The cables themselves rarely fail, but the sheath or outer jacket does.
The sheath will rust or collapse changing the effective length or
causing the cable to bind making the brakes drag. The front cable runs
at an angle so the splitter bar does not sit straight. Depending on
year, there is a left right side. Syncros also use different left/right
cables.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Shawn Wright
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 11:17 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Brake cables uneven/stretched?

I've found the parking brake cables on my '82 are uneven in length - one
side is about 1.5" longer than the other, so the splitter bar is at a
sharp
angle. This caused one cable to slip out of the notch - it was this way
when
I bought the van. Is it normal for them to stretch or somehow get out of
whack like this? Or do I need to just get new cable(s)?

Thanks.Shawn Wright
http://zuiko.sls.bc.ca/~swright
'85 Jetta TD (retired)
'85 Jetta D
'88 Westy 2.1L
'82 Diesel Westy