brake swap...87-93 info

[hatstang]

Im swapping my brakes from my 83 four cylinder to some 93 lx brakes. I know there are many great threads that exist, so could ya get me a link to em...(im not very good with computers...)
1) what parts will work with my old brakes to my 93 lx brakes?
2) which car do i buy brake lines for, 83 or 93?
3) my brake booster and master cylinder are bad, which year should i buy for?
4) are there any other odds and ends crap that you know of that could cause me problems down the road?

thanks for the help
Jeff

[lx460]

OK. Answers:

1:nothing. You need from the newer 93 car, Spindles,dust shields,rotors, bearings,calipers, soft lines

2:93. the calipers are different and the old lines wont work. some modification of the bracket that holds the lines where they connect to the hard lines is necessary.

3: This I believe is subjective. I would probably just replace it with what it has.Some of the older cars like yours have a different number of line from the master to the proportioning valve. I f you do get a V8 booster which is smaller, get it from an 83 GT and it should work fine. You probably should change it to V8 style if you plan on doing a swap down the road otherwise, whatever is cheaper.


4:just the bracket modifications, and master cylinder differences. If you buy new seals and bearings, Be sure to ask your friendly neighborhood parts man for 93 GT bearings and seals.

[hatstang]

is it worth putting on svo calipers instead of 87-93 ones since im here?

if so, what are some part numbers of things that im going to need

[lx460]

no disrespect intended at all, but I think regular 5.0 calipers will stop your 4 cylinder fine. You will definitely notice a difference over the old setup. It's up to you though.The calipers are more money, the pads are different and you probably will need a different master. If you do get 73mm calipers get the ones with steel pistons instead of phenolic (plastic). I can get part #s later.

[lx460]

73 mm caliper part numbers from www.advanceautoparts.com

Cardone reman. metal piston calipers

Pass side unloaded 184150S 27.48
Driv side unloaded 184151S 27.48

Pass side loaded 164150 36.28
Driv side loaded 164151 36.28

[not-a-stang]

Quick Q: you seem to know your brake stuff!

If i pick up some 10" 5 lug rotors off an Aerostar,do I reuse the 4 lug caliper, or do I need the Aerostar's too? Do they use the same part number for calipers/brake pads? Could get a good deal on these soon, don't want to buy unecessary parts. Junkyard is having a 1/2 price sale like a week or two...

[lx460]

In all honesty, I really dont know. There are 2 pad listings for aerostars. early and late. I dont know what the difference would be. Why not get 11" rotors and spindle off of a Mark VII if you want 5 lug. they also came with the 73mm calipers. maybe you could find a whole setup. I am not sure if aerostar rotors will bolt on pre 87 spindles. It lists different inner and outer wheel bearings for both. hope this helps. maybe somebody else has done this swap and can chime in.

[mfpmax]

I was reading something somewhere, and something said the Rangers had the same front end parts...or similar...but i'm nowhere near certain as I was reading a crap load of 5-lug/disc brake swap threads.

[KLXDale]

I found thist web site that has alot of good info on it http://mjbobbitt.home.comcast.net/mustang/5lug.html

[JEEPMAN1]

Ranger stuff is different.

[Travis T]

hatstang, I hope that you have some 15" wheels already, because anything smaller won't fit.

[v8only]

From what I understand, using the ranger/aerostar discs up front won't work, and is going to screw up your whole suspension geometry.

the mark vii rotors are the best idea, just get some from autozone, etc keep in mind, that those will pretty much get you close to 0 improved braking performance.

[madmike8]

I currently run 10.2" Ranger/Aerostar rotors on my 4cyl spindles with the stock Mustang Calipers and pads... Installation was no problem... I've heard that you may have to grind a bit on the Calipers for clearance... but I didn't have to with mine...

Remember the Ranger/Aerostar setup IS NOT a brake upgrade.... merely a 4 to 5 lug conversion... If you want better braking go to the 87+ 11" setup or the SN95 stuff...

Hope that Helps...

[GT350R]

FYI
SVO calipers are on national back order. I couldnt even order them. Lucky for me I found a "loaded set" for a great price. 70 bucks after the core, and they had everything. Found it at a "mom and pop" type place.

Another FYI,
Cheap sorce of spindles/rotor/calipers that are the same as the 87-93 V8 Mustang. They are the same on the 87-88 Turbo Coupe. But everyone seems to sell them cheaper since most people dont know they swap.

[jpywell]

I just did my '81 mustang with a '89 LX brake conversion. If you know what your doing its not hard at all and should only take a few hours a side.

I believe its the same as it would be doing a '89 - '81 conversion. If it is this is what I did step by step... I remember it clearly as I just finished the driver side yesterday @ 6PM.

Basic info. to get started.
Jack up car (if you have 2 jacks great if you dont, jack up car and put stilts under it your going to need the jack for the A-arm later).

