Bonnet release cable problem

[William2]

I recently purchased a new complete bonnet release cable and knob assembly (S4 Elan) which comes with a crimped on cable end. This creates a problem if your bonnet knob is mounted in a pre-drilled hole in the dash because you can't dismantle the cable to thread it through the hole!! Any one else had this problem.

[elanfan1]

Cut it off and fit a solderless nipple.

You may well have to fettle the length of the cable to get things working as they should anyway - so it isn't much of a loss - alternatively you may be able to crimp another one back on afterwards.

[collins_dan]

That is a tricky problem. I bought one recently and, as you say, it is fully assembled and needs to be feed through the hole in the dash, or under the dash, in most cases. Originally, they were mounted via a bracket under the dasd. I made one for mine that holds both an override switch for the radiator fan and the bonnet release cable. Because the washers and nuts are pre-assembled on the cable, I elected to cut a cable wide relief slot to the side of the mounting hole, which allowed me to slide it into the hole, then tighten up the nuts to hold it in place. In your case, you either will need to do as suggested and remove the handle and reattach somehow, or enlarge the hole in the dash, which I'm sure you don't want to do, or relocate to a bracket under your dash and fill the hole in the dash. I wonder if there isn't some way to carefully cut a slot in the handle to remove the cable, solder something to the end, cut out enough space in the handle to slide the whole new end into the handle, so that it can be removed if the dash needs to be removed, but otherwise holds the cable in place. Just a thought while I procrastinate from doing what I should be. Dan