Patent ID: 7743892

Claim:
A brake actuating system in a motor vehicle having wheels and brakes for braking rotation of the wheels, the brake actuating system comprising: a cable system including a plurality of cables operatively connected to the brakes of the vehicle such that increasing tension in the cables activates the brakes and then decreasing the tension in the cables deactivates the brakes; an actuator operatively connected to the cable system, the actuator being operable by a vehicle driver to selectively increase and decrease the tension in the cables of the cable system to thereby activate and deactivate the brakes of the vehicle, respectively; and a cable tensioner mounted in the cable system and having an input connector and an output connector, the cable system including at least one input side cable operatively connecting the input connector to the actuator and at least one output side cable operatively connecting the output connector to the brakes of the vehicle; the cable tensioner comprising: (a) the input connector; (b) the output connector, the input and output connectors being movable relative to one another in (1) a tensioning direction to increase the tension in the cable system, and (2) a releasing direction to decrease the tension in the cable system; (c) a rotary input member constructed to be rotatably driven by a torque applying device, the rotary input member being operatively connected to the input and output connectors such that continuously rotating the rotary input member in one rotational direction moves the input and output connectors in an alternating manner in the tensioning and releasing directions to cyclically increase and decrease the tension in the cable system.