TR8 Brake Ducts

Ron Earp

Ron Earp

Administrator
Well, part of them are done and I hope they do something. Idea is to force some air down into the pad area where we probably have little airflow at all. Took a lot of making little paper cutouts, folding, cutting, folding, cutting. ...........

Held on with pins and should be fairly easily removable. Don't know, I just make stuff and Jeff has to worry about using it. Hopefully with these, and some rotor hats, maybe we'll have a better year for brakes....

ducts.JPG
 
Looks like a nice piece of design work. I wonder how these will compare in effectiveness to typical brake ducts in that most send air to the rotor, not the pad...



0000-03-7302.JPG
 
Oh - but we've got those too!!! And a better design that feeds air on both sides of the rotor, not just one. Hopefully all of this will help, or we're adding more ducts.

R
 
I'll make you guys a pair for some beer money. I plan to make another set after the SIC and probably a second for spares too in case of destruction.

They take about one hour each, now that I sort of have it down. I have a master template that I cut them out of onto 0.060" steel, then bend it up. After that it needs a lot of work on the grinder to fit the contours that I can't really mimic with the paper pattern. I could not get steel tubing in a thin enough gauge to work in time for these, so, that is a ally tube attached to the plate. It'll work, but I'd like it all steel. Plus, with all steel I could tack a couple welds on there to shore it up a bit.

They definitely ain't pretty, but maybe they will help out in addition to the rotor ducts. CMP is brutal on brakes and we got tired of rebuilding calipers down there. One time we managed to stave off a rebuild with pulling the wheels and mounting box fans 2" from the calipers after running, but most times the heat soak would kill them after the race, or during the later part of the race.

R
 
I know what you mean. I cooked the seals twice at Mid-Ohio in July. However, I think it was my ducting more to blame. I have never had it that bad of a problem. I normaly get 5-8 weekends out of them. I do appericiate any help with those fittings, I think it can only help the caliper temps.
 
We'll get you a set. Let us get through the SIC weekend and we'll be in touch with them.

Have you had any trouble with distorted hubs? Ron think (and he maybe right) that the hubs distort with all the heat as well, go out of round, and just generate more heat. Definitely something to watch.
 
In fact, the whole setup is now two hoses out of the spoiler back to a "Y" pipe that splits the air to the rotor and the caliper. If those don't work, I think all I am left with is (a) cheating or (B) ITR.......lol.
 
We have not had that problem(knock on wood). I did notice that my bolts the hold the rotor to the hub had become loose. I would say check those every now and then. I also saw you had a topic of rear drum and residual valve for firm pedal. Have you thought about disconnecting the rear brakes period. I know it sounds crazy, but I have them disconnected, they do not get used anyway. I have a pretty firm pedal and don't have to worry about the rear wheel brake leaking as they do. With the Triumph the drums really do nothing, and I felt I would rather have a firm pedal for feel and modulation than the small amount of braking they give. The only thing I can say is my 8 ran quicker this year at IRP and Mid-Ohio than we ever have.
 
Just a thought here Triumph guys (I feel qualified I used to own a TR7) If you used the rear brakes and got them to work better, wouldn't that make life easier on your front brakes?
 
Have to agree with BMW guy. When I had the rears adjusted right and working right, the car did stop much better, and flatter. Didn't "stand on the nose."
 
I agree, just good luck getting them to great. They do not do much to begin with, I do not know how much better you can get them to work. Then the problem becomes as the seesion or time goes by, they become less effective and increasing pedal softness. If you can find a solution to get them to work well over the duration, I am on board. Until then I will stick with a solid pedal and better brake control
 
Are you using a cockpit adjustable bias valve and a residual check valve? If you are using these two things you should have no problems getting the rears to do what they are supposed to do.

You can get them to do very well with these items, enough to lock up and stop the car pretty well on their own. The bias valve will allow you to adjust them so they actually work, unlike the built in proportioning valve, and the residual in line will get rid of that spongy pedal from the rears.

I don't have the residual on the JH, but I do have the bias valve on on the few short laps I made a Roebling I found that rears do indeed work pretty well, when setup right. Brakes on the JH and TR8/7 are exactly the same, except for front caliper design/size.

R
 
trd77, you guys got any pictures of ducts you run now? Just curious. Starting JH duct work and looking for anything I can find.

Ron
 
Hey Jeff,

I saw this car at Laguna last month, the owners name is Frank Emmett. I didn't get a chance to talk to him as his run group was right before mine. Here's some interesting shots though.
Big Bore Production TR8
I did a search to try to get some contact info but.... I did find that Tim Linerund might know him, and I'll keep an eye out to see if I catch him at one of our Cal-Club events. Thanks for the pointer on the wire harness.

James
 
Hope the wire harness stuff helped out. It'd be a pain in the ass, but I'm sure you can find a complete one on ebay if you keep looking, those I found in half a minute so with a standard search setup and running for you automatically you'll pick one up inside a month I bet.

R
 
Ron, I will try to get some pics of the ducting in my Tr8. I think it might be the same or close to what jeff has
 
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