"Tweety Bird" Gets Disc Brakes & More

[YellowRose]

"Tweety Bird" Gets Disc Brakes & More

Thanks for the information, Dave! I will wash down my driveway when we are finished. I wish I had caught you home yesterday. You probably would have been able to give me the right information I needed to find that brake hose. With the information you just provided, I should be able to get the right one at O'Reilly's, which is only a few blocks away from me, as is Autozone, but theirs must be gold plated! I am going to Napa, which has it cheaper but is further away.

Yes, I think Rich did a nice job bending the tubing, which is really easy to do with the cunifer EZ bend brake line.

As for the brake light switch he did not put it on yet, but will of course. He also has to splice in some new wiring to it and put on the two new bullet connectors I got. It will be on the passenger side of the MC.

I will tell him what you said about putting some engine paint on the calipers and hubs.

I called NAPA and gave them that BH36646 part number and it did not come up. So he looked it up as 36646 and they have two of them in stock. So I will go get one. And I just did! It cost $9.69 and $10.68 with tax. It looks exactly like the one we took off. I looked at that end where it was leaking, and I cannot see any difference between the two of them. But the one we had on her was leaking bad there. We will see what this one does, hopefully, next Friday.

[simplyconnected]

...As for the brake light switch he did not put it on yet, but will of course...

Huh? How can he bleed brakes without the brake switch plumbed? Better tell him to do that and the hose before bleeding.

The brake line bending pliers do a great job of bending in tight places or when two bends are back-to-back.

[Guest]

Looking good!
Richard D. Hord

[Anders]

Looks Great Ray!

[simplyconnected]

So??? Now that you have power disk brakes, tell us how they are. It seems like the headlight switch catastrophe took over, then we never heard any more about the brakes. What's up? - Dave

[YellowRose]

"Tweety Bird" Gets Disc Brakes & More

Hi Dave,

The disc brakes work! I would like a bit more pedal though, and we will check that out. Howard has provided me with some additional information on adjusting the adjustable hockey stick to get the brake pedal a little higher away from the floor when fully depressed. We have not driven the car on the street yet to test them, but by all indications, moving it up and down the driveway, and putting it into the garage, they are working fine. The problem with the headlight switch is taking center stage now, and a new one should be here today. Here is the last picture I took of the under the hood set up now.

[YellowRose]

"Tweety Bird" Gets Disc Brakes & More

This morning my mechanic friend got the new headlight switch installed and working properly. When we got the old one out, we looked it over. It was probably an after market switch because we did not see any FOMOCO logo on it. We think this is probably not the first time that the headlight switch has been worked on in the past from the looks of the center section where you screw it into the switch. We tried to see if we could get that release button to work at all, but it seems to be stuck. I am going to send it to simplyconnected and he will take a look at it and hopefully, be able to tell us what happened to it and maybe post some pix as to what happened. At least I know that I am not the only one on here who has had the button lock up on them and not be able to get a shaft out or locked back into place. Several others have told me they have had the same problem in the past.

We took the Bird out and test drove it this morning and it brakes well. I will have to be careful in how I brake because it can put you against the steering wheel! Or as Dave says, through the windshield if you are not used to the way it brakes now compared to how it used to. There is no grabbing of one brake or the other. When you brake it brakes straight.

So I have things about ready for the next car show in April, the VTCI Regional in Austin. Except that it needs a good clean up job. But I will get to that. Thanks for all the help with this project!

[Jimz Bird]

Congratulations Ray!

Good to hear that the project was successful.

It is always encouraging to all of to see projects - even with unanticipated delays - turn out well.

[juantejeda]

JUst a quick comment and question

The work looks great
If you don't mind me asking, what sis it all end up costing you?
Question: Who much room do you have left for removing the Head Cover on that side? Is it going top make for an ordeal when you need to get that cover off or is there enough room to get the bolts off and the cover off?

