able to get another manual that shows it better. Thanks again.

Pilot Dan

My 59 AIM has an excellent diagram in section 5. If you have the return spring hooked up, the only other thing I can think of is possibly
you have the idler lever it connects to reversed. It should point to the rear of the car.

The Corvette Servicing guide ST-12 has a diagram on page 5-2 which shows the set up as well. If you are going to Carlisle, pick up that book, it's a must have.

DZVette

jpressick

The attached PDF contains the pages from the 1960 AIM and shots of the cable connections on my 1960. The title should read 53 - 62, NOT 52 - 62.

Hope this helps.
Dave Z

Pilot Dan

Nice job Dave, that should get him squared away

jpressick

Hi Dave, Thank you so very much for supplying the answer. Those beautiful photos cleared up the mystery. On my car the brake cable going to the left brake was attached to the left side of the idler arm and not to the middle which is where all the slack was coming from. The car came to me that way plus it had no pull brake cable so when I installed one it just didn't make sense but seeing the way it was configured I took it for granted that it was correct. Never thought anyone would screw it up that badly. Cannot thank you enough for taking your time to help me. Cheers Jim

DZVette

Pilot Dan - Thanks!

jpresswick
You're welcome. Glad this got you going.

DZ

jpressick

Hi Dave, Could not wait to reconfigure the emergency brake per your instructions and after 15 minutes problem solved. This was 7 o'clock this morning. It worked slicker then snot. At any rate guys like you on this forum give us less talented guys a way forward. Thanks again. I have now advanced two steps forward instead of the opposite way. Cheers Jim

DZVette

Jim
You're welcome! As luck would have it, I had just gone through this with my '60 as part of my "refurbing" the bottom side of the car. I put in new rear cables (bought from a forum member about 8 yrs back )and because of that had disassembled the cables, clevises, idler, etc. Wired brushed everything to bare metal and gave them multiple coats of rust encapsulator and extreme chassis black from Eastwood. Getting those cables out of the way also made it easier to clean and paint the frame and clean the bottom of the body. I still need to adjust the brakes as my parking brake doesn't hold the car from rolling backward on our inclined driveway.
Thanks for posting the feedback that you were successful in the repair. Glad to be of help.
Dave Z