retrofitting abs

gonzothegreat · Aug 28, 2007

I've thinking for a while now about retrofitting an abs system.
Has anyone tried to do so? Using cobra discs?

anyone

NasaGT · Aug 28, 2007

I've been wondering the same thing. Searches on this forum have turned up zilch on the subject.

I'm planning on installing Cobra brakes and very much want to hookup ABS. I havent done any real research other than searching here, but had thought that a 99-04 GT computer and a significant chunk of its wiring harness might make this possible. The computer might have to be tricked into thinking that some of the other sensors are available though. I picked up a shop manual for my 02 GT, but I haven't delved into how the ABS works yet.

Maybe someone else will chime in with lots of good info.

gonzothegreat · Aug 28, 2007

Here a coupe of links which are very interesting:
http://www.chicane23.com/chicane23/abs.php
and
http://forums.corner-carvers.com/showthread.php?t=25738

NasaGT · Aug 29, 2007

gonzothegreat said:
Here a coupe of links which are very interesting:
http://www.chicane23.com/chicane23/abs.php
and
http://forums.corner-carvers.com/showthread.php?t=25738

Those are some great links. Thanks!

Looks like the only difficult part would be to mount the sensors rings, particularly in the front. It may be alittle while, but I'm going to try to go to a salvage yard and pickup a sensor ring to see if it could be mated to the front hub somehow.

mikethebike · Aug 29, 2007

One of the things I like about old cars is their simplicity. ABS kind of kills that idea.

gonzothegreat · Aug 29, 2007

mikethebike said:
One of the things I like about old cars is their simplicity. ABS kind of kills that idea.

I see your point, but I like the idea of a classic stang with ABS

Soaring1 · Aug 29, 2007

If you ever locked one up, you would want ABS. This has been discussed on other forums and nobody can figure out how to do it. Let ys know if you do it and have success.

Tubo(2-bo) · Aug 29, 2007

I wouldent be surprised if it took making a "one off", if you could do it. By one off I mean something, that wouldent translate, to an other wise"normal" Mustang. Too specalized, to fit onto other cars.
It'd be a real technoligical challenge, though no doubt something of interest we'd all be like to see.

rbohm · Aug 29, 2007

there is a mechanical abs system that you could use easily. it is a bolt on system, and works by preventing line pressure from getting to high thus preventing the brakes from locking. i forget the website though. as for electronic abs, dont forget that by the time these systems rolled around, EVERYTHING was integrated into the computer system in the car, and everything needed to work together for the abs to work properly. personally i am with mikethebike on this one too, too much work for not enough gain to bother with.

Soaring1 · Aug 29, 2007

rbohm said:
there is a mechanical abs system that you could use easily. it is a bolt on system, and works by preventing line pressure from getting to high thus preventing the brakes from locking. i forget the website though. as for electronic abs, dont forget that by the time these systems rolled around, EVERYTHING was integrated into the computer system in the car, and everything needed to work together for the abs to work properly. personally i am with mikethebike on this one too, too much work for not enough gain to bother with.

Agreed. Upgrading to ABS requires upgrading to EFI and the whole computer shindig. Not worth the time or the money spent to get it done. Not even sure it can be done on a classic anyway. Just enjoy your classic as it is, a 40+ old car that if fun to drive.

zookeeper · Aug 29, 2007

I don't see what the big deal is, heck my first car was a hot rod Model A with '48 Ford hydraulic drums. Talk about ABS, you couldn't lock those babies up on a bet!

bnickel · Aug 30, 2007

fortunately, the SN-95 ABS system is a stand alone system and can easily be retrofitted to other cars including a classic stang. the F/R weight bias is close to the same as a classic stang so theoretically it would work about as well on a classic as it does on a 98 GT.

i have bookmarked all of these threads and may give this a try on the 69 cougar project.

gonzothegreat · Aug 30, 2007

bnickel said:
fortunately, the SN-95 ABS system is a stand alone system and can easily be retrofitted to other cars including a classic stang. the F/R weight bias is close to the same as a classic stang so theoretically it would work about as well on a classic as it does on a 98 GT.

i have bookmarked all of these threads and may give this a try on the 69 cougar project.

Agreed, also you can have disc/drum ABS system.
The difficult part would be to fit the sensor rings

NasaGT · Aug 30, 2007

Soaring1 said:
Upgrading to ABS requires upgrading to EFI and the whole computer shindig. Not worth the time or the money spent to get it done.

Not true, the SN95 setup is an independent system. the computer isn't needed, just the ABS controller, the sensor rings, and the sensors.

rbohm · Aug 30, 2007

bnickel said:
fortunately, the SN-95 ABS system is a stand alone system and can easily be retrofitted to other cars including a classic stang. the F/R weight bias is close to the same as a classic stang so theoretically it would work about as well on a classic as it does on a 98 GT.

i have bookmarked all of these threads and may give this a try on the 69 cougar project.

this i did not know. can you pm me the threads about doing the swap? it would make for interesting reading at least.

Jester67 · Aug 30, 2007

If you changed the front to a strut system something like the fat man system and used an 8.8 rear I would think that this would be somewhat straight forward am I missing something here. I personally do not like ABS on a “driven” car because I like to have as much control of the car as possibly, but I can see why others would like it. I do however like them on a daily driver.

bnickel · Aug 30, 2007

rbohm said:
this i did not know. can you pm me the threads about doing the swap? it would make for interesting reading at least.

those threads are listed in this post above.

bnickel · Aug 30, 2007

gonzothegreat said:
Agreed, also you can have disc/drum ABS system.
The difficult part would be to fit the sensor rings

most drum brake ABS systems from Ford used a tone ring on either the ring gear or the carrier (can't remember which), so that would probably require swapping in an 8.8" rearend from something. i guess it would be possible to somehow mount the tone rings and sensors inside the drum assembly but that might be more trouble than it's worth.

if you were to use a mustang steve (or other vendor) cobra front disc brake kit and an ultrastang rear disc kit and adapt the tone rings and sensors to those parts (should be fairly easy and straight forward) or you could use the fatman kit (i don't personally like that kit) as well.

NasaGT · Aug 30, 2007

bnickel said:
if you were to use a mustang steve (or other vendor) cobra front disc brake kit and an ultrastang rear disc kit and adapt the tone rings and sensors to those parts (should be fairly easy and straight forward)

This is what I am going to try to do. Time to start gathering parts.

bnickel · Aug 30, 2007

NasaGT said:
This is what I am going to try to do. Time to start gathering parts.

make sure to post a progress thread. i'm very interested to see the results.

retrofitting abs

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