Help! 1960 emergency park brake handle & rod

[Stemmer]

The other day the parking handle broke off leaving part of the park handle set screw in the park rod that the handle connects to. The hole in the handle for the set screw is now oblong shaped and stretched. So a new handle is a must. I've spent about 4 hours trying to drill the screw out. And getting very frustrated. Not as nimble at 66 that I was 37 years ago when I first purchased the C1. I've used a 1/8th bit (titanitium, steel & Bosch Cobalt bits) and three different electric hand drills.. The Cobalt bits seem to work best. But it's going to take too much time. Instead I think it maybe wiser to just purchase a new rod.

I do have the 60 Vette Assembly Manual, a service guide and a Chilton repair manual. Based on the Assembly Manual it shows that I must remove the bracket that supports the rod near the handle from the dash. But nothing else is shown or explained. I'm concerned on removing the ball end of the emerg cable from the rod maybe a little trick or even quite difficult as I have no one to assist me.

Can anyone provide a link to a how to or provide any information on how to remove this rod? And how difficult the task would be as well as replacing?

Cheers & many thanks...

 

[Tom Bryant]

I've never has mine apart. I will look it over and see if I can see something that will help.

Tom

 

[Stemmer]

Well after about 6-7 hours of drilling over the last couple of days with the parking rod in the car I was able to get through yesterday with a 7/64 cobalt bit. Now I have the task of enlarging the hole with a bigger bit. Hopefully this will not take near as long. If this ever happens again, it would make more sense to remove the rod and replace it with one from Corvette Central considering these rods are not expensive.

 

[Tom Bryant]

So I assume you don't need to remove the cable from the rod now? I haven't been able to find a picture you need but just going from memory and it's been a long time since I last put one of these together, you need to remove the cable spring under the car to relax the cable or maybe even separate the front cable from the loop cable so the front cable will move in and out freely. Then push the cable up towards the handle. If I remember correctly there is a slot in the piece the cable end with ball fits into. Once the cable is moved upward you can pull the cable sideways out through the slot.