Brakes Upgrade/swap Questions

creektrack

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May 17, 2013
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I have a 96 GT and the front calipers are the single caliper design...I dont necessarily want to do a cobra brake upgrade, but I do want to get the dual piston calipers from a 99-04...

Now, what I need to know first is, are the dual pistons a lot better or not worth the trouble?

Next thing I need to know is exactly what I need? I know the rotors are the same size and that i will need the calipers, pads, and brackets...

But my main concern is the brake line...will my stock lines bolt up to the 99-04 calipers? I was looking at the fitting sizes on autozone and they showed different size fittings...is this only for the top of the line?

They both showed 10mm banjo but showed a different size female fitting. ...

Thanks for the help...
 
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Its cool...my main concern is that it says the banjo bolt is 10mm on both my lines and the newer lines, but my caliper shows a M10x1.0 fitting and the dual piston caliper shows a M10x1.5 fitting...I know thats just the size of the threads but that means my banjo bolt wont bolt to the back of the new calipers properly, so im hoping that since it says they are both 10mm banjo that I can just use the banjo bolt on the new calipers with my stock lines...
 
So I headed to autozone and compared my brake line to the 99-04 brake line...the hole is the same so I believe it should work as I expect. ..with just using my stock lines and the corresponding banjo bolt...
 
I believe that only the Bullitt, Mach 1, and Cobra have dual piston calipers. If you upgrade to a dual piston caliper, you'll need a arger diameter rotor. 96-04 GT's use 11" rotors while the dual piston Bullitts, Machs, and Cobra's use 13" rotors. Anyways, here's a pretty cheap Bullitt brake upgrade kit with everything you need:

http://www.speedconcepts.net/product_info.php?cPath=21_30_113&products_id=436

I plan to run this kit in the near future. SS lines are also a must.
 
Actually, I just found out that I can search "PBR upgrade" and get all my answers...the stock calipers on my 96 are single piston cast iron, and the 99-04 GT/V6 have dual piston aluminum calipers with the same size rotor...It's actually a direct bolt on if you get the 99-04 calipers, brackets, pads, and banjo bolt...you can even use the stock soft lines if you grind the back of the caliper a lil bit, or supposedly you can bolt the 99-04 soft lines directly to the hardlines as the 99-04 are side specific...I've already got the calipers mounted, I just have to get the lines bolted up...

The difference between the Cobra/mach1/bullit is that they have the larger rotors...which is a lot better, but for less than $150, which includes brand new ceramic pads, I can do the 99-04 PBR caliper upgrade...
 
The GT's have dual pistons? Wow I didn't know that. Do you happen to know the difference between the GT calipers and the Bullitt/Mach/Cobra calipers?
 
Yeah the GT and the v6 both have the dual piston...in fact, I just found out that the 03-04 have the same thread banjo bolt as my 96...the 99-02 use M10x1.0 and the 94-98/03-04 use M10x1.5. ..

To be honest, I don't see a difference other than styling and mounting and of course the larger diamerer rotor...maybe the mounting style is better at "floating" off of the rotor...
 
Yeah the GT and the v6 both have the dual piston...in fact, I just found out that the 03-04 have the same thread banjo bolt as my 96...the 99-02 use M10x1.0 and the 94-98/03-04 use M10x1.5. ..

To be honest, I don't see a difference other than styling and mounting and of course the larger diamerer rotor...maybe the mounting style is better at "floating" off of the rotor...

Do you happen to know if the GT calipers will fit on a 13" rotor?
 
Im actually havibg another issue with mine....I don't think they are "floating" right now...imma take them off tomorrow and grind on the spindle knuckles/ears to see if thats causing the calipers to not slide on the bracket...
 
Good info Creek. Maybe you can do a write up on it with lots of pics?

Thanks...I did although find a decent write up, I just didn't realize this was just known as the PBR upgrade...

And I haven't gotten around to it due to the weather, but when I put them on and bled the entire system, the pedal was super mushy...but I did however put the calipers on the opposite sides, so the bleeder screws are on the bottom of the caliper rather than the top...

I didn't think about it at the time, but it makes perfect sense that the front calipers can't be bled properly that way as there will most likely be an air pocket in the caliper...

But it seems as though the outside pad is rubbing, so I may be putting a couple washers as spacers so that the caliper has more room to "float"...

I'll be sure to update with any info I find...
 
So, finally go my brakes finished today. ..ended up being that I put the calipers on the wrong side and the bleeder valve was on the bottom of the caliper instead of the top...

Didn't really occur to me for some reason it wouldn't work, but once I thought about it, it made complete sense...

Brakes do seem a lil better over stock...not sure if it's due to the dual piston or the brand new ceramic pads...either way, I actually feel that I can comfortably come to a stop using only the brakes instead of having to downshift...
 
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