Handbrake & Handbrake Cable

The handbrake cable is so long! Reading the GBS Facebook group page and others blogs confirms this. Lot's of different solutions to this, the main one being to run the cables through the gap between the differential and the chassis before turning them ninety degrees towards the chassis brackets. The other option is to turn them just after exiting the tunnel and running them in front of the differential. This then requires the cable to be shortened.

I decided on the second option because the gap between the diff and chassis is not really big enough, so chafing would happen, and also the cable has to go upwards a bit and this makes it foul the fixed brake lines.

Since the sheathed cable is so stiff, it needs p-clipping before the chassis bracket to ensure it doesn't rest against the differential. I installed some p-clips on the upper side of the differential 'ears' which held the sheathed cables in the perfect position, very firmly, so ensuring they don't flap around or foul anything else.

Left hand p clip

Right hand p clip

Since the sheathed cable exit the tunnel and turn very quickly, it affects the way the handbrake adjuster and mount sit in the tunnel chassis bracket. To help this, I have used a cable tie to pull the cables closer together so the mounts on the cables are normal to the chassis bracket and seat correctly.

Cable tie to hold handbrake cables

In general, the exit from the tunnel is too congested for the Mazda build due to the chassis bracket that holds the fuel line & handbrake cable. My advice to GBS would be to space it out a bit more and give more formal bracket locations for the fixed brake lines and wiring loom.

The handbrake kit itself if very easy to mount. However, the space for all the systems is very congested. The handbrake crescent is quite wide and sits quite high leading to the risk of it rubbing other bits as it's engaged and disengaged. I made a little aluminium bracket to sit in the tunnel which separates the fuel lines and the handbrake crescent to ensure it doesn't clash. The rear wiring loom in the area is cable tied to the fixed brake line and also sheathed in split conduit to ensure no chafing can occur.

Aluminium Bracket