The electric melted those parts.
Sorry.
you need to take the lever apart and fix it.

Probably the spring melted.

 

Try to first pull up on the brake. As you are pulling with one hand, use the other hand to try to pull the release button out.

Then the brake should release.

 

I think you may have to strip out the parking handbrake as jfall says it's welded together inside. Some of these photos will give you a clue as the the handbrake internals.

https://www.google.fr/search?q=disco...w=1280&bih=706

As for the earth problem, it's not unique.

This phenomena is not unheard of elsewhere.......... HOT handbrake lever!!!!!!!!

 

it is quite possible that running without the engine ground could have done something to your emergency brake.
But you would be the first that "I" have heard of, quite a few people have had this problem after head gasket or engine replacement.

 

Hi All,

Here's an update on the hand-brake issue...

After having solved the "heating" and possible "short" issues by fastening the engine braided-ground strap to the firewall, what was left to solve was getting the hand lever to actually work again.

I was able to remove the rubber grip and the plastic button -which looks like either melted or broke a bit in the base- and I'm able to see that the rod seems to be aligned or in the middle as it's supposed to; and without the plastic button in place, the protruding rod can be pushed in and it springs back to place smoothly, in fact, seen from above towards the back end of the lever, I can see the rod and some rectangular metal piece attached to it moving as I think it should; but here is the kicker, the lever is still stuck in the OFF position, I'm not able to pull it up to activate it, not even pressing the button or jiggling the whole lever, something prevents the lever to be lifted. The wire coming from the undercarriage isn't tight at all, at least I don't think is tight enough to prevent the lever to be lifted. I'll upload some pics in a following post for you guys to see what I am... ;-]#

 

Hi all,

Attached you will see pics of what I see, thanks.

 

lets try this;
in you first picture you show the emergency brake handle which show two pivot pin and a screw, one pivot pin and screw have a blue stripe leave them.the third one is where the brake cable connects to the handle.
I believe there is just an E-clip that holds that pivot pin onto the cable.
disconnect the cable and see if the handle will move.
if it does the problem is in the cable, if it doesn't the problem is in the handle.
Then you could grab the cable end with vise grips and see if it moves.

 

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Copy that DROWSSAP, will do so tomorrow morning and let you know how it goes.

Truth be told I did remove that clip you mention when taking the pics, but hesitated to go ahead to remove the pin, wasn't unsure what to expect, so I put it back in place.

Will keep you guys posted, thanks!

 

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Followed your instructions and after removing the pin the lever does ratchets up and goes down when the button is pressed, so the lever itself is ruled-out; tried to pull up the wire and indeed is pretty tight, it must have welded itself to something below, any clues to where/what should I be looking for? :-/#

 

the cable could be frozen in the sleeve (common for cables in the weather), i dont know what the rave says but i would unhook the other end of the cable and the brake lift the lever and see if it functions, it could be as simple as a frozen emergency brake cable