so my E brake hasnt worked in afew years and I finally wanna put in a new one, my question is do I need to take out my center console to disconnect the old cable or is everything underneath the car?

 

Underneath.

JamesC

 

Are You Replacing All 3 Cables Or Just The Rear's,If Your Also Replacing The Front It Has To Be Removed From The Console To Access Pin (5) Shown In The Diagram.

 

before you change those cables. See if you can push the actuating lever, {This is what the cable pulls to controll the piston in the caliper to move mechanically}, If it moves with moderate pressure than there cool. but if you gotta give it a hit with a hammer to make it move back and forth, then I would change them. (If you kept them like that, those new cables would stretch and turn into ****.. also if all this played out good, you might just have slack in the 2 cables to the rear. take a shot at adjusting the equalizer and see what you come out with.

 

If you have to replace the first cable, which includes the treaded "bolt" adjuster underneath, I would STRONGLY suggest removing the console. Access to the clevis on the brake handle as mentioned above, and especially getting the cable through the floor grommet will go much easier.

 

thanks everyone for the info. Im gonna give it a try this weekend

 

one more thing since I didnt realize there was 3 cables how can you tell which ones is causing the issues?

The e brake handle pulls up with no pressure and the car will roll with the handle all the way up.

 

Another response already indicated to check the ebrake levels (drums) if it moves or not (RE hammering it to move). That requires you to pull the tires off. The way I checked mine was:
1) Raise the vehicle.
2) Place a clamp the point 11 of the provided diagram in a previous post.
3) Pull the ebrake lever ... do I hear the clamp moving? Yes means the front cables are good (though it could be stretched and not as good as new).
4) Do the same per rear tire side and/ or again check the ebrake drum lever.

I had more issues with trying to source the right ebrake cables =(

 

have someone move the parking brake while you watch the cables under the car to see what moves and what doesn't..

if you have drum brakes, it might be as simple as actually adjusting them so the shoes actually hit the drum.. they are supposed to self adjust every time you stop in reverse, but too many people never bother actually stopping in reverse before slamming it into D (auto) or 1st gear (manual) and taking off.. this leads to the self adjusting stuff getting frozen, which leads to no rear brakes under any circumstance.