85 GT 8.8 Rear End Swap Questions

[Justa_Panda]

Hey guys, I am looking to do an 8.8 rear end swap on my 1985 GT. My first question is, does anyone have a link or write up to taking the rear end out. My second question is....I have been reading alot about brake lines needed to be reran on these cars or modified. Could i swap out the brake lines from a 1990 into the car to make everything fit properly without any modifying?

Thanks!!!

[richpet]

The swap is direct - 4 bolts hold it in - two each on lower and upper control arms.
Shocks are a direct bolt on.
Brake lines totally depend on your exhaust system. If you run tail pipes out the back (over the axle) you run them like the later model brake lines.
If running dumps or a single exhaust you can keep the old lines.

For example: I have a 1995 8.8 rear under the Granada . I swapped on the old brake lines, old style drum brakes, ran standard fox axles and have exhaust dumps.

One main difference is there is an axle vent on the axle housing that becomes a brake mounting point. But the swap itself is a piece of cake.

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[Justa_Panda]

Nice to hear! I was reading older threads and they were talking about making 90s for the hoses and all that fun stuff. Car is dual exhaust at the moment. Not sure why I thought there was more bolts to undo than just those 4.....how would i get the parking cable off of the drum brakes?

[richpet]

IIRC when you disassemble the drum you pop it out the back of the backing plate. It attaches to the shoe.
I had to replace one of those rear lines so I had a shop sell me a length of line with the ends pre flared/proper threaded connectors. Then I just bent it myself where I wanted it.

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[Bentley]

Nice to hear! I was reading older threads and they were talking about making 90s for the hoses and all that fun stuff. Car is dual exhaust at the moment. Not sure why I thought there was more bolts to undo than just those 4.....how would i get the parking cable off of the drum brakes?

Take a small screw end hose clamp and run it onto the brake line and up flush with the backing plate where the brake line comes through... Tighten it to compress the " PRongs" that secure the line to the backing plate....... This compresses them so you can pull the line out while the hose clamp slides off...
Might have to play with it, making it too tight, then slowly loosening it while you pull on the brake line...

[gmatt]

how would i get the parking cable off of the drum brakes?

If your new rear end still has it's parking brake cables, you could just disconnect your old cables where they connect to the intermediate cables on the car. Then connect the new ones. Not sure if I'm being clear.

[Justa_Panda]

Appreciate the replies!!! They help a lot, was worried going into the job.

[Bentley]

As my old Auto Glass shop mgr used to say, " It was put on there, it has to come off".......

[85GTGuy]

Take a small screw end hose clamp and run it onto the brake line and up flush with the backing plate where the brake line comes through... Tighten it to compress the " PRongs" that secure the line to the backing plate....... This compresses them so you can pull the line out while the hose clamp slides off...
Might have to play with it, making it too tight, then slowly loosening it while you pull on the brake line...

Fyi, Lisle makes a tool (40750) just for that application. A cool side note of that tool is that it also works for the accelerator cable-to-intake bracket connection.
https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-40750-P...s%2C113&sr=8-1