Here's what I did to reclaim 30 plus years old frozen cables.
I took the cables off the car, chucked the sheath of one end in a vise. On the cable ends, I installed visegrips. Then I tried working it, by pulling the cable back and fourth.
Since my cables were seized, I Repositioned the cable vertically, and sent a penetrating oil down it (NOT WD-40). I used a Ford Heat-Riser solvent from the 80s which worked real slick. And I sprayed down the outside as well. IMO those cables are NOT waterproof, so penetrant on the outside will find it's way in. I let it hang a few days, while continuing to spray penetrant in the top, until it came out the bottom.
On one cable, the penetrant never came thru. On that one I reclamped it, other end up, and repeated.
Some time later, I came back to the project, and the seized one was still seized. No amount of pulling would budge it. So Plan-B was implemented. This required me to find fairly accurately where it was seized..... which wasn't that hard as the cable was swollen at that spot. So then I lay the cable on an anvil, and smashed it with a hammer, until the swelling went down ... lol. Then recommenced the tugging routine. Well it was still stuck, so more penetrant and more waiting.
After some more days had elapsed, I went back to it, and sure enough, it began to move. Eventually quite a bit as each time I moved it, penetrant would creep in. Soon it was free. Then I flooded it with more penetrant just to wash the rust down, and out. Eventually it worked just like new! So I reinstalled it/them, and a few months later, the car passed the government-mandated safety code. and
I have never ever used those cables again.
BTW
to pass that test, the car has to also have a working horn. So I installed one. Which worked just long enough to pass the test. When it quit, and since it was dead-weight , way out in front of the tires, I took it off and threw it back into the box from which it had come. Since 1999, I have never missed it. My paint-job is my horn. and when that fails, dual 3" cannons wakes up everybody around me.
Or is it the other way around? IDK, but I've never had a close call.
lol
