On Wed, 11 Mar 1998, Janssen, Lee K wrote:
> Although I'm not into racing your statement did catch my attention:
>
> >The cast iron drums expand quite a lot and this will cause some loss
> >of pedal if the brakes are adjusted too loose. If your rules allow it,
> >you should give serious consideration to "alfin" drums (the 240Z drums
> >can be made to fit with a small amount of machining).
> What are "alfin" drums, and what do you consider a small amount of
> machining?
They are aluminium drums with a steel insert where the brake lining would
ride on the drum. The aluminum dissapates the heat way faster than cast
iron, so you would experience less pedal fade from overheating the drums.
This is really important when you are trying to slow down from 140 MPH
going into a tight turn!
240 Z's have the same 4 x 4.5 bolt pattern that TR6's use. The machining
would involve reaming out the center hole in the drum. This dimension
centers the drum on the hub, so it has to be exactly right. Any auto
machine shop should be able to handle the job. TRF has sold these drums
in the past, I have no idea if they still do.
> Also you wrote:
>
> >Ideally, you
> >can increase the front calipers and move the stock front calipers to the
> >rear for 4 wheel disk brakes.
>
> I assume that there is a LOT of modification that must be performed to
> adapt the brake mounting plate to the rear axle while ensuring that the
> caliper position is correct wrt the rotor. Where, if anywhere, is this
> documented.
I got a reprint of an article some years ago from an unknown source, and
sadly, I have lost the copy that I had. At any rate, there are two issues:
1. the bracket to secure the caliper would need to be fabricated and 2. I
presume a "floating" rotor could be used. Thus, you drill the rotor out
for the 4. X 4.5 inch lugs and just slide the rotor onto the hub inplace
of the old drum. You might even be able to use a stock rotor that you just
slip over the lugs... If you were real paranoid, you could drill out the
rotor for those two little flathead screws that normally secure the brake
drum to the hub... I do recall that the article was not horribly detailed
but that the job was not too difficult to perform.
The TR6 race guys do this conversion as a matter of course, so you could
probably ask around at a race track if there are any TR6 racers in your
area. I know that there are 3 or more guys that run a lot of the midwest
SCCA events... you could also check sources like Ted Schumacher, APT
(maybe), Motorhead, Team Triumph... I don't have a specific reference.
FWIW, this is a conversion that I will be doing on my car at some point
in the future... note: SCCA lists some part number for doing the big swap
in the Prod Car Specs manual... but again, the rear disks wind up being
from the normal front of a TR6, the calipers, for sure and the rotors are
TR6 too, I think. You would not want to do this conversion to a street car
unless you could figure out how to connect up an emergency brake! As you
may know, "Real Racers"(tm) don't need any emergency brake!
> Also have you ever had any differential problems and who do you have
> work on your diffs.
I've had problems, but I do all my own work. My standard "fix" is to swap
out a whole diff. I have several on the garage floor now and they are in
various states of disrepair. What kind of problems are you having???
> Thanks.
> Lee Janssen
no prob.
rml
p.s. I'm pretty sure I read about the TR6 rear disk conversion on this
Triumph mail list, but I can't remember the source of the article or who
sent me the hard copy. I'll dig around in my piles of junk at home and
see if I can find the article.
p.p.s. Triumphs list members: does anyone remember a source for the TR6
rear disk brake conversion?
I've gotta get more organized... what were we talking about?
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