Hello all, I was reading some of the posts and came across the parking brake cables and the dealer wanting 800.00. I was reading responses and someone mentioned removal of gas tank. I have a customer that just moved to Virginia, from Jamestown, NY. The rear e-brake hardware and shoes and dust shields were all gone. The cable from lever to axel was broken. I was cringing when I saw all the rust. There was no way I was taking out the gas tank, another can of worms would have been opened. I was able to replace the cables with just removing exhaust system from the cat and the heat shield, there is a cable clamp close to the heat shield that holds the cable off the heatshield to prevent from rattles. I removed the center console and fished the new cable from inside. The two other cables were not fun. The aluminum had oxsidized around the steel sleeve and made the cables very hard to remove, but with patients and PB Blaster and a pair of vise grips on a slide hammer was able to work them out. Cleaned up everything and made sure cable routing was the same. The new dust shields were quite difficult to replace, they do not fit over the rear hub. I had to make a small cut in new shield and remove the studs from hub to get the job done. Installed new springs and hardware and shoes, Put the studds back in hub, installed rotor and brakes, adjusted hand brake and installed the center console, heat shield and exhaust. Total job was over 7 hours and not fun. All this so she could get a VA safety inspection. If I had followed the manual it would have been much longer. Here in Virginia, cars never see that much rust and corrosion to cause a problem. So It was the first job I had done on a 960 with IRS. I hope I don't see another in the near future.

I was doing the brake cables on my wife's 1996 960 Wagon with multilink suspnsion today. What a "pain in the *ss"!!!! One can barely get a 1/4 drive wrench above the axle to remove the cable clamp. The cable was caught over the gas tank I had to undo the nut on the exhaust side, all the ones in the front and the worst to access ones in the back. My hand cramped up in the process.

It took 4 hours to remove the old ones but then it started raining. Cars on jack stands. Hopefully I can finish tommorrow. Volvo must have started using bolts and nuts made from reprocessed steel. This car was from Ohio. I've owned volvos from the 1960s. In fact I still have 122s and 1800s which have less rust on th enuts and bolts than this 960.

Hopefully weather permititng I can finish installing the cable tommorrow. If you have to replace your cables make sure to get the clip that holds the left rear cable to the end of the front cable. I'll have to pick one up at Volvo on Monday.

This is good information. Thanks!
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'96 965, 16' wheels, Michelin Pilot Sports, rear 18mm bar + Koni, 201 HP cams, 132K. Put 200K on '85 745 TD.

Geez, I don't think I've seen a 960 here in Nova Scotia that had that much rust and our cars corrode pretty bad. I can imagine what a PITA is was! Agh, rust is so annoying. My '98 V90 is in good shape for a typical Nova Scotian car, but my '94 960 that came from Florida makes the V90 look like a rust heap in some areas! I've done some work underneath the V90 and it looks pretty much like new now, but all the 960 needed was a good coat of undercoating to keep everything in the great condition it was already in. I've got to replace the park brake cables and shoes on my V90, but I'm going to drop the rear subframe and do that as part of the job. While the subframe is out I'll make sure to clean up the body above it, replace the cables, change the gear oil, replace some bushings, and probably clean and paint the steel control arms. My mechanic hasn't looked at the front cable yet to see if it needs to be replaced, but he said that we shouldn't need to drop the gas tank even if it does. He says we'd just fish it though like you did.
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Chris. Halifax N.S. '98 V90 > 195K km, '94 964 > 82K mi. SOLD: '91 745T and '91 745 NA (I miss both of them!).