What's a 9" rear and why would I want one?

[plainsmen]

I've a '65 coupe with stock suspension I believe

A guy replied to my wanted for those rims:

I have a set on my 76 mecurury grand monarch. it also has 9in rear with disk brakes and the really rare 351w engine. they are realy dirty but very complete and they have the same lincoln caps as your pic.

Pretty noob question but I really don't know.

 

[plainsmen]

Ahhhh nevermind. A guy from a different forum straighted me out on the 8-9" thing.

I'm still interested in those disc brakes he has on there though. What should a guy pay? I'd just need the ones for the rear as I already have them up front.

 

[krash kendall]

You honestly don't need rear disk brakes on your car. You will need to change the master cylinder, maybe the proportioning valve, and say goodbye to ever having a decent parking brake, all for performance that you will hardly, if at all, notice. Don't just spend money and time for the sake of it when you could be putting it to other upgrades that you will appreciate more.

 

[302 coupe]

agreed. I have a versailles disc rear in my car, I would rather it be drum brakes. The older OEM rear disc stuff is getting obsolete (thus expensive if you can find it), plus its heavy as hell. Very minimal performance improvement for a street car or even a mild track car.

 

[ultrastang]

I wouldn't say that you can't get a parking brake that works with rear discs.

I converted a friend's '65 Mustang ('59 Fairlane 9-inch drum brake rear under it) to Mk VII discs back in '02. I hooked up the existing drum parking brake cables to the Mk VII's calipers, and they worked fine.

Since that time, I've sold more than 100+ conversion kits for the Mk VII rear disc setup all over the U.S., Canada, and even as far away as Sweden, with good feedback from the owners.

My '68 started out with manual 4-wheel drums. I had swapped in a '57 Ford station wagon, big bearing, drum brake, 9-inch rear into my '68 in '96. In '97, I swapped it for a '79 Lincoln Versailles disc brake rear end.

I've recently taken the Versailles out to be replaced by an '80 Monarch 9-inch drum brake rear end that I'm converting to discs using the '94-'04 Cobra rear discs, using a new conversion bracket I designed. These brakes are considerably lighter than the old Versailles units.

I'm trying to sort out tying the Cobra caliper's parking brake cables back into existing cable system of my '68. IF this doesn't work, I'm quite sure the adaptation of a late model brake lever mounted on the driveshaft tunnel will be more than effective in actuating the parking brake levers of the SN-95 Mustang calipers.

Some advantages of discs over drums is that they run cooler, maintenance on changing brake pads can be done MUCH faster than with changing shoes on a drum brake system, plus they have a much higher "cool-factor" when looking at them through the spokes of the wheels, as compared to drums.

I suppose it's just a matter of taste as to what you like, vs. what you don't like.

Mk VII rear disc installation:
http://www.ultrastang.com/Ultrainfo.asp?Page_ID=11

My current adaptation (in progress) of Cobra rear discs:
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6366/cobrabrakehosemount0244jj.jpg


www.ultrastang.com

 

[CarFreakGT]

So, are you guys saying that rear discs aren't worth it? Sorry if it's a stupid question, but I'm new to classics. It's not an upgrade that I was going to do immediately, but that I was thinking about in the future. More worthwhile to go disc in front, leave drum in rear, and spend the $$$ elsewhere?

Thanks for any input.