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Rear Brake upgrade

988 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  daveheld, 
D
I have a T bird with rear drum brakes - I would like to upgrade it to rear disc brakes... I see two paths to reaching this goal :

1. purchase rear spindles drilled for mounting calipers

2. drill / machine my spindles to accept the Tbird calipers.


the first option is the most direct, and likely least expensive for a one-time deal, but since I see nothing but drum brake spindles in the wrecking yards, I'm inclined to invest in the tooling to make a few sets of these at a time.

What are your views of the marketability of machining rear spindles to accept rear disc brakes?

Other than machining the spindles, are there any other issues I need to be aware of to accommodate calipers / rotors for rear brakes?

any comments / suggestions are welcome.
dave
Cocoa Beach FL
http://www.team321.com
http://www.truckIRS.com
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coggonobrien
you should have no trouble finding the rear knuckles and for cheap. i paid 80 for mine with junk rotors, calipers, dust shields and proportioning valve
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Dusty
You can also use the MarkVIII rear disc setup, they should be available. I just completed the swap on my 95 Bird over the holidays per the article with MarkVIII parts. Should be easier than what you are proposing.

Check here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&viewitem=&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Fcgiurl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fcgi.ebay.com%252Fws%252F%26fkr%3D1%26from%3DR8%26satitle%3D260074507011%26category0%3D%26submitSearch%3DSearch%26fvi%3D1&item=260074507011
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fast Ed
Lots of rear disc brake cars being parted out ... can't see much of a market for machining the drum type spindles when the disc type are readily available for not much money.

cheers
Ed N.
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master486
I agree with the above. It's not too difficult to obtain a set of disc spindles, and they're not too expensive. I got mine for $70 with calipers, rotors, e-brake cables and lines.
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Traveler
Give me a couple months for the weather to clear up and I'll have the rear brakes removed from my LE and up for sale. complete package from spindles to pads. But right now its sitