Boss T/A front brake upgrade (Lincoln/Tbird calipers) thread

Another reason I wanted to use a seperate hub/rotor is that I was considering doing an ABS conversion using an SN95 front hub. My main issue with that is the bearing but I think I could make it work if I could find a bearing with the right ID. Altho, if I did that with these brakes I'd DEFINATELY have to make my own bracket. I've got a spare set of spindles and already ended up with a spare SN95 hub (don't ask) so I'm thinking about doing it that way from the start in order to avoid expense in terms of doing it twice.

Since it looks like I'll end up with an 8.8 and a spare ABS modual eventually anyways I think this would be SWEET for me but how many other people would want that bracket ?
 
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bnickle, do you think you could find a 12" rotor that would work with a standard drum hub ? Let me know.

Also, does anyone have an autocad (or anything else) drawing of a stock drum or disc hub ?

i think you could use a 69 vette rotor and just redrill the bolt pattern. the rotor height is 3.08" which should work just fine on the outside of a drum rotor but i don't have a drum hub to figure the height with a rotor installed on it. anyway here are the rotor specs from Napa

Rotor - Front - Premium





Click on image to see enlarged view


Bottom Side Top
Item#: NB 4885748

Price: $34.99
tax and shipping not included

Disclaimer: The stated price may vary from the in store price and may change at anytime.


Attributes:
Features & Benefits:Manufactured with Original Equipment Vane Configuration.
Features & Benefits - 9:Yes
Bolt Circle Diameter:4.75"
Outside Diameter:1.245"
Discard Thickness:1.215"
Thickness When New:Disc Brake Rotor Only
Height:3.08"
Vented / Solid:11.75"
Drilled / Slotted:Vented
 
Well, I got my Boss calipers in the mail today =) Got a set off of ebay for like 145 shipped. Ended up geting them from Canada.... eh.

I'm going to take my spindles down to my buddies shop and build a stand for them so I can work on them upright. I also need to get some plate steel I guess. Maybe I can use the extra piece from when I boxed the front control arm on my daily driver Mustang.

Do you guys think it would be better to use the same thickness steel for the final bracket as the prototype bracket ? Working with thinner steel makes the stuff easier to cut/bend. When I go to make a final bracket it would provably be offset because of the different thickness. Then again, if I make a 2 piece bracket first I could use spacers to get the correct thickness and then have a final bracket machined.

Ok, I just need to remember when I'm doing the mock up..... the bleeder has to point UP.

Edit:
I lied, I didn't get them today, I got them late last week. I've just been too busy to post.
 
Wouldn't it be better to buy a modern system that is engineered for the car? I had that conversion on my 1970 BOSS-320 back in 74 and while it worked very well it also weighed a ton! New systems with aluminum componets work better and save pounds of unsprung weight. Plus you don't have to spen hours at a parts store and junk yard getting all that stuff.
 
the problem is he doesn't want a sliding caliper, he wants a fixed 4 piston caliper and there aren't a lot of affordable aluminum 4 piston fixed calipers available nowadays. i did find out that the hummer h3 has an aluminun 4 piston fixed caliper that might work and the ones i've found on ebay have been really cheap, the only problem is that i don't know how wide of a rotor it is designed for. i need to do some more investigating to see if it will work with the galaxie 12" rotor or if it uses a narrower rotor like a stock stang does.
 
the problem is he doesn't want a sliding caliper, he wants a fixed 4 piston caliper and there aren't a lot of affordable aluminum 4 piston fixed calipers available nowadays. i did find out that the hummer h3 has an aluminun 4 piston fixed caliper that might work and the ones i've found on ebay have been really cheap, the only problem is that i don't know how wide of a rotor it is designed for. i need to do some more investigating to see if it will work with the galaxie 12" rotor or if it uses a narrower rotor like a stock stang does.

