Emergency Brake and Cables

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Major System Category: Brakes & Suspension
Task: Connecting the parking brake
Parts: Linear actuator, 2 relays, 3 position switch
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs: $100
Time Requirement: 4 - 5 hours
Date Started: April 5, 2013
Date Completed:
I have a search bot on Ebay that looks for GTMs that go up for sale/auction. One such car recently hit the market, and it listed electronic brakes. (Really?) So I did some research, and there are a number of variants on this idea. One of the great things about the GTM community, you can write a total stranger and they'll send you a quick answer. I wrote the seller and asked him how he set it up.

This is a 2 inch linear actuator. The arm extends to the left in this photo. The arm is currently contracted. These are readily available on Ebay. 

I do not like the mechanical parking brake for the following reasons:

1. It looks out of place.
2. It clutters the center console.
3. It will eventually wear the leather interior.

This is the connector mounted to the brake cable. This is from Corvette brake system. I decided to use these rather than let the cables dangle.

The parking brake is basically two cables running from each of the hubs in the rear, to the Corvette bracket (situated roughly at the mouth of the tunnel). The lever in the cockpit area is a single cable that runs to the connector box. When the parking lever is pulled tight it retracts the cables and forces the brakes to lock on the hub. When it is released, these cables relax.

This is the brake cable bolted in place on the underside of the car. This is on the drivers side  between the suspension/splash guards and the engine bay.

The cables for the E Brake have been tied off on the back end of the car for months. However, now that I have a transaxle on order it is time to get this task finished. During my three month hiatus in Myrtle Beach, I ordered a 2 inch linear actuator. This piece replaces the lever hand brake.

This is the mounting bracket and a wire clamp. The mounting bracket is a universal mount for actuators. it costs about $5. The wire clamp is there to further support the arm. Behind this is camper tape to dampen vibration and ,metal to metal contact. At the top of the photo is one of the radiator hard lines. It is wrapped in same stuff used to wrapped exhaust headers. This location is at the very bottom of the tunnel just behind the section of the tunnel where the Vintage HVAC is located.

I checked out other build sites and found that most people let the parking brake cables dangle a bit under the car. I really don't like that idea. I routed the cables so they did not interfere with the rear suspension, then used the brackets to bolt the cables in place under the car. I ran the rest to the mouth of the tunnel and positioned the Corvette bracket. This looks like it was secured by 2 rivets and some epoxy. I grounded off the old epoxy resin and prepped everything with two holes for the rivets.

The linear actuator mounted on the bracket and the wire clamp zipped tied for support.

I ran the cable that used to attach to the lever brake straight and found that it runs a little bit past the location of the shifter mount inside the tunnel. I removed the tunnel floor. It only took about 10 minutes with a right hand drill. So I verified that my modification for access into the tunnel from under the car works! I mounted the brackets and the linear actuator sideways just above the tunnel floor and below the radiator hard lines. I used camper tape (same as I did for thee fuel tanks) to eliminate metal to metal contact.

This is the center undercarriage panel. I have added camper tape here as well to eliminate metal to metal contact. It isn't elegant, but it will work.

The final touch is connecting the cable to the actuator arm. This proved to be an easy task. The Corvette has a metal hub at the end of the cable. It was simple batter of using a cotter pin to capture the cable and thread the pin through the actuator arm.

The brake cable is connected to the extended actuator arm with a cotter pin. This is a simple and elegant solution that does not permanently modify the Corvette part.

This is the Corvette E brake bracket It is mounted on the cross member  the splits the tunnel from the engine bay. It secured by 2 rivets and epoxy.