Very informational and educational!!! Thanks for the kick-ass pics!
FYI: I added a pointer to the "parking/emergency brake" pics from
here.
GroundLoop wrote:Given the intimacy of these pictures, are you planning to yank the battery pack?

TonyWilliams wrote:I'd want to read the actual service manual before doing that. I do have jacks that would work, and the center of mass is stamped into the lower main battery case.
Very cool!
The whole parking brake mechanism seems either overengineered or made complex in haste.. I can't tell which.
TonyWilliams wrote:Or both. There are lots of places on this car to cut weight. It doesn't even look like they made much effort there.
I haven't thought this through, but there may have been some marketing or engineering requirements that the parking/emergency brake be electrically actuated so its use can be integrated with the start-up-and-drive sequence. However, I can't imagine that a requirement that the parking brake be automatically disengaged if the driver steps on the gas pedal is so important that that Nissan would concoct such a Rube Goldberg machine of a parking brake.
Screw-driven piston in the rear calipers (actuated via a lever and cable, as on VWs) would have saved the weight of the drum brake parts, the electric actuating motor, the reduction gear, and the clutch. Even using a separate drum brake as a parking brake, as on a BMW 5 series, would have avoided the weight of the electric actuating motor, the reduction gear, and the clutch.