You hit the nail on the head there my man. The only other caliper I know about that I would run would be the Brembo 4 piston, but those things are $$$ and I'd still need to make custom brackets or buy Mustang Steve's bracket which ain't cheap either.

Not a chance I'd ever run the SSBC stuff since its just an aluminum version of the K/H caliper I already have on my car. Whats the point ? A little weight savings isn't worth the cash out lay, at least not for me. The money would be way better spent on aluminum hubs.
 
You hit the nail on the head there my man. The only other caliper I know about that I would run would be the Brembo 4 piston, but those things are $$$ and I'd still need to make custom brackets or buy Mustang Steve's bracket which ain't cheap either.

Not a chance I'd ever run the SSBC stuff since its just an aluminum version of the K/H caliper I already have on my car. Whats the point ? A little weight savings isn't worth the cash out lay, at least not for me. The money would be way better spent on aluminum hubs.



they do have an aluminun 4 piston caliper that is bigger than the 65-67 k/h version. i don't know if it's an aluminum copy of the lincoln/t-bird caliper or a vette caliper, it's pretty damn pricey itself however.

http://stainlesssteelbrakes.com/products/detail/5031/?make=Ford&model=Mustang&year=1969

this is for a complete brake kit but these are the calipers i'm talking about.
 
SSBC wont sell you only the parts you need, they basically sell things in a kit and that is it. I called them one time to ask about some things. I will never buy anything from them. The guy answered all my questions and I didn't like what I heard about their policies.
 
Another reason I wanted to use a seperate hub/rotor is that I was considering doing an ABS conversion using an SN95 front hub. My main issue with that is the bearing but I think I could make it work if I could find a bearing with the right ID. Altho, if I did that with these brakes I'd DEFINATELY have to make my own bracket. I've got a spare set of spindles and already ended up with a spare SN95 hub (don't ask) so I'm thinking about doing it that way from the start in order to avoid expense in terms of doing it twice.

Since it looks like I'll end up with an 8.8 and a spare ABS modual eventually anyways I think this would be SWEET for me but how many other people would want that bracket ?

How did you manage to fit a SN95 hub on an early spindle? The SN95 spindle pins look totally different. Just curious.

As for installing ABS, I've no experience with this, but wouldn't be better to to use the brakes from the same car the ABS unit came off (like Mustang Cobra brakes with a Cobra ABS unit)? ABS calibration may be totally off otherwise. Just something to consider.
 
I havn't made it fit yet. I'm going to need a press to remove the bearing that is in the SN95 front hub now. As it stands, the ID of the current bearing is too small to fit onto the classic spindle pin. If I could find a bearing with the same OD and the classic ID then I'd be good to go on that.
 
How did you manage to fit a SN95 hub on an early spindle? The SN95 spindle pins look totally different. Just curious.

As for installing ABS, I've no experience with this, but wouldn't be better to to use the brakes from the same car the ABS unit came off (like Mustang Cobra brakes with a Cobra ABS unit)? ABS calibration may be totally off otherwise. Just something to consider.


as long as the piston area is about the same or within a few percent it shouldn't matter what brakes you use. i haven't tried to do the calculations for the t-bird caliper but it should be close enough to work ok.
 
Even if the piston area is completely off, as long as the percentage of braking front to rear is about the same shouldn't it still work ? I havn't really educated myself as to how the ABS brain flows the fluid. Does it only send a certain amount ? I thought it pushed fluid unit it saw a certain reading from the censors and then backed off then repeated.
 
Even if the piston area is completely off, as long as the percentage of braking front to rear is about the same shouldn't it still work ? I havn't really educated myself as to how the ABS brain flows the fluid. Does it only send a certain amount ? I thought it pushed fluid unit it saw a certain reading from the censors and then backed off then repeated.


most ABS brains are programmed for front to rear brake bias, vehicle weight balance and brake system pressure. you can make one from a similar weighted car with similar brakes but if you go very far away from the original application it's probably not going to work right.