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Topic: 5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes (Read 3671 times) previous topic - next topic

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Anyone done this yet. Ive got a extra 8.8 that im building with a Eaton locker with 31 spline and new moser axles for a sn95. I want to go with cobra brakes? can it be done easy or do I have to find a cobra donor for the backing plates dust shields and caliper brackets?
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]:ford:87 Turbo Coupe through the floor sub frame connectors, 5.8 swap Ford racing heads Harland sharp 1.6 rockers BBK shorty swap headers 2 1/2 BBk X pipe magnaflow ler's. Megasquirt 2 with 36lbs injectors on hurricane intake with 4150 throttle body.Tremec TKO 600 Quicktime blowsheild spec stage 3 clutch. 3.73 gears and still not done

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #1
I did it on my '83. I don't have pictures of the rears, just the fronts.  Yes, you need the rear caliper brackets from a Cobra, but the rear calipers themselves are actually the same as any other SN95.  The front dust shields are no longer available from Ford but the rears are.  You can go without them or find a donor Cobra.


5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #2
You'll need the Cobra axle plates if you want to use the Cobra rears.  They are different from the smaller V6/GT rear axle plates.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo - '85 Marquis LTS - '86 LTD Wagon

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #3
I have the Cobra brakes on my 83 and the 93 and you will be absolutely floored at the braking improvement.  I had the SN-95 GT brakes on the Coupe which was a dramatic improvement over the SVO 73mm front brakes and the stock drum brakes.  On that setup I ran a set of 99 V-6 calipers as they are two piston calipers and they only required a little grinding on the spindles to get them to clear.  I also ran the Hawk HP pads which definitely helped with the stopping power.  I switched to the Cobra setup about two years ago on that car and installed the Cobra brakes on the Bird a little over a year ago.

The dust shields for the SN-95 GT cars work with the Cobra brakes just fine as that is what I used on both of my cars.  You can get them here:

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/products/Mustang-Brake-Dust-Shields

If you have not ordered any of your brakes yet then look for kits as they typically come with all of the stuff you need including the dust shields.

If you want to keep the stock Fox length axles then you will need to get a set of these rear caliper brackets:

http://www.northracecars.com/Brakes.html

Its the bracket only and the one for the Cobra.  This is what I used on my T-Bird with a Fox Mustang 8.8 and Fox Mustang Moser axles.  With the correct offset on the wheels it allows a 305 width tire with no sheet metal work.

I have a ton of pics of the installs if you want to see them.

Darren

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #4
Quote from: Chuck W;341693
You'll need the Cobra axle plates if you want to use the Cobra rears.  They are different from the smaller V6/GT rear axle plates.

 
Thanks
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]:ford:87 Turbo Coupe through the floor sub frame connectors, 5.8 swap Ford racing heads Harland sharp 1.6 rockers BBK shorty swap headers 2 1/2 BBk X pipe magnaflow ler's. Megasquirt 2 with 36lbs injectors on hurricane intake with 4150 throttle body.Tremec TKO 600 Quicktime blowsheild spec stage 3 clutch. 3.73 gears and still not done

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #5
Quote from: ivygreen;341692
I did it on my '83. I don't have pictures of the rears, just the fronts.  Yes, you need the rear caliper brackets from a Cobra, but the rear calipers themselves are actually the same as any other SN95.  The front dust shields are no longer available from Ford but the fronts are.  You can go without them or find a donor Cobra.


 
Looks real nice
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]:ford:87 Turbo Coupe through the floor sub frame connectors, 5.8 swap Ford racing heads Harland sharp 1.6 rockers BBK shorty swap headers 2 1/2 BBk X pipe magnaflow ler's. Megasquirt 2 with 36lbs injectors on hurricane intake with 4150 throttle body.Tremec TKO 600 Quicktime blowsheild spec stage 3 clutch. 3.73 gears and still not done

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #6
Quote from: Aerocoupe;341717
I have the Cobra brakes on my 83 and the 93 and you will be absolutely floored at the braking improvement.  I had the SN-95 GT brakes on the Coupe which was a dramatic improvement over the SVO 73mm front brakes and the stock drum brakes.  On that setup I ran a set of 99 V-6 calipers as they are two piston calipers and they only required a little grinding on the spindles to get them to clear.  I also ran the Hawk HP pads which definitely helped with the stopping power.  I switched to the Cobra setup about two years ago on that car and installed the Cobra brakes on the Bird a little over a year ago.

