Hi all. I was just wondering how to remove the e brake cables on my 00 1500 with drum brakes? It may be a stupid question but I just haven't looked at jt yet. Do you need to take off the drum? I am replacing my rear differential so I need to get those completely disconnected.

 

Yes the drum has to come off

 

Once you remove the rear drum, you can remove the parking brake cable from it's lever (usually back off the spring around the cable, then pull it off the lever). To remove the parking brake cable from the backing plate of the drum, I use a small hose clamp and tighten it around the spring clip portion of the parking brake cable that holds it to the drum backing plate. Once the small clamp is installed and tightened, you can pull the parking brake cable from the rear of the drum backing plate. There are certainly other ways to remove the parking brake cable, but this method works for me.

 

Yep, the drum comes off. You'll mostly dismantle the brake assembly to gain access to it. There is a special tool that slips over the cable from the lever to the backing plate. It looks like a hollowed out air chuck. It slides over the tangs that holds the cable into the backing plate. It just slides over and the cable comes out easily. Maybe. Like others have said, you can use a hose clamp or even a screw drive to push the pins in . Once all the pins or tangs are compressed, it should slide right out. If you live in a high rust area, I would usually just buy new cables and put those into the new rear end.

 

I had no idea! I made one on the lathe last time....

 

Well let's hope I can do it without a special tool lol

 

I just use a pair of pliers. It works, but, takes some fussing about.

 

In a random test of "how bad is my C.R.S?" I dug thru my box today to find said custom tool. It appears I used some 3/4" tube because the OD is exactly. 750" and the ID was obviously opened up by a drill bit (given the surface finish) but it's not remotely concentric so I'm thinking I may have run a drill bit thru the tubing by hand.

I will say it worked, but it was not without some finagling, cursing, tugging and shoving (which, granted, is just foreplay for some consenting adults)