Install InReserve battery monitoring kit - Circuit 1/10

<< Horn - Circuit 1/9                                    Lengthen Fan Wires >>

Major System Category: ISIS Wiring
Task: Interface ISIS inRESERVE module
Parts:

1. ISIS inRESERVE kit (solenoid, switch, fuses, wires).
2. Main battery cable

Prerequisite Tasks: N/A
Additional Costs: $205
Power Cell: 1
Circuit: 10 - TAN
Master cell: BLUE/GREEN
Time Requirement: 3 hours
Date Started: April 27, 2013
Date Completed: April 27, 2013

inRESERVE is a battery monitor and kill switch. It monitors battery charge when the car is turned off. Should the battery discharge below a certain point, a solenoid pops and all taps to the battery are killed. As an added level of protection, there is a kill switch that shuts down all power to the car. It seems to me this is also a security feature, because the car can be completely turned off.

This is everything you need for the kit. I found oput I could purchase the cables I needed at Napa Auto Parts, and this proved much easier than fabricating the cable myself.

I mounted the solenoid switch at the center of the front fire wall above the tunnel entrance. Surprisingly, there is plenty of space to work with right here. There are four terminals on the solenoid:

1. Ground
2. Kill Switch
3. Starter/battery
4. Power cells

This is a nice flat spot about dead on the car's center line to install the inRESERVE module. It allows me to service this from either side of the car.

I ran the ground to the passenger next to where I mounted the horn. I sanded down to bare metal and established a ground point between the horn and the wiper motor. I plan to use this ground point for the horn, wiper motor and inRESERVE solenoid.

This is the driver's side wall next tot he master cylinders and above the steering column. I drilled my hole for the kill switch here. I can access it by reaching over the front tire.

I ran the kill switch lead to the drivers side. I ran the wire around the corner next to the master cylinders and over to the fender wall. I drilled a hole, mounted the kill switch. I put it here, because it allows me to reach through the wheel well over the front tire and toggle the solenoid. The second lead off the switch goes to an inline fuse holder (supplied with the kit). I installed this fuse and ran thee other lead back to the battery terminal.

This is the momentary switch installed. This worked pretty well. You can tighten it down and she should stay put.

The starter/battery terminal handles the following:

1. Runs the main battery cable from the solenoid to the starter. This takes the battery cable and runs it through the tunnel. There are a lot of things in the tunnel, but I think I am getting to the end. 
2. Runs the battery cable to the battery via a mega fuse,

I remembered I had this piece in the Northern Man Cave. It is pictured here with out the top plate that encloses the  evaporator unit or the am from the wiper motor. It is just placed here so I could mount the mega fuse.

The final line sends power to the power and master cells. It does this by running a lead to the mega fuse block for all power cells. It also provides a convenient terminal for taps that go directly to the positive terminal on the battery (e.g. the fused Vintage Air power lead).

This is a top down view of the mega fuse. This sits right behind the master cylinders. For build purposes, i can disconnect the cables form the mega fuse and remove this part.

The lead from the solenoid to the battery is fuses with a mega fuse block. The biggest problem I had was finding some place to put this that could actually be reached in the event it needed maintenance. The main issue is I am running out of flat surfaces to mount stuff like this. It occurred to me that there is  a piece that sits above the master cylinder that has a nice flat surface, I mounted the mega fuse here, and I can easily disconnect the cable leads from the mega fuse to remove this piece to get access.

This is the inline fuse that leads to the positive battery terminal. This is a 10 amp fuse between the  momentary switch and the battery.

I mounted the inRESERVE module on the center of the panel that is common to the Vintage Air  Evaporator unit.

Intellitronix Terminal Block

<< Intellitronix Create-A-Dash                         Horn - Circuit 1/9 >>

Major System Category: Electronics
Task: Wire terminal blocks
Parts: Terminal Blocks
Prerequisite Tasks: N/A
Additional Costs: $12
Time Requirement: 3 hours
Date Started: May 19, 2013
Date Completed: May 19, 2013

There are close to 30 wires coming out of the back of the instrument cluster. I had focused exclusively on getting the cluster built that I did not consider what came next. Obviously there is some order to all these wires, I just need to read the instructions that come with the kit to figure where everything goes.

