A while back I did the 73mm front caliper / master cylinder upgrade on my car, but I'm still not happy with the braking. I want to upgrade to rear discs in the near future. I can't do the Cobra brake upgrade, as I want to keep my 15" Welds and my 4 lug 31 spline axles. I already have an SVO master cylinder on the car. What calipers, rotors, brackets, etc. would I need to do the swap? Can I just buy one of the kits, I think Stainlees Steel brakes makes one? I want to make sure I have a working parking brake as well.
Rear disc brake conversion, what parts do I need?
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srothfuss
Last night I stabbed the same guy 7 times in a row
Both Baer and SSBC sell a kit for around $600.00 or so to convert the drums to 4 lug disc brakes.
I don't know if you want to spend that much money but the baer kit is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about.
I don't know if you want to spend that much money but the baer kit is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about.
srothfuss
Last night I stabbed the same guy 7 times in a row
Last year the prices were in the $600.00 - $650.00 zone, but they might have been increased at the begining of the year as a market adjustment.
One day I'll buy the Baer kit 12" 4-lug rotors up front and 11" 4-lug rotors out back....
I can only imagine that the price of piecing together a kit would be cheaper, but it will also take longer to gather parts and such.
One day I'll buy the Baer kit 12" 4-lug rotors up front and 11" 4-lug rotors out back....
I can only imagine that the price of piecing together a kit would be cheaper, but it will also take longer to gather parts and such.
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. 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” 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. Do a search on garden and you'll find it complete with pictures.
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.
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. 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” 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. Do a search on garden and you'll find it complete with pictures.
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.
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