Another mechanic hack. Emergency brake cables.

[Barry Wolk]

While I'm working on a Chevy I think the emergency brake cables are similar. For expedience in assembly the cables simply snap into place in the rear brake platter by spreading out 4 tangs to lock the cable in place. In practice they are a PITA to replace when worn or rusted. After struggling for a half hour on one side it came to me that if I could slide the right size cylinder over the cable and compress all 4 tangs at once. It came to me that a 1/4" fuel line hose clamp would do the job. It worked so well I slid it on and the whole platter fell on my toe. Every success requires some pain.

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[Mark Norris]

When I did the axle on my Mkii I did this with a small jubilee clip, until I saw this posting I'd completely forgotten about it. Agree it suddenly makes the job very easy.

[Milsteads Garage]

Yes, the MarkII has the same clip that holds the emergency brake cable on the backing plate. I think this is a good trick to keep on the repertoire.

[Barry Wolk]

When I did the axle on my Mkii I did this with a small jubilee clip, until I saw this posting I'd completely forgotten about it. Agree it suddenly makes the job very easy.

I thought about that but, #1, I didn't have anything small enough and #2, I thought that spring pressure would be easier to overcome when pushing the tangs through. However, in a pinch It'd use a spiral clamp.

[Barry Wolk]

Yes, the MarkII has the same clip that holds the emergency brake cable on the backing plate. I think this is a good trick to keep on the repertoire.


I used wax again today when everything else failed. I had a lot of trouble getting the backing plate off the passenger side axle housing.

[Mark Norris]

While we are talking about hacks here's one I used very successfully when I was preparing the engine on 3186 for its rebuild.

If your engine still has the steel FoMoCo head gaskets then its very easy to remove the cylinder heads since they don't stick to the surfaces.

However if a Best type head gasket (or any other fibrous gasket) had been fitted then they can stick firmly to both the head and block making it very difficult to split them.

Here's the hack (I can't remember where I got it from) ...

Remove the valve rockers assembly and push rods so all the valves are closed.

Loosen all the head bolts in proper sequence, turn back hand tight then unscrew 1 turn.

Take a cylinder leak down test tube (ie. a tube with a spark plug thread at one end and an air line quick connection at the other). Easy to find on Ebay for instance (look for Cylinder Leak Down Tester).

Screw the hose into one of the two center cylinders.

Start up the compressor, when you have reasonable pressure (say 80 - 100 psi) in the tank rapidly open the air valve to the air line.

The head will release with a satisfying bang but stop evenly on the cylinder bolt heads. The head/piston/con rod/crank only sees enough pressure to free the gasket then the air immediately bleeds off to the adjacent cylinders. All parts were thoroughly checked by a professional machine shop (classic racing engines specialist) when my engine was rebuilt and no damage whatsoever was found. These pressures are in line with compression & combustion forces anyway.

Remove the air line, remove the head bolts, lift off the head.

Congratulations you've just saved yourself hrs of frustration while bashing with pinch bars, drifts and hammers and removed the head with no damage at all.

Note this took about 5 mins each head when I had to do it. Goodness knows how long it would have taken otherwise ..the Best were gaskets torn down their middle rather than let go of the steel surfaces but were easily/carefully removed from each surface with a razor scraper.