why , when my rear end was swapped to whatever this is, would my original parking brake cable not reach?
I'm pretty sure that when I ripped-out my 8.5" axle in favor of the 9.5" semi-float, that I re-used my existing park brake cables.
I'm reasonably certain the cables are the same--they fit the vehicle (wheelbase) not the axle.
The last sets of park brake cables I bought came from O'Reillys. I just bought what was listed for my vehicle. Two rear cables, and a front cable, if I remember correctly. The front cable has different part numbers depending on vehicle wheelbase. I'm not thrilled with the O'Reillys cables, they are NOT "exact fit" but they're close.
I thought I had photos, but I can't find 'em.
And what I need to do to get it working again. I haven't gotten into it and studied but it's a bout a foot short to connect the front section to the rear where it all meets in the middle of the frame... Not sure it can be adjusted that far but haven't gotten into it yet.
Basically I guess I'm asking if I found what year truck this rear end came out of, would buying the parking cable for it make it work or are they the same and I just have some adjusting to do to get these to meet up?
Parking brake used to work with my old rear.....
Not much more than a wild guess, but I'm suspecting the existing cable(s) have seized in the sheath(s).
Try to pull ALL of the cables back and forth, see if they'll move freely. Once connected to the park brake levers at the rear wheels, I'd expect the other end to meet-up with the intermediate cable, maybe with some adjusting, maybe not. There's not a huge amount of adjustment in the system.