Bought the kit for the Ready Brake Surge Brakes because towing the Spark worked fine but stopping the Coachmen Catalina Class C was uncomfortably long with the tow car pushing us. I looked at the electronic brake buddy type, which are $1K+ and well, the surge brakes are simpler and a lot cheaper. The downside was installing the cable. I had pulled the front fascia off the Spark to install the Blue Ox tow bar so I knew how and had to do it again to make the surge brakes work without binding up. It needed to be within 2 inches up or down from the tow bar connection and in the middle of the car. How I did it was simply how I did it. Others may do it differently. I share this because of how much I appreciate the help I get from the Internet from others.
The Spark does have a double wall firewall, which means drilling the appropriate holes as per the manufacturer's instructions. I did struggle to drill a 1" hole through the inside firewall (manufacturer's recommendation) because it isn't perfectly flat top to bottom. I would try to keep expanding my hole from the initial hole to something like 3/4 inch and see if you can fit a socket through that hole first. I didn't quite need the 1 inch hole and it got weird to get it that big. Locating the hole slightly lower than my detail shows might help because it was above the hole that I got into excess metal that wouldn't go away after drilling.
My details show custom made brackets for things like the 7 pin connector mount and the front cable loop mount. The brackets are hardware store stuff bent and drilled and trimmed to aid in mounting the stuff where I needed it to be. Again, I had to trim holes in the fascia. I will try to come back and add the finalized fascia later.
The Spark does have a double wall firewall, which means drilling the appropriate holes as per the manufacturer's instructions. I did struggle to drill a 1" hole through the inside firewall (manufacturer's recommendation) because it isn't perfectly flat top to bottom. I would try to keep expanding my hole from the initial hole to something like 3/4 inch and see if you can fit a socket through that hole first. I didn't quite need the 1 inch hole and it got weird to get it that big. Locating the hole slightly lower than my detail shows might help because it was above the hole that I got into excess metal that wouldn't go away after drilling.
My details show custom made brackets for things like the 7 pin connector mount and the front cable loop mount. The brackets are hardware store stuff bent and drilled and trimmed to aid in mounting the stuff where I needed it to be. Again, I had to trim holes in the fascia. I will try to come back and add the finalized fascia later.
Wouldn't use spray foam insulation to seal hole next time. Risks friction. |
Do not use spray foam to seal hole. Can get into sliding cable line and foul it up... |
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