does anyone have 4lug rear disc conversion kits?
would like to buy the parts, go to work, install them and then be able to go home with the same wheels
Auto trans 87-88 Tbird Turbo Coupes come with 3.73 gears and manual Turbo Coupes come with 3.55 gears.
Cost is $125-$300 for the rear axle. Add another $100-$200 or so to complete the brake upgrade.
I choose 3.55 since I do more highway driving. Both ratios have 10 5/16" disk brakes with vented rotors as standard equipment.
It takes 2 guys the first day to get the old rear end out and the new one bolted in place.
It takes 1 guy another whole day to do the brakes.
You will need a several sets of fittings, I recommend that you get them from Matt90GT's website, 87-93 Mustang 5.0 Brake upgrade pages. Improve your 60-0 times!. Read Matt's instructions thoroughly, everything you need to know about the brakes is all there.
You need to be patient and follow all the internal links, and there are many of them.
You will need 2 fittings in the rear to adapt your old brake tubing to the TC disk brakes.
The fittings go between the steel tube and the caliper brake hose.
You will need another set of fittings to make a 2 port to 3 port adapter. To make life simpler,
just buy the kits from Matt. You could piece them together, but it's not worth the time unless
you work at an auto parts store with all the fittings ever made.
You will need to drill the quad shock mounting holes 2” below the holes drilled for the Turbo Coupe
mounting points. The bolts are metric, so don’t loose them or the nuts. A 15/32” drill should be
about the right size unless you have access to metric sized drill bits. Going without quad shocks is
not an option.
You will need a proportioning valve, Summit has one for $42 + shipping. Wildwood 260-8419
You will need a kit (FMS makes the part) to gut the stock proportioning valve, Summit also
has that, about $18. Ford Racing M-2450-A
You will need a new master cylinder, see Matt's site and make you choice. I used a 94-95 Mustang
master cylinder. Note that rebuilt 94-95 Mustang master cylinders do not come with a reservoir.
That means a trip to the junkyard and some more money spent.
Your brake pedal may be very hard and almost impossible to lock up the brakes. I had to replace
the front calipers with 73 mm calipers from a 91 Lincoln Mark 7 to get the braking performance up to par.
You can use the stock 5.0 booster if it is in good working condition. No need to replace the booster.
Bleeding the brakes will require 2 people and some coordinated effort. I don’t recommend using your
wife or girlfriend to pump the pedal – they get offended when you yell at them. I used a homemade
power brake bleeder constructed from a garden sprayer and some fittings from Home Depot. It cost
about $25 and was worth every penny. See how hard is it to bleed brakes? - Mustang Forums at StangNet
for details and pictures.
See Mustang Central.net FMS M2300K Brake Install for help with the emergency brake. The red words
link to some very useful photos on how to modify the handle. The stock setup tends to lock up and not release properly.
All in all I have been very pleased with the results.
Identifying a Turbo Coupe rear axle:
1.) Measure the rotors - a TC disk brake uses 10 5/16" vented rotors.
2.) Measure the length of the quad shock mount arm and compare it to the mount on your existing stock axle.
The TC quad shock mount arm is about 8" long if I remember correctly.
3.) Measure the distance between the axle flanges and compare it to stock. The TC rear axle assembly is
3/4" wider per side, or 1 1/2" wider for both sides.
The SSBC kit is a good one. Complete kit with all necessary parts to convert your rear drums to discs.
But, others have had success piecing together parts (like jrichker mentions). I have found (in recent discussions and research on this board) that the primary cost savings when putting it together yourself comes if you can acquire a complete T-Bird Turbo Coupe rear end. Other than that, I haven't found much of a savings over the complete SSBC kit.
Latemodel Restoration had the SSBC kit for $650 (or close to that).