The dust shields for the SN-95 GT cars work with the Cobra brakes just fine as that is what I used on both of my cars.  You can get them here:

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/products/Mustang-Brake-Dust-Shields

If you have not ordered any of your brakes yet then look for kits as they typically come with all of the stuff you need including the dust shields.

If you want to keep the stock Fox length axles then you will need to get a set of these rear caliper brackets:

http://www.northracecars.com/Brakes.html

Its the bracket only and the one for the Cobra.  This is what I used on my T-Bird with a Fox Mustang 8.8 and Fox Mustang Moser axles.  With the correct offset on the wheels it allows a 305 width tire with no sheet metal work.

I have a ton of pics of the installs if you want to see them.

Darren

 
I book marked both sites for future reference I need to part the sn95 stang of got then go from there. As far as the pics go everybody loves pics Thanks
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]:ford:87 Turbo Coupe through the floor sub frame connectors, 5.8 swap Ford racing heads Harland sharp 1.6 rockers BBK shorty swap headers 2 1/2 BBk X pipe magnaflow ler's. Megasquirt 2 with 36lbs injectors on hurricane intake with 4150 throttle body.Tremec TKO 600 Quicktime blowsheild spec stage 3 clutch. 3.73 gears and still not done

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #7
FYI
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread.php?t=105149

Those should be the "proper" Cobra brackets.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo - '85 Marquis LTS - '86 LTD Wagon

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #8
Quote from: Chuck W;341826
FYI
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread.php?t=105149

Those should be the "proper" Cobra brackets.

 
Cool nice site to Thanks
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]:ford:87 Turbo Coupe through the floor sub frame connectors, 5.8 swap Ford racing heads Harland sharp 1.6 rockers BBK shorty swap headers 2 1/2 BBk X pipe magnaflow ler's. Megasquirt 2 with 36lbs injectors on hurricane intake with 4150 throttle body.Tremec TKO 600 Quicktime blowsheild spec stage 3 clutch. 3.73 gears and still not done

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #9
If I go with this kit can I use the calipers from my 87 T.C?

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/FMS-M-2300-M/?rtype=10
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]:ford:87 Turbo Coupe through the floor sub frame connectors, 5.8 swap Ford racing heads Harland sharp 1.6 rockers BBK shorty swap headers 2 1/2 BBk X pipe magnaflow ler's. Megasquirt 2 with 36lbs injectors on hurricane intake with 4150 throttle body.Tremec TKO 600 Quicktime blowsheild spec stage 3 clutch. 3.73 gears and still not done

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #10
I believe the TC rears are 43mm psitons and the SN95/Cobra rears are 38mm pistons.  Physically it appears that they will both bolt up and work but you will definitely need to install a brake proportioning valve so you can get the bias correct.

Pics -

   

I did not have one of the front with the wheel off but they rotor hats are now black.

Darren

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #11
Quote from: thewestie;341897
If I go with this kit can I use the calipers from my 87 T.C?

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/FMS-M-2300-M/?rtype=10

 
Don't think so.  The calipers are different, as are the pads.  I know there has been some discussion about such a thing, but I think in the end, it's a no-go.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo - '85 Marquis LTS - '86 LTD Wagon

