wcgman

This is not going to be the best how to guide...but from what I have seen it might be the only one...and I am not going to post pics because it was getting dark and threatening to rain. Also...if you dont know how to do brakes, this is not something you should probably being playing with anyway.

My parking brake cables of course froze the first year I had my 06 (live in Denver) and they degraded quickly to the point where they were simply unusable. It got to the point where I couldnt even pull the hand brake as they were rusted solid.

I went to the local stealership parts counter and got both the left and right brake cables. Using a little bit of TacoBills guide on a leather parking handbrake install at http://forums.themustangsource.com/0...ods/446176.htm I pulled out the trusty ramps, jack and assorted tools of the trade. You are going to need a 10mm socket and I would highly recommend a 12" extension for said socket. Needlenose pliers, couple of screwdrivers, and plan to get your hands nice and dirty.

In the cabin, I reached in through the small rectangular cover inside the console under the lid and loosened the little nut on the back of the hand brake until it was close to the end. This way I'd have a little slack under the car. Backed the car onto the ramps and then jacked up the drivers side behind the front wheel a little since I am a pretty big guy. I needed the clearance I discovered later the first part of this would have gone a heckuva lot easier if I'd simply jacked up the passenger side behind the front wheel a little for clearance to get under there a little easier. With the back end on the ramps and the extra clearance from the jack, you should have no problems getting the cables out without even taking the wheels off, but I found it easier to pull the rear wheels during the process (ill get to that...)

Started on the drivers side using TB's reference photos just below where it says "Here is the location of the e-brake cable connections and bracket that must be accessed to complete the installation; Drivers side, just back of the mid-pipe clamp.
Note: Removal of the mid-pipe clamp is not necessary. The pic below is just for reference".

Slid under, found the mounting and where the 3 cables all come together. Used the needle nose blindly to pinch the cables through the mounting bracket holes after doing the 90 degree twist TB describes. That would have been easier from the passenger side. Removed one 10mm bolt from the DS cable, pulled off the ramps, pulled the rear DS wheel, removed the small silver clip attaching the cable to the caliper, used a screwdriver to relieve the tension from the spring on the cable, pulled the old cable out noting the routing of it and installation was reverse.

The process is essentially the same for the passenger side except is has a 10mm bolt to keep the cable up above the driveshaft.

Last thing to note was during the part where you reattach the 2 new cables to the bracket that the hand brake cable is attached to, I had to jury rig a screw driver under each of the springs where the cable mounts on the calipers as they were loaded up enough I could not get enough slack to mount the second cable. Passenger side I accomplished with one long screwdriver levered in above a bracket near the caliper and the driver side was done by using a short screwdriver and a small clamp attaching that screwdriver loaded with tension from the spring to a nearby cable. Once the tension was relieved I loaded no problem.

All in all, took me an hour total. In retrospect, I could have done this without pulling the wheels at all and just staying on the ramps. Also, it might be better to attach the cable to the bracket with the hand brake cable first, then load the other ends into the caliper spring loaded piece. That would have saved me at least 15-20 minutes I'm sure.

If you're familiar with brakes at all on your GT, you'll have no problems doing this job other then it can tend to be tight under the car and you're going to get pretty dirty, so plan for that when you are done how to pull the car off the ramps without little black fingerprints everywhere!

ym42

I found this post quite helpful - thanks wcgman. Just did my rear cables, but I have a convertible and it was not as easy as it appears but mostly just took longer and was way less convenient. Just wanna add one thing, when you connect the rear cable inside the junction box to the front cable, to make it easy, do not connect the wheel ends first, and what's MORE IMPORTANT - do not attach the quick-release plastic cable housing ends to the junction box, attach the cables inside the junction first, and then attach the housing to the metal junction box. Also, it is indeed totally possible to do all of this without taking the wheels off. I could not find the pliers and used a medium size screwdriver to break the tabs from the old cable housing quick-release end, sort of pushed the tabs in hard and they snapped inside...