4rth gen ebrake swap
 

i have an 84 with a rear out of 95 posi disc brakes i currently have both front and rear cables off of the 95 on my car but brake doesnt hold very well and cant adjust it do to the 4th gens having the adjustmen in the lever and the thirds under the car any ideas on what i can do go back to the third gen front cable or possibly get a 4th gen lever or any other ideas that have been done

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

Most people here are using the third gen lever and front cables and ordering the appropriate e brake cable. Order for an 89 and it should be the right size with the original handle and front cable with the adjustment.
Using all 4th gen I would have no idea.

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

yeah thats what im trying now but my only problem is the equalizer how are you connecting the third gen cable to the fourth gen rears?

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

the 4th gen rears from the era of the one you have use the same rear brakes as the 89-92 3rd gens. Aluminum 1 piston pbr calipers. Get the proper cables and its a bolt in deal.

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

o ok that makes sense thanks a lot will have to do that

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

Actually it depends, I had pulled a 1991 Camaro parking brake handle out of the junkyard to replace my original '83 unit, thinking it would be a direct replacement, only less worn. I found out when pulling my '83 unit back home that sometime between the years they changed the design. My '83 unit has a much longer cable, an attaches to the handle differently. The adjuster is much closer to the rear of the tranny tunnel. The 1991 unit I pulled has a much shorter cable, only about 1 1/2' long, attaches to the handle in a completely different way, and the adjuster is almost 2' forward from where the '83 unit was. As I also have a '95 Z28 rear with discs, it did not come close to mating up. I am using the '95's cables, which barely reach the '83 adjuster, much less the 1991 unit.

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

In the case of the 91 e brake unit you may need the longer cables from 91-92. Apparently, from my searches for cables, they seemed to have changed in early 91 as they list both cables: the short 1434mm and longer 1460 mm (I hope I got the lengths right).

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

I'll have to look those up. Most of my problem with the 4th gen rear e-brake has been how to secure the cables to the underside of the car. The '83 has brackets at the rear of the trans tunnel that the original drum brake cables were made to secure into with clips. The later disc brake cables have no way to attach to these, and the only workaround I have so far found it so use hose clamps on either side of the bracket to keep the cable secured in place, but this only works temporarily as eventually the rubber protective covering over the steel cable sheathing is damaged by the hose clamps and strips back, allowing the cables to shift.

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

The 4th gen cables I have do have the spring clip but have the wrong style end. When I get ready I will see if they can be made to work or get new ones.

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

When I did my swap, I cut the tunnel bracket out of a 96 Firebird IIRC, also took the e-brake handle and its cable and put all in my 89. I ground out the tunnel brackets from my 89 and bolted the 4th gen brackets in their place. My rear cables are different since I swapped in LS1 discs, but from what I've been told, they hook up the same to the equalizer at the tunnel bracket.

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

I've thought about doing that, only problem here is the yards won't let you use power tools, so getting the brackets would be interesting at best.

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

Hammer and chisel break the spot welds from the tunnel pretty good. Just straighten the bracket to fit and bolt or weld it in place. A friend did the same, but used tin snips to cut the sheet metal around the bracket and took the piece of floor too.

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

well i orignally tried both 4th gen cables and just rigged it up to my lever and it worked a little but not much and in order to that we have to cut off the orignal brackets and relocate them up closer to the front of the car so now i am running the stock front cable and the 4th gen rear cables and i bouth a connector from a 68-69 and it works perfect

Re: 4rth gen ebrake swap
 

The salvage yards here will not complain if I bring a battery powered tool. It is worth asking.