I seem to recall talk a while ago about using hand brake cables from an old BL car (Ital?) Can anyone remember or can anyone let me know the best way of doing a hand brake. Currently I've got a lot of thin air between my sierra handbrake lever and the capri axle.

MikeR.

the book mentions alegro cables,mine used a seirra cable shortened and joined to fit

Have you still got the solid bar linkage on the Capri axle? I used that and a shortened Capri cable. If you use the twin cable Allegro you will have to weld some brackets to the axle for them.

Very much as Peteff's car. I shortened the capri cable, removed the boomerang and rod from the sierra lever and put a threaded bar into the existing bracket and attached the cable with grub screws. The treaded bar and the nylon insert came from a cavalier clutch cable which had beeb repaired by the AA, hence the grub screws
Rescued attachment CapriHandbrake.jpg

...close up of the cable attachment
Rescued attachment CapriHandbrake2.jpg

...and made the cable central using a squiggly pipe!
Rescued attachment CapriHandbrake3.JPG

I just cut the end off and made a loop with a cable clamp but it achieves the same thing.

Pete will probably confirm this, put the cable high up, the capri axle is tall, mine is only 4" below the top rail, so I offset my cable to avoid any conflict of space.

Seem to remember most Capris had a MK2 Cortina style cable --- the late Ital one fits the Escort axle no bother and gets rid of the awful rubber hinge thingy I just shortened the inner and outer on mine but the Capri is wider so the outer would neeed shorteened more than the inner..
An alternative is to use the repro handbrake cables made for MG TF and TD Midgets -- exactly the right length easy to get and not that expensive --- also like to be still available long into the future.
One for each wheel they fit on to the early Mini or Morris 1000 handbrake lever.