The intermediate cable for my parking brake snapped a month ago. I bought a new third party front cable and intermediate cable which were useless. The first time I pressed the pedal the clip which held them together deformed.

Also, when installing the cable I realized that the spring in the parking brake controller was gone.

While searching the forums to see if anyone else had seen this issue I discovered that there was a recall for my 1999 F-350 manual transmission truck which involved a new parking brake controller and front cable. The recall was from 2002.

Went to a Ford dealer near work armed with the recall number and they ordered the parts and now once again I have a parking brake. I had to buy the intermediate cable and they charged a few bucks to install that cable, no biggie.