Hello All, I've been working on a recently acquired a 1971 Skylark Custom with 455 & T400. Fantastic car- purchased on the Board here from a real gentleman and great car guy and am extremely happy with it! One thing needing attention is to replace the missing parking brake cable. I bought a complete new kit from Todd Miller, and it looks really nice. I have my '72 Buick GS to refer to as far as routing underneath, but my question is how to go about replacing the front section that connects to pedal assembly and routes under the car. I'm assuming the kick panel needs to come off, but what next? how do you thread cable out of car to below? It looks like it comes out the front bottom section of frame rail on '72, so that it what is confusing. Just hoping somebody on here can walk through the steps so I can knock this task out fairly quickly Thanks guys!! Jerry
Not to put you off..But that job ties with the heater blower motor replacement as the all time worst job to do. Removing the kick panel is easiest. Then make sure the E brake cable is unhooked from the rest of the cables. I then push the foot pedal down and use vice grips to lock on the inside cable then release the pedal. Then you can manipulate the cable end out of it's saddle. When the cable is out,you can take a screwdriver and break the tabs on the cable where it comes up through the floor,or use a worm type clamp using some pressure to get it started back through the hole in the floor. When the ends are through,remove the clamp and pull it down from under the car. Getting the cable in and out of the frame is a pain,but with a few modified curse words,can be done. I would also suggest lifting the car putting a jackstand under it as well as remove the rear plastic inner fender piece to give you more work room..
much appreciated! For some reason, that cable is completely missing, so the removal part is already done. I'm guessing I feed up from the bottom, into the car interior to connect to pedal assembly? Funny thing is the other task to complete is a new heater core! (done that years ago on my '72. At least the car came with the correct new replacement unit, it's been cold & rainy here on west coast so I'm thinking I should knock that out too) Thanks for the help!
I will offer a tip on the heater core and that is to get it teased Before you install it. I did a new one several years ago and had to pull it all back out because of a leak. I made up my mind Never again would I install one without having it pressure checked. Also that e cable missing just made your job a lot easier.
Note that BBB and SBB are different. You didn't say what your 72 is, but if things don't line up or work, that may be why. Did Todd give you a BBB kit?
The crossmember is also different. The only difference is there's a slot for the cable, which could be added to a 350 crossmember. Surely someone could post dimensions or even make a template. Mine are pretty buried but if nobody else can/will, lmk.
This would be super helpful, as I'm doing a 350-to-455 swap (TH350-to-TH400 swap as well). Pics, templates, dimensions, etc. would be greatly appreciated!
