Not Ranked
Just a note for anyone else considering the E-brake upgrade:
I had no trouble cutting the bracket off with a Sawzall with the tranny and tunnel in place. My car had enough room in the tunnel for the disc, so perhaps the newer cars have larger tunnels. I did have to move the battery cable and the fuel line a little bit; seems to me I drilled out a pop-rivet or two, raised or lowered the lines and re-riveted them. I do notice a rattle, now that you mention it, when I go over some bumps, so maybe that's where it's coming from. Not sure whether it was there prior to the E-brake installation or not. Thanks for the tip. The new E-brake certainly is an improvement over the old one.
If you ever think you might want to work on the driveline from the top someday, the sooner you go through the hassle of taking the tunnel out for the first time, the more you'll be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor. It's not too bad to get out (four bolts for the seats, one for the E-brake assembly and 12 or so screws for the tunnel), but it's an absolute b!tch to clean all that black goo off. Wear gloves!! Work outside!! Don't breathe!! I used a heat gun to soften the mastic and scraped it as best I could, then cleaned and cleaned and cleaned with 3M Adhesive Remover. This stuff is vile! Both of 'em, actually; the black mastic and the adhesive remover. When I had everything as clean as possible, I applied some aluminum duct-sealing tape to the bottom edge of the inside of the tunnel to keep any remaining goo from sticking back to the body, then screwed everything back together. I recently drove the car for hours in a pouring rain and, if not having the mastic in place to seal the tunnel made any difference in the amount of water inside the car, you sure couldn't prove it by me!
Joe,
Sorry, not trying to hijack your thread-at least I'm helping to keep it in circulation! It's a beautiful car and I hope this turns out however makes you happy.The FE's look and sound so cool! Perhaps we'll meet at some event if you decide to keep and enjoy your car rather than sell it.
Lowell
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