Lots of wires in a bunch of different colors, but they all mean something. Once you understand the meanings, then the  pattern becomes clear and the solution is obvious.

Fortunately for me, this is not Intellitronix first shot at wiring instrument clusters together. There are basically five groups of wires:

1. Ground (black)
2. Power (red)
3. Dimmer circuit (purple)
4. Indicators (various colors)
5. Sending units (various colors)

The solution is something called daisy chaining (at least that's what it was called 30 years ago). I purchased this terminal block from Radio Shack. I then wired each terminal to the next terminal. This means that a single lead can be run to a grounding point for all wires running in the bottom side of this terminal block. Since these are grounds, i wasn't worried about something arcing over.

There are 9 ground wires, 9 power wires (these can segregated into two groups) and 6 dimmer wires. The ground wires are obvious. They need to be ground to the chassis, but ganging 9 ground wires to a single grounding point is unmanageable. Similarly  there are 9 power wires. The six attached to the gauge cluster need to be run to the ignition. There is not enough room on the ignition terminal to run another 6 wires. Finally, the dimmer wires need to be spliced into the head light switch (oops).

This is an insulated terminal block. I used this type of block for everything except the grounds. I daisy chained this block and the one for the dimmer circuit. That way I only had to run 1 lead to each source. This is a much more manageable arrangement.

I purchased three terminal blocks from Radio Shack. For the grounds I could go with an open terminal block. For anything related to positive current, I opted for an insulated terminal block. I discovered I could cut apart the insulated terminal blocks. So I fabricated 2 six wire, 1 five wire and 1 three wire blocks.

From left to right, the dimmer, ground and power terminal blocks. The leads coming in from the top come from each gauge. Plus the ground terminal block also received leads from the signal and high beam indicators. Before I mounted these for real, I clamped everything to my test battery. As long as the gauges lit up, it means my terminal blocks are working properly.

The Factory Five carbon fiber back board curves in. this provides a shelf where the terminal blocks can be mounted. I mounted the terminal blocks using 3M double side tape. I had wire for the power and ground leads, but nothing for the dimmer block. I know I have some wire at the Northern Man Cave, so I'll take care of that when I get back.

The top three wires are leads from the GTM kit supplied indicator lights. The bottom wires are leads from the speedo gauge. Since I have a terminal block, it should be fairly easy to run these leads into the steering column circuit. I probably am going to need another terminal block to handle signals coming from the front and rear of the car.

The speedo gauge has two white wires and a brown wire. The instructions says that the white wires are labeled on the gauge printed circuit board as left and right. In agate-agate you can barely make out something that looks like right. The left and right white wires are connected to the respective turn signals. The brown wire is connected to the high beam indicator. Somewhere along the line these have to be wired into the switch on the steering column. 

Sending unit terminal block.

The final terminal block is for sending units. These connect as follows:

1. Green - Connects to the ignition coil or the direct tach output lead.
2. Blue - Connects to the water temperature sending unit.
3. Gray - Connects to the mechanical speedometer cable.
4. Yellow - Connects to the fuel sending unit.
5. Orange - Connects to the oil pressure sending unit.

Terminal block set up on the back side of the instrumentation cluster. This certainly makes  a lot more sense.

Intellitronix Create-a-Dash

<< Steering Column Wiring                                Intellitronix Terminal Block >>

Major System Category: Electronics
Task: Install Intellitronix Create-A-Dash kit
Parts:

1. Create a Dash Kit
2. Istrument panel back board
3. Singal and High Beam indicators

Prerequisite Tasks: N/A
Additional Costs: $434
Time Requirement: 8 hours
Date Started: May 10, 2013
Date Completed: May 18, 2013
The instrument cluster has been something that has bugged me about the car from the beginning. I wrote a post in January 2012, discussing this issue. Basically, the GTM is a WOW car. The lines, the performance, the handling all combine to create something special. Then you get in the car, look at the gauges and go, "Huh?" One of the major complaints about the C5 and C6 Corvette generations is that the interior does not match the exterior. One of the knocks on the GTM is that some people don't bother to finish the car. GTM 402 will be finished, and part of that, includes the WOW factor.

