Stang axles in a Turbo Coupe Rearend ??

Katmandu

Founding Member
Apr 7, 2002
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17
Troy, Ohio
I recently picked up an 88 Turbo Couple rearend minus the axles (long story) to install in my 89.

I remember reading somewhere, that the Stang axles will fit/work in the TC housing even though it's 1.5" wider.

I want to install the TC rear since it has 3.55s -Vs- my Stang's 2.73s. The other problem is that the calipers/rotors are shot on the TC rear. So for now, I'm going to stick with my 10" drums and need to reuse my Stang's axles.

Can someone verify/expand on the whether or not my Stang's axles will interchange into the TC rear ??
 
I did read an article in Feb 5.0 mag where a guy put a t-bird rear end in his 92lx. The tech sheet showed he had SN95 28 spline axles. I guess, now the question is are the SN95's the same as the fox's. :shrug:
 
Yes the stock axles will fit, but there are some other problems...

The TC axles are 3/4" longer on each side. The disc brake mounts have a brace welded to the axle so you can't just unbolt them. The mount will probably be in the way of mounting the drum brakes, so you will need to cut them off. New rotors are about $40 each and the cailpers are about $55 each exchange, pads about $10 a side .

Here's my experience with the TC swap. Count the $$$ for the extra parts that I listed above and you will have a ballpark idea of the total cost.

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.

Auto trans 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.

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 8 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.
 
jrichker said:
Yes the stock axles will fit, but there are some other problems...

The TC axles are 3/4" longer on each side. The disc brake mounts have a brace welded to the axle so you can't just unbolt them. The mount will probably be in the way of mounting the drum brakes, so you will need to cut them off.

:nice:

Just to verify, the TC axles are 3/4" longer on the HUB side Correct ??

If that's the case then the Stang and TC Housings ARE the same lengths then Correct ??