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MG MGB Technical - handbrake cable

Hi all,
I am restoring a 1977 roadster.Can someone tell me where I have to attach the little bracket on the handbrake cable. Item 56 on the Moss catalog. I suppose it has to be attached on the batterie box but I don't know where, left, right, front, rear , on the side.
Herman,
H. Jorens

Herman

This is how mine was attached. I assume it was right.

Dave O'Neill 2

Dave shows the CB position, there was another at the back of the box. RBs had a shorter cable originally without a grease nipple and the clip was attached to the rear of the battery box 'B' as in the attached. That actually shows the longer CB cable on a 75 for reasons I won't bore you with.

The 77 was different again as instead of the compensator mechanism on the diff case there was a simpler rubber flap closer to the left-hand rear wheel. That meant the cable flapped about a bit so there is another support point consisting of a rubber strip on a diff cover bolt on the right-hand side, item 59 here https://tinyurl.com/y2lfd27p.


paulh4

Correction - the rear CB attachment point is to a bracket on the axle tube.
paulh4

This is how my hand brake cable is attached to the battery box on my 1980 roadster. The attachment to the diff perished a couple of years ago and hence the cable tie. To refit the proper attachment (which i purchased) requires disconnecting the cable at the hand brake lever end ,which i decided was a pig to do (& very messy), so decided on this temporary fix until i am forced to remove the cable from the lever end!
Cheer,
Charles

Charles9

I'm sure the cable tie will see you out, no matter how young you are. For something a bit more aesthetically pleasing a conventional metal P-clip twisted to suit would work, I can't see you getting a piece of rubber over the handle end of the cable unless it has a very large hole big enough for the tunnel stud to pass through.
paulh4

Hi Paul,

I had been considering using a P Clip using one of the diff cover bolts as an anchor where the original attachment was ,but have to-date always found something else to concentrate on underneath the car ! - last time being replacing the rubber flap near the rear left wheel that you referred to earlier. It wasn't the easiest job as the original was part webbing part rubber with the replacement just being thick rubber.

Cheers, Charles

Charles9

That's got to be the biggest cost-reduction exercise of all time, given the ten metal components of the original!
paulh4

Be a bit carefull using loose cable ties like that---they tend to cut into / wear things
I've seen them on AC tubing and they wear straight through the metal yet the plastic tie shows no sign of wear
William Revit

AC tubing thin alloy? The handbrake cable is already moving about in one or two P-clips, and is hefty steel.
paulh4

Yes Paul alloy, but still cut through by the plastic tie
William Revit

What I'm saying is there is much less (if any) chance of that happening to the handbrake cable in Charles' case.
paulh4

Thanks for your observations - The cable tie is only stopping the cable flapping about or getting snagged , with the only effect on the outer sleeve being the removal of road grime / oil thrown back over the years and with me juggling the cable around when i changed the rubber flap as referred to before.
Cheers,Charles
Charles9

This thread was discussed between 05/11/2019 and 07/11/2019

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