1995 Volvo 960 wagon, 2.9L, Independent Rear Suspension (IRS) – Hand brake/parking brake/emergency brake Cable replacement instructions.

I downloaded the following post when replacing the parking brake cables on my ’96 965. Since this information seems no longer to be in our database, I am reposting it as a resource. I’ve added my comments on this project in italicized caps. Many thanks to the original source of this post, I could not have done this without you!

A mechanic probably charges $500 for this repair, and they earn it – it was a tough job (for me). I could not find any instructions online, but I am guessing that the official path is to drop the driveshaft and remove the gas tank to do this job. If you have a dremel (high speed rotary) tool or a rat-tail file, and are not afraid to use it on your car, then you can do it without dropping those.
The cable comes in 3 sections – front/left/right. There was a part-number switch, and the original parts are not available, so you have to replace all 3 at the same time.
AFTER THE SWITCH, THERE IS SOME CONFUSION OUT THERE ABOUT WHICH RIGHT SIDE CABLE FITS WHICH CARS. I FOUND ANY CAR USING FRONT CABLE # 31202868 MUST USE RIGHT CABLE # 6819033.
What makes this job so tough is that the front cable has an armored section to it right behind the adjustment threads, so there is about 10 inches that is completely inflexible. And it now has a square bracket permanently attached to other end – so that end is nearly impossible to snake through the path of the old cable. I decided to snake the front section through from under the car. It might also make sense to snake from inside the car through the hole in the floor. Either way you have to enlarge the hole in the floor.
Left and Right are always of the view from the driver’s seat. USA – left is the driver’s side.
Sorry, but I did not take any pictures – this was a rush job.
IN THE CAR:
- Remove center console. If you can’t get the small panels out of the way (option 1), you will have to remove the whole console (option 2):
Opt. 1) There is a little panel under the hand brake handle – pry it out and remove the 2 torx screws. The larger panel around the hand brake and shifter is held in by tabs – pry up the front and the back slides out. There are 3 electrical plugs and a light. You can get to the front of the cable here, and to get to the back remove the ash tray on the back of the console, and then lift up on the fancy panel and the lower tabs should clear and it can be lifted out – this is your access to the cable adjusting nut.
Opt. 2) There is a patch of felt in the bottom of the storage bin that can be peeled up to expose 2 torx screws – remove those. The front of the console, where it joins the center stack has 2 screws. The center stack is snapped onto 2 pins –pull them out of the way to expose the screws. The shifter will have to be moved through the gears, and the handbrake moved around to get the console out. There will be about 3 electrical plugs that have to be unplugged – some have a pinch release, others have the claw-clip that has to be pried open.
- The front of the cable is held into the mechanism by a tab – bend it up out of the way, and work the cable out. The cable adjuster is the big black plastic nut around the cable where it enters the handbrake box, loosen it all the way.
TAKE A PHOTO OF THE HAND BRAKE TO CABLE CONNECTION BEFORE DISASSEMBLING. AFTER ALL THE ADVENTURES I ENCOUNTERED ON THIS PROJECT, IT WAS EASY TO FORGET WHAT THE FIRST STEP LOOKED LIKE.
- You will need to get to the hole in the floor just under the front of the back seat, at the hump. The wagon rear seats tilt forward and can then be removed from the car. Remove the 3 floor tilt brackets on the right side so the carpet can be lifted a little – the sedans may not have the holes where the brackets were, so you may need to cut the carpet to see where the cable passes through the floor. I jammed a block of wood under the carpet to hold it up for access.
UNDER THE CAR:
I would recommend tight fitting safety goggles, because you will be disturbing a lot of rust and dirt.
- There is a plastic rock guard under the left rear seat that has to be removed to expose the gas tank bolts. Loosen the gas tank – but do not let any of the bolts come all the way out, and these are probably very rusty, so make sure you do not round off any bolt heads. I cleaned up the hex shape with a knife – making sure to dig down through the rust to deepen how far the socket will sit, and tap the sockets on firmly. Then the 4 bolts (13mm) holding the gas tank straps can be loosened.
THESE BOLTS ARE AT FRONT OF THE TANK – STRAPS AT REAR ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO GET TO WITHOUT DISASSEMBLING REAR SUSPENSION BUT, FORTUNATELY ,YOU CAN LOWER THE TANK ENOUGH BY UNDOING JUST THE FRONT STRAPS . IF I HAD TO DO THIS JOB AGAIN, I’D LEAVE THE TANK ALONE AND TRY TO GET ACCESS BY DISCONNECTING THE EXHAUST SYSTEM (SEE BELOW).
There is another bolt visible between the muffler and the tank – loosen it.
- The cable has a clamp up near where the exhaust goes over the axle – remove it.
- The 3 cables are joined on the back side of the axle; mine were rusted completely through, but if yours are still attached then disconnect them. The rusted cables are very sharp and vindictive.
- At this point I yanked enough slack in the cable near where it comes out of the floor to be able to cut it in two with a dremel. You will now be discovering new uses for old cuss words – because you cannot get your hands anywhere near where you need to in order to work on this cable. Before you pull the cable out of the car feel around on the top of the right side of the gas tank and make a note of where the cable was routed.
I ATTACHED NEW FRONT CABLE TO REAR OF THE OLD CABLE WITH DUCT TAPE AND PULLED THE OLD CABLE THROUGH THE CAR INTERIOR WITH NEW CABLE FOLLOWING. THIS ENSURED CORRECT ROUTING OF THE NEW CABLE. I ALSO DETACHED THE EXHAUST SYSTEM FROM THE CAT CONVERTER – AS SUGGESTED IN OTHER BB POSTS - TO REACH BETWEEN FRONT MUFFLER AND GAS TANK TO FREE CABLE WHEN IT BECAME STUCK ON TOP OF TANK.
- I pulled the severed front part of the cable from inside the car. The hole in the floor will need to be enlarged to make room to angle the cable through – remember where you felt the cable routing over the gas tank? – it will be angling in from above and to the right of where the hole is. So the hole in the floor will need to be enlarged up and to the right – close enough to 45 degrees to aim for that, and nearly double in size. You will want your fire suppression crew to keep an eye on the carpet and insulation during the cutting process. If you make 2 parallel cuts and bend back the metal then when you are done you can bend it back in place to reduce the size of the damage. Keep the old dust boot to double up with the new one to plug this hole. Since you will be snaking the new cable with its plastic adjustment threads through this hole you will want to remove any sharp edges and then I would recommend covering the edge with tape.
- Pull the old cable out of the car and begin snaking the new one in from in front of the axle. Pass it over the gas tank aiming for the hole in the floor – I recommend taping the dust boot tightly to the cable so that it does not snag in the middle of the tank. You will probably have to pry the gas tank down, and since it is made of plastic you need to make sure you only pry against the metal guard.
- Carefully guide the threaded part of the cable through the hole in the floor so you don’t ruin the threads. You are now calling me names that would make a sailor blush, because it does not seem there is any way to get this cable into the car, so I must have left out a step – no, you are just figuring out why you should have paid someone $500 to do this miserable job.
- You cannot get any leverage from under the car, so you may need to tie tough nylon string to the cable for a helper to pull from inside the car. My helper went shoe shopping mid-job, so I tied the string to the hand brake and used it to apply tension.
- Back inside the car - Thread the cable into the adjusting nut all the way – you will need the slack when you attach the 3 cables together. Get the cable end into the hand brake’s mechanism and bend the retaining tab back into place. Make sure the handle is all the way down.
- Once the front half of the cable is in place, then snake the rear half over the axle, and the center section goes over and behind the heat shield over the muffler. The center clamp (near where the exhaust pipe goes over the axle) can be installed now.
- Re-tighten all the gas tank bolts and re-install the rock shield.

