Hand brake cable replacement

[Jon Wildsmith]

It's MOT time tomorrow so this morning before work I thought I'd nip the hand brake up a bit just to make sure. I do this fairly regularly so the adjuster I was slacking off ready to adjust the shoes shouldn't have been a problem but I wasn't paying enough attention to what was turning (or not turning)

You can imagine my choice of words at this especially as at this point I figured no way will Toyota sell me just the broken bit they'll make me buy a whole cable assembly and there'll be no way to avoid fitting the whole lot and not by tomorrow Fortunately for me there's a happy ending - you can buy just the cable assembly that goes across the axle, what I'd call the relay cable but Toyota call cable assembly no. 2 and not only that but a call to Westlands Toyota in Stourbridge at about 11am revealed they could get me one by 2:30pm today I probably spent more time wiping my hands and taking pictures than changing the cable but it took about 20 minutes all in:

Connect the drivers side - mine has been apart a couple of times already for other jobs so no problems getting the pins out.

Disconnect the passenger side which is the end of the main cable.

The plastic clip just pushes out of this bracket.

Now I'm skipping to re-assembly because it shows how the main cable is clipped to the new assembly more clearly. The main cable pushes through the relay pivot and you can see a recess that a clip pushes into once the cable is seated properly.

Here it is with the clip in place.

Then just bolt the pivot back to the axle and the bracket that goes on the back of the diff housing and attach it to the crank. Now I can adjust the shoes and have a working hand brake for the MOT

 

[Steve Wright]

It's MOT time tomorrow so this morning before work I thought I'd nip the hand brake up a bit just to make sure. I do this fairly regularly so the adjuster I was slacking off ready to adjust the shoes shouldn't have been a problem but I wasn't paying enough attention to what was turning (or not turning)

You can imagine my choice of words at this especially as at this point I figured no way will Toyota sell me just the broken bit they'll make me buy a whole cable assembly and there'll be no way to avoid fitting the whole lot and not by tomorrow Fortunately for me there's a happy ending - you can buy just the cable assembly that goes across the axle, what I'd call the relay cable but Toyota call cable assembly no. 2 and not only that but a call to Westlands Toyota in Stourbridge at about 11am revealed they could get me one by 2:30pm today I probably spent more time wiping my hands and taking pictures than changing the cable but it took about 20 minutes all in:

Connect the drivers side - mine has been apart a couple of times already for other jobs so no problems getting the pins out.

Disconnect the passenger side which is the end of the main cable.

The plastic clip just pushes out of this bracket.

Now I'm skipping to re-assembly because it shows how the main cable is clipped to the new assembly more clearly. The main cable pushes through the relay pivot and you can see a recess that a clip pushes into once the cable is seated properly.

Here it is with the clip in place.

Then just bolt the pivot back to the axle and the bracket that goes on the back of the diff housing and attach it to the crank. Now I can adjust the shoes and have a working hand brake for the MOT

Hi Jon

Brilliant job, but what are the bags within the springs ?

Steve

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Air bags Got them from Julian V when I took the AHC out and swapped over to normal springs and shocks. The springs are only +200kg which is about right for the full time extra loads e.g. storage system extra battery etc but when it's loaded up for a trip I put some air in the bags to effectively increase the spring rate to cope with the extra weight Works very well

 

[Steve Wright]

Air bags Got them from Julian V when I took the AHC out and swapped over to normal springs and shocks. The springs are only +200kg which is about right for the full time extra loads e.g. storage system extra battery etc but when it's loaded up for a trip I put some air in the bags to effectively increase the spring rate to cope with the extra weight Works very well

Hi again

Yes I assumed they were air bags, but do they have a air line to them and can you adjust them ?

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

There's an air line to each bag. Mine terminate just inside the boot on the passenger side with valves on the end and I pump them up when needed with my compressor by manually connecting them just like i'd do to inflate a tyre. You can get fancier than that with inflation kits that have gauges and can automate changing the pressure but I don't need to adjust them often enough to need that added complexity.

 

[smacdonald]

Great pics and writeup. Any idea if this is what my 105 series should look like? I'm having trouble getting the main cable out of the relay pivot and I'm wondering if the setup is slightly different between the 100 and 105 series.


Stewart

 

[AndyCook]

great you got the new part so quickly

underside of your 80 could do with some wirebrushing and some dinitrol - looks like its been to Aberdeen!

 

[Gav Peter]

That's the hundee Andy - still looks like that too

underside of your 80 could do with some wirebrushing and some dinitrol - looks like its been to Aberdeen!

 

[AndyCook]

oopss yes - just noticed its in 100 section and the date of Jons post....

ive had a coffee now - so more awake!

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I haven't seen the set up on a 105 to know if they're the same

 

[Sandu PANUS]

Hello Jon

Thanks for the review

Unfortunately I could not remove the clip.
Can you explain in few words how I should do it correctly?