Self-adjuster cable

[MustangMulch]

About a month ago I had some gears installed in my rear. While my wheels were off, i noticed that there is a cable in my brakes that is broken. I'm not sure exactly what the cable does, but my mechanic told me it is a cable for the self adjuster. Does that sound right?

Anyway, it was gonna cost $160 to fix, but I didn't have enough money at the time to do it. How important is this to get fixed? If it is a cable for the self adjuster, that doesn't sound very important to me, but I could very easily be wrong. If it is important to get fixed, i'll do it. I just want to know. Thanks guys.

 

[89MustangGX]

The only cable I can really think of in the rear brakes is the parking brake cable. If that's the case, you simply won't have a parking brake on that side. I don't know about the cost, but I would guess you could do it yourself much cheaper. I takes a little work to get them out and in and routed, but you can decide if you want to do that.

 

[MustangMulch]

I'm not sure if it is the parking brake cable, but it might be. It was right in the area where the wheel studs are that the lugnuts screw onto. The cable kind of went around the lugnut studs (or whatever they are called), a few inches away.

If it is the parking brake, it doesn't seem to be any worse than before. But then again, my e-brake has always worked pretty crappily.

Thanks, for the response GX. Does anyone else have any ideas?

 

[trbkrb]

!!!$160!!!! I hope that is for a complete rear brake job with new parts and not just replacing that one cable! That cable is inside the wheel drum and is part of the self adjustment mechanism. That may be why your ebrakes don't work well. If the brakes are not adjusting right as you continue to use them, then eventually they are not working at all. My guess is they are not working at all on that wheel.

You can get a brake harware parts kit for your car that has all new cables, springs and clips that they use for a complete brake job for probably $20 or so per side. I just looked at www.autozone.com and they have just the rear drum self adjuster kit for $9.99.

You could do it yourself if you have some knowledge about drum brakes, or want to read up on them. You would have to take the parts apart to get to it, and that requires a couple of special tools, but you could probably rent them or buy them for like $10-15. I always did one side at a time when working on my drums so I could look at the other side to see how it all fits back together. Then you have to adjust the brakes to get them working right.

If you don't NEED a brake job yet, I wouldn't think it should cost more than $40 to replace the self adjuster kit. It is probably a 15 min job for someone that does it every day.

Good luck!

Thomas