I sent my rear rotors to Lyndall Raceing Brakes (LRB) and received a call from Paul Kittrell, president of LRB, the other day concerning a solution to the stopping power issues we are haveing. He said he had a quick and inexpensive fix and asked if he could do it on my rotors. Of course I said go for it. He is going to drill and chamfer a hole pattern in the plates similar to what we see on most all disc brake rotors for bikes now. This seems so simple it will probably work great, he thinks it will help a lot and im sure it will at the very least get rid of the fade issue.. When I get my rotors back I will post a pic and hopefully we wont be socked in with snow up here so I at least get a chance to try them.

 

Look forward to your feedback on the improved rotors.

 

I have drilled and slotted rotors on mine. It is not a TG, but it's the same on the axle hub end. I had asked someone to give me the bolt pattern, which I think is a 4 x 4.25 and I can come up with a possibly less expensive way to go with drilled-n-slotted rotors. I use T-Bird Turbo Coupe rotors with the back half machined off. This leaves around 7-8mm of single disc left that works with the smaller calipers and matches up to the offset of the Ford fox-bodied axles....which I think are on the TG. I hate to say it...but basically Pinto guts out on the hub end.
That is what Lehman used on all their conversions, even on the metric kits and I assume it's the same on the TG.

 

I did a challenging mountain ride last weekend with my 10 Tri, the brake fade really showed up big time toward the end of the ride. I have seen this in the racing industry, it just might work with the 11 Pads or the Lyndall's.

 

As time passes and the TG owners fall out of warranty and get "more willing" to experiment, a better brake system is available. I believe the TG has a 9.5 inch rotor. I am running a 10-inch rotor and radial calipers. This same set-up should carry over to the TG. One of these days....I'll get a call about "how to" and help you guys out if I can.

 

Im pretty sure the rear brake rotor is a 9", Ill measure that and the bolt pattern for you 1550vt when i get them back unless someone does it sooner. As far as warrenty i dont think i have one anymore, even tho its just over 6 months old, with all i have modified on it. But it sure runs nice now.

 

My "journey" through rear brake improvements started when I tried to purchase a disc brake conversion kit from Lehman. They had a kit advertised on the websites, but no dealer had one or had heard of them., even though they were clearly listed as a retrofit kit from drum-to-disc. I pursued this all the way up the chain of command and was told they were no longer available and I would have to purchase a new disc brake equipped rear end for $4,000. I opted to follow the hot-rod crowd and do my own conversion like these guys do every day. It took 3-4 weeks of investigation to determine just how Lehman built their kits and what components were used. The conclusion was that they used a Fox-bodied Ford shortened axle along with the 8.8 axle flange and a "bastardized" version of axle retention. The 8.8 was a c-clip axle and they converted the retention system to an external retainer plate out in the hub over the wheel bearing. They took a c-clip axle and converted it to an externally retained axle. This holds true for both the belt and shaft drive models. On the shaft drive models they used some small foreign-made differential and cut-n-welded the 8.8 axle tube on the ends. All this boils down to is the parts from the axle tube flange on out are Fox-bodied components....as in the Pinto, T-Bird and Mustang used up until Ford went to the 5-bolt hub pattern.When Ford went to rear disc as a standard...they went with the 5-bolt pattern. The only vehicle they installed rear disc on in these years was the T-Bird Turbo Coupe and only the T-Bird Turbo Coupe.as far as I could tell. This 4-bolt 8.8 bastardized axle system has been carried through to this very day, as far as I know of. The 4-bolt axles on the TG are likely the same design. All this boils down to is that the 1987 and 1988 T-Bird Turbo Coupe rear disc will bolt right up to the Lehman hub, but you cannot use the stock brake calipers from the T-Bird. They are too large, require the use of a larger master cylinder, the calipers have the stupid parking brake arm and the stock caliper mounts won't work because of the bastardized axle retention system. I built a set of caliper brackets that mount to the back side of the axle flange that would accommodate a Tokico radial-mounted caliper and would work with the stock HD 5/8 master cylinder. The stock 87-88 T-Bird rotor is close to 1-inch thick, so I have the back side along wth the cooling fins turned off the rotor leaving one single disc 7-8MM thick, which works very well with the Tokico 4-pot calipers, or any other small motorcycle type caliper.

My reason for explaining this is that if the TG has the same bolt pattern and offset as the Fox-bodied Fords, I see no reason why a person could not use the T-Bird drilled-n-slotted rotors, which can be had for less than $100 a set and have them turned-down just like I did. The diameter of these rotors is 10-inches, but they could be turned down to 9 inches, if that is the diameter of the TG rotors.

I heard the price of something like $600 for a pair of TG rotors. $100 and $50 worth of machine work sure beats that price.of $600 for a pair of rotors. Yes...you do machine-off one side of the hardened surface on the back side of the rotor, but I have close to 15,000 miles on mine with no appreciable wear and you can pick-up 87-88 T-Bird drilled-n-slotted rotors from just about any parts house.

At the time, Wilwood was building the brake components for Lehman and would not even discuss selling any brake components to an individual due to a proprietary agreement with Lehman...so you are stuck with using "inventiveness".

 

Ice,

Have you had the opportunity to test ride those drilled-out rotors that Lyndall did for you? Looks like a good fix for all of us with rear brake complaints if it works! Prolly even extend the life of the rear pads.

 

I realize Boom is asking Ice the question, but I need to add a blob in here concerning some stuff I had been interested in with the older Lehman kits.

I had wondered if any of the TG rear brake "stuff" would retrofit to the earlier Lehman kits and have discovered that it won't. Lehman changed the axle flange bolt pattern, so nothing on the TG will retro to the early Lehman kits...for those interested in drum-to-disc conversions. The early Lehman kits used the Ford 8.8 flange pattern and the recent (as well as the TG) kits use some special flange pattern that cannot be identified from any stock flange pattern that I am aware of. I am sure the rotors could be retrofitted to the early models, as the lug-bolt pattern is the same, but the caliper brackets will not retrofit. I'll just stick with the $50 t-bird rotors I have been using on my drum-to-disc conversions.....they are 10-inch anyway and likely better than the stock TG rotors.

 

Boom, Sorry , we are still snow and ice bound here in N.Mich.
I did receive a call recently from Paul at LRB asking the same thing, .
If anyone in the warmer parts of the country want to try them give Paul a call.
If nothing else im sure they will help with brake fade.