Thanks so much for posting! Our brake got stuck and we are going out of town tomorrow. Not sure what we would've done if I hadn't found your video. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for this video. As Rav said below an absolute life saver and so easy. The AA were going to charge me £118 to do it!! I did it myself in less than 20mins. Thanks again.
The stupid break got us stuck when i was about to leave the local sushi place with wife and 3 kids in the car. What could have been a total disaster was fixed in 10min thanks to your vid. A million likes from me m8!
Thank you so much for this video ur life saver. Hand break cable broke while the lever was up, just before we was about to leave for an important event n the Galaxy wasn't moving. Thanks to ur quick fix video n we were on our way with in 20mins. Much appreciated.
this seems to be a big issue with smax and galaxy. I had the same problem. luckily I was a member of RAC at the time and the guy showed me this fix. There is a bit of plastic which broke as it holds a metal bit. Bravo Ford plastic and metal really works well together.
The little wire that moves the pin has broken on mine. Unfortunately it's beyond me to repair. £180 + vat & labour as I have to buy the whole assembly.
Just replaced the handbrake release cable. Fiddly but possible. Cable bought on ebay for about £35. One end of the cable has a bent solid metal piece. This needs to be passed through the hole in the release mech. I had to shorten this solid metal end of the cable by about half a cm for this to be possible to do. You also need to drill out both rivets that hold the handle to the two vertical shafts. To re-rivet you need to shorten the rivets you use. Standard length is too long, dismantle the new rivet, file the shorter fatter part of the rivet to approx half normal length, reassemble. It's all possible, don't give up!
So I found an elusive replacement cable on eBay and thought I would share to help anyone who came here looking for a solution. Ford will tell you you have to replace the entire handbrake handle at a cost of £300 you can find one cheaper from a breaker. I did struggle to find just the cable but eventually found one on eBay ( not a ford part) for £39 steep but way cheaper than replacing the whole thing. You will need to take the handle apart gently as its made from the usual plastic fantastic happy meal grade which falls apart. You will need to remove the surround as per this video and in order to thread the cable up through the handle I had to drill out the pot rivets holding the handle bar to the sides and remove it as the cable won't fit past it. I know it sounds destructive but I tried fishing the cable through with much swearing and no success first. Once the handle is off its simple to thread the cable and takes 5 minutes to pot rivet the handle back on if you have or can borrow a pot rivet tool.
David do you mean drill out the rivets that sit at the top of the vertical left and right handbrake columns that the actual horizontal bit you pull up is attached too?
Ford Galaxy (64 plate) Handbrake release cable DIY fix Ford need to replace the whole "cage unit" at a cost of around £300 squid as release cable has both ends crimped and laid into structure at factory so unable to thread in a new one, boo. If you have some time and a lot of patience you can make up a DIY cable. It’s been a while since I did this so hope these instructions are ok. In short you will be able to make up a cable using a bicycle gear cable. The whole job took me about 4 hours, hence the patience, as it took a while to find all the screws holding the console together and filing the gear cable end to locate in the pull handle. You will need to remove the whole plastic console around the hand brake as you need to get full access to the lower area, you also need to leave the car in such a manor to be driveable short term. Remove the upper trim around console as per “Ford Galaxy Hand Brake lever stuck , quick fix” vid and then look to loosen the side console plastic, so in the foot well pop off the thin lower trim - 2 upper pops to reveal more screws behind, lower and higher screw, do this on left and right foot wells. Also loosen / remove screws under the upper trim you took off, be careful as there are plastic parts attached / secured into the metal centre plate. I think the whole plastic console should now be loose, there may be screws at the rear of the cup holders, my car did not have a centre storage box between seats, but there may be screws around this area. See vid “Ford Galaxy Hand Brake console removed” posted 15th September 2017 You also need access to the top part of the hand brake lever, which is tricky as you need to split the "pull handle" which can break