This is a task best done on a bench. This multi angle Stanley vice is fantastic for this job. I have one at both the Southern and Northern Man Caves. In this photo it is holding the Factory Five carbon fiber backboard used to mount gauges. I taped it to protect the surface. I have also used this vice to help crimp connectors, and I can mount almost anywhere on the car or the lift.

In the January 2012 post, I looked at Intellitronix, Speed Hut and Dakota Digital. I also considered the all in one dash consoles with data recorders, but these were running over a $1000 and I just didn't like the look. This entire task is about the look. Around January 2013, I decided to take another look at the the instrumentation puzzle. I came across Intellitronix's Create-A-Dash kit. At first I rejected the idea, then I came to realize this was exactly what I was looking for. Then I saw it on Stacey David's Gearz program (for a car builder this is a good show for ideas).

I planned to work on the instrumentation gauges on my current hiatus at the Southern Man Cave. I drop shipped the Create-A-Dash kit via Amazon and packed the tools I needed for the task. The gauges are available in white, green, blue or red. I watched a fair number of videos. I didn't want white (it just seems blah to me). I thought I was going to order blue, but it turns out red worked for my eye sight better.

The kit includes everything pictured here: Speedo, tach, volts, water, oil and fuel, smoked Plexiglas cover, backboard  mounting hardware and sending units.

Each gauge requires eight spacers. You place the short ones against the base board and the longer ones between the gauge and the Plexiglas cover. There are a bunch of little bolts, nuts and plastic spacers for mounting. I poured them into a magnetic parts bowl. It is very easy to lose one of these small parts. Intellitronix recognizes that most of us drop things into to distant corners and includes extras!

To protect the backboard I cover it in blue painter's tape.  The locations of each gauge is marked  on the tape.

I super glued the spacers to the printed circuit boards. I know from experience that I don't do well with little parts, and anything I can do to make them easier to handle is worth the extra time.

I used the packing Styrofoam panels to support the gauges as I glued the spacers to the  printed circuit boards.

My first idea was to drill a hole behind each gauge, install a grommet and run the wires to the rear of the panel. This doesn't work. The wires are too stiff to be bent so they can fit through a hole hidden by the gauge. I ended up drilling a hole for individual wires and cutting a slot for groups of wires.Once the smoked cover is mounted, these details are obscured.

The back side of the fuel gauge. The four wires coming off the end can not easily be bent to go through a hole, so I just let them go straight to the back board, where there is more room and slack on the other side.

I did a fair number of measurements to make sure I had things lining up properly. The bigger gauges measure 3.25 x 3.25 inches. They are smaller than the round five inch gauges and they use space more efficiently. The smaller gauges are 1.625 x 1.625 inches versus a two inch round gauge. This allows me to easily deploy six gauges on the back board with space to spare.

Gauge set set in place on the back board. You can see the lines I drew to help me  get things set up. I worked off a center line. The center line is approximate, because the Factory Five back board is already cut and it seemed like the curve is slightly different from side to side.

There is some wiggle room for mistakes, but I tried to keep those to a minimum. Prior to drilling and holes and cranking bolts, you can get a good idea how things line up. The wires are stiff enough to support the gauges. I used a 5/64 bit to drill through the holes on the printed circuit board and into the back board. then I widen the holes on the back board with a 7/64 bit. I rifled through my Allen wrenches until I found one that fit into the head of the supplied bolts. The 1/4 inch nuts on the back side are easily handled with a ratchet.

Gauge set bolted in place.

The multi angle vice really came in handy. I could turn, spin and position the back board all different ways. There is no specific torque spec here, so just use common sense.

I couldn't resist. I hooked everything up to my 12v test battery. Note: If you get confused on the little gauges, just hook it up to a 12v source and they will tell you what they are.

