All short wheel base buggies require the handbrake, clutch and throttle cables to be shortened. The fastest/cheapest method is to use the cheap & nasty Empi/Bugpac cable shortening kits, these kits have been around since the 1960s. Personally, I think they’re crap and unsafe!
If you’re using the handbrake shorteners from the kit, don’t forget to say your prayers prior to your buggy’s MOT test, hope the testing guy doesn’t notice the silly little screws gripping the cables, he could fail it on that alone, also that he doesn’t apply too much pressure to the handbrake as the cables can easily slide past the locking screws, especially if tested by a potential arm wrestler!
As for the clutch, the poorly designed one that comes with the shortening kit has two nuts, which lock together so you need two spanners to adjust it. Don’t lose one of those nuts because the clutch will require constant adjustment without a locking one. If you do lose one, forget robbing a nut off your VW engine to replace it, as the thread pitch will be different (USA type).
Worse still, imagine your main brakes fail whilst going down a steep hill, your life depends on just two little grub screws that grip the cables. If just one cable slips through, you’ll be sideways quicker than you can say “me cheapskate!”. The safest method by far is to have them professionally shortened. The throttle cable just requires cutting to the correct length with cable snips, easy stuff.
The following method may sound crude but it’s by far the fastest, easiest and strongest way I’ve found to shorten a buggy clutch cable.
All you do is cut a few inches back from the adjusting thread on the clutch cable, then pull the long cable tight and clamp both together using two or more u-clamps which are available from most hardware stores. Yacht chandlers sell stainless steel ones, even better! Some of the specialist boat chandlers actually sell good quality fittings, which can be safely used as handbrake shorteners, but they are expensive. This stainless steel good quality fitting was bought from a boating spares shop and a pair would be very strong if used on the handbrake.
