Hello, quick question. 1971 van. I'm working on the drum brakes. Where the parking brake cable goes through the dust shield. How does the cable detach from the shield? I know I must be missing something here. I have put plenty of oil on it and have broken it loose, I just can get it off. Any solutions, comments and funnies would be helpful! Thanks. Lamar

I believe the tube that protects the cable fits inside the hole in the backing plate. Sometimes they get rusted in place and need to get knocked out with a hammer and a punch.

Several years ago I replaced the parking brake cables on Homer the Super Bus (1973 Transporter).  The driver's side cable had been spliced . . . at some time in the past, someone had cut about 6 inches out of the tube and spliced half of the old cable onto half a new cable.  I had known for years it was like that and just figured it had broke and someone rigged it up with stuff they had laying around . . . but when I went to install new cables I figured out why it was spliced.  The end that went into the backing plate was stuck tight.  It might as well have been welded in place.  It took a lot of PB-Blaster, a lot of heat, a lot of hard blows from a 3 pound hammer and twisting and turning with a big set of vice-grips before it finally turned loose.  I cleaned the hole up with some fine sandpaper and coated it anti-seize before I put the new cable in.