Build Thread Fox Length Axles And Stock Sn95 Brake Brackets

88LX5.Oh

15 Year Member
Dec 30, 2011
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Arkansas
Alright as many of you know, an SN95's axles are 3/4 of an inch longer than fox length axles. So, this puts the brake location out farther. Most people just go out and buy special bracket kits to make fox length axles work with SN brakes. Well I decided not to do this. Here's what I did:


I started off with no brakes on the rear end because that's how I bought it. Hopefully you guys can get yourself this far without assistance, because if you're going to tackle this, you should be able to simply remove calipers and bridges.

1) Remove the 4 nuts/bolts holding each of the brackets onto the axle housing. I used a 9/16 on both sides of the bracket.
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2) Using your preferred cutting tool (mine was a sawzall but I'm sure a cut off wheel would be good), cut off the front top bolt hole of both brackets. By front I mean the bolt hole that would be facing toward the front of the car if it were still bolted up. Such as right here. This was the factory right hand side bracket.
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The one cut in this picture below shows how the factory LEFT hand side will look when cut

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3) Take one of your newly cut brackets and put it on the OPPOSITE side of the rear end. This part you must pay attention to. I did not flip or rotate the bracket. Simply grab the bracket, take it from it's original location, and move it to the INSIDE of the flange on the opposite side of the rear end. If done correctly (no flipping or rotating) the FLAT side of the bracket will be touching flat against the INSIDE of the flange (stock went outside). And the grooved side will be facing in toward the differential instead of away from it when in stock configuration.
Factory right hand side bracket will now be the left hand side and the factory left hand side will be the right hand side bracket.
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4) After you have installed the brackets correctly, it's time to put your axles in. Slide them in, put your C clips in, then slide the axles back out to where they stop on the C clips. Then you need to put the pin in the carrier and bolt it back in. Put the rotors on and put at least one lug nut on it to bring the rotor flat against the axle, this will help when putting the caliper back on.

5) Now you're ready to bolt the caliper bridges in place. I ended up having to use a washer between the bridge and the bracket because the bridge was almost coming in contact with the rotor. I don't know how thick these washers were so you'll just have to play around with a few until you get them right.
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6) Put your brake pads on and then the calipers. Make sure everything is bolted down securely and make sure your axles still spin.

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I went ahead and took everything back apart and painted the bridges and calipers

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And here's a picture of how the grooved side of the bracket faces toward the differential instead of away from it in the stock configuration.

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If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, post 'em! I'd be glad to hear them.
 
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Where did you get your Fox length 5 lug axles?
Where is the best place to get them?
Can the original 4 lugs be redrilled for 5 lugs?

Thanks!
Great write up!
It should get a sticky.
There is a sticky'd article on doing the same thing, that was done about 6 years ago, and all the links and pics in the thread are dead, so it's pretty useless.
I was glad to see you re-did it.
 
I got these axles through LRS in their cheap 5 lug conversion kit

I almost always order through Summit. I've been using them for over 2 years now and always had good dealings with them. Jegs is also a reputable company and I've had good experience with them as well. And of course, LRS is a good place to get them. American Muscle is a bit pricey, but they have a good selection as well.

And about drilling holes in the 4 lug axles - I haven't tried this, actually didn't even think about it. But I would imagine it would be pretty difficult to get the bolt pattern precise.

And, thank you!
I figured someone had to had done this before, but never could find much on it besides a couple of pictures Noobz had so I figured I would finally contribute to this website lol ;)
 
Let me know how the rotors and axles work for you. There is a small space between the sn95 rotors and the fox axles, you will see that the rotor does not actually sit on the axle. There is a company that makes a ring spacer to fix this, which I bought. I can't find the website right now. I wondered how necessary they were, but I was afraid to go without it. Nice write up by the way. If you want, you can weld the cut section back in.

Joe
 
Let me know how the rotors and axles work for you. There is a small space between the sn95 rotors and the fox axles, you will see that the rotor does not actually sit on the axle. There is a company that makes a ring spacer to fix this, which I bought. I can't find the website right now. I wondered how necessary they were, but I was afraid to go without it. Nice right up by the way. If you want, you can weld the cut section back in.

Joe
Yeah I was actually thinking of welding them back in, but not sure if I will or not. And thanks for the link to those ring spacers. I was wondering what I was going to do about that!
 
There is a way to cut those brackets so you can use all 4 bolts to hold the flange to the axle.

You simply notch in at a slight angle where the wider gap between the two holds is next to the mount that holds the dust shield.
 
True. Well I'll be watching this thread because I have '96 Cobra brakes(front and rear) that I'll be putting on my car and it seems like this way is easier than using the fox rearend. What MC and booster are you using?
 
True. Well I'll be watching this thread because I have '96 Cobra brakes(front and rear) that I'll be putting on my car and it seems like this way is easier than using the fox rearend. What MC and booster are you using?
My car suspension and brake wise is completely factory right now. Car's at paint and body shop. Once I get it back, I'll be putting in this rear end and then go from there. So to answer your question - stock

Why not use the fox rear end? This thread is about using fox rear ends with SN95 brakes. The fox and SN95 axle housings are exactly the same, no differences. Only differences in them are axle lengths and brake set ups (disk and drums)
This is what's needed to do this mod.
1) fox length 5 lug axles
2) SN95 brake brackets
3) SN95 Caliper bridges
4) SN95 calipers
5) SN95 rotors and pads
 
Let me know how the rotors and axles work for you. There is a small space between the sn95 rotors and the fox axles, you will see that the rotor does not actually sit on the axle. There is a company that makes a ring spacer to fix this, which I bought. I can't find the website right now. I wondered how necessary they were, but I was afraid to go without it. Nice write up by the way. If you want, you can weld the cut section back in.

Joe


I think most folks just shim the brackets with some grade 8 washers.
 
Yes, that's what I had to do. But this is for the caliper itself sitting on the axle end.
IMG_0157.jpg


I thought that what they were and here's my thought process on that whole thing... When you shim the brake bracket, the only force that the bolts have to deal with is sheer force as the brakes are applied. Sheer force that's WELL within the limit of a grade 8 bolt.

With those spacers though... You're shimming the wheel away from the hub with a relatively small surface area. That wheel sees sheer, tension, and bending forces, often all at the same time.

So wouldn't it be better to move the bracket slightly so that everything mates flat?

I dunno, maybe I'm still not getting the purpose of the thing.
 
I thought that what they were and here's my thought process on that whole thing... When you shim the brake bracket, the only force that the bolts have to deal with is sheer force as the brakes are applied. Sheer force that's WELL within the limit of a grade 8 bolt.

With those spacers though... You're shimming the wheel away from the hub with a relatively small surface area. That wheel sees sheer, tension, and bending forces, often all at the same time.

So wouldn't it be better to move the bracket slightly so that everything mates flat?

I dunno, maybe I'm still not getting the purpose of the thing.

those spacers hes talking about dont move the wheel OUT, they just adapt the fox axles to make the sn rotors hub-centric instead of lug-centric (the sn hub is a larger diameter than the fox hub). basically its like a bearing race that slips over the fox axle hub, and the sn rotor slips over the spacer, centering the rotor on the axle, and the back of the rotor still sits on the front of the axle flange. iirc you can also get aftermarket fox-length axles with the sn hub and lug pattern and avoid using the ring spacer.

the washers between the caliper and the bracket are to center the caliper over the rotor, some need more than others (production tolerances). even a lot of the nrc brackets need washers like this to line them up right.
 
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