The next part involves cutting the smoked Plexiglas cover. The kit provides a generous piece. You could almost get 2 covers out of a single piece. I positioned the Plexiglas sheet behind the factory Five back board, and held it in place with duct tape. I traced the curve. I discovered things here are not perfect either. I used a jig saw to cut the piece, then steel wool to smooth out the edge.

Cut Plexiglas piece.

I decided to use three bolts to attach the cover to the back board. I made a quick trip to Home Depot and picked up bolts, nuts and spacers. I trimmed the spacer to 5/8 inch. This way  did not put any pressure on the gauges or the bolts holding them in place. I installed the connecting bolts on each side and on the center line between the speedo and tach gauges.

Hardware to connect the screen cover to the back board.

There remains the problem of the little toggle switches on the tach and speedo gauges. I hit on the idea of looking at the switches sideways. I used a straight edge to run two lines and plot the intersection point. Then I drilled a large enough (5/16 inch) so the switches could go up, down, left, right.

The circle is where the toggle switches come in contact with the cover. I was able to eyeball the location of the toggles with the aide of a straight edge. Once I had an intersecting point, I just had to drill a hole.

The final step is to install the high beam and signal indicators from the Factory Five kit. I decided these needed to be mounted on the surface of the cover, because they are not as bright as the Intellitronix gauges. I  wrapped the wires in electrical tape (I should have brought some black from the Northern man cave) and ran the wires from the cover through the back board. I super glued the indicators for extra security.

The wires are wrapped in green electrical tape. The signal  indicator is surface mounted on the cover.

Next steps involve adding a wire block to the back of the back board to handle all the wires and fabricating a gasket to run along the edge of the between the cover and the back board.

Not the greatest photo, but you can see the high beam and right signal indicators.

Install InVIRONMENT Circuit 1/3

<< GTM AC Evaporator Kit     Steering Column Wiring - signals, lights and horn >>
<< Mount INMotion Cell           AC “Blower Relocate” Plenum >>

Major System Category: ISIS Wiring
Task: Interface ISIS inVIRONMENT module
Parts:

1. ISIS inVIRONMENT kit (controller, wiring harness, wire splices).
2. Vintage Air Power and ECU Harness
3. Vintage Air ECU

Power Cell: 1
Circuit: 3 - LIGHT GREEN
Master cell: WHITE/GREEN
Prerequisite Tasks: Vintage Air Gen IV installed
Additional Costs: $435
Time Requirement: 6 hours (It should only take 2 - 3 hours)
Date Started: April 14, 2013
Date Completed: April 20, 2013

The inVIRONMENT Controller kit is designed to provide absolute control of the Vintage Air Gen IV HVAC system via the inTOUCH MAX touch screen control system. If you have gotten to this page, then you have committed to the following:

1. Microprocessor controlled power system.
2. Jettisoned the Factory Five kit's Painless Wiring Kit.
3. Purchased the optional Air Conditioning Unit.
4. Probably have figured (albeit too late) that the evaporator should be installed first. 
5. Committed to the entire ISIS concept.

inVIRONMENT kit: The green cables are the ISIS data bus cables, other cable pack interface to the Vintage Air ECU, a packet of butt splice and heat shrink wrap, controller module.

I used bolts to secure the top cover above the evaporator unit. When it became obvious I needed to get back into the area, I unbolted the cover and slid the vent hoses through the access slots.I also had to disconnect the front parking sensors.

14 pin Vintage Air connector from the harness to the Vintage Air ECU.

The Vintage Air Gen IV ECU has two ports: a 14 pin port for the Vintage Air harness and a 12 pin port that the ISIS harness can plug into. The first problem is the ECU is secured by a metal bracket and the ports are jammed up against the passenger foot well inner wall. I didn't like this because it forces the wires on both harnesses to be bent in order to fit. I pried off the metal bracket holding the ECU in place and repositioned it at a 45 degree angle. I used automotive goop to secure it to the top of the evaporator unit. This allows the harnesses to easily be plugged in and out.

ISIS Photo. This shows the Vinyage Air ECU with both cables attached. The left cable is the 14 pin  Vintage Air harness. The right cable is the 12 pin ISIS cable. You can see the metal bracket that holds the ECU in place.

