Do the 87-88 T-Bird Turbo Coupe rear end swap!
Best bet on a budget - just be sure to upgrade the front calipers to 73 MM units when you install the rear disks. You can use your stock booster and save some $$$
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 unless you have aftermarket parts to soak up the wheel hop.
You will need a proportioning valve, Summit has one for $42 + shipping. Wilwood 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 some 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.
Use the stock booster if it is in good working order. There is no need to replace it with a different unit.
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 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.
Best bet on a budget - just be sure to upgrade the front calipers to 73 MM units when you install the rear disks. You can use your stock booster and save some $$$
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 unless you have aftermarket parts to soak up the wheel hop.
You will need a proportioning valve, Summit has one for $42 + shipping. Wilwood 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 some 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.
Use the stock booster if it is in good working order. There is no need to replace it with a different unit.
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 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.
Toss them in the trash and buy OEM rotors. There's an upgrade right there.
In terms of other upgrades, you could install Stainless hoses up front and in the rear, install the steel caliper guide bushings, run a quality brake pad, flush the brake system and use Synthetic DOT brake fluid.
I'd highly recommend a t-bird rear disk setup. You'd then need a 93 cobra MC and booster.
A booster swap alone on the stock brakes won't really help much.
for cheap but still decent
either this
1987-1993 Mustang GT/5.0L 73mm Front Caliper Upgrade kit [ 18-4150-51 ] from Brothers Performance Warehouse
or this
1987-1993 Mustang GT/5.0L Level 3 Front 73mm Caliper Brake Package [ KT300 ] from Brothers Performance Warehouse
1987-1993 Mustang GT/5.0L Level 3 Front 73mm Caliper Brake Package w/ Steel Lines [ KT301 ] from Brothers Performance Warehouse
1987-1993 Mustang GT/5.0L Level 4 Front Slotted Rotor Brake Package [ KT304 ] from Brothers Performance Warehouse
either this
1987-1993 Mustang GT/5.0L 73mm Front Caliper Upgrade kit [ 18-4150-51 ] from Brothers Performance Warehouse
or this
1987-1993 Mustang GT/5.0L Level 3 Front 73mm Caliper Brake Package [ KT300 ] from Brothers Performance Warehouse
1987-1993 Mustang GT/5.0L Level 3 Front 73mm Caliper Brake Package w/ Steel Lines [ KT301 ] from Brothers Performance Warehouse
1987-1993 Mustang GT/5.0L Level 4 Front Slotted Rotor Brake Package [ KT304 ] from Brothers Performance Warehouse
I did something a little different on my '85 and really like the way it turned out. My goal was to dramatically improve braking while retaining the 4-lug 10 hole stocker look. I of course upgraded spindles and rotors up front from a '92. Out back I pulled my axle shafts and had the faces turned down enough to allow a set of Audi 90S Quattro rotors to fit over them. I also purchased a set of '95 Cadillac Eldorado rear calipers (e-brake built in), the Audi rotors and an adaptor bracket from a guy who sells them on eBay that allows the whole thing to work. From there, it was VERY straightforward and required very little more other than an adjustable proportioning valve (mentioned above). I was even able to retain my stock master cylinder / booster setup. [The machine work was the expensive piece, but I'm pretty sure the guy ripped me off, correctly figuring I couldn't do it at home.] Man, does it stop now! If interested, I can provide points of contact and further details.