I know most people are or have converted to 5 lug with disk brakes. Just woundering how many people stayed with 4 lug but added rear disk brakes? How many have upgraded their front brakes?
Keeping 4 lug but adding rear disk brakes
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crazypete
All my crevices are greased.
obtain the old ford mc-2800 (?) rear disc kit. It was designed specifically for the rear drum brake swap on the 8.8.
In my humble opinion...this is a waste of $$$. The rear brakes dont really do anything other than the parking brake. Pull the wheels off and paint the drums jet black so they dont stick out and then spend your money on some better calipers and pads for the front. That will actually increase your braking power.
In my humble opinion...this is a waste of $$$. The rear brakes dont really do anything other than the parking brake. Pull the wheels off and paint the drums jet black so they dont stick out and then spend your money on some better calipers and pads for the front. That will actually increase your braking power.
I agree, it's a lot of time, money and expense just for bling factor. If you want the real eye catcher, the only real way to do it is with a 5 lug swap and sn95 brakes, then you'll stop better too, otherwise, spend your cash on the fronts.
however, a turbocoupe rear can be found for less than $200 at the yards, and if you don't have rear gears already, they come with 3.73 or 3.55 from the factory, so it may be worth your time to swap in the entire rear and adapt to use those rear brakes.
however, a turbocoupe rear can be found for less than $200 at the yards, and if you don't have rear gears already, they come with 3.73 or 3.55 from the factory, so it may be worth your time to swap in the entire rear and adapt to use those rear brakes.
I don't think it is a waste. I went the SSBC rear disc conversion kit and svo 73mm calipers up front as well as ss brake lines. There are a few factors people just don't think about. Sure disc brakes look better, but aside from that they are maintenance free, self-adjusting, self-cleaning, and they don't suffer the horrible brake lock-up problems drum brakes suffer from. A waste of time, effort, and money - I think not. I also stayed 4 lug as well, now a 5 lug conversion in my opinion IS a waste unless it fits the kind of brakes you "need" or if you more likely want that set of rims that badly. Brakes have always been a problem area for the fox stangs, never heard of anyone complaining about 4 lugs being 1 too less 
Do the 87-88 T-bird Turbo coupe rear end swap...
Auto trans 87-88 Tbird 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. Both ratios have 10.5 disk brakes with vented rotors as standard equipment.
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.
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.
Auto trans 87-88 Tbird 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. Both ratios have 10.5 disk brakes with vented rotors as standard equipment.
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.
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.
Hey thanks for all the feed back. I already planed on the five lug conversion mainly because I am building a 347 and would like better braking. I was just woundering what influenced people to stay 4 lug or go five.
87'GTstang said:
I can understand about the winter tire change, but since I moved to Fl. I don't have to do that any more Thank God no more snow.
Welcome to Central Florida. Now when your heater springs a leak, you can bypass it like I did to mine. I haven't wished I had it except 1 or 2 times in 12 years.mikegt93 said:
jwzg
Member
Thread resurrection
I'm doing the same thing, but am NOT doing the T-bird axle swap as I have fairly new gears in the stock housing and everything is tight.
1) What is the part number for the soft lines to the calipers. Is that an SN-95 part?
2) Is there also an adapter fitting between the hard and soft lines?
3) Does anyone have a diagram of what needs to be done to the stock T/C caliper brackets in order to make them work. I understand I can get the brackets from Northracecars, but at $150, that's a bit outside my limited budget.
4) I am also going to go ahead and add the 73mm front calipers. What is the preferred MC for this setup? If you have a part number, that would be lovely.
I'm doing the same thing, but am NOT doing the T-bird axle swap as I have fairly new gears in the stock housing and everything is tight.
1) What is the part number for the soft lines to the calipers. Is that an SN-95 part?
2) Is there also an adapter fitting between the hard and soft lines?
3) Does anyone have a diagram of what needs to be done to the stock T/C caliper brackets in order to make them work. I understand I can get the brackets from Northracecars, but at $150, that's a bit outside my limited budget.
4) I am also going to go ahead and add the 73mm front calipers. What is the preferred MC for this setup? If you have a part number, that would be lovely.
With the stock 60mm calipers, and t-bird 45mm rear calipers, the correct MC is the 1993 cobra 1" MC
With the larger 73mm calipers, and the 45mm rears, the 1994-1995 mustang gt/v6 mc with 1 1/16" bore may work well for your application.
The svo with the 73mm calipers and 54mm rears use a 1 1/8" bore mc....so thatsmwhy insuggest the 1 1/16" mc may be the perfect match.
I don't have a pn since it's an auto parts store mc, and there are different brands. They can also be had for $20-25 used off eBay or junkyard
You may need to upgrade the booster as well...to 1993 cobra or 94-95 mustang
jwzg
Member
2 line.
You'll need a 3-2 port conversion. Both the 93 conra and 94-95 gt/v6 mc use the same one.
You'll need a 3-2 port conversion. Both the 93 conra and 94-95 gt/v6 mc use the same one.
jwzg
Member
I'm going with the Cobra MC and sticking with 60mm front pistons. No need to upgrade at this time. Brand new Bendix unit at $37 ($45 shipped) can't be beat. 94/95's used metric threading I believe.
Anyway, where to get the 3-2 port conversion? Matt90GT's website is not giving any love.
Edit: NM. Maximum Motorsport carries it. However, it aint real cheap.
The prop valve does, the MC does not. It's identical to the 93 cobra MC other than the bore size, which are both identical to the 87-93 MC other than lacking the 3rd port on the underside of the MC
I ran one on my car for a while before changing to a 93 cobra MC to improve response. I still got it kicking around somewhere.
I stuck with the stock 4 cylinder master cylinder on my '93. I did install GT/V8 front brakes and TC rear end with discs and I absolutely LOVE the pedal feel. It's not too hard, and not too soft...it's softer than it would be with the '93 Cobra MC however but very predictable. What I like about it is the fact that there is enough pedal travel to get the brake pedal down closer to the gas pedal, which helps in taking off from a dead stop, on a hill (5 speed 4 cylinder), and of course it's much easier to brake and throttle at the same time, say downshifting at the apex of a curve. I would have mentioned powerbraking but with a 2.3L engine, it just kills the little turd when the clutch is dumped unless there is ice on the pavement 
keep in mind that I also wear a size 15 shoe so that makes things slightly easier too.
keep in mind that I also wear a size 15 shoe so that makes things slightly easier too.
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