the little tabs, suggest you find a UA-cam vid which shows this as a replacement is about £80, or a tube of super glue, I broke one of the tabs but got away with it. Use vid “Ford Galaxy 2009. Handbrake handle replacement” by Gelverton posted 10th July 2010. Or “Replace the handbrake of a Ford Galaxy or Smax” by Philip Byrne posted 24th June 2017. These are good vids and show the end cosmetic pieces on the handle are fragile. Take care with this, you can also see inside the handle which helps before dismantling. You will need to go to your local bike shop and get a packet of gear cables (as these cables are very small diameter) at least 2 cables as the first cable will be used as a "trial length" unless you’re lucky, also you will need the little metal crimps that go with the gear cable and also a crimp tool or combination crimp and cutter tool, you need to be able to crimp and cut the cable, cost should be under £20. (The crimp tool will need to fit into the assembly frame, fiddly). Other tools required, Torx tool for screws in car, a flat metal file for filling cable crimp, pliers or similar to hold the end of the gear cable while you file it to size. Remove / cut the release cable from the car, (as mentioned at the start this cable has been factory fitted within the assembly, you will need to feed the new cable down the same route when reassembling). Take the gear cable and using the fitted crimped end file it to size to fit inside the pull handle assembly behind the spring, this will take a while by hand. The gear cable crimp will end up at least 50% smaller when finished filing, keep an eye on the shape (rectangular) as you file and keep trying it in the spring assembly. Once it fits snuggly you can look to take it to the car and feed the extra cable back down the assembly and through the lower “hook hole”. Eventually you are looking to crimp this cable in position to stop the cable coming back through the “hook hole”. Yes, the cable will look bent when going through the “hook hole”. Now it all becomes fiddly. If you get this part right you may not need to create another cable! But it is a trial and error method. Put the pull handle assembly loosely together, cable fed down assembly and through “hook hole” cable now pointing inwards, slide extra crimp over cable and down to the lower part, you need to get what feels like the correct position for the new crimp to sit on the cable but tight against the “hook Hole” so that when you use the thumb release on the pull handle it has enough tension to release the ratchet latch, but not too much tension that it won’t allow the ratchet latch to sit / operate correctly when required. Before crimping, I set and held the cable length on the assembly and then put a small black pen marker on the cable where I was intending to crimp i.e. right against inside of “hook hole”, but before crimping took the cable back out and using a piece of paper laid the cable on it and marked its length on the paper, this allowed me to accurately know the cable length. As mentioned I had to redo another cable as the first go was to loose so cable length was important to know to allow me to reduce the length accurately second time around. Also if you mark the cable you can loosen the pull handle assembly and get some slack on the cable to make it easier to get the crimp tool inside the assembly to be able to make off the cable crimp. On possible reason for cable breakage is that there is too much tension placed on the cable or its crimped ends when trying to release hand brake, this can be reduced by making sure the hand brake pull handle is lifted first releasing cable pressure before any attempt to push the thumb lever across. Hope this makes sense and helps, good luck.
Thanks so much for posting! Our brake got stuck and we are going out of town tomorrow. Not sure what we would've done if I hadn't found your video. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for this video. As Rav said below an absolute life saver and so easy. The AA were going to charge me £118 to do it!! I did it myself in less than 20mins. Thanks again.
Thanks Glen - you saved me from being stranded!
The stupid break got us stuck when i was about to leave the local sushi place with wife and 3 kids in the car. What could have been a total disaster was fixed in 10min thanks to your vid. A million likes from me m8!
Thank you so much for this video ur life saver. Hand break cable broke while the lever was up, just before we was about to leave for an important event n the Galaxy wasn't moving. Thanks to ur quick fix video n we were on our way with in 20mins. Much appreciated.
Thank you soo much for this video. Was literally lifesaving 👏🏻
Great! Thank you! This got me "unstuck" and saved me a lot of hassle.
