E brake conversion???

[Cross Eyed Joe]

Has anyone relocated there Ebrake to a center console hand brake?

 

[SeanMc]

Just talking to LoudSHO92, he said there were 2 at the convention.

 

[RAYJAY]

any pictures ????

 

[shobote]

Always wanted to do that as well; makes for some tail twisting fun ! Any pic's and how to's would be appreciated.

 

[ManySHOs]

Yes, it's the thing to do if you live in California...

There are two center console e-brake cars in CA.

Ian

 

[JEM]

Yes, it's the thing to do if you live in California...

There are two center console e-brake cars in CA

There's George Fourchy's Gen 1 that uses a BMW (X5?) handbrake in a completely custom-made console that's got a full (Kenwood?) nav system in it (which he isn't too fond of), and there's my '91 that uses a mildly-trimmed (you lose the right half of the cassette box and a little of the area behind it) stock Gen 1 console, mid '90s Saturn handbrake unit with a small bit of reworking of its baseplate assembly (Lance Cheney tells me by '99 they had leather-wrapped handles, mine's plastic), some custom cables, and a few other bits of hardware. It was actually quite easy - as long as the interior's out of the car; the total parts cost to date (boot/finish plate not yet done) was about $150 mostly in the cables.

These are some pics I took during initial assembly:

http://www.milleredp.com/gallery/v/jem/motion/SHO/parkingbrake/

though the cables crossing over at the rear of the tunnel proved not to be necessary. I think I've got a few newer pix I just haven't put up yet.

it's now been in the car and functional for a few months now, and I think the folks who played with it at the convention can attest that it works like a real engineered OE application and doesn't interfere with anything. When it's released the handle is flat over the console to the right of the shifter, angled slightly to parallel the right side of the console. You need to add another half-inch or so of padding under the carpet along the rear face of the rear footwell to accommodate the cables running under the carpet, but the end result looks completely stock.

Ran out of time before the trip to have a boot sewn up, but that's now on the list of Things To Do, right behind getting the headers in the car and getting the TPR strut rod bushings out of the rear suspension. Right now the space over the remainder of the cassette box is covered by a little piece of ABS plastic double-sided-taped in place to hold a DICE iPod dock pulled off its ball-socket mount and mounted flat.

 

[Lupo]

I likes it!

That is going to be my new project.

 

[JEM]

I likes it!

That is going to be my new project.

Do you want the complete parts list and the sourcing for the cables, clips, etc.? I'm not sure quite how/where the handle will fit with a Gen 2 console, one of my goals with my setup was to keep the Gen 1 console.

I've added a bunch more pics at http://www.milleredp.com/gallery/v/jem/motion/SHO/parkingbrake/ that show what it looks like inside the car with the interior back in, how big the hole is in the console (the slab of ABS plastic to the left of the handle is temporary), and what the cable routing is like under the car (the grommets where it passes through the floorpan are...wonder of wonders...from a Taurus or SHO parking brake cable where it passes through the floorpan below the pedal, finding two good ones can mean cutting cables out of six or seven junkyard cars though.)

There's also a couple quickie road-trip adaptations visible in some of these pix, in:

http://www.milleredp.com/gallery/v/jem/motion/SHO/parkingbrake/DSCN5837.JPG.html

the slab of plastic foam-taped to the console on the left of the handle is just a quickie covering for what's left of the cassette box and a place to stick an iPod dock, and my Starbucks-size-cup adapter (a landscape drain fitting with foam around the inside and a piece of Saab 99/900/9000 door-panel welting around the outside, more on this stuff later) wedged into the bin, and:

http://www.milleredp.com/gallery/v/jem/motion/SHO/parkingbrake/DSCN5825.JPG.html

shows the Garmin GPS mount glued to a piece of ABS which is foam-taped to the front of the console. The last 'mod' I made before leaving for the convention was an external GPS antenna in the right end of the dash under the speaker grille area.

 

[Sho Amo]

this will be my next project also but, on a gen2 console in a g1

 

[SHOmethewayhome]

i want to do this as well. hand parking brake is much superior to foot brake with hand release.

but still not as bad as the GM kick it once and then kick it again pedal.