Just a quick writeup of my front parking brake replacement experience with pictures.
I chose to replace it because when I got my Fiero a month or two ago the prev. owner said he 'never touched the parking brake.'
Looking at it I could could see the front parking brake cable had touched the exhaust pipe and was ruined. So I ordered a new one from the Fiero Store and also ordered a new equalizer/adjuster. The front cable comes with a new "rear cable connector" (the tiny linking piece where the front cable and the right-rear cable meet.
Anyway I had done a quick search for other articles detailing front e-brake cable replacement and the instructions typically read like "remove old cable, replace with new cable" or "consider tying the new cable to the other cable to make routing easier."
Well I hope my writeup is more helpful for others.
My car: 1984 Fiero stock - 4 speed manual
What I replaced:
Front parking brake cable,
both rear caliber parking brake springs
adjuster (aka equalizer)
rear cable connector
Procedure:
First you'll have to release the tension from the cable (put the lever down) and loosen equalizer/adjuster nut. There are little tiny tabs on the bottom of the equalier that actualy hold the cables in. I was going to replace the equalizer so I didn't mind bending these tabs out of the way to remove the cables. I assume you could do this without breaking the tabs if you wanted to reuse the adjuster.
You must remove two panels, both on the driver's side: The rear quarter trim (this is the big plastic piece that runs from the roof to the floor right behind the driver's left shoulder) and the trim that runs along the bottom of the door.
The lower one is held in place by hex-cap screws - one beneath each of the little circle caps.
First, remove the parking brake boot.
Now remove the circle metal caps with a thin screw driver.
The only one of these screws difficult to remove is the first one (closest to the rear of the car). It's hard to fit a socket bit and wrench in there with your seat in the way.
To get it to fit I put the socket on my vise grips and used it to run the screw. The rest came out without a fuss.
To remove the larger of the two trim pieces (rear quarter trim) see a great thread here:
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/042788.htmlThe first set of pictures at the top of the thread gives great details on how to remove this big panel. It's not difficult just be patient. I ended up breaking a clip but it went back on no problem.
Now you should be able to unhook the cable from the e-brake handle itself. This is easy, just use a set of pliers to unhook it.
Pull up the carpet some for the next steps. I just pulled it up using pliers. This is what you're looking at now:
Next you have to release the brake cable from the e-brake lever bracket. It's held in place by a cylindrical clip on the cable itself. This clip is flared so it goes into the bracket easily but won't want to come out for removal. I took a small screw driver and broke off the flared tabs of the clip. With them broken off you can pull the cable out from the lever bracket entirely.
OK - now you should have the carpet pulled up some and the cable out from the bracket.
Let's go back out side. Remove the left-rear wheel, and you'll see the front brake cable has a little holder right behind the shock absorber that holds the cable to the car's body with a screw. Undo that screw.
You'd think you'd be ready to pull the cable and get it out of the car. But there's one last thing you need to do!
There is a big fat black grommet the cable feeds through. It's on the rear firewall around the cable.
Here's a picture of the grommet hole, parking brake cable still in place, but with the grommet removed.
Pry the grommet off with a screwdriver, it's held on with some factory glue.
Ok now you have to find a way to remove that grommet. Don't cut the hole any larger - rather just struggle with it till you pull the grommet off. It's possible it just takes a lot of effort. This way the hole will be a snug fit for the new cable and you won't get any added wind noise when it's all done.
Pic of the grommet coming off the front of the old cable.
Ok!
Now you can pull the old cable out of the car.
Slide the new cable into place. Struggle and slide the grommet onto the new cable.
The rest is essentially the reverse:
Put the front of the parking cable through the e-brake lever bracket until the one-way clip clicks into place.
Position the head (the hammer) of the cable into place on the e-brake handle. Pliers will help you slide it right into place.
Now outside of the car, get the hanger clip/tab off of the old cable (just bend it slightly to remove) and put it on the new cable.
Mount the cable behind the rear shock using the same tab.
Route the cable through the new adjuster and onto the new rear cable connector.
The new cable should "click" into place on the right end of the equalizer. It takes a little tug.
Attach the left end of the adjuster to the left parking brake cable by threading the end of the left cable through the adjuster nut.
Don't thread too much of it at first - you'll have to adjust it as the last step.
To adjust - first go into the car and try and pull up on the parking brake lever.
Activate the parking brake. Don't use too much muscle on it. The adjuster/equalizer has a flimsy clip that holds the adjuster nut in place. This flimsy clip ends up taking the brake cable tension force as it counteracts the adjuster nut.
On my first try I pulled so hard I pulled the adjuster nut right out of the flimsy clip... If this happens you have to manually 'crimp' the flimsy clip back on so that it again holds the adjuster nut in place...
Ok so pull up until you get a good amount of resistance. Check if the car rolls or not or (if the wheel(s) are removed) see if you can turn the rear hubs. The good news is you can adjust the cable when the car is back together and on the ground so it's easy to iterate the adjustment process till you're happy. My advice is just to keep from really muscling the lever.
**At this point, with the system adjusted I used zip ties to make sure the cables didn't have a chance at meeting the exhaust or any other parts. I used them as necessary to ensure they wouldn't vibrate and chafe against anything during driving.**
Now just put the interior back together and you're done.
Note when putting the carpet back into place. Make sure you get it snuggly back where it is supposed to be - i had a fitting issue where my big rear quarter plastic trim was sitting too high because the carpet I pulled up wasn't pushed down hard enough. I took a screw driver to mat it down well and problem solved.