The Vintage Air harness is pretty stiff. This harness has two relays: one for the heater control valve and one for the AC compressor.I fabricated a acrylic mounting plate and riveted the relays to the plate. I fed the stiff wires for the ECU harness into the space above the evaporator unit. These are the portion of the harness that plugs into the power and ECU ports. I dug up the Vraptor stereo close out panel and put in place. I needed to ensure there was room to mount the relay blocks below the panel. I mounted using epoxy about an inch below the close out panel on a vertical chassis member.

Modified location of the Vintage Air ECU above the evaporator unit. It is at a 45 degree angle and the bracket is discarded. Orientation: left side is towards front. Top is the passenger side foot well wall. I secured the Vintage Air ECU with Automotive Goop.

The ISIS instructions direct you to do following:

1. Plug the 12 pin connector into the Vintage Air ECU.
2. Plug the 4 pin connector into the power/ground port on the inVIRONMENT controller.
3. Plug the 5 pin connector into the output port on the inVIRONMENT controller.
4. Splice the purple wire from the Vintage Air ECU into the ignition circuit. In my case, this circuit 1/3 from power cell #1.

This is the main data cable for the ISIS system. I have exposed the 7 wires in the cable. The red and white positive and negative terminal cables are running in the blue wire loom. This is hanging loose until a install the battery (sometime in late summer 2014).

This is all straight forward, although, it took me a while to get to this point. The final step is to splice the data bus cable from the inVIRONMENT controller into the main data bus cable that enables the master cell to communicate to the power cells. This is where things got interesting.

These are the relays on the Vintage Air Harness. I riveted them to a clear  acrylic square. This  does two things. It makes it easy to handle the relays, and it ensures I don't have directly attach them, to the chassis. This is a really cheap and easy way to handle things like this.

The data bus cable runs from power cell #1 to power cell #2 inside the tunnel. Therefore, it goes right past the evaporator unit. I cranked the car up on the lift, find the data bus cable and expose the 7 wires inside. I have 2 white, 2 light blue, 2 light green and a violet wire. The instructions direct you to splice blue to blue, green to green and black to black. Uh-oh - no black. On top of that that, ISIS is a rigidly color coded system. Time for a email to tech support (it was around 10 PM, dark, cold and snowing again!!!). Actually this turned into 3 or 4 emails to tech support. They're probably rolling their eyes, but the inVIRONMENT kit costs $400+ and the entire ISIS set up is going to run north of $5000. I figure I'm entitled to a couple dumb user emails.

Spliced violet wire to the ignition wire  circuit. This how the ECU and controller receive power. 

Jay Harris answered questions, provided a PDF technical document on how the main data bus is wired. I don't think I waited more than four hours for any response. The guy never sleeps! ISIS is worth  every penny when you have that kind of support! The answer is to go back to a power cell, unclip the yellow data bus connector and open her up. The yellow connect is secured by two little ears. Be careful not to snap one of these off. Inside the connector are the 7 wires that are wired into the 8 pin (RJ45 looking connector). Inscribed inside the connector is B1 and B8. The wires are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 on top (the B1 row) and 5, 6, 7, 8 on bottom (the B8 row).

ISIS documentation. This shows the lay out of the wires in the ISIS data cable. 

Decode this as follows:

1. Pin 5 is black (violet on my cable).
2. Pin 6 is green (white on my cable)
3. pin 7 is blue (light green on my cable)
4. pin 8 (light blue on my cable)

These wires are part of the Vintage Air Harness. Blue goes to the AC Compressor and Green runs to the heater control valve/

I am really glad I stopped, because had I blundered ahead, I would have wired this up wrong.

I spliced the data bus cables together. I used wire loom to protect the inVIRONMENT data bus and snaked this down the passenger side between the foot well wall and the evaporator unit, then ran it along side the drain tube until I reached the main data bus cable.

