well my 94 emergency brake broke the other day, sometimes I surprise myself just how strong I am, just not that smart. The cable came out easy enough as it split under the pull up lever. I found a new cable. There is a sleeve with fitting at each end that the cable passes through. The new cable with the end piece will not pass through the existing sleeve, or come off the new one. It looks like I need to remove the cover around the gas tank, or drop the tank to get access to replace this sleeve and install the new one. Is there a simple way to do this? or am I missing something? Looks like it is not an easy replacement. Advice is welcomed.
Thank you,

 

I just did this job last night. It's not too bad, but it took me about two hours. I'm pretty slow. I had to backtrack a couple of times and crawl in and out from under the Aerostar a whole bunch. I also did some things I didn't have to do, so I had to undo them (like loosening up the automatic brake adjuster).

The cable and sheathing all need to come out. I had a hard time removing the sheathing. I found it difficult to compress the retainer fingers (more difficult than I had patience for) and just broke them off so I could remove the sheath from the holes in the brackets. I was concerned that they wouldn't break cleanly and I'd have to file the remaining pieces down some to fit through the hole, but I didn't need to. There is quite a bend in the sheathing and it takes a bit of force to get it out. Make sure you install the new cable with the ends in the correct location.

I also found it difficult to connect up the new cable. Compressing the spring back at the equalizer and inserting the cable end was impossible for me with the cable installed in the parking brake control/lever pulley. Once I removed the cable from the control/lever pulley, I could install the cable and spring into the equalizer and then put it in the control/lever pulley (but keep it unbolted until the cable is installed).

There's no need to drop the tank. I did remove the front seat to provide better access. It takes about 5 minutes to get the seat out of the way and it makes the job much easier. I also jacked up my Aerostar as high as I could go while using my smaller jackstands on the left side to provide some much-needed working space.

There is a trick to getting the parking brake spring in the control re-wound correctly and it's not obvious even if you have the factory manual. It's a little more obvious once you turn the control over and look at the underside. Once I was able to rewind it, I put some vise grips on the control to keep it from unwinding until I had hooked up the cable. I took some pictures of the control and the cable ends. I'll post them once I figure out how. I'll try to put some pointers and text on the photos to try to illustrate what I mentioned above.

 

I hope I never have to go through this job. Congratulations for getting it done.

 

I don't think I've used the either emergency brake five times since I've had the vans.

 

Here's a picture of the underside of the control. The blue pen is resting on the part that you have to push on to rewind the spring. As far as I could tell, putting the pin in the hole that the factory service manual mentions only frees up the mechanism so you can rewind the spring, but it doesn't lock it in place.

http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3d2b5950.jpg

Here's a picture of the end of the sheath with the retainers broken off so I could remove it from the hole in the bracket. I just put a screwdriver underneath the retainer and pried it up until it broke. The metal is fairly brittle and the retainer snapped off cleanly. There are three retainers on each end.

http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/...ps85319cd0.jpg

This job is easier than doing plugs and wires, except you'll get dirt/sand in your eyes when you're underneath.