My e brake cables are "stuck". I'm sure I'll find at least one is frozen. Does anyone have any tricks to un-freeze the cables or do I have to buy new ones? They are available, but not cheap. Cables are on a 46 Ford pickup.
You may be able to free them up and lubricate them but probably not. Once they get rusty and seize up the only real cure is to replace them.
If you use the P brake you generaly avoid them getting stuck. Replace with ones that have grease zerk.
They can be freed up, back in the 60 -70's it was a common thing to have the cables seize up.. We took them off the vehicle, mounted the ''ball end'' of the cable in a vise (had lots of benches/vises close together in the workshop) and held the other end, in another vise so the whole cable was horizontal.. Oiled the exposed cable, and using a bar/claw hammer, got behind the outer sleeve and the vise and levered, after a bit of work sliding the outer sleve back and forth, applying more lube, the cable would free right up..
I recently fixed a frozen e-brake cable by soaking it in a citric acid and water solution. Once it came free I rinsed it in plain water, dried it, painted it and sprayed it down with motorcycle chain lube. It works like new again. Weird thing is....it was from a '46 Ford truck!
I've had luck with taking the cable off, putting one end in a vise and securing a funnel to that end. Then fill the funnel with ATF and let it set a day or two.
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