After lifting a '97 and
newer XJ, one of the fine tuning procedures is to make sure that the
parking brake cable does not get damaged under full droop of the driver's
side rear tire. The parking brake cable routing changed a bit with the '97
model year and now two different-length parking brake cables are used. The
passenger side cable usually does not pose any problems, but the driver's
side cable is a bit short. After adding a lift, this might become a
problem. |
| Often, this problem of the too short
driver's side parking brake cable is addressed by replacing it with
another passenger's side cable. However, I personally didn't see the need
for an additional 3 feet of cable being routed around just to add a
few inches (at most). Therefore, I decided to relocate the parking brake
bracket itself. After checking the routing of the existing cables, I
decided that I could gain around 2" to 3", which should be enough for my 3.5" lifted '97 XJ! |
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Before:
Above the original
position of the parking brake cable bracket (yellow circle, cable
equalizer removed).
[Large image
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After:
This image shows
the bracket after it has been moved
backwards (purple arrow showing distance moved).
[Large image] |
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The cost of this project: Whatever you pay for these two self-cutting
bolts! This is and excellent additional modification to the MADXJ budget boost (which
this rig actually received some time ago!) |
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Start with removing the bracket by removing the two bolts that
are holding it on to the uni-frame rail (red arrow pointing to one bolt
after bracket was removed and bolt was placed back in original hole). Then
move it about 2.75"/(~7cm) backwards and mark the new holes (yellow circle). I
recommend to drill a pilot hole first and then drill the final hole. |
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Again, here the location of one of the two new holes,
approximately 2.75 inches backwars from the original location. |
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After drilling the new hole, make sure you get a
good thread set in the uni-frame rail. This works pretty good if done correctly. In
this particular instance, the hole is drilled right where two frame rail
pieces overlap, adding some extra hold for the new bolt. (Now go
back to top and view the before/after images again). |
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This can be done within a short amount of time and gets your lifted
vehicle back to almost original in respect of parking brake cable length
(depending on the amount of lift, of course). This is an easy and cheap
modification that doesn't require too many skills either. The parking
brake cables do not need to be disconnected, removed, or
whatever. |
©Copyright 2001 Andreas Ritterbusch
All Rights reserved.
Photos: Andreas Ritterbusch
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