I lucked into complete versailles rear disc set up less 9" housing. as far as I can tell it should bolt onto my 65 8" housing . Anyone know if it will or what problems I may have. I have discs in front and know I have to change m/cyl to all disc anything else?
they absolutely will not bolt onto an 8" housing. they use the bigger bearing housing. also the offset on the axles is different than a standard drum rearend.
Apparently Versailles brakes arent all they are cracked up to be... ive seen pics of the rotor cracked and seperated from the rotor hat, as well as reports that drums work better for stopping and e-brake. there are better options for rear disks now though from what I understand.
I don't know who started that rumor...possibly Mustang & Fords (??), but the Versailles does not have a fixed rear caliper that would cause the rotor to crack. I've had two Versailles, and know for a fact that the calipers are "floating units" and not fixed. --they are setup just like the (Granada-style) front calipers --as floating units.
If the rotors were cracked, it's because someone overheated them or ran them beyond their minimum thickness limits, or possibly from not coating the anchor plates with anti-seize, so the caliper could move as the pads wore down.
I don't know who started that rumor...possibly Mustang & Fords (??), but the Versailles does not have a fixed rear caliper that would cause the rotor to crack. I've had two Versailles, and know for a fact that the calipers are "floating units" and not fixed. --they are setup just like the (Granada-style) front calipers --as floating units.
If the rotors were cracked, it's because someone overheated them or ran them beyond their minimum thickness limits, or possibly from not coating the anchor plates with anti-seize, so the caliper could move as the pads wore down.
exactly. there is absolutely nothing wrong with the versailles brakes, the work just fine. anyone that has ever had a problem with the versailles brakes cracking rotors was because of poor maintenance or downright neglect rather than a flawed braking system.
the only drawback to the versailles brakes is that they are VERY heavy. in the case of an early mustang, though, that's not necessarily a bad thing as the F/R weight distribution is biased toward the front anyway, but it's also unsprung weight which isn't exactly the ideal way to add weight to a car, especially a leaf sprung car.
Up until about 6 or 8 months ago, I had a '79 Versailles under my '68 notchback. I removed it to replace it with a 9-inch rear end I had gotten from an '80 model Mercury Monarch. The Monarch 9-inch was originally a drum brake rear end. I converted it over to SN-95 Cobra rear discs. You can see some photos of it at the following link;