Your Welcome
I just wanted to say a massive thanks got me out of trouble
Thank you so much. I managed to get the handbrake released as you described so well. The release cable had snapped.
Thank you so much saved my whole day recovery and hassle...
this seems to be a big issue with smax and galaxy. I had the same problem. luckily I was a member of RAC at the time and the guy showed me this fix. There is a bit of plastic which broke as it holds a metal bit. Bravo Ford plastic and metal really works well together.
What a great video. Got me unstuck and saved a tow truck! Thanks a carload!
Thanks, this video made for an easy fix in 2021.
Thank you very much for sharing! You're a generous person. God bless!
Thank you. You just saved me from " my car stuck on the double yellow x
nicely done, got me unstuck in 7mins flat. Thanks
Glad it helpped
Thanks. A torx T20 will be going into the glove box tonight, as we've had to replace our second handbrake handle in 4 years today :-(.
Big thank you for making this video.
Grazie.. Mi hai salvato😊😊😊
it just happend to my galaxy! Damn I had to call ADAC to help me! It would be nice to find a repair kit to...And it works as u said...
Thanks, that was a really clear and helpful video.
Glad it helped you
The little wire that moves the pin has broken on mine. Unfortunately it's beyond me to repair. £180 + vat & labour as I have to buy the whole assembly.
Just replaced the handbrake release cable. Fiddly but possible. Cable bought on ebay for about £35. One end of the cable has a bent solid metal piece. This needs to be passed through the hole in the release mech. I had to shorten this solid metal end of the cable by about half a cm for this to be possible to do. You also need to drill out both rivets that hold the handle to the two vertical shafts. To re-rivet you need to shorten the rivets you use. Standard length is too long, dismantle the new rivet, file the shorter fatter part of the rivet to approx half normal length, reassemble. It's all possible, don't give up!
Thanks man 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽
Thank you
Thanks mate. 👍👍 .
What's the perm fix?
So I found an elusive replacement cable on eBay and thought I would share to help anyone who came here looking for a solution. Ford will tell you you have to replace the entire handbrake handle at a cost of £300 you can find one cheaper from a breaker. I did struggle to find just the cable but eventually found one on eBay ( not a ford part) for £39 steep but way cheaper than replacing the whole thing. You will need to take the handle apart gently as its made from the usual plastic fantastic happy meal grade which falls apart. You will need to remove the surround as per this video and in order to thread the cable up through the handle I had to drill out the pot rivets holding the handle bar to the sides and remove it as the cable won't fit past it. I know it sounds destructive but I tried fishing the cable through with much swearing and no success first. Once the handle is off its simple to thread the cable and takes 5 minutes to pot rivet the handle back on if you have or can borrow a pot rivet tool.
Sounds like a good solution, glad you found an easier way. Would you have the part number or ebay ref to find the part?
Fair Ideas www.ebay.co.uk/i/253162310760
David do you mean drill out the rivets that sit at the top of the vertical left and right handbrake columns that the actual horizontal bit you pull up is attached too?
Andrew Hoare yes the pot rivets hold the metal part of the actual handle you hold.
Thanks for sending parts info, Cheers.
Yep my linkage has snapped at the bottom and not having any joy finding a new one any recommendations for the spare part?
Ford Galaxy (64 plate) Handbrake release cable DIY fix
Ford need to replace the whole "cage unit" at a cost of around £300 squid as release cable has both ends crimped and laid into structure at factory so unable to thread in a new one, boo. If you have some time and a lot of patience you can make up a DIY cable. It’s been a while since I did this so hope these instructions are ok.
In short you will be able to make up a cable using a bicycle gear cable. The whole job took me about 4 hours, hence the patience, as it took a while to find all the screws holding the console together and filing the gear cable end to locate in the pull handle.
