Emergency Brake Cables for 1988 T-Bird Rear Disc Installation in a Custom 300

[57AGIN]

Rich:
In response to your questions about my 1988 T-Bird Rear Disc Brake installation and the emergency Brake Cables for it.  (Comes from Rick's post on Tubular Control Arms in the Steering & Suspension post a couple of days ago){ , I'm doing a rear disc kit that uses the '88 T-Bird caliper like you installed on Bob's. Different company, brackets are different, but I'm thinking I'll probably need the same E-brake cables you had made locally (to you). My rotors are probably smaller, and my brake offset may be different, but there's got to be that much adjustment at the pivot bar?? I know Bob is pretty good at keeping tabs on info, so if you or he has the specifics on those cables, I'd sure save me some time and figuring! I've got the source saved somewhere, just need the specs they were made to. I'm using the oem e brake pivot in the stock location as well.} I?ve copied all of the information I had to gather for them to make the emergency brake cables for my Custom 300.

Bob
57 AGIN

[RICH MUISE]

Awesome, Bob. Not a surprise...I somehow knew you'd have all of the info in great detail. Thanks so much for posting all that. I'll give them a call tommorrow and see if the invoice number is enough for them...they probably don't keep records as well as you do.

[RICH MUISE]

Bob: Question on the e-brake cable...Did you/Rick have to do any mods to the routing of the cable, or were you able to use the stock brackets in their stock locations (particularly the one on the frame near the front of the leaf springs). The reason I ask is it would appear the mounting/routing at the caliper is low enough to posibly cause some cable contact with the leaf spring....maybe there was with the oem drums..I don't know as I disconnected the cables many years ago.
I believe you said you didn't have any pics of the cable installed?

[57AGIN]

Rich:

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the e-brake cable installation. I took a bunch of photos of the rest of the rear disc brake install, but nothing about the e-brake cable install.  Rick, who has a very good memory can probably remember if there were any kinks in doing the e-brake cable install.  Sorry about that.

Bob
5 AGIN

[RICH MUISE]

There may be some interference, not positive yet. Tomorrow I'll play with the old oem one just for a better look. I know I can't use the old ones, even though they're in good shape, but hopefully I can at least use one to check the routing.
When I replaced the rear springs, I opted for the 6 leaf version even though I knew it would raise the car 1". My thought at the time was if the added height bothered me, I could run lowering blocks to get it back down, and still have most the advantages of the beefier spring. Now, with that in mind, I may go ahead and add 1" lowering blocks. I think that 1" will eliminate most or all of the potential e-brake cable interference by raising everything up in relation to the spring.

[RICH MUISE]

Awesome....Bob, I just called the cable place you posted the invoice from and gave him your invoice number. 30 seconds later he was telling me exactly what they were and needed no further info except my mailing/billing info. They'll be on the way tomorrow. Thanks a ton...you made it easy!

[57AGIN]

Rich:

Very glad to have bee some help.  The engine is now home and I've begun the cleanup process.  A year of sitting in an active machine shop sure resulted in lots of dust and grime.  I'd really like to take the carburetor box off so I can get to the Air-Gap intake manifold to re-polish it.  It is a bit of a project and I'm the type that can disassemble something and two days later I'm scratching my bald head trying to figure out how to get it back together again.  Oh well, I guess I'll just take lots of photos at every step.

It won't get done today though.  The wife, son and I are going to see the new Star Wars movie in a few minutes.  Then this evening I go straight over to the Bowling Alley for some additional self made torture.

Bob
57 AGAIN

[57tudor]

Hi Guys,

Went out to the garage and took some pic's of my cables. I'm running 12" wide tires and don't have any interference issues as you will see in one of the pic's. I took an additional step and clamped the cables to the chassis just past the retainer on the frame.

Rick.

[RICH MUISE]

Looks pretty straight forward. You and Bob I think are going to make this a no-brainer for me.
Thanks for taking the time to take and post pics.

[RICH MUISE]

Rick...It doesn't appear you have moved your leaf springs inboard, so I'm assuming you have a differential case quite a bit longer than oem? Doesn't affect what you were referencing, just curious. I'm assuming that's the design of the whole package..radiussed wheel wells to allow a longer housing so wider tires would clear the frame/springs/everything else??
My inner side of caliper is really close in line to the springs, which is why I was concerned with e-brake cable interference....it looks like yours has 3-4 inches there.

[57tudor]

Rich,

Currie Enterprise made my severe duty housing and there thinking was to add an inch to each side so that the calipers would clear the leaf springs. Good thing they did as there is just over an inch between the calipers and the springs on each side. The springs are in the stock location and were never relocated. When I was a young kid, a friend gave me a Hot Rod magazine that had an article about a 57 Ford Gasser that had the rear wheel wells radiussed. I really liked the look and the ability to get a bigger tire in there. One Rainey day I had dropped my mom off at a shopping mall. Coming back home a guy in a new VW ran a red light and hit me in the right rear wheel damaging the wheel and messed up the quarter panel around the wheel. His VW was a mess and not drivable.  Turns out, this guy was late for his wedding and now had no car to drive and was even more late to his wedding. This was the turning point for me as I rediussed both rear wheel wells, and was able to get a wider set of slicks on the car and get my ET & MPH numbers improved as I was running at Loins Drag strip and Orange Co. International Raceway in those days. I was running the stock housing and drum brakes at that time with different axels and a posi 4:88 on the street and strip. Those were the fun days.

Rick,

[RICH MUISE]

Mine got narrowed recently...3/4 per side. Any closer and it would have been a problem with the disc brake kit...not from a clearance issue once mounted, but getting at the boltsto mount it.

[57tudor]

Hi Guys,

Found another pic of how close the emergency brake spring on the caliper is to the leaf spring.ick.

Rick.

[RICH MUISE]

Your's appears to be as close as mine to the spring, if not closer, which is really strange since your case is +1" per side and mine is -3/4. Possibly the difference..... We both have '88 T-Bird calipers, but yours may be different than mine. Same design, same look, but it's a posibility yours is bigger. The reason I say that is because when I called your company (the one Bob listed)initially to get a price on the kit and discuss details of the kit, I believe I remember him emphasizing the fact that they were 88 T-Bird Turbo calipers. Their/your kit was a little out of my budget, so I kept looking and found the Summit kit 200. less if I remember. So maybe the difference is your calipers are from a turbo T-Bird and mine aren't.