Five bolt front brake conversion 101.
Step one: Secure a Ford Mustang II or for that matter a Ford Pinto or Mercury Bobcat.
Step Two: Get a brake kit. Mine was an Allstar Kit.
My photo almost looks as good as theirs. hehe.
Check out the rotor size differance!
Step Three: Remove your stock rotors, cailpers and cailiper brackets. I think the fog in the picture was my breath (cold here in the winter)
Step Four: Bolt on kit supplied cailiper bracket. You will need a 1/2 fine thread bolt for the upper mount that is not included in the kit.
Step Five: Remove the stock rotor dust shields. They are too small to be effective and they rub the new rotors
(ask me how I know
)
Step Six: Clearance the lower control arms slightly. (I used an angle grinder). The left was worse then the right for some reason. Paint the exposed metal so it does not rust.
Hard to see in the picture but, if you look close you can see the rotor just brushes the lower control arm before clearancing.
Step Seven: Pack the supplied wheel bearings and instal the supplied rotor grease seals and instal the new rotors. You need to resuse your: spindle nut, spindle washer and bearing dust cap.
Step Eight: Load the brake pads and install the brake cailiper. (Brake pad changes take 2 minutes with this new set-up, Kool for open track days!!) Remember to lube the slider bolts with cailper lube.
Step Nine: Install the flex lines. I used Allstars brake line kit. I found it to be a little short. The actual line is just generic dash 3 brake line with threaded fittings on both ends, so I will likely use the supplied fittings and a 1" or 2" longer line. In Allstars defence this kit is intended for Hot Rods and Race cars and not a true bolt-on Mustang II brake upgrade. The lines were not designed to fit factory Mustang II flex line bracketry. The brake line kit was also very inexpensive.
Step Ten: Bleed the brake system. At this point the front is finished. It is now time to bolt on one of the 10 million new wheel choices that fit a Ford 5 on 4 1/2" or GM 5 on 4 3/4" bolt pattern.
(you can order the kit with either popular bolt pattern)
I ordered The Ford kit because GM cailipers was as far as I would dare go to the other side!
This thread is for entertainment and information purposes ONLY. Always use Jack Stands when working under your car! Please don't sue me if you injure yourself messing with your brakes
Stay tuned, I will post a "how to" on the rear 5 bolt conversion shortly. It will be called either "Mustang II axles don't like to come out" or "When your father said doing brake stands would kill your wheel cylinders, he was right".