[YellowRose]

"Tweety Bird" Gets Disc Brakes & More

Hi TJ,

To answer your last question first, my mechanic thinks that the valve cover can be taken off without any interference from the dual MC/Booster combo without any major problems.

I did this conversion project in two steps. First I shopped for parts, doing price comparisons between the various auto parts stores. I bought from the store that had the same parts but for lesser price. Then later, after all the parts were ready, we did the installation.

As to parts costs, I spent a total of $645.30, not including the 14" rims, which cost me around $100 for 5 disc brake ready rims off a disc brake ready Granada. I also had to make sure these rims were vented, and had the nubs to mount my "dog dish" hubcaps. If you have 15" rims you won't have to go looking for 14" rims. As long as those 15" rims are disc brake ready. We used my OEM spindles which worked just as they are. Nothing had to be done to them to make them work. We used the 11" '68 Mustang Rotors which seem to work well. We went with the Scarbird Spindle Mounting Brackets because they seem to be the best. I hope this helps.

[juantejeda]

Disc Brakes

Yes it does. One of these days I will probably do this to mine. The only thing that's keeping me from doing it is that I really like my Spoked wheels. Don't know if I'm ready to give them up.

[Jimz Bird]

I ran across this the other day that looks pretty close to the "Hockey Stick" that has been hand made.

Don't know if it will work but may be a consideration.

http://www.cjponyparts.com/adjustable-disc-brake-push-rod-set-1964-1970/p/A21161DB/

Not just sure yet if I need an offset or straight Adjustable pushrod but this may fit without drilling another hole in the brake pedal. I know lots do it but I am just a bit reticent to weaken the lever.

[simplyconnected]

Jim, we use the original 3/8" brake pedal hole. Our kick is at the other end (on the engine side of the firewall). Remember, we're trying to raise the M/C 5" to gain room for a booster that won't interfere with the steering column linkage.

Your detail is clever but it changes the pivot ratio (more stroke but harder pedal). One good point is, it uses the original hole.

The Squarebird is different from most Ford cars. They even have a unique M/C because it is mounted so low. - Dave

[Jimz Bird]

Ahhhh, I see.

Those first pics were of a Mustang rig.

Here are a couple of someone's Baby Bird. You can see the original hole above the new straight adjustable rod pivot point hole. (Also the mechanical brake light switch with the green wires.)

[Howard Prout]

Jim, we use the original 3/8" brake pedal hole. Our kick is at the other end (on the engine side of the firewall). Remember, we're trying to raise the M/C 5" to gain room for a booster that won't interfere with the steering column linkage.

Your detail is clever but it changes the pivot ratio (more stroke but harder pedal). One good point is, it uses the original hole.

The Squarebird is different from most Ford cars. They even have a unique M/C because it is mounted so low. - Dave

The booster/MC is much longer than the original MC and there isn't enough room to fit the combo between the firewall and the engine. A raise of approximately 5" is required to allow the combo to extend over the valve cover but not interfere with the hood when closed. It may be necessary to loosen the MC to provide enough wiggle room remove the left valve cover - however I haven't tried doing so. Changing the #7 and #8 spark plugs will also be more awkward. Hopefully these tasks don't have to be done very often.

Raising the booster/MC 5" requires a pivot arm to transfer the force from the level of the brake pedal push rod to the booster. An assembly received from OID had a pivot arm ratio of 1: 1.875. That ratio was kept but in order to do so, the pivot point had to be lowered to a level that results in interference with the steering column. This was overcome by pinching the brackets together at the lower end. This made fabricating the brackets a demanding task.

A revised design raises the pivot point to eliminate the need to pinch the brackets. The revised pivot arms are a bit shorter than the original version and the ratio of the pivot arms was increased to 1:2. Therefore a bit more foot pressure will be required to achieve the same braking effort but with the strength of the booster, this shouldn't be a problem. The offset of the hockey stick was also increased.

The inside end of the hockey stick is attached to the original bolt on the brake pedal arm as it is direclty in line with the hole through the firewall.