Renewing hand brake cables JE

[Anders Dinsen]

They say you learn from your mistakes. If that's so, its a pity I probably won't need to renew the hand brake cables on my Espace again - the original ones lasted 10 years and I just fitted a replacement set of new cables.

But at least I can share my mistake here

The hand brake drives two cables - they are not the same! On an LHD Espace, the right one is a bit longer than the left one due to the hand brake lever being offset by a few cm from the centre of the car. I expect an RHD Espace will have them swapped?

Fitting isn't difficult - the most difficult part is feeding them through the right holes in the chassis and over the tank. I fed it through from behind - there was almost enough space to allow my hand and fingers to go all the way through, so it's not bad at all - and there's no need to lower the tank.

Below is a photo of the cables showing the difference

/Anders

[Matra_Hans]

I changed the handbrake cables on our Espace as the MoT guy found out that the handbrake did not work on one wheel.
Getting the cable in was a hassle, and I ended up taking the tank down, on order to get the right cable in, but with the tank down the job was very easy.
However it turned out that the original cable was OK, however frozen.
Lesson learned: Get your MoT done during summer!
Hans

[Sommerby]

I have also been through this exercise for one year ago.  I neeeded to lubricate and exercise the rear breake actuator arms since they were not releasing the brakes properly.

By the way. I have a set of new hand brake cables for a Espace JE model without rear disc brakes which I will give for free to anyone who want's it?

[jack daniels]

10 years is a long time. Mine lasted 6 years before one caliper started to hang a bit.
There is a retaining clip above the fuel tank, it's just cliped on to the body and the cable is pressed into the clip. If the clip comes off the body then it can be difficult getting the clip back on with the tank in place depending on the size of ones arms, as I found out.