e-brake Cables

Pantera ebrake cable- note ends are different. See pic below. (Courtesy of Panteras by Wilkenson)

I would like know how youse guys feel about having a stamped & formed steel end on the cable, similar to what you see below on the Pantera cable, that would still accept a clevis pin, vs having the formed end or bronze end that you see in the pic's previously?????

It is turning out that not many folks are in the cable end business any longer! With manufacturers going off shore, and consolidating operations, they are killing some of these specialty businesses!!!

Lemmeno,
Steve

Steve, now you've got me wondering too. Denis and I are fortunate to share late cars and close proximity. We have also just added another late Mangusta to our group, although about 100 miles away. Still, even with three late cars (spanning only about 60 vins) we have already noticed differences. It is hard to really know what is original and what has been changed over the years (more than I originally thought on my car).

Keep up the great posts!

Mark

As a note re brazing clevis-ends onto cables: this is not only difficult to do as Steve says, it also anneals the carbon-steel wires in the cable, softening the heat-treated wire and weakening it. This is the main reason manufacturers swedge ends onto wire-rope-type cables, besides the expense of brazing. While this likely won't weaken the cables too much- given the leverage on cables from a std e-brake handle, I'd still opt for swedged ends, given a choice. I've brazed various cables including stainless steel, and they elongate under stress before breaking- indicating some annealing has happened, but giving one an inspection point. I had a little better results silver-soldering clevis ends on motorcycle clutch cables rather than brazing, due to lower torch temperatures. Look in the telephone book under "Riggers" for people who have cable-swedging equipment.

If you do use a torch, be sure to 'fan' out the wire ends on the other side of the clevis ends, to provide more surface area for braze or silver solder to grip.

Addendum: I was at Harbor Freight yesterday and noticed they sell a 'hydraulic cable-swedger' for $49.95, with a bunch of dies included. I didn't open the shipping box, but surely this could be made to work on most cables, even if some home-made steel shims were needed to take up slack in metric cables or ends.


Added by moderator: Hydraulic Wire Crimping Tool

All this talk has gotten me modivated to try my new cables. I will let you all know how they do, as I had 5 sets made at the same time as mine. They were created by a company in Ohio that makes cables for Hotrods, and they did a really nice job with the ends. They are all breaded SS.

We

WE!

How about some photos? Of your brake affair, and of the cable ends specifically???

You may be able to offload some cables rather quickly! ...before I can find parts to make them with....which is proving most difficult at the moment!!!

Steve

brake update. I went up to see how the new cables were installed in the car. The cables that came off the car, worked on two pulleys. The car has a third that looks like it was added later. So, the cables I had made work for the two pulley model. The ends are new, but they are molded and fit perfectly. Now, each one of these cars was hand built, so I am not saying that they will fit every goose. I also had the cable from the handle through to the pulley sheathed.

I am going to take some pictures, and i will post them over the weekend. I had 4 sets made, so if someone is interested in trying it in their goose let me know. I spent $92 on each one, and you can have it for what it cost me.

Thanks and stay tuned.

We

WE,

Be sure to spec out the lengths of the center to center of the clevis pin holes, the length of each of the outer sheathings, and I would love a picture of the clevis eye, or however the ends were terminated.

Am learning a lot about the cable business trying to find proper eyelets...that not many have an interest in!

Steve

I got up to look at the mangusta, and take it for a quick spin at the restoration shop. The cables worked great. I would think that they could be a little shorter, but looking at several other people's cars, they look the same. The eyelets look thiner than the orginals, but the company that made them said they are standard and should hold up for a long time.

On the pulley front, it seems that someone had modified the goose to use Pantera cables, and to make up for the lenght they had added another pulley on the other side of the engine. I checked with Santiago and he can not find any indication that this would have been done at the factory. So, it has been removed and the brake passed inspection.

We

WE,

In your pic, there is nothing to gauge size with, but the eyelet appears to be very long, which on most configurations I believe is going to be an issue in that it limits travel of the cable.

Since we can't see the cable installed, we have no idea if these would begin to work in other cars... Denis posted pic's of his cable in #1244 above, and it has the spring like you have, however, his car is very late and unlike the majority of cars built IMHO.

Thus far, I am beginning to think that there could be up to five types of cables built....
(So far two different lengths C-C have been mentioned)

Early 4-headlamp
Early flip-up headlamps
Late 4 headlamp
Late flip-up
Hand brake lever on floor?

So having new ones made could be a crap shoot!!!! Need to find some sort of reference point from which to start if one wanted to provide ready to go cables...

I agree with you, anyone who is hoping to make up cables to sell them is NUTS. Since I had one that worked on #1040, I had a replacement made and two spares. If someone thinks that they will fit, they are welcome to try them out. If not, well then you have an example of one being made.

If you got that route, here is the place where I had them made.
VICTOR MARK
CONTROL CABLES INC
9816 ALBURTIS AVE
SANTA FE SPRINGS,CA 90670
P-562-949-0455
F-562-949-0595
EMAIL VIC@CONTROLCABLES.COM

WE

I have spoken to these guys already. I believe they make the Pantera version for one of the vendors.

Thank-you for the measurement! That eyelet is 2" long, and in my case, would take up almost all of the available space for cable movement! Distance is limited by the hand fab'd bracket that holds the cable end, and is also affected by the "adapter" that extends the arm and goes from a female clevis to a female clevis....

I haven't seen any shots from any other folks that may still have the "normal" aluminum Girling rear calipers to tell me if what I have is (again!!!) another odd part or not!!! (Because I have the cast iron Fiat Girling calipers)

Seems to be my problem with playing with this expensive toy!!!! Everything is just slightly different than everyone elses!!!

Update: Just got pricing back on some eyelets.... $18-20 each and they are not an exact fit so would need a tad more work to fit properly! Minimum qty=50! Ugh!

Have we 25 owners needing cables?????

Thanks!
Steve

Still waiting for someone with an early car to update this thread with a picture of your rear caliper and e-brake connections, similar to what I did a bunch of posts up......

Thanks!
Steve

Ok, Steve- now I feel guilty since I promised this before Christmas....

In the attached shots (if they attach!) the 4 jacket ends and clevises all appear to be cast brass. The clevises are surfaced at the connection ends to make a washer 0.31 thick. jacket ends are 0.550"OD x 0.550 long, with a 0.470ID, 0,437" deep counterbore. The nipple-end of each jacket is 0.350 OD x 0.250 long, with a 0.165 cable hole clear through.

Forgot to mention: the e-brake cable pictured above measures 89- 89.5" long end to end, and the whole setup is for '69 Mangusta s/n 0760 with the big aluminum Girling rear calipers and sheet metal e-brake caliper arms. All 4 brass cable-jacket ends appear identical.

OK, if you go waaaaay back to the last post on the first page, I mentioned that my cable measured 88" center to center on the holes. Which is very close to what you have....

What I still have not seen posted, is the actual ebrake mechanism (and cable hookups) on one of the two pot rear calipers! I want to understand if they are similar to my three pot or something completely different!

Steve

Here is a picture

Here is pic of eBrake cable end from 8MA1244

The Spruce Aircraft catalog has all kinds of cable ends.

Dick Ruzzin

Yes they do. None of them will work for me.

YMMV! (Your mileage may vary!)

Steve