Brake problem on 1970 Raleigh
 

today I bought a 1970 Raleigh record in complete working condition except the brakes needed to be tightened to the appropriate tension. while attempting to do this I went to squeeze the brake lever to check how much I needed to adjust them and the lever was slack and the ball on the end of the brake cable had popped out of its hole in the housing and for the life of me I cant get it back in, any tips?

you just need to keep fiddling with it.

Try disconnecting the cable at the brake and run the cable up from the bottom of the lever and then the ball should find the socket and seat back in and run the cable back to the brake . the socket sit a pitit point and can spin 360 on it .

Hopfully you haven't trimmed the cable yet. Sounds like it came out of the mount. There is a slit in one side to drop the cable into, then pull the lead head down into the seat. Now reset the brakes. Make sure that if they have a quick release that it is closed.

Same way it popped out. slack in the cable and fish it into the notch. It goes in from the handlebar side of the lever. Easiest if you take the housing from the frame braze-on (should be slotted), so you have more slack without having to deal with the housing in the way.

thanks for the tips guys. its my first time ever really working on bike brakes