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....or rather "What The Haynes Manual doesn't say".
If there is suddenly a whole load of play in your handbrake cable that wasn't there before or it jams solid- it could be that the handbrake cable has come off the plastic roller where the cable goes down over the firewall. The photo below shows the cable stuck between the roller and housing.
Left for any time this will jam solid and/or kink the hand brake cable so it is unusable.
Then you're faced with replacing the handbrake cable for the MOT (which is a nightmare job without the right knowledge....)
To prevent recurrence I fitted two large spacer washers either side of the plastic roller to stop the new handbrake cable jumping off.
To get the old hanbrake cable out you have to release a tiny extra bit of length to free the cable end-chock from the handbrake slider mechanism. I had to cut the handbrake cable to get the entire slider from the car.
What the Haynes manual dosen't tell you is that there is a second release lever on top of the handbrake slider housing that gives you that extra bit of free cable to get the end chock out (and enable you to fit the end chock of the replacement cable). Press the lever closest to the driver and the slider advances forward another 10mm or so. It should be possible to do this without removal.
I had to dismantle the front half of my Surf to find all this out.........
If there is suddenly a whole load of play in your handbrake cable that wasn't there before or it jams solid- it could be that the handbrake cable has come off the plastic roller where the cable goes down over the firewall. The photo below shows the cable stuck between the roller and housing.
Left for any time this will jam solid and/or kink the hand brake cable so it is unusable.
Then you're faced with replacing the handbrake cable for the MOT (which is a nightmare job without the right knowledge....)
To prevent recurrence I fitted two large spacer washers either side of the plastic roller to stop the new handbrake cable jumping off.
To get the old hanbrake cable out you have to release a tiny extra bit of length to free the cable end-chock from the handbrake slider mechanism. I had to cut the handbrake cable to get the entire slider from the car.
What the Haynes manual dosen't tell you is that there is a second release lever on top of the handbrake slider housing that gives you that extra bit of free cable to get the end chock out (and enable you to fit the end chock of the replacement cable). Press the lever closest to the driver and the slider advances forward another 10mm or so. It should be possible to do this without removal.
I had to dismantle the front half of my Surf to find all this out.........