BT Tower Brace - Inverter Coolant Cap Question

Good afternoon everyone. I am looking for individuals who have installed the BT Tower Strut Brace on their Prii to answer this question ... can you remove your inverter coolant reservoir cap?

I installed my brace and can't remove the cap. There is about a 1/2" gap between the brace and the cap so I can loosen it and lift it up but can't angle it enough to squeeze it out. Looking at pictures posted from other installs it looks like the brace only covers about 1/3 or at most 1/2 of the cap where as my brace covers almost 3/4 of the cap when you look down from the top.

That extra coverage of the cap by the brace doesn't allow me to tilt the cap enough to get it out of the reservoir. Can everyone else remove their caps and is this just isolated to me or is this common with this install?

Thanks for all the help

Chris

 

Rokeby,

I appreciate the response and thoughts but both of the brackets are flush with the top of the strut mounts. I did have the "sheet metal interferance" with the driver's side bracket but bent it out of the way to get the bracket flush.

I had to remount the brackets and torque them down with the tower strut "loosely" installed because the first time I did it without the strut in place it would fit. Ohh, and the "Top" label was wrong from BT so this really hasn't been to much fun, LOL.

Interesting that you have 7/8" clearance from the cap to the brace mine is certainly no more than 1/2". There could be a whole host of things off slightly that could cause the difference but maybe when more people respond with clearances we can figure it out. If I had to guess right now I would guess the bracket angle's are off slightly and not the brace but I could be wrong.

Thanks again for the help. I guess I was wrong about the photos being to big, here they are.

Chris

 

statultra,

Brian is setting up a jig to test another tower brace and brackets for me so I am not really looking to move the inverter but thanks for the idea.

thedutchtouch,

My tower brace was mislabeled also as I noted in my earlier post. It needed to be flipped to even allow the installation. And I have clearance, about 1/2", it is enough to completely unscrew the cap/wiggle it around, etc... It just isn't enough to actually remove it.


So, that is why I was looking for other PC Members that had installed the tower brace to see if they could actually remove their inverter coolant reservoir cap. It appears from other photos from other installs that my tower brace covers more of the cap than is normal. Which means I can't "tilt/angle" the cap to remove it which I believe is SOP?

I was just trying to see if everyone had to tilt/angle their cap to remove it and what their clearance and cap coverage was. Again, thanks for everyone's help. PC has been a wonderful insight into my Ema and every "Mod" done has made her more enjoyable to drive, more fuel efficient or both.

Thanks again,
Chris

 

Tom,

Thanks for the pics I appreciate it. I will see about taking some closeups like you did tomorrow in the daylight and posting them but I don't have anywhere near 7/8" clearance. I only have 1/2" at most.

It also looks like my tower strut covers more of the cap than I have seen on other install pictures. Your picture 2 that shows you tilting the gap is my whole issue for two reasons:

1. You appear to have about a 45 degree tilt, the best I can do is maybe 30 degrees.
2. With my brace being "lower" on the cap I can't get the bottom of the cap to clear the front lip of the coolant tank. There simply isn't enough room.

As for an update ... Brian emailed me and said he tested another brace and bracket set himself and will be sending me those so he knows they should fit. I guess we will know more when those arrive but they haven't even been shippied yet to my knowledge.

Thanks again for the help. I will post an update when I know more or have the closeup photos.

Chris

 

Sorry for taking so long to finally post these pictures of the 1/2" clearance of the tower brace over my inverter coolant cap but here they are.

I am still waiting for a new brace from Brian that has been tested at their shop for fitment. They seem to be having A LOT of trouble with UPS lately. Two of the three braces they have sent have been "lost" by UPS, hopefully whenever he gets #4 out this week it will fit. Really getting tired of taking my car apart and putting it back together for this thing.

Ed, thanks for the response. I thought about taking it over to a friend's shop and welding a half inch on each of the three support bracket legs on both sides and with the end of the season only a couple of races away now I may still do that. I just don't feel like I should be having to do the engineering on this part considering the price I paid for it. I still have to do some sound deadening on the BT Skidplate to keep it from sounding so hollow under the car and modify the front plastic piece some more for a better fitment. All in all, a lot more work than bolt it on and forget about it

Thanks again,
Chris