Hello all. Running into what appears to be an odd issue. I recently had to pop out my axles and to do this I had to pull the ebrake backing plates. I unhooked the ebrake cables and all seemed fine until I went to put everything back on. I couldn't pull the hooks out far enough to reconnect them. I wanted a few videos and figured something was hung up at the handle. I removed the center console and the videos show that people are just pushing back the mechanism near the handle. In fact, some video's are showing ways to improve it's ability to keep tension. In my case, it wont release at all. I cant push it back to get enough slack to reconnect my cables. I eventually removed the phone handle assembly. I've pried on this thing and it simply will not rotate backwards like the videos are showing. Trying to determine what I am doing wrong here. At this point it has rotated all the way around, there is little to no tension on the spring next to the handle and a moderate amount of tension on the outer spring furthest away from the handle. I need this thing to rotate back to a point I can re-connect the cables and bolt it back in. I've searched for a few days and nothing seems to cover this subject. Everything is either how to replace the whole thing or how to add springs to improve tension.

 

I'm a little confused by your post.....maybe I'm misunderstanding.

So, you had to remove the e-brake cables from the axle which is logical. Wen you when to reinstall the cable there wasn't enough slack to get them hooked again. At that point, did you unbolt the cables from the tub to give yourself a little more slack? I'm not sure I get lifting up on the lever in the jeep. to me, although that might give you more slack, that is in the "e-brake is set" position.....when in fact the actual e-brake pads are in the released position. I've never had an issue reconnecting my e-brake cables, so maybe I'm just missing something here that you ran in to.

 

Hmm. Sorry if I was unclear. I am not lifting up on the handle. Next to the handle is a two spring setup that generally keeps some tension on the cables so that you get only a few clicks when you pull the handle up. From the video's ive watched, this can generally be rotated backwards to release tension and in some cases needs additional springs added to try and keep tension.

In my case, it absolutely will not rotate back to release tension. I've pried on it, I've hooked the outer spring and pulled it back and it still will not "release" or rotate backwards. I could try and make a video tonight showing the issue.

Appreciate the reply sir!

 

Before you got in this pickle, did you unbolt the bracket holding the cables to the bottom of the tub underneath the jeep....therefore giving yourself a little more slack?

 

No, I did not unbolt anything related to the ebrake cables. The video's I watched said nothing about this when removing the Axles. Just to unhook them. See the issue is that al lthe slack got pulled into the lever assembly so if I did do this unbolt and got more slack it would have been sucked into this assembly anyhow. Do I just have a defective brake lever assembly that it doesn't release like all the youtube video's show? I'll get a video of my issue tonight as I think I may not be clear on the root of my issue.

 

Most of them don't work anyway. Should be fine.
Sorry. I can't get mine to actually work.

 

So... After some frustration and thinking that I was going to have to purchase a replacement anyhow I said screw it and bent a tab over that was preventing it from continuing to move counter clockwise (I needed it to move clockwise to get slack). This allowed me to spin the whole assembly all the way around to where it would be in a default position. I re-attached the cables and then had to spin the outer spring around to compensate for all the slack in it due to rotating so far in it's opposite direction. Bottom line is everything is hooked back up and working. Not a friendly design by any means.