Once the car is up, and you have the wheel removed, your going to want to remove the calipers. That is easy enough done aswell. On your '83 they should be standard bolt heads, I cannot remember what size though sorry. Remove the two bolts, and BEFORE you pull off your calper you want to use a 5/8" wrench to remove the loosen the rubber break line... believe me its SOOOO much easier this way. Now that the line is loosen you want to pull off the caliper, sometimes it needs a tap and some convincing. Once off unscrew the caliper from the line, now if you dont want break fluid dripping (wont be all that much but enough) then you will have to get a bucket or something to let it drip into, do NOT turn the caliper upside down unless you do so over the bucket.

Now your going to want to remove the disc break dust cover. In there you will see a cotter pin that needs to be removed aswell... sometimes they can be fun to remove but a few minutes of playing they usually will come out without much trouble.

Once the cotter pin is removed, there is a lock nut cover that needs to come off, pull it off, I usually just kept these peices in the upside down dust cover.

You will see a nut there now, its not on hard, it maybe a little harder then your fingers can under but I just used a large vice grip set to turn it litely and it turns off easy, if it DOES NOT turn off easy get the right size wrench on there... but both my cars came off easy.

Now with that nut off your disc brakes will come off easy. Pull on the rotor and make sure to take not that the bearing plate and front bearings will want to come right out and onto the ground, so pull off the break with caution and not let them do so.

Now you should see the spindle arm dust cover and strut. First thing to do here is REMOVE the dust cover CAREFULLY!! THEY BREAK EASILY! Cough Cough... :roll:. Remove it using a 10mm socket. I dont know why, but I found that the car used both imperial and metric sizes. Once removed put in a safe place if you ever want to reuse it. And if this is off the '93 you will want to reuse it.

Now thats done place the jack underneath the A-arm and place enough pressure under it to make sure you know its holding firm. Not too much, just enough so you know it wont slip.

Remove the strut, or at least just remove the bottom two bolts holding it too the Spindle arm. Once removed/un bolted then unbolt the spindle arm from the A-arm and the steering arm. Once this is completed then you will need a good size sledge hammer... well this is what I used. I smacked the top of the steering arm bolt good until it popped off the spindle arm.

After that was off here comes the fun part... I HATED THIS! I had to hit the top off the ball joint stud hard enough to pop the spindle arm off it so it would no longer be attached to the A-arm. Now for the '89 it was easy one good smack and it was easy to pull off the stud, however the '81 was another story and I ended up having to re-thread both studs on the '81.

Last but not least remove the rubber brake lines from both cars, dont mix them up. You will need the rubber hoses from the '93 and you can discard the one's from the '83.

KEY NOTES on special tools:
You will need a pipe cutter (small) and a double flaring tool.

You will need to cut the metal sleeve nut off both sides of both cars. Again DO NOT GET THESE MIXED UP!!

Once you have them cut (near as possible to the top to save as much line as you can) place the '93 sleeves on the '83 and slide them back far enough to get the flaring tool on the metal line, double flare the tube and then you can put the rubber hoses from the '93 onto the '83 hose mounts and clip them onto the brakets. (quick note, the bracket clips were easy to remove using a hammer and a large flat head scew driver). Once you have them all back on the '83 your set to start the rebuild process.

Once the spindle arms are off then you just reverse the process with the other brakes.

Quick put back together for key important notes:

Place on the new spindle arm, torque it down to spec, place new cotter pints on, torque down the steering arm and place new cotter pins on.

Torque down the strut back onto the new spindle arm.

Now you can place back on the dust cover onto the spindle arm.

Grab the '93 disc brakes and place make sure they are good and not scored, if they are not good, take them into the machine shop and have them done. If you do this might aswell have them put new bearing on.

Once they are good to go back onto the car, (in my case I did not have them machined so cleaned them up so there was no bearing grease (make not that when there is no grease... DO NOT SPIN THE BEARINGS!)Once they were cleaned I repacked them very good and put them on the spindle arm. But the bolt back on only finger tight, put the bolt sleeve on and then put the cotter pin back on. I then placed the dust covers back on using a rubber mallet.

Now that the rotor is back on, its time to put on the caliper, I first made sure the brake pads were in good shape, they were new... so they were. And then I hooked the rubber hose back onto the caliper before placing the caliper on the spindle arm mounts. You need to do it this way because the hose does not spin so you have to spin the caliper, once noticebly tight I put the caliper onto the mounts and then used the 5/8" wrench to tiighten it down.

Now, the '81 had normal type caliper mounting bolts however the '89 had T-50 Torx style bolts, which I put on instead of the standard as they are much nicer to work with.

Now this is pretty much a step by step. You can see my pics of what I did at http://81mustang.pywell.com under the 81 mustang mechanical section.

My 81' brakes great and I have not had a problem at all with it.