K11 off side rear right Hand brake cable not operating. Seized or else?

Hi Guys
Had an MOT failure yesterday. Offside rear right brake was binding.
Has a look at this thread and found lots of useful information so set about taking the drum apart ....
http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/handbrake-adjustment.37765/

Shoes, adjusted mechanism (ratchet, Hand brake adjuster all look loose, clean and functioning but just to be sure i added a bid of wd40 to the adjust threads and backed it off a little to allow the drums to go on smoothly.
Tried the handbrake movement several time to ratchet up the slack but to no effect. Adjust the shoes to the point where they were almost touching the drum and pulled the handbrake but i am getting absolutely zero tension on the rh CABLE.
Now i switch my focus to the cable and i am wondering of it is indeed the cable which has seized up. But wouldn't that be unusual? I pulled the hand brake all the way up. Near side is absolutely fine in clutching and releasing but the right side is unmoved.
Has anyone come across this issue and had to replace a handbrake cable?
I want to squirt a wd40 down the brake cable to see if it will free it up? is that a good idea?
Can the brake cable be removed easily?
Can i access the top of this cable from inside of the car (for squirting wd40). Any diagrams would help.

Attached is the picture of the rear wheel with the hub off. I removed all brake components completely and give it a good clean with a wire brush. To be honest it looked pretty clean anyway.

Thanks for the help guys.
20141112_200114.jpg 20141112_203143.jpg 20141112_200122.jpg
 

frank

Club Member
i did one a few months back, and plastic shrouding was damaged under the cable clip (about half way down the cable) we cut some of the surrounding shrouding back and bent the outer cable so seep some oil into the gaps
 
Thanks for the info. is the cable easily accessible and not hidden behind any of the heat shields?
so if I understand correctly you cut the shroud, bend it and pour in oil or lubricant. you mentioned outer, Is there an inner one also? I am guessing it's like a nylon lining. If that is the case would that need to be cut too as the rust would be underneath it.
 
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frank

Club Member
the inner has an outer nylon lining attached iirc, and the outer is like a coil spring eh, so forcing a bend will open the coils enough to get some engine oil between,
my old super s ones were well seized, so i cut all the shrouding off ,then after the oil had seeped in i greased them to keep the weather off :)
changing the cables is a bit of a mission
 
Great thanks. my theory is they tend to seize near the hub area due to driving in rain etc so I will probably make an incision not too far away from the hub. I prefer wd40 over engine oil as it is thinner so it might just do the trick. It will be an ideal alternative over the replacement which I am not keen on.
 

frank

Club Member
i would have a look under that retaining bracket half way down the cable first, that one i did was chafing the shrouding
 
lol noticed that too. is there a technique for removing the cable. It looks like there are couple of tabs that need to be pushed in to release the cable. I'll look for that bracket sometimes tomorrow or Saturday. With work and short light hours not finding much time these days.
 

frank

Club Member
lol noticed that too. is there a technique for removing the cable. It looks like there are couple of tabs that need to be pushed in to release the cable. I'll look for that bracket sometimes tomorrow or Saturday. With work and short light hours not finding much time these days.
they are like fishing hook barbs eh, and you cant get pliers in to squeeze the damn things back :)
 
I thought I owe it to the forum to update. located a cut sheath behind the rear wheel causing water ingress and cable seizure. cleaned up the rusted coil with a wire brush and as advised lots of oil and sealing of the cut sheath resulted in freeing up the cable and a pass at the mot station. Thanks for your help guys.
 
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