Parking Brake Cable Replacement on AWD P80s

[Caesium]

I've been looking for more information on parking brake cable replacements for AWD P80s. One of mine is for sure broken and needs replaced. I have the parts on hand, but all I see are FWD P80 tutorials and I believe the routing for the cables may be a bit different.

Has anyone replaced theirs and can tell me the important differences between the two (FWD vs AWD) procedures?

[scot850]

Yes, I have detailed this before. The connections inside the car are the same it is under the floor that the differences are.

So inside:

Remove the center console and the rear seat base (AWD wagon, sedan AWD and FWD).
Pull the trim alone the lower edge of the door surround to allow the carpet to be lifted. Under the carpet there are 2 clips on either side that hole the cable in place. Flat screwdriver under then and pry off. Don't break them!

You need to remove the front end of the cables by removing the spring clips on the shaft that has the front arms holding the cables to allow the cables to be unhooked. Note where the outer cable is fitted as it is easy to try to install in the wrong place. Take a picture before pulling the cable free.

Under the car is where the main difference is.

The cable comes through the rear footwell where it has a grommet to seal where it goes into the cabin.

Remove the rear wheels

It is easiest if you remove the 2 plastic undertrays under the fuel tank front (one either side). There are 2? plastic nuts holding the fronts in place and the rear hooks into the fuel tank mount.

Plastic undertrays

The cable runs under the rear trailing arm mount. You need to drop the mount slightly to remove the cable. It is held in place by a loop and a pop rivet. If this has not rusted off, then it needs to be drilled out. The 'correct' way to reinstall is to rivet from the top. I will return to this later.

Parking brake cable runs over trailing arm mount

The rivet is just out of sight in this picture.

There is a 10mm bolt on the rear subframe just by the rear coil spring. Soak with penetrating oil and carefully wind off. Do not break the M6 stud it is on!! If it breaks you will need to make something up to replace the stud or buy a replacement mount.

Remove the rear brake caliper, caliper mount. If your parking brake is working, chock the front wheels and release it.

Remove the rear rotor. If it is hard to come off, you may need to slacken the rear parking brake adjuster. This is done by using a long flat blade screw driver and accessing the adjuster through one of the lugbolt holes. I can never remember if it is at the 7-8 o'clock position on the LHS just below the rear brake caliper and 4-5 o'clock on the RHS. Use a flashlight and the adjuster has a star wheel. normally down is to slacken and up to tighten.

Parking brake adjuster

Remove the rear rotor.

The cable is help in with a 'c' clip that is NLA for about 8 years. There is a Ford one people mention that fits but I don't recall what one.

retaining clip for cable at rear hub

I find gently tapping it sideways left and right to un-stick it and then use a large flat blade to pry it upwards.

Inside the rear hub you will have to disconnect the 2 locating springs. Take a picture first so you know how the shoes go back and where the springs, adjuster are seated.

With that out of the way, the cable lever is now free. Be careful trying to remove the cable from it. There is a tiny slightly tapered locating pin holding it in place. Do not lose it! It may be rusted and need a little encouragement and penetrating oil to come out. You can see it in this picture:

Lever and retaining taper pin

That lever assembly is also NLA so check it carefully and make sure the pivot is clean and grease with a little anti-seize when reassembling it.

You should now be able to pull the old cable out from the rear of the rear dust plate.

Reassembly.

The only real difficulty is the point where the cable it rivetted to the rear training arm mount. As mentioned this should be riveted from the top. What I do is use a small washer (#8) that is snug on a rivet of the size for the hole in the cable mount. Put the washer on the top side and rivet from the bottom using the rivet to load spread the rivet and allow it to break off.

As the saying goes, reassembly its the reverse of taking apart.

The main thing when adjusting the rear parking brake is to first adjust at the rear hub. tighten the adjuster until the hub locks up. Then back off the adjuster 3 clicks. Once both sides are adjusted at the hub, adjust the Torx adjuster at the parking brake handle to give about 4-5 clicks. You may need to adjust one it settles in as the cables will stretch slightly.

Neil.

[Caesium]

Thank you! If I drop the rear trailing arm mount a bit to allow for access, will that require an alignment? Not planning on removing that bolt the whole way.

[scot850]

Way too late to the party on replying so sorry. The answer is yes you just have to drop it part way but don't have to fully disconnect.

Neil.