I want to reduce the overall length by roughly 19mm to accommodate an interior mod. This is for the emergency/parking brake on my car, so I’m looking for a relatively secure / non-hacky solution. It’s the equalizer cable that connects the handbrake lever to the cables that go to the rear wheels.
Here are the options I’ve thought of so far:
Find a place that has those threaded adjusters and can just crimp on a new one. This would be ideal, but I don’t know where to find it.
Fabricate a new bracket for the left hand side that just moves the attachment point 19mm back. This is less preferred because it might not actually do the job of equalizing the force on the two (not pictured) cables that attach to the bracket.
Shorten the two rear cables (they just have a simple stop on the end that could be replaced with another crimp-on stop.). You’d think this would be the easiest solution, but I’ve been looking for an extra set of cables and they are discontinued by everyone and nearly impossible to find. I don’t want to do this on the only set of cables I have and then risk not being able to find replacements if I need them.
Find one of these from another car model that just happens to be the right length. I’ve looked a bunch and haven’t found anything yet.
Replace the button end of the cable on the left end. I believe these are cast onto the cables when they’re manufactured, so that’s not really something I can replicate.
So now I’m looking for a place that can do option 1. As far as I’ve seen, we don’t have tools or parts for this at VHS. Anyone have suggestions?
Wow, sometimes all you really need is the right search terms. After a lot of searching using the wrong terms, I found that the fitting I need is called a swage stud.
This might actually work, with a bit of modification:
We have a hydraulic crimper at the space that would probably work for this. It’s designed for electrical crimps, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for this. Might not look as pretty as something swaged with the proper tool but it would work
If I remember correctly, the UL standards that mention crimping mention “double crimping”, one for each side (crimp on one side, turn over and repeat). The crimping tool is designed to create good electrical contact, not for mechanical strength (especially if there is a risk to human health). Even after crimping properly, the SPE-1500 Standard (please verify the standard) requires mechanical strain relief for power cords/wires.
Out of curiosity because my current model of car, the Hyundai Elantra Touring, is already discontinued even though the last model year is only 2012, which model is your car? What is your modification that requires shortening this cable?
It’s a 2002 Subaru Impreza, and I want to install the centre console from the 2005-2007 Impreza which has a much improved cupholder design (2002-2004 cupholder is barely usable). It’s not too difficult to swap, however the parking brake handle moves to a different location so the cable is a very slightly different length. Just different enough that the adjuster doesn’t have enough adjustment range.
I ordered those swage studs on Amazon and was able to crimp them using the hydraulic crimper at the space, but the cable I need to use is just a tiny bit too big to fit into those swage fittings. So if I can find some that fit, it should work. Or I could very carefully drill out the fittings, maybe.
