Paul Cain ebrake mod

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corsachili

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For those of you experiencing the nastiness that is the e9 emergency brake you really should invest the small amount that Paul Cain gets for his bearing/washer setup. I've just installed them on Ali and the difference is quite impressive. You can tighten the bolt so that it takes up all the side to side play, and the ebrake is still easy to engage. When it does, it does so much more positively than the OE setup. Contact him at [email protected] for info on the part. It's simple, relatively inexpensive, and your CS deserves it.

This is a completely biased, totally judgemental, but yet non-paid endorsement of a fellow Coupe fanatic who has invested time, research and money in to a simple part that helps make CSs better. If you think you can do better on your own, go nuts. But as a dyed in the wool, rabid free market capitalist (as we should all be) I applaud and celebrate anyone that has taken it upon themselves to offer an idea that augments ownership of classic cars. Without people like this, the interest, support and well-being of our beloved cars would be less than it is.
 
The factory used a pin with two circlips to hold the ebrake in place. The bracket that the ebrake handle mounts to is a rather crude piece of angle, welded to the transmission hump. Paul's kit is simple a set of washers sandwiching a washer with roller bearings in it. These fit on either side of the ebrake handle, in between the brackets. The whole assembly is held in place by a big 17mm bolt and nut, so you can tighten it enough to eliminate side to side play and have much more positive action. It's nothing fancy, it just works.
 
E-brake experience

The BLUMAX has Pauls kit in place and I heartily recommend it to all. Our early cars--02's, e-9 and e-3 all had the same E-brake design with the same vulnerability of the base mount failing with time and use.

A major contributing factor besides design is--I have noticed that many owner/drivers jerk the brake handle toward them when setting the E-brake--pulling the handle in that manner guarantees future failure of the E-brake mount. The Cain kit will help but the driver must pull the E-brake handle straight up--not toward the driver seat or failure will still occur over time--and how would I know?
 
2002 E9 Coupe Paul Cain Emergency Brake Upgrade

In fifteen years, my coupe emergency brake managed to break twice. The first time was due to metal and weld fatigue. It required a trip to the welder and then painting to return it to service. The second time the teeth that keep the brake tight broke off and wore out due to partial misalignment as the lever had gradually bent it's mountings slightly sideways. Sourcing the replacement teeth was more difficult than I anticipated since the first set of parts had the wrong pitch and did not mesh properly.

So when I approached the second repair I decided to go with the Paul Cain upgrade offered by CoupeKing Peter Sliskovich. I had seen Paul Cain's coupe in Monterey a number of years ago and recognized repair engineering that I liked to copy and that was beyond my ability to create (like Paul I chose to bury my seat belt take up reels in the B pillar stub).

I am glad I bought and installed this upgrade. The brake is now better than new, smooth as silk and easy to operate without flexing and very tight.

I guess if you knew exactly what parts to order, bought them direct in small quantities with minimal shipping and handling costs and at reasonable prices you could save a few bucks. But if I had tried to re-engineer this I would have bought parts two or three times before would have gotten it all together and I am sure I would not have ended up with nearly as tight and precise a result.

So if you like your coupe repairs to be better than new, and you face the common emergency brake issues, I would recommend this upgrade. If I had done this earlier, the second repair would not have been needed.
 
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