8.8 turbocoupe rearend? What do I need?

depending on how old the stuff is, you might end up putting new calipers on. I had to.

You will need an e-brake cable. applying the e-brake is what causes the discs to adjust (drums self adjust when ever you brake in reverse). Get the cable from the 93 Cobra. It's longer than the stock.

Best bet for the brake line from the car to the rear end is to find a trans shop to make you a line. I took the line from both the Stang and the T-Bird to a trans shop, showed them how I wanted the two pieces aranged, and how long I wanted it (I think 12", but you should get under the car and check) and had them make me a stainless line. I think they charged me ~$25.

Don't know about your car, but on the Stangs (assuming it's the same), you have to drill new holes in the bracket on the axle for the quads. About 1-3/4" higher than the current holes. DO THIS BEFORE YOU PUT THE AXLE IN THE CAR! Otherwise, it's a PITA. Or... once the axle is dropped, it's a perfect time for new upper and lower control arms. I wish I would of done this when I put my axle in. But, w/ new arms and bushings, the quad shocks aren't needed.

While the axle is out of the car, flush and fill the axle lube. And remember to put the friction modifier in it. W/out a pump, you can't fill this once it's in the car.

And... while the axle is out, it would be a great time to rebuild the trac loc. $40 kit. WELL worth the money. Again, this is MUCH easier to do while the axle is on a bench vs. in the car.

Other than that, you should have it covered.

Been there and done that! With success!

Do the 87-88 T-Bird Turbo Coupe rear end swap!

Auto trans 87-88 Tbird Turbo Coupes come with 3.73 gears and manual Turbo Coupes come with 3.55 gears. I choose 3.55 since I do more highway driving. Both ratios have 10.5 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, http://www.svo73mm.cjb.net/. 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 unless you have aftermarket parts to soak up the wheel hop.

You will need a proportioning valve, Summit has one for $40 + shipping.
You will need a kit (FMS makes the part) to gut the stock proportioning valve, Summit also has that, about $10.


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.

Bleeding the brakes will require 2 people and some coordinated effort. I don’t recommend using you 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 http://www.mustangcentral.net/tech/brake.html for help with the emergency brake - the stock setup tends to lock up and not release properly.

All in all I have been very pleased with the results.

if you buy brackets from http://www.northracecars.com/catalog/brakes/brakes.htm
you will be able to use your old axles and the wheels won't stick out. Which in turn will eliminate the need to roll your fenders, and prevent tire rub (if your car is lowered). If you use the brackets, you will have to modify the the splash guards to fit behind the bracket instead of the front (normal position) because the little bolts holding the splashguard on will rub against the rotors (learned that one the hard way ). All in all, it was a nice mod and my 85gt is a much nicer ride for it.

Mark

orangecapri said:

If I use the disc, ill use the turbocoupe axles as im not worried about the width, but I was just wondering if I can use the stock axles along with the stock drum brakes to get me by for now.

Click to expand...

Yes. No brake replumbing is needed if you stick with the drums in the rear.

If you mean can you put just brakes on and not the whole rear end, yes, with the new brackets. Just rip all the drum stuff off, bolt on the bracket, put the old axle back in, rotors then the calipers. You'll still have the master cylinder issues. I would do those first, new master, gut old proportioning valve and install new one, then rear calipers.

Oh that's what you meant, then what he said.