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #12
Chuck,

I worked over the Mustang sites and it appears by all measures one should not use the T-Bird 45mm Varga calipers when doing the Cobra rear conversion.  The SN95 mustang rear calipers are all the same from the V6 cars to the GT to the Cobra and the are the 38mm Vargas.  What is different is the caliper bracket and it gets a bit more confusing so let me try and explain what I had to do on my Coupe.  I had originally converted the car over to the base SN95 GT Mustang brakes with the booster and MC and ABS out of the same car.  Brakes were awesome for several years.  I decided to move up to the Cobra brakes for those times when I could actually get to a road course and need the larger brakes.  The front conversion was swap rotors, bolt on loaded calipers, and install new SS braided lines.  The rear was not too bad as I had heard you could reuse the rear calipers but needed to swap over to the Cobra brackets.  I bought the same kit the OP is looking at and found only one problem.  There are actually two brackets in the rear.  There is the one in the kit that bolts to the axle  and then there is the one the caliper is fastened to on the sliders which bolts to the brackets in the kit.  It is the ones on the caliper that are different to compensate for the larger diameter of the Cobra rotor.  Fortunately these can be had at Autozone for about $12 each.  I will post some pictures of each when I get home to point out the differences.  The other difference is that the Cobra pads are thinner than the GT/V6 pads and some of the parts stores show them to be the same only for you to get home and swear that something is all jacked up.  I know several guys have simply ground the stock GT caliper brackets to clear the Cobra rotors but I opted for the Cobra caliper brackets.



Here is a picture of the 10th Anniversery Calipers which show the same bracket as above:



Another thing to be very wary of is aftermarket axles.  They tend to not be the correct length which can cause the need to shim the caliper brackets out if they are longer or as my case was mill the bosses on the caliper bracket mounting points to move them inward.  I have a couple of pics of that I can post as well.

 

Darren

83 351W TKO'd T-Bird on the bottle


93 331 Mustang Coupe - 368 rwhp

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #13
This is good info...perhaps it should be compiled into a sticky thread for future reference?
FWIW, I'm either thinking of swapping a complete rear from an SN stang, or at least the brake components from said...so if or when I ever upgrade from that, this would be some good info to come back to.
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

5 lug swap with 94 cobra brakes

Reply #14
Quote from: Aerocoupe;341996
Chuck,

I worked over the Mustang sites and it appears by all measures one should not use the T-Bird 45mm Varga calipers when doing the Cobra rear conversion.  The SN95 mustang rear calipers are all the same from the V6 cars to the GT to the Cobra and the are the 38mm Vargas.  What is different is the caliper bracket and it gets a bit more confusing so let me try and explain what I had to do on my Coupe.  I had originally converted the car over to the base SN95 GT Mustang brakes with the booster and MC and ABS out of the same car.  Brakes were awesome for several years.  I decided to move up to the Cobra brakes for those times when I could actually get to a road course and need the larger brakes.  The front conversion was swap rotors, bolt on loaded calipers, and install new SS braided lines.  The rear was not too bad as I had heard you could reuse the rear calipers but needed to swap over to the Cobra brackets.  I bought the same kit the OP is looking at and found only one problem.  There are actually two brackets in the rear.  There is the one in the kit that bolts to the axle  and then there is the one the caliper is fastened to on the sliders which bolts to the brackets in the kit.  It is the ones on the caliper that are different to compensate for the larger diameter of the Cobra rotor.  Fortunately these can be had at Autozone for about $12 each.  I will post some pictures of each when I get home to point out the differences.  The other difference is that the Cobra pads are thinner than the GT/V6 pads and some of the parts stores show them to be the same only for you to get home and swear that something is all jacked up.  I know several guys have simply ground the stock GT caliper brackets to clear the Cobra rotors but I opted for the Cobra caliper brackets.

Another thing to be very wary of is aftermarket axles.  They tend to not be the correct length which can cause the need to shim the caliper brackets out if they are longer or as my case was mill the bosses on the caliper bracket mounting points to move them inward.  I have pic of that I can post as well.

Darren

Well, I was more referencing the fact that it wasn't physically possible to use the TC calipers in lieu of the 94-04 Vargas.  Not so much on whether it was wise to try and make them work some how.
The reason for the difference in the pads is the fact that the non-Cobras use a solid rotor in the rear, while the Cobra's is vented, and thus wider.

I'll have to verify your point on the rear brackets.  As far as I know, it's the  that's bolted to the axle housing that's different, and not the "cage" bracket on the caliper that accommodates the larger dia rotor.  I actually have all the bits in the garage, so if I can get a free moment, I can put them together.
Long live the 4-eyes!  - '83 Tbird Turbo - '85 Marquis LTS - '86 LTD Wagon