Yep, that's exactly what I saw - the sheath on the passenger side is
shot in one place. I'm pretty sure they're the original cables.

On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 9:29 PM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:
> How old are the cables? The outer sheaths tend wear and collapse along with
> the plastic coating allowing water to enter. The resulting rust will cause
> the cables to bind.
>
> Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Luke Bakken
> Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2010 11:12 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Follow up - parking brake questions. Was: Frozen emergency brake
>
> On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 12:57 PM, Luke Bakken <luke.bakken@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hey everyone,
>>
>> We've had some interesting weather here in Spokane WA - warm and wet
>> the first part of the week then suddenly really cold beginning on
>> Tuesday night. I got in my van yesterday to drive it around and
>> discovered that the brakes weren't disengaging totally from using the
>> e-brake. Thankfully I just drove around the block and back home, but
>> the right-rear disc was definitely starting to get hot because I could
>> hear it cooling down.
>>
>> I'm assuming that the weird weather change must have frozen something
>> up but I'm wondering what the best way to diagnose this issue would
>> be. The van has been upgraded to rear disc brakes using a "big brake"
>> kit either from SmallCar or Van Cafe (the P.O. installed them). I'm
>> assuming I can tap around the e-brake springs on the calipers with a
>> hammer to see if I can loosen things up with the e-brake disengaged,
>> but other suggestions are very welcome.
>
> Thanks to everyone who replied. I was directed to this thread on the
> Samba which shed some more light on the situation:
>
> http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=390169
>
> So, with nothing better to do than get under my van in freezing rain,
> I checked stuff out and found that basically the passenger side cable
> was seized in its cover. I removed the cable entirely and could not
> get it to budge. The brake caliper disengaged just fine. I removed the
> driver's side cable as well and found that I could move the cable in
> the cover, but not easily. I also think that due to the lengths of the
> cables, only the passenger side was ever engaging when using the
> parking brake.
>
> First question: while I figure out the best way to fix this, would it
> be safe (and legal!) to drive and park the van without having a
> working parking brake?
>
> Second question: this thread on the Samba
> (http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3943875) details an
> interesting solution to one of the problems with how the parking brake
> cables are routed. I wonder if that idea could be expanded to provide
> more of a straight shot from the main brake cable and hanger (is that
> what the connection point is called?) to the rear brakes. Ideally you
> could figure out a route that wouldn't involve any bends except the
> one around the rear trailing arm.
>
> I'll probably end up following the SmallCar directions to use a 2wd
> brake cable on the passenger side and a stock syncro one on the
> driver's side.
>
> Thanks again for any input,
> Luke
>
>