It seems that lubricating them with heavy grease as well as applying
some to junctions and cracked areas would help in the interim.

2010/1/10, Luke Bakken <luke.bakken@gmail.com>:
> 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
>>
>>
>

--
Chris S.
Disclaimer: "Death and serious injury may occur"