Hand Parking Brake Conversion

[KevinVarnes]

Looking into the hand parking brake conversion (94-97 style). I know the upper and lower SC console is needed and obviously the brake handle mechanism as well. It appears that the rear right and left cables that attach to the calipers are the same. Is the only other hand brake specific parts are the front and intermediate cables? I'm not sure if I'm going to have access to the bottom of the car I would potentially be getting parts from. Anybody here done this?

Here are some pics I found on sccoa. It looks pretty simple, but there are always the little clips/springs/fasteners that you can't just buy at the store that turn a simple job into a parts hunt.

 

[Kenz]

This is the only cable that I ended up needing -




I ordered another one as well, but I'm not sure what it was actually for because I didn't use it.

A hole under the rear seat needs to be drilled out for the cable to go through. @XR7-4.6 posted a picture on TSTSNBN years ago that shows where to drill it. I can look a bit later to see if I can find it

 

[KevinVarnes]

Roger that. So I shouldn't need to get under the car to get any parts? I couldn't find the post by XR7-4.6, but it sounds like there is a dimple in the floor where you need to drill?

That is the front cable above, but they also show an intermediate cable with some kind of threaded adjustment that looks different from the foot brake.

 

[Kenz]

Here is what I went off of. I couldn't find the dimple to drill out on my 96. Maybe they removed it in 96 models?
There is enough slack, if the hole if off a few inches it shouldn't make a difference.

This year when I dropped the tank to change the fuel pump, the hole cutout was still sitting on top of the tank.... lol




I don't know what the "intermediate cable" is that Rockauto has listed. Wouldn't bother getting it, the one I bought I threw in my parts pile because it wasn't worth returning it.

It could be just an incorrect listing because Rockauto shows it fits 83-97 thunderbirds

 

[KevinVarnes]

Awesome! Thank you for the pics. So that front cable runs all the way back to where it splits into the LH and RH cables then?

 

[Kenz]

Yup that's it. Not really that hard a job and you shouldn't need anything else from the doner car. It would be a good idea to replace the right and left cables in the back. But if the car is not rusty and in good shape probably not necessary

 

[KevinVarnes]

Sound advice indeed. It isn't rusty, but I don't know the last time the parking brake was used on it. Thanks for the help!