Better parking brake actuation?

[j-rho]

I have a Wilwood 4-piston rear disk brake setup with integral parking brake on my first gen Camaro.

Overall I've been happy with the regular brakes' performance. The parking brake barely works - I think the challenge there is the factory emergency brake pedal mechanism doesn't move the cable far enough to get strong actuation out of the Wilwood parking brake. Have played with the adjustment - can't get a strong parking brake hold without excessive drag when in released state.

I'm looking at doing something of a roll cage, and there may end up being contention for the space around the factory parking brake mechanism. I'd like to get rid of it, and if possible, do something about the under-car mess of cable that it takes to make the parking brake work.

Are there any kits or solutions out there for this? Either some kind of tunnel-mount handbrake, or perhaps an electronic solution using electromechanical actuators?



Thanks for the input!

[Oregon]

Check out E-Stopp. It's a push button/actuator setup.

http://www.estopp.com/

[dontlifttoshift]

I second the e stopp. Works very well.

[parsonsj]

3x E-stopp. So much better than pedals or handles.

[j-rho]

Thanks guys! Hadn't seen that solution before. Anybody seen pics of it installed on a first gen camaro or similar?

[parsonsj]

Here's where I bolted it. The bolts go through the seat riser flanges, which are just the right dimension.

[dontlifttoshift]

Mounted behind the rear seat. Each Lokar parking brake cable comes from its respective side and is mounted to either end of the box tubing that is bolted to the package tray support structure. All of the force is contained within the confines of the brackets square tube. Mounted like this, when the Estopp is engaged it "pulls" both cables together, ensuring that the the force is equally distributed to each parking brake mechanism. It looks a little ghetto, I wasn't sure if it would work that way so this was a test run, but it worked out really well and made use of what was otherwise dead space.

Standard kits ship with a green light up button. That can be corrected with a black sharpie and it is still transparent enough to know when it is on. There are other colors available.



Clarification on operation in case it isn't clear in the picture.

The Estopp cable housing is mounted to the brass block on the right.

The Estopp cable is mounted to the brass block on the left.

When engaged, the cable pulls into the housing and pulls the brass blocks closer together. When that happens it is pulling on the cable that is hooked to each caliper and setting the brakes....equally. That was really important as the IPSCO calipers are really sensitve to adjustment and I wanted to make sure we were getting all we could.

[j-rho]

That looks great Donny, very clever solution to get both brakes engaged. Think I have my answer!

[parsonsj]

Donny, that's damned clever!

[dontlifttoshift]

The CTSV cars and equivalent use a similar concept, I borrowed it from GM because it made sense. The reason I wasn't sure is it takes a lot of travel to do it this way, twice as much compared to pulling both cables with a balance bar.

[j-c-c]

So whats the approx weight of this E stop gizmo?

[Motown 454]

Donny, Slick setup