Parking brake release broke off. What's the procedure for replacing it?
 

92 500SL. Either 20yo plastic gets brittle (and yeah, it's obviously been baked in the sun more than a sedan), or Ward was a little too hard on "the beaver."

At any rate, toenail clippers are the perfect size for pulling it loose, but they don't look right, and I'd prefer not to have to leave them in the car.

I see a butterly-type metal prong, and a single screw on the dash carpet below it. Give me the quick n dirty on how to swap.

I know it's a boring question, but I really don't want to lose any surprise parts to the depths of the firewall

I need to replace the release handle on mine ( 97 SL320 ) as well but, have not looked at it too hard.

EDIT, remove wrong info
I think there is just a single screw accessible from under the handle without removing any trim. EDIT remove wrong info

ADDED
Looked at my SL today, the handle is pressed on / molded to a metal tab and does not have a screw. Next time I'm at the dealer I'll see if the handle is sold separately.

I did see how the carpeted lower dash / knee bolster comes off. Feel around the top where the carpet meets the plastic dash, there will be screw holes hidden in the carpet nap. There look to be 2 on each side of the column. Not sure what holds the bottom of the carpeted lower dash / knee bolster , but it should be apparent with a closer look. ADDED


It looks like the same part as the 97 E320 parts car I have.

Now if the cable is broken the under dash / knee bolster would have to be removed, have not looked at taking this apart at all.

Thanks; can anyone confirm this? My cable and "prong" are working fine, just the handle broke in 2 from around the metal prong.

My advice here comes from experience with the W126 chassis. While your set-up might be different, the engineering of many of these simple functionalities remained constant though many model cycles.

On mine, the parking break release cable was screwed into the dashboard (2 screws) and had a chain which extended all the way to a release lever further behind the kick panel. First step would be to remove the kick panel (i.e. the carpeted piece beneath the steering wheel). No idea how that is done on your SL but it's probably just a few screws and will be intuitive if you look. Then, disconnect the chain from the release lever (now that you have access) and remove the release handle from the dash (two screws for me...for you it might be slightly different but it should be easy to see).

99.9% sure that even though your plastic handle is broken you will need to remove the cable which is part of the same piece.

From what 97 SL320 says it sounds like you also have a screw or two...so I would pull the broken lever towards you as if you were releasing the parking break and then look under the lip up against the dashboard for the screws.

If it is like the 124, there are 3 screws. 2 are visible with the handle in place, the 3rd one is only visible after you pull the handle out. The cable slips into the handle.

Picture here (from Sixto's combination switch removal thread). And here it is hanging in the lower left of the picture, you can see how the cable slips in.

Can you take a picture and post it?

See my new post 8 below. My post above is not complete and I can't edit for a 2nd time.

Update:

Fixed the parking release handle on my SL.

There are 3 Phillips screws just below the plastic dash / top of the carpeted knee bolster. ( 2 on the left 1 on the right of the column. ) Under the dash where the carpeted knee bolster hits the hard plastic hush panel, there are ( 2 ) 5/16" / 8mm bolts.

The knee bolster will drop down and pull off at this point. Be sure to note how the bolster fits into a slot on the hush panel. ( The hush panel can remain in the car. )

The release cable has a disc formed on the end. The handle has a hole and slot for the disc to lock into. ( Think bicycle hand brake , some throttle cables ) Pull the release handle out about 3/4" , hold the cable, push cable to the slot and pull down, then pull the handle out.

I ended up welding a 3/8" wide 1/16" thick steel " ? " mark to the tab, works fine.