Don, when I bought my first "10-speed racer" in the fall of 62, as a starving freshman, it quickly became clear that there were a few tools I needed to purchase immediately (chain breaker, FW puller). I bought those. There were others that could wait, but would make like much easier. For several years, friends, girlfriends, and bride suffered serving as third hand; now there are several different ones in the drawer. That and the proper cable cutter are all but essential, in my book. But, to be fair, even with the third hand and a lot of care, I don't expect to get the tension right the first time, and resort often to the tricks others have already laid out - like removing a brake pad.
Similarly, I can't now imagine working on CPs w/o a pair of proper spanners for tightening the hanger bolt. Typically, I use a flat wrench on one side, and a "Y" or other socket on the other side. Makes life much easier than the old days with a 4" and a 6" crescent - or worse.
BTW, I like the nail polish trick. I've always used solder, which is much easier to find in our house. :-) And, I'd check to see if you have the proper washer in the proper place if you're seriously mashing and cutting cable.
harvey sachs mcLean VA +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Don Gilles raised several issues that are worth discusing: There is a great deal of slop in a rear centerpull on a Carlton (with top tube cable stops and a rear semicircular bridge.) Does anyone know a surefire way to get the proper cable tightness on the first try? I don't have a 3rd-hand brake tool, but even if I did, I'm not sure it would eradicate all the slop on the first attempt.
I'm terrible at this. On today's bike build-up, I cut the rear cable run a little too short. When I replaced it for a longer housing, I had to reposition the triangle / hanger at least three times, and still the triangle is mounted a few mm too far down the cable. Both housing and cable are modern high-quality stuff.
On a fresh bike build-up, I think you should have zero slack in the barrel adjuster, but after my third try I'm down to 4-5mm (out of 8mm) of slack taken up by the barrel adjuster *sigh*.
I remember now that my greatest fear of bike maintenance .. is playing with these rear weinmann brakes. It's been compounded because my fishing pliers have gone dull, so I mangled one cable before finally using a dremel with cutoff wheel. What do people use for decent cable cutters?
P.S. I noticed something new to me about weinmann hangers. They clamp the cable to the bolt, NOT to the triangle. The triangle actually hangs loose. This means the bolt holes really mangle the wire. That leads to excess fraying if you move the hanger. After one clamping, if you remove the hanger, the cable profile looks like this :
____________________---_________
and the offset area is what was drawn through the hole in the bolt. Are all centerpull hangers like this?