Rear disks on the cheap

[1966ponyguy]

I have been playing around with an ideal to swap my rear brakes (factory drums from a Maverick 8") for some time now, just didn't want to pay the price. So I started measuring and figuring. Found that the rear disks from a 93 - 95 Gran Marq or LTD where $22 bucks each from AutoZone. Then I found that the rear calipers from a 90's Chevy Lumina fit the requirements. Two slightly used calipers from EBay $40 including shipping. I made the mounts from 3/8" flat aluminum. I thought about steel but really didn't see a need. Most of the after-market kits use 1/4 steel with a washer welded on for extra threads. I drilled and tapped the caliper holes for heli-coils for added thread protection. Since the caliper bolts are in a single shear arangement, the aluminum should work fine. The mounts bolt in-place of the original outer axle bearing retainers, had to do a small amount of machine work to get them correct. Worse part of the entire deal was having to press the old bearings off and put the mounts between the hub and new bearings and press the bearings back on. As you can see from the 2 pics, looks right, 11.125 disks, and the original e-brake cables worked out by moving the rear cable clamps about 1" back to allow more room. Factory torque specs for the calipers are 45 lbs. I torqued the bolts to 65 lbs (150%) without problems, I backed back down to 45 lbs after the test, but the aluminum seems to be working. The long and short of it, rear disk setup for about $100.

Question for the group. What master cylinder do the guys and gals running 4 wheel disk use? I'm thinking Explorer:

 

[D.Hearne]

You couldn't have used the complete setup from the 90's Vic? As for the master cylinder, way back in the 80's when I did a conversion from 4 drums to 4 discs, I used a 71 Galaxie manual mastercylinder (front discs/reardrum) in my 67 Stang. Kept the drum distribution block too.

 

[chromedog]

there was a thread a while back about using the entire setup from an crown vic, i cant recall the years involved, but the brackets would fit the small bearing 9", 8" ford rear... the later explorer setup fits the big bearing 9". i will probibly go with the crown vic parts... i cant bring myself to put chevy anything on my mustang

 

[1966ponyguy]

I don't know if I would have used crown vic parts even if I could have found them cheap. From the conversions I have seen, I don't like the mods to the e-brake cables. As far as chevy parts, hey Bendix makes them, they can't help that GM used them. They are happier parts now.

 

[D.Hearne]

The Vic's are cluttering up the junkyards now, especially the cop car versions. This stuff should be cheap fodder for swaps.

 

[HistoricMustang]

The Vic's are cluttering up the junkyards now, especially the cop car versions. This stuff should be cheap fodder for swaps.

Agree!

HistoricMustang

 

[pazur]

why taurus brakes?

Man, can you tell more why did you pick just this combination of calipers and rotors? Many people just recommend some vehicle-specific parts for the swap; my point is that I took complete brake system including power booster from 97 v6 stang and it appears to fit in, but have not done it and want to be sure that it will fit once I get to this job. The only thing that does not completely fit is the hub diameter is about 5mm bigger on 97 than on 67 V8. I think this should not matter much. What should I be especialy careful of?

 

[ultrastang]

Man, can you tell more why did you pick just this combination of calipers and rotors? Many people just recommend some vehicle-specific parts for the swap; my point is that I took complete brake system including power booster from 97 v6 stang and it appears to fit in, but have not done it and want to be sure that it will fit once I get to this job. The only thing that does not completely fit is the hub diameter is about 5mm bigger on 97 than on 67 V8. I think this should not matter much. What should I be especialy careful of?

In 2004, I made some adapter brackets to adapt some wrecking yard rear discs I got from an SN-95 '95 V6 Mustang (same 10.5" soild rear discs as on the Mustang GT models).

I used rotor centering rings to take up the gap and to make the rotors hub-centric, so that the rotor would not be relying on the wheel studs to center the rotor. There's too much slop around the wheel stud holes in the rotor to make the rotor seat in the same exact postion each time it's removed/replaced, or even if you take the wheel off and put it back on, it will disturb the location of the rotor, and the pad will not track in the same exact plane on the rotor's friction surface without a centering ring.


1. http://www.ultrastang.com/images/2006/v6gtsn95reardiscs0460ms.jpg

2. http://www.ultrastang.com/images/2006/v6gtsn95reardiscs0579ky.jpg


http://www.rosehillperformanceparts.com/

 

[pazur]

In 2004, I made some adapter brackets to adapt some wrecking yard rear discs I got from an SN-95 '95 V6 Mustang (same 10.5" soild rear discs as on the Mustang GT models).

I used rotor centering rings to take up the gap and to make the rotors hub-centric, so that the rotor would not be relying on the wheel studs to center the rotor. There's too much slop around the wheel stud holes in the rotor to make the rotor seat in the same exact postion each time it's removed/replaced, or even if you take the wheel off and put it back on, it will disturb the location of the rotor, and the pad will not track in the same exact plane on the rotor's friction surface without a centering ring.


1. http://www.ultrastang.com/images/2006/v6gtsn95reardiscs0460ms.jpg

2. http://www.ultrastang.com/images/2006/v6gtsn95reardiscs0579ky.jpg


http://www.rosehillperformanceparts.com/

I was betting that wheel lug nuts always allign rotors to proper location even without centering rings, because both 94 and 67 have same stud hole diameter (1/2").... anyway thanks for advice, I'll think about grand mark rotors