I have been chasing a clunk somewhere in the car's suspension (but that is another story) and while I was investigating I noticed the rubber buffer that keeps the handbrake cable clear of the top end of the stabilizer link had failed on the inboard side. The end result is the top of the stabilizer link was eating its way into the handbrake cable:


Note the sheath of the handbrake cable has been eroded away

As it may take me a little time to source a replacement for the buffer (or whatever the thing is called) I modified an old shock absorber bush and inserted it over the end of the stabilizer link, then wrapped the handbrake cable with three turns of neoprene rubber. I figure that should effectively prevent the link from doing any more damage to the cable sheath:


Modified Shock absorber bush to place over top of the stabilizer link

Here is the end result:

Field repair of the handbrake cable sheath.

By the way, if any of you have long memories, three years and 30,000km ago I made a post about how I sewed up some vinyl dust boots for the stabilizer links. In the last photo one of the boots is visible, still going strong, as are the other three!

 

Very nice, but you will have to trim the tyrap tails. I have CDO. This is a variant of OCD, but alphabetized the way it should be.

If you don’t want to do it, I can hop on the next flight and take care of it for you. I’ll need to borrow a pair of cutters, as I can’t bring mine on the plane.

 

Hi Karl,

I wanted to have the option to pull the cable ties a little tighter, once I had confirmed everything was in the right place. Then, once I am happy, I will trim them. Just like I obviously retained the option to fine-tune the ties on the dust boots. In that case its only been three years. No point rushing things.

Roger.

 

I’ll text you when I get there. My return flight is not for another week, so please have your guest room ready. I’ll PM you a list of my dietary restrictions. Do you have a place I can safely store my tuba between practice sessions? I’m kind of a night owl, if that makes any difference.