Hey guys,

I'm currently working on bolting an aftermarket rear end into my Firebird, & I'm hoping to get some advice on how to handle the e-brake cables. The vendor who supplied the rearend has provided plenty of cable length from each of the calipers, in fact I'm going to need to cut each of the cables & crimp some kind of fitting onto each cable - but I'm not sure how I might be able to do that. (I can provide pics if that'll help...)

Part of me thinks that I should just measure each cable, cut it to the correct length & then take it to a shop that could crimp the fitting on (i.e., like power steering line fittings), but then "on the other shoulder", I have a voice saying "Geez, it's just a crimped fitting, if you get the right tool you can do it yourself!"

So... Which voice should I listen to?? Is this something that I should be easily able to do myself (with the appropriate crimper), or would it make more sense to have a shop crimp the ends on??

And, if this is something that I should do myself, what crimper/tool would you recommend??

FWIW, I don't expect to do a lot of this, so if the tool is $pendy, then the shop might be the better call.... Thanks in advance guys.

 

I had to do that to mine but I had the ends and the crimping tool at work. Our tool was about as big as a medium size set of bolt cutter. My Ace hardware & other home stores have the ends and they might crimp them for you. Check where they sell the cable by the foot. They looked similar to the ones below.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cabl...yYEt257R5bffM:

 

or you could just weld them on, thats what I did with mine, there's actually a you tube video some one posted of how to do it.

 

I just recently did this for my 12 bolt LS1 brake conversion. I used a hydraulic hex crimper used for battery terminals, but you can also get a bolt-cutter style swaging tool for about $25 from Home Depot (search Everbilt 18in swaging tool). I used 1/8" aluminum cable ends found at the local hardware store and 3/16" zinc turnbuckles. Once crimped down the ends barely fit inside the body of the turnbuckle and gave me a nice hook for the parking brake lever. I also used a hardware store compression spring (3/4" x 6" 0.091) that I cut to 5" length and made some angle iron brackets that bolt under the u-bolts.

Here are some photos.







I decided not to weld the cable ends because I heard the heat can make the wire brittle, leading to eventual failure.

Here is the hydraulic crimper that I used. It's great for battery cables and worked for this too. I got it on Amazon for about $50. TMS Crimper-WL-YQK-300 16 Ton Hydraulic Wire Battery Cable Lug Terminal Crimper Crimping Tool 11 Dies. I've heard of people finding them for <$40





If you live near an ocean/harbor you might find a rigging shop to swage ends for you. They will likely have stainless cable ends which would be better than aluminum ends.

 

if you live in the country, maybe you can find a farmer with some crimpers for high tensile fence that you can use. they work well. they are like the bolt cutter size mentioned above.

 

Thanks for the GREAT info guys - it helped me to remember that I'd seen some of what you've suggested on different videos. I decided that $50 wasn't too bad to spend for these crimpers (especially since it'll also help me complete my battery relocation project), so I have one that should be here tomorrow. The weather's supposed to be pretty nice here on Saturday, so I'm hoping that I might be able to get both of those projects knocked out that day...

Thanks again guys, I'm sure that this info will help others as well.

 

I think you'll be very happy with that hex crimper. One thing to look out for is that the dies fit very loosely in the frame of the tool. What I do is tilt them both one direction so they align and come together as you make the crimp. For the cable ends, I also rotated and recrimped a couple of times to fold back in any flashing.

 

i have one of the crimpers that -thebandit- has also. i got it off of amazon. i got it for battery cables, and ive actually used it on pex fittings for water in a pinch (pun intended). i think it was about $40-50 on amazon. for the price it works great, i personally never used it for brake cables yet though.

 

OK, so what are you guys using for crimp fittings for the e-brake?? I have wasted part of my day today trying to track down an appropriate solution for attaching the cables from the new rearend to the stock connection point, but I'm completely striking out.

First I went to the biggest hardware store in the region, where they suggested these aluminum ferrules. I got them home before discovering the words "Do not use where high strength is required" on the back of the package.

Then I tried Amazon - I looked for 1/8" ferrules, but found basically the same thing, although in copper as well as aluminum. No thanks, I don't have enough confidence that either of those materials would hold up in this role.

After that I went to my local Ace hardware (usually a sure-fire way to find a solution), but didn't find anything that seemed like a realistic fix for the problem.

Then I got the idea to call the huge NAPA that my buddy works at. They told me they had just the part that I need - but when I arrived, here's what I found.

It's hard for me to believe that I've called a number of different types of vendors around the city, put quite a few miles on my DD, & apparently NO ONE has a simple crimp-on fitting that will work to terminate an e-brake cable!!

I'd sure be grateful if someone here could tell me what I should be looking for/what I'm missing... Thanks guys.

 

Those Home Depot ones are basically what I'm using. I looked up the engineering specifications on them and they are rated to 360lb. I suspect that's enough. I assume you will also have your transmission in case there's a failure and if it doesn't work out you can talk to a rigging supply.

