parking brake Q

what holds the end of the cable to the caliper? my parking brakes have been disconnected since i got the car and its time to get them connected.

all ive got is the ends of the cables, no clips or anything. where can i get such hardware if needed?

pictures always help too

I believe it's just a clip that holds the cables to the calipers. Junkyard.

nooo way am i going to a junkyard right now as wet and crappy as it is right now. though i would like to try to find a tripminder...or two... or three.

The metal barrel clamped to the cable goes onto a metal "U" shaped thing on the bottom of the caliper housing. Look for a spring, then look for the braket below the spring. Sometimes I have to pull on the cable with vice grips to get it to reach. I'm fairly sure this assembly on the caliper needs to be there to have pressure as that is where I blew a seal once.

as Matt S says. its held in by the tension of the spring, like a bicycle brake cable, only bigger.

You can get an "E" clip at a hardware store to hold the cable sheath to the caliper body, the clip fits in the groove at the end. Remove any rust in the mounting hole in the caliper and put some grease in as it is a tight fit. The cable mounts to the caliper lever as described above. The cable should be loosely attached to the trailing arm so as not to rub the tire, factory is with a spring but cable ties can substitute. Lubricate the cable at both ends of the sheath with silicone grease and work the cable back and forth so the grease gets inside the sheath to keep water out.