ISIS inVIRONMENT controller mounted with double sided tape above the evaporator unit. There is room in this area to hide things. I also have a 2 inch PVC conduit running between the passenger and driver side for wires. As you can see I use wire loom to protect everything. There is plenty supplied with the kit, but if you are running lots of circuits, you will run out. I found the best deal is at Harbor Freight.

The final touches:

1. The Vintage Air blue and green wires (heater control valve and AC Compressor) are loomed to together and run out the back of the tunnel.
2. The Vintage Air red and white wires (there are 2 white wires) are loomed together and run to the battery (not installed yet). There is a 30 amp fuse block that needs to be mounted, but I want to connect things up to the battery first. 

Steering Column Wiring - signals, lights and horn

<< Mount Master and Power Cells                                  Intellitronix Create-A-Dash >>

Major System Category: ISIS Wiring
Task: Wire up head lights
Parts: Kit wiring
Circuits: 1/1, 2/1, 1/2, 2/2, 4/9, 1/9, 1/5, 1/7
Prerequisite Tasks: Master cell must be mounted, steering column must be installed
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 4 - 5 hours
Date Started: April 7, 2013
Date Completed: April 8 2013

I have been operating from my final wiring diagram. This is the wiring bible. If I divert from this, I had better have a good reason. Once I had this finalized, I began working on wiring components (e.g. head lights, signals) to Power Cell #1. Power Cell #1 primarily deals with items under the front hood. Power cell #2 supports components inside the hatch. Everything connects to the master cell via a data bus. The Master Cell is mounted under the passenger dash board and wires are snaked through a conduit above the AC unit.

I had to get serious about organizing the A and B cable bundles on the Master Cell. This is on a hinge that drops down (as pictured) below the passenger side dash board. The AC blower motor is cover in yellow plastic behind the master cell. There is a 2 inch conduit I installed to allow cables to easily move from the master cell to the area uder the driver's side dash board.

The biggest change in mind set for wiring is to realize that the control stalk on the side of steering is nothing more than a switch. The heavy power consumption for conventional wiring (i.e the head light signal relays) are managed by ISIS. These concerns go away. All that needs to be done is to wire the harness for lights, signals and horn to the signal wires that correspond to the circuits. This is still a fair amount of work, but this eliminates the need for in line fuses. 

I separated the cable bundles into their color groupings. Each grouping corresponds to the circuits for  either the A or B connector on a power cell. Everything is color coded, so if you get lost or a tag comes off you can refer to the master list and figure out what's happening. ISIS is expensive, but Jay Harris and the boys have done a great job of thinking things through.

This is the blue plug on the steering column. The first thing I did was extend the wires on the plug. This provides some room for error and slack on the electrical line. I added approximately 1 foot to each of the leads coming off the plug. It is a little hard to read, but each pin on the plug is identified by a letter. For the most part, just follow the chart provided in the build manual, and recognize that in my case I am wiring to ISIS not the Painless Wiring Harness. There are some changes to how this works.

This is splice between the extending wires from the steering column and one of the ISIS master cell wires. I have been pretty good about applying heat shrink to the splice, then wrapping in black electrical tape.

On my plug there were two wires for high beams coming out of pin K. I wired both of them to my extension wire. Next I sorted the Master Cell wiring harness by color groups. Next I selected the 8 signal wires corresponding to the circuits and separated them. These I pushed (from the Master Cell) through the conduit (to the steering column). The manual indicates that pins X, Y and Z need to wired to the battery positive. For ISIS, these are wired to ground.

Component	Power Cell / Circuit	Master Cell Wire	Blue Plug Pin
Right Signal	1/1	White – Black	B
	2/1	Yellow – Black	B
Left Signal;	1/2	White – Red	C
	2/2	Yellow – Red	C
Dash / Parking	4/9	Light Blue – Yellow	R
Horn	1/9	Blue – Yellow	V
Low Beam	1/5	White – Green	L
Hi Beam	1/7	Blue – Red	K
Ground			N, W, X, Z

This photo isn't the best, but it shows the blue plug on the steering column with extended cables .

Emergency Brake and Cables

<< Rear suspension Mount to Chassis        Initial Measurements and Mounting >>
<< Tunnel Floor and Venting

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.