It took me absolutely ages to work out how to get the handbrake cable out of the centre of the chassis. Mine was seized, so had to be replaced completely.
Here is what I had to do:-
Remove gearbox. Remove engine. Sit car high on blocks front and rear. Crawl underneath into the engine bay with a torch, and look for ages at the cables as they disappeared into the centre console. Disconnect reaction lever bolt, handbrake cable to umbrella bit under the dashboard. Disconnect cable from reaction level into centre console. Take out one of the radiator pipes running from the engine through to the radiator. Find out that the cables are held into the chassis Y piece by C clips inside the centre, under the arm rest.
Once the C clips are removed, the whole back of the cables which run down the Y rear suspension arms can go through into the passenger bit of the car, but getting the spring undone that goes from the metal horseshoe to the chassis can be a challenge. It has to be disconnected and connected from under the engine bay. When the cables are back into the car, the problem of disconnection the horseshoe from the cable can be done in comfort on a workbench with a hammer and chisel, carefully.
When re-fitting, thread the cable back from the console through the chassis to the rear, attach the spring on the horseshoe to the chassis. Fitting the cable from the centre console onto the the reaction lever has to be done before fitting the bolt holding the lever onto the chassis (under the large rubber grommet). To stretch the cable forward to fit the bolt on the reaction lever, I attached a wire around where the cable meets the lever, threaded it through into the front radiator compartment, tied it into a large loop, and used a lever to pull it forward with my right hand, while getting the bolt started with my left hand. Then last of all you attach the cable back to the umbrella lever.
Now I know about the C clips, I think you can do all this using a small bent screwdriver to get those clips off in the centre hole. I had to take the engine out anyway as every bit of rubber, hoses mountings etc, needed replacement.
Any questions about this cable, just ask. After a stormy relationship with the whole mechanism, we are friends now, after much lost skin.
[By the way, we spell centre the French way, as William the Conqueror was French, so a lot of our words originate from the way the French spelled them in 1066 (e.g. colour).]
Alex in Norfolk.
