Parking Brake Pedal Removal

[lapoltba]

I went to replace the parking brake cables on my SX4 yesterday and found that the PO of my car had the bright idea to weld the cable stop on the pedal.  There was no way to get the cable out so I had to cut.  Now, I have to take the pedal out so I can fix the stupid thing.

Can anyone supply me some info on the easiest way to accomplish this?  It appears there are two studs that go through the firewall, and one bolt that holds it to the dash.  Am I correct?  Can those firewall nuts/bolts be reached from under the car or do I have to take the brake booster off to get at them?

Also, if anyone has a spare pedal assembly I may be interested if I can't fix the one I have.  Also a spare balancing arm would be nice as mine is starting to get a bit rusty and close to disintegrating.  If I have to I'll reverse engineer it out of aluminum but I'd rather not.

[johnbendik]

Assuming the SX4 is built like my 1984 Sportwagon, you cannot reach the firewall bolts from under the car.

I had to remove the left front wheel and unbolt about half of the fender lining.  I could then peel it back enough to reach the parking brake nuts.

Incidentally, if you find a source for the parking brake pedal assembly, I would like to hear about it.  I spent many hours getting to mine and psuedo-fixing it.  The fix lasted about three days (just long enough to get my Texas Safety Inspection).  I'd like to just replace it.

Hope that helps, and good luck.

John B

[lapoltba]

Thanks for the reply.  I actually just buttoned everything back up.  I stared at it from inside the car for a few minutes this afternoon and realized the bolts went into the fender.  I was able to remove just three of the cheezy sheet metal screws from the inner fender (fender liner, whatever) and bend it back out of the way enough to get a ratcheting box end wrench in there.  I actually started by taking the trim and flares off the wheel well but in hindsight you wouldn't need to do that.  Much easier than I thought it was going to be.

I ground off the weld that was there and bent the bracket back into shape.  I think my new cable is slightly larger than the original so it should hopefully hold up better.  I pinched it in for good measure though.  The front line is now installed but I don't have time to do the rears tonight.

As far as a replacement.... I was looking on evilbay last night and the jeep cj and yj units look very similar.  The cable attachment is slightly different, but it looks like it comes in to the bracket in the same general area.  They also bolt through the firewall and have an arm that bolts to the dash from underneath.  If I can get time this weekend or sometime soon I may run over to the junkyard and see if they have anything easily accessible to compare. 

[lapoltba]

Just found something on evilbay.  Search the following two item numbers:  330855967501 and 230951484809

To my eyes they look exactly like the Eagle part with the exception of the switch on it.  I would guess that the proper holes are still there though.  $40 for a brand new pedal is alot less than I was expecting, but still more than I wanted to pay.