You will need to remove the whole plastic console around the hand brake as you need to get full access to the lower area, you also need to leave the car in such a manor to be driveable short term. Remove the upper trim around console as per “Ford Galaxy Hand Brake lever stuck , quick fix” vid and then look to loosen the side console plastic, so in the foot well pop off the thin lower trim - 2 upper pops to reveal more screws behind, lower and higher screw, do this on left and right foot wells. Also loosen / remove screws under the upper trim you took off, be careful as there are plastic parts attached / secured into the metal centre plate. I think the whole plastic console should now be loose, there may be screws at the rear of the cup holders, my car did not have a centre storage box between seats, but there may be screws around this area.
See vid “Ford Galaxy Hand Brake console removed” posted 15th September 2017
You also need access to the top part of the hand brake lever, which is tricky as you need to split the "pull handle" which can break the little tabs, suggest you find a UA-cam vid which shows this as a replacement is about £80, or a tube of super glue, I broke one of the tabs but got away with it. Use vid “Ford Galaxy 2009. Handbrake handle replacement” by Gelverton posted 10th July 2010. Or “Replace the handbrake of a Ford Galaxy or Smax” by Philip Byrne posted 24th June 2017. These are good vids and show the end cosmetic pieces on the handle are fragile. Take care with this, you can also see inside the handle which helps before dismantling.
You will need to go to your local bike shop and get a packet of gear cables (as these cables are very small diameter) at least 2 cables as the first cable will be used as a "trial length" unless you’re lucky, also you will need the little metal crimps that go with the gear cable and also a crimp tool or combination crimp and cutter tool, you need to be able to crimp and cut the cable, cost should be under £20. (The crimp tool will need to fit into the assembly frame, fiddly).
Other tools required, Torx tool for screws in car, a flat metal file for filling cable crimp, pliers or similar to hold the end of the gear cable while you file it to size.
Remove / cut the release cable from the car, (as mentioned at the start this cable has been factory fitted within the assembly, you will need to feed the new cable down the same route when reassembling).
Take the gear cable and using the fitted crimped end file it to size to fit inside the pull handle assembly behind the spring, this will take a while by hand. The gear cable crimp will end up at least 50% smaller when finished filing, keep an eye on the shape (rectangular) as you file and keep trying it in the spring assembly.
Once it fits snuggly you can look to take it to the car and feed the extra cable back down the assembly and through the lower “hook hole”. Eventually you are looking to crimp this cable in position to stop the cable coming back through the “hook hole”. Yes, the cable will look bent when going through the “hook hole”.
Now it all becomes fiddly.
If you get this part right you may not need to create another cable! But it is a trial and error method. Put the pull handle assembly loosely together, cable fed down assembly and through “hook hole” cable now pointing inwards, slide extra crimp over cable and down to the lower part, you need to get what feels like the correct position for the new crimp to sit on the cable but tight against the “hook Hole” so that when you use the thumb release on the pull handle it has enough tension to release the ratchet latch, but not too much tension that it won’t allow the ratchet latch to sit / operate correctly when required.
Before crimping, I set and held the cable length on the assembly and then put a small black pen marker on the cable where I was intending to crimp i.e. right against inside of “hook hole”, but before crimping took the cable back out and using a piece of paper laid the cable on it and marked its length on the paper, this allowed me to accurately know the cable length. As mentioned I had to redo another cable as the first go was to loose so cable length was important to know to allow me to reduce the length accurately second time around.
Also if you mark the cable you can loosen the pull handle assembly and get some slack on the cable to make it easier to get the crimp tool inside the assembly to be able to make off the cable crimp.
On possible reason for cable breakage is that there is too much tension placed on the cable or its crimped ends when trying to release hand brake, this can be reduced by making sure the hand brake pull handle is lifted first releasing cable pressure before any attempt to push the thumb lever across.
Hope this makes sense and helps, good luck.
Fair Ideas thanks I did consider a DIY fix but I have found a made up cable on eBay, it was £39 for a £3 cable but it's all good.