My 2004 redline has or should I say had a seized drivers side rear park brake cable. Those of you who have had the misfortune of looking for one of these cables knows that they have been discontinued and nobody has any in stock. I bought a oem cable for a LSJ cobalt/g5/hhr assuming it would be pretty close and it was. The only problem is the entire interior portion of the cable that runs under the carpet was unsheathed which wouldn’t work well.

I have come up with a bit of redneck engineering to solve the problem for those of us with the patience to try.

step one remove one of the push clip ends off the original cable to reuse.

step two get some flexible copper tube like you would use to build a refrigerator condenser. The bullet end of the cable must be able to go through there. I used 1/2 inch but you could likely go 7/16 if you find some.

Step 3 shape that copper tube to mimick the contour of the original park brake cable sheathing. It will take a few test fits. Make sure you clean your cuts as well. Any sharp edges will skin out your cable.

step 4 attach push clip end to your home made cable guide. I used some huge self sealing shrink tube I’ve had kicking around but even electrical tape would work.

step 5 thread park brake cable through your home made guide and reassemble your brake cables.

step 6 confirm both cables pull evenly. If they don’t they will pop off the joiner at the end of the front cable. You can steal some slack by tweaking the contour of the copper guide.

step 7 pour a drink and pat yourself on the back for having developed a dumb solution to a dumb problem.

 

Good info.
ive read about the cobalt ones being slightly better than the redlines.
my base model was 5 lug swapped with rear disc etc all off a SS.
Both cables from the donor car were cut. I just ran without a parking brake. It was on my list to do, but now the car is melted.
Anyway. Good to know, I have another base model I'll be 5 lug swapping soon. I'll have to grab a set of balt cables for it

 

Do you already have all the wheels and other parts for your 5 lug swap and are you planning on any motor sports use of this thing? Because if you don’t there is always the Malibu knuckle conversion. It’s a bit more work but you end up with a better 5x114.3 bolt pattern for wheel selection, bigger brakes and more durable hubs. Parts availability is also way better than lsj parts. The only real custom work is the axles which you can get one of the boys at the shop to weld up if you aren’t comfortable doing it and drilling the back beam housing to accept the Malibu hubs. If I didn’t have any sentimental value in mine being visibly the same as when I inherited it I would be doing that.

 

Yes I do.
In the front I used the lsj knuckles, calipers, rotors, and hubs.
rear I swapped the rear beam, brake lines, brakes, hubs.
Using redline wheels.
Everything bolted right up.
Fairly simple swap. Pretty much had it done in an afternoon, minus having to order the rear brake lines. Which came in from oreillys the next morning.