Briefly, the front-most third of the emergency brake
cable broke. I arranged for a replacement via the
internet for 20% of the dealer cost. (I'm paying for
it in frustration now.)

Anyway, I had to take the brake lever unit off the
kick panel to get the old cable out and new cable
in, but now that everything's back together, the
cable isn't long enough for me to clip the front
cable to the intermediate one.

Oh, I've already learned about the spring-loaded
brake level assembly...I inadvertantly pulled the
little plastic wedge out and WHACK! But it's back
in there, now.

I can't seem to get enough slack to put it back
together at the brake lever or between the front
and intermediate cables. Is this done by opening
up the rear drums?

What's the trick on this repair?

 

Have I stumped the forum?

 

Well kids, the mystery is solved. Bottom line on this
repair: as the Chilton manual describes, you must
fashion yourself a tool which holds the forward-
wound spring-loaded brake assembly mechanism
in place so you can link the brake cable under the
vehicle. Once connected, you can remove the tool
to take up the tension in the spring-loaded mech-
anism, then re-attach the assembly to the kick-
panel. Pix: