Subaru parking brake button repair?

[ohaya]

Hi,

The parking brake button on our our '97 Subaru Outback fell off. This
apparently happened awhile ago, but my wife never told me about. In any
event, we don't have the button itself at this point.

We took the car in for service, and asked how much it would cost to
repair, and they quoted $325!! They claimed that they had to replace
the entire handbrake assembly ("ratchet").

Anyway, I told the dealer to not do the repair, and started searching
for info on fixing it myself.

I found the following NG thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.autos.subaru/msg/ccb44a7086cf075b

I think I have a collection of such wirenuts, so I want to try this, but
before doing this, I have a question:

The procedure in the above thread says to pull the lever up. If, for
some reason, I can't get the wirenut onto the rod, i.e., so still no
button, how will we be able to then release the handbrake?

I have this image in my brain of getting half way through this repair,
and then having the handbrake stuck ...

Thanks in advance,
Jim

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

Hi,

The parking brake button on our our '97 Subaru Outback fell off. This
apparently happened awhile ago, but my wife never told me about. In any
event, we don't have the button itself at this point.

We took the car in for service, and asked how much it would cost to
repair, and they quoted $325!! They claimed that they had to replace
the entire handbrake assembly ("ratchet").

Anyway, I told the dealer to not do the repair, and started searching
for info on fixing it myself.

I found the following NG thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.autos.subaru/msg/ccb44a7086cf075b

I think I have a collection of such wirenuts, so I want to try this, but
before doing this, I have a question:

The procedure in the above thread says to pull the lever up. If, for
some reason, I can't get the wirenut onto the rod, i.e., so still no
button, how will we be able to then release the handbrake?

I have this image in my brain of getting half way through this repair,
and then having the handbrake stuck ...

Thanks in advance,
Jim

Had you considered a handbrake from a wrecking yard?
Also, post this at www.usmb.net - someone there may have an old
handbrake, and someone may have made the same repair.

Carl

 

[ohaya]

Had you considered a handbrake from a wrecking yard?
Also, post this at www.usmb.net - someone there may have an old
handbrake, and someone may have made the same repair.

Carl

Hi,

For the record, I was able to get a yellow wirenut onto the shaft inside
the lever, so we have at least a temporary fix. I've posted on that
www.usmb.net forum to see if anyone knows where I can buy a "genuine"
replacement button?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[ohaya]

Hi,

For the record, I was able to get a yellow wirenut onto the shaft inside
the lever, so we have at least a temporary fix. I've posted on that
www.usmb.net forum to see if anyone knows where I can buy a "genuine"
replacement button?

Thanks,
Jim

Hi,

I forgot to mention that the procedure in the post that I linked to
above is exactly right. In particular, at first, it looked like the
wirenut fit all right without having to alter it at all, but when I got
it threaded onto the shaft/rod inside the lever, the button wouldn't
budge at all. I kind of panicked at that point, because, obviously, I
couldn't release the brake.

I went back to the post, and read it again, and took a small pair of
wire cutters, and trimmed about 1/16" off the "mouth" of the wirenut. I
then put the spring (which we hadn't lost) back in, and threaded the
trimmed wirenut onto the shaft, and VOILA, we had a working parking
brake button again !!

I still would like to replace the wirenut with a standard button, so if
anyone knows where I can get one, pls post back.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Al]

Had you considered a handbrake from a wrecking yard?
Also, post this at www.usmb.net - someone there may have an old
handbrake, and someone may have made the same repair.

Carl

Hi,

For the record, I was able to get a yellow wirenut onto the shaft inside
the lever, so we have at least a temporary fix. I've posted on that
www.usmb.net forum to see if anyone knows where I can buy a "genuine"
replacement button?

Thanks,
Jim[/QUOTE]

Yes, the same thing happened to me. I had found that it was impossbile
to buy just the button, you had to buy the whole assembly for US $140.

I was able to fabricate a replacement that was undetectable. Fortunately
a neigbor has a lathe in his basement. So it took about an hour's worth
of my time to do this. This was about 4 years ago. I traded the car in
for a new Subaru and noone was the wiser.

Oh, and the problem is a defect in the button assembly. I use the
parking brake to park all the time so it gets a lot of use. If, like
most nowadays, you use it just for emergencies, it will probalby never
fail.

Al

Al

 

[ohaya]

ohaya wrote:
Hi,

The parking brake button on our our '97 Subaru Outback fell off. This
apparently happened awhile ago, but my wife never told me about. In
any event, we don't have the button itself at this point.

We took the car in for service, and asked how much it would cost to
repair, and they quoted $325!! They claimed that they had to replace
the entire handbrake assembly ("ratchet").

Anyway, I told the dealer to not do the repair, and started searching
for info on fixing it myself.

I found the following NG thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.autos.subaru/msg/ccb44a7086cf075b

I think I have a collection of such wirenuts, so I want to try this,
but before doing this, I have a question:

The procedure in the above thread says to pull the lever up. If, for
some reason, I can't get the wirenut onto the rod, i.e., so still no
button, how will we be able to then release the handbrake?

I have this image in my brain of getting half way through this repair,
and then having the handbrake stuck ...

Thanks in advance,
Jim
Had you considered a handbrake from a wrecking yard?
Also, post this at www.usmb.net - someone there may have an old
handbrake, and someone may have made the same repair.

Carl

Hi,

For the record, I was able to get a yellow wirenut onto the shaft inside
the lever, so we have at least a temporary fix. I've posted on that
www.usmb.net forum to see if anyone knows where I can buy a "genuine"
replacement button?

Thanks,
Jim

Yes, the same thing happened to me. I had found that it was impossbile
to buy just the button, you had to buy the whole assembly for US $140.

I was able to fabricate a replacement that was undetectable. Fortunately
a neigbor has a lathe in his basement. So it took about an hour's worth
of my time to do this. This was about 4 years ago. I traded the car in
for a new Subaru and noone was the wiser.

Oh, and the problem is a defect in the button assembly. I use the
parking brake to park all the time so it gets a lot of use. If, like
most nowadays, you use it just for emergencies, it will probalby never
fail.
[/QUOTE]


Al,

Thanks for getting back to me.

Do you (or does anyone else) know if, with the standard button, can you
just unscrew it from the lever? It looked like there were threads at
the end of the shaft.

The reason I'm asking is that if I can't a 'new' button, I may go check
a local junkyard, and pull a button from there. Someone else had posted
about going to a junkyard, but I thought they meant to go pull the
entire assembly. If I can just remove the button easily and replace it
with another one, that's a repair I can probably handle ...

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Al]

Yes, the same thing happened to me. I had found that it was impossbile
to buy just the button, you had to buy the whole assembly for US $140.

I was able to fabricate a replacement that was undetectable. Fortunately
a neigbor has a lathe in his basement. So it took about an hour's worth
of my time to do this. This was about 4 years ago. I traded the car in
for a new Subaru and noone was the wiser.

Oh, and the problem is a defect in the button assembly. I use the
parking brake to park all the time so it gets a lot of use. If, like
most nowadays, you use it just for emergencies, it will probalby never
fail.

Al,

Thanks for getting back to me.

Do you (or does anyone else) know if, with the standard button, can you
just unscrew it from the lever? It looked like there were threads at
the end of the shaft.

The reason I'm asking is that if I can't a 'new' button, I may go check
a local junkyard, and pull a button from there. Someone else had posted
about going to a junkyard, but I thought they meant to go pull the
entire assembly. If I can just remove the button easily and replace it
with another one, that's a repair I can probably handle ...

Thanks,
Jim[/QUOTE]

If I remember correctly, it just unscrewed. I searched through my spare
parts bin until I found a nut that had the same thread. I soldered the
nut to a brass rod I had. I removed the guts from the plastic button.
then I milled the rod/nut assembly down so it fit the plastic button. I
epoxied the whole thing together. Now the tricky part was to install the
assembly back onto the threaded shaft. I affixed some masking tape to
the shaft so I could hold it in position. It was thin enough so I could
pull it out after I had screwed on the button. After little swearing and
sweat, I succeeded. I was able to do this without removing the parking
brake from the car.

Now I wish I had photographed the replacement I had made. I didn't
realize that it would be so useful. I did post the info on the job about
4 years ago on this web site. So you might he able to find it.

As it is, I think my mind did a reset on this problem as I didn't think
it would repeat for me, at any rate.

Al