while changing my rear drum brakes I unhooked E-brake cable. The spring on cable is so high tension I can't compress it to slide it into the plate that is connected to the shoe. Any suggestions? Is the a special tool or trick for this? Thanks.

 

Did the parking brake handle get pulled up by accident?

 

i too had the same problem when i did mine. wat i did was i took a pair of dull side cutters and a pair of pliers and used the angle of the cutters as a focal point to pry and every time i did that it compressed the spring a little more each time. make sure to clamp more pressure on the cutters each time after or the spring will win.

and then after finally a couple hours messing around with that i found that my cable had too much wear in it and my ebrake wouldnt release, so i had to completely disengage it, now im waiting to replace both the cables. wat a pain....

 

It's actually easier if you disconnect the parking brake cables from the center console e-brake handle. Then you can attach and and detach the cable from the cable catch on the brakes because there's no tension whatsoever.

Give that a try. Be careful to properly lock out the e-brake handle first. Muy importante.