Feedback requested on potential location for E-Stopp electric parking brake

[JohnK]

I'd love some feedback from everyone on my idea of where to mount an E-Stopp electric parking brake actuator. In particular, whether mounting it here will be problematic down the road as far as accessing roll bar or harness bolts, or any other issues that are not obvious to me at the moment since I haven't built a roadster before.

I know that several folks have installed E-Stopps in their roadsters, but there's not a ton of information out there on how they did it. From what I gather most folks have installed the actuator in the trans tunnel. I've been playing around with that, as well as other ideas, and think I may have come up with something that will work. The basic idea comes from how Revology trunk-mounts the E-Stopp in their Mustangs (photo 1 below). I'm thinking of mounting the E-Stopp across the forward portion of the trunk, just behind the front roll bar mounts. The width is enough to be able to get a 6-7" bend radius in the cable. When the cable and housing is curved like this in the mock-up it seems to still operate perfectly smoothly and without any additional resistance. The second photo shows the basic layout and dimensions of how everything would fit together, except the entire setup would be mounted on a sheetmetal plate upside-down and suspended from the two upper side 3/4' tubes. Image 3 is my (VERY) crude napkin sketch of how the plate would look. It would have folded edges on the long sides to stiffen it and to make a shield of sorts from stuff accidentally getting stuck in the mechanism if you carelessly stuff a jacket in the trunk. Photo 4 shows how the whole thing would look mounted on the tray and suspended upside-down. The reason for mounting it upside-down is to give the cables some space to make a downward bend before they exit the trunk floor near the left rear roll bar mount. The connection between the e-brake cables and the actuator cable coming out of the E-Stopp will be further supported by adding E-Stopps optional support bracket (photo 5).

Electrical setup would be super-easy, as I could run the power and ground feeds for the actuator through the same conduit that will carry the license plate light wires in the RF rear harness.

Any and all thoughts, suggestions and criticisms welcome!

Thanks,
John


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[GoDadGo]

John,

No Criticism Here Because I Didn't Know It Existed!
My only recommendation is to build your dream the way you want to build it.
Also, consider drilling and fitting your roll bars & mounts (If You Intend To Install Them) before you install the rear pan of the cockpit.

Steve

[Papa]

I toyed with the idea of using one of these when I was planning my build. I was concerned about the large size of the unit and never really pursued it beyond a thought. As long as you can access the harness tabs to install the large bolts that they use and feed the straps correctly through the buckles (it's a challenge without anything in the way), you should be fine. Plan to make it easy to move out of the way. What plans do you have for battery location?

Dave

[boat737]

Don't have the E-Stop, but the actuator I do have is mounted near where the manual handle would go, inside the trans tunnel. Originally it was mounted higher, but ran into interference from the TKO 600. Made a bracket and mounted it lower. Seems to me like that unit of yours would fit nicely against the A-frame trans mount, or along the corner of the PS trans tunnel wall and floor. Certainly would eliminate it cluttering up the trunk.

[wallace18]

That location should work fine.

[JohnK]

Thanks for the input everyone!

Steve - thanks! Yes, I'll definitely drill the roll bar mounts before permanently mounting the rear cockpit wall. In fact, I'll do that once I've finished drilling all the sheetmetal and I send it off to powder coat.

Dave- the battery is going in the front in a Breeze battery box. The E-Stopp actuator is 2" tall. If the plate it mounts to is hanging off the side 3/4" tubes, that would put the bottom of the E-Stopp roughly 1-1/4" below the bottom of the 3/4" tubes. Below is a view of the space that would be available to jam my hands into in order to access roll bar or harness bolts. Do you think this is enough space to work, or do I need to design the mount for the E-Stopp in a way that I could remove the entire E-Stopp assembly to properly access roll bar or harness bolts?

Boat737 - I'm still kicking around the idea of mounting it somewhere in the trans tunnel. That's the more tried-and-true method from what I gather, but the E-Stopp looks quite a bit larger than your actuator and all the photos I've seen of it mounted in the trans tunnel all look like it's REALLY shoehorned in there tightly.



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[Papa]

It should be fine. I just recall the contortionist install of my Simpsons after the car was painted and assembled. I think I filled my swear jar that day. :p A word to anyone building these cars; ALWAYS consider what it would take to service them as you build them. Ask yourself how you would replace the ESTOPP actuator if you needed to after the car is assembled.

Dave

[boat737]

It should be fine. I just recall the contortionist install of my Simpsons after the car was painted and assembled. I think I filled my swear jar that day. :p A word to anyone building these cars; ALWAYS consider what it would take to service them as you build them. Ask yourself how you would replace the ESTOPP actuator if you needed to after the car is assembled.

Dave

Exactly. The more accessible, the better it will be later.

[JohnK]

The mounting tray would have rivet studs installed in it and the E-Stopp would bolt to those, so removing the E-Stopp from the mounting tray (should that ever be necessary) should be doable, but removing the mounting tray itself might be impossible without removing the body, unless I revise the design of it. I guess removing the E-Stopp unit without removing the mounting tray should give me enough room to access roll bar or harness bolts if I can't get my hands back there with it in place.