 

I also used the Home Depot style ferrules and I have not had a problem, I use my ebrake all the time since my car is a manual. Now saying that I usually hate the postings that say things like ^^ “I know what I did or used is not the optimal solution but it has worked for me in xx amount of miles” And I did have one fail once, I just used the next size on the crimper itself and crimped it a bit harder. I have been pondering getting some custom ebrake cables made by Inline Tube. They may sell just the ferrules you need and you could ask them what they use to crimp them on?

 

Thanks for the replies guys, I really appreciate the feedback.

Yeah, 360 lb. might well be enough, I suspect you're right about that. I doubt that yanking on the e-brake handle would load it that hard. My concern was more related to the softer aluminum abrading against the steel "2-into-1 splitter piece" over time. And my car (like lizeec's) also uses a manual transmission, so no auto-trans "P failsafe" for me...

Good call with the Inline Tube suggestion. I searched their website for a little bit, didn't find what I was looking for (although they do have a pretty good selection of brake line clips) & started to write them an email when the light bulb went on -

When you're looking for a specialized/esoteric bit of hardware, WHERE do you go FIRST?? I'm seriously feeling pretty dumb for not remembering this sooner. I've found the 'Wire Rope Compression Sleeves - for Lifting' (PN 3755T15) in stainless steel, for 1/8" wire rope, got a pack of 5 shipping out Monday.

It'll be too late for me to take advantage of the beautiful weather here this weekend, but what the hell. I'm hoping that this helps someone else out on down the line...

 

Good thinking with McMaster! Those will do the trick for sure but I'm not sure if the hex crimper will have a good size for them. Hopefully you find a good working setup

 

Wouldn't that be a load of crap - I finally find the right part, but have no way to USE it!!

I guess I'll have to wait until Wednesday or so to know for sure, but I'm cautiously hopeful. If I can find an appropriately-sized die, the crimper is supposed to be good for 16 tons, so once the fitting's on there, it's not likely to come off easily...

 

The other idea that I was kicking around was to use the aluminum ferrules as shown in the 4th post in this thread - but have a stainless steel washer on the cable between the e-brake "splitter" & the aluminum ferrule. If I could find a washer with an I.D. only slightly larger than the cable, then the washer shouldn't move around very much at all, & it might keep the abrasion against the aluminum down somewhat. (In other words, the stainless steel washer would handle the friction against the steel "splitter piece", & the aluminum ferrule would only need to handle the "grip" on the cable.)

The only hesitation I had about using this method is being painfully aware of how little I know about mechanical engineering, & being fairly sure that I'm overlooking something significant... (But it sounds good in theory!!)

 

You are most definitely overthinking this, which means you have at least some engineer in you. I'm a mechanical engineer but that doesn't make me an expert on brake cables.

What "splitter" are you referring to?

 

"Splitter" = thimble??

 

Me over thinking something?? Yeah, that's never happened before...! If that means that I have some engineer-type tendencies, well, I'll take that as a distinct compliment!!

I used the term "splitter" only because I couldn't think of anything better. If you look at the picture below, the front of the car is toward the bottom of the picture. You see one cable/threaded rod coming from the bottom (or front) of the car, & going into a metal piece, right through the center (based on the car's longitudinal axis). That metal piece also has two other cables, one out toward each side (again, based on the longitudinal axis) that goes to each rear brake.


That metal piece is what I'm referring to as the splitter, since it splits force from one input (the cable attached to the e-brake handle) out to two brake calipers. I'll readily admit that it's probably sub-optimal terminology, but I couldn't think of a better concise term to use...

Thanks again for the feedback guys, I do appreciate it!

 

A picture is worth a thousand words!

I don't think you have to worry much about friction between the cable end and that "splitter". The cables are roughly straight there so they aren't going to rock around a ton.

I recently found a number to associate with the e-stop force. The E-stop corp electronic parking brake ESK001 pulls 600lb. I think that is the force of the actuator, which would be split into 300lb each for each of the wheels. That is pretty close to the rating of the aluminum 1/8 cable ends (360lb) so there may not be a lot of margin if you use them. However that's assuming the electronic parking brake and the mechanical hand or foot brake put out the same force.

 

That makes sense, thanks Clint. (Of course now I have the stainless steel parts in my grubby, eager paws, so I might as well use them...)

That's a good question. It probably wouldn't be too difficult to figure that out based upon the length of the e-brake handle from the pivot point, as well as where the cable attaches to the handle, etc. (like I've seen people do with brake pedals) - but I'll leave that as an exercise for someone more motivated...

I'm hoping that I'll be able to spend a good bit of the afternoon in the garage tomorrow, since my boss had me spending a bit of extra time working from home this evening. If so, I'll post an update with my feedback on these pieces.