I am now just having a celebratory cup of tea, having successfully adjusted the tension on my hand brake cables, in under an hour, without drawing blood. A cup of tea is an English tradition, not just local to the Boston area !
To adjust the hand brake cable tension, in my case to slacken it off, you have to venture into the black hole between the seats. The adjustment is carried out by moving 2 x 1/2" nuts on the threaded stud that goes through the U clamp on the hand brake cable.
To get 2 x 1/2" spanners on the stud in the hole is impossible, so here is how I did it.
Disconnect both cables at the rear brakes, in my case new discs, but it would be the same for the original drums.
Jack up the rear of the car, stick it on axle stands, get into the Y of the chassis at the front of the engine, and get one of the cable outers out of its hole in the chassis, and through the much bigger hole in the middle, and push the outer into the black hole between the seats.
Take out the tunnel cover, and foam to get access into the black hole. The whole U clamp and cables should now have enough slack from the rear of the car to allow you to pull the U up so you can get to those f'ing 1/2" nuts.
Get a small pair of mole grips clamped on the 11/32" nut bit on the front end of the adjustment stud to hold it up, and to stop the stud rotating.
Undo the 1/2 rear nut, and then both nuts should be able to be moved up and down the shaft easily.
Connect up the cable outer in the Y under the car.
Connect up the cable inners to the rear brakes.
With one hand you can now tighten the nuts easily in the black hole.
Leave the nuts finger tight, but together. If they come loose, they can easily get tightened with one hand any time without all this effort.
While you are in there, put some Copperslip on the hand brake cable so it slides easily within the U clamp. Clean your hands before putting all the inner trim back together.
Future tensioning of the cable can be carried out where the outer is held in place near the rear brakes. To increase the cable tension at the rear brakes, cut about 1/8" off a large spring washer to make it about 1/8" less than a full circle. Fit this new C washer over the cable outer to pack it away from its housing. Add more washers equally to each side as and when necessary to tighten the cable further. You can add up to 1/2" to each side easily, which is masses of adjustment. Lotus should have made the cable adjustable at the rear originally, and not in the black hole.