AT THE WHEELS:
There are other articles with good pictures of how the ends of the cables are installed in the brake drums, and about how to replace the shoes – take a look at them. My car did not have the brake adjustment Star wheel, just a solid bar. I would recommend only tearing apart one side at a time, so that you have the other to use as a visual guide.
BRAKE SHOES ARE ATTACHED DIFFERENTLY ON THE IRS CARS THAN SOLID AXLE 900 SERIES CARS. A THICK “U” SHAPED SPRING LOCKS THEM IN PLACE. I TOOK PHOTOS BEFORE DISASSEMBLING THEM.
- Remove both bolts of the bracket of the disc brake and swing it out of the way. Do not let it hang from the brake hose. Remove the disc – that I will call a drum, because we are working on the parking brake that uses the inside surface. Replace the shoes if needed.
BOTH 900 SERIES CARS I’VE WORKED ON NEEDED NEW BRAKE SHOES AT 150K DUE TO THE LININGS SEPARATING FROM THE SHOES. SUGGEST BUYING A NEW SET WHEN YOU PURCHASE THE CABLES AS THEY ARE RELATIVELY INEXPENSIVE.
- The IRS setup only had cable clips at the wheel hub – and the cable was held into the holes in the center of the axle by the rubber boot. Remove the clips. The parking brake shoes have a large spring to pull them in, and a smaller clip to keep the spring in place. Release one side of the clip and spring, and then the mechanism where the cable ends in the hub should be removable. Pull out the old cable and install the new one, putting everything back in place. Leave the brake drums off until you have the cables fully attached.
- Once you have both sides in place you will need to get extra slack in all 3 cables in order to be able to attach them, so make sure the front cable is threaded all the way into the big black plastic nut on the back of the handbrake box. At each wheel pry one of the parking brake shoes off of the solid block and stick a large wrench head under it. Use a screw driver to push down on the cable end to give you as much slack to work with as possible.
- Clip the left side cable onto the front cable, and then the clevis pin for the right cable (I dropped that pin about 99 times before I got everything lined up).
- It will probably be difficult to get the brake drums over the shoes until the cable is “seated” – but you cannot seat it until the shoes are in place. DO NOT pull on the hand brake until both drums are in place. I had to get one side in place, then remove it and do the other side – back and forth until it worked out.
- Once the drums are in place you should be able to pull hard on the cable to get everything to relax. The wheels should turn with minimal rubbing - and you probably bent the dust covers while wrestling with the drums, so that is frequently the source of ugly rubbing sounds.
- The hand brake is supposed to fully engage between 5 and 8 clicks. New shoes and cables will make it more like 3 or 4 at first, but wait until after a test drive before you adjust.
PUT THE INTERIOR BACK TOGETHER:
- Make sure that the hole in the floor is fully plugged. The cable has to be able to move a certain amount in order to slide when it is adjusted.
10/2012 purchase:
Qty Product # Price EA
2 Clip 1387247 $2.29
1 Parking brake cable, fr 31202868 $56.41
1 Parking brake cable,right 6819033 $29.16
1 Parking brake cable, left 6819032 $29.16
1 Split pin 664822 $1.39
1 Clevis pin 964833 $2.21
1 Clamp 952632 $1.48
1 Flange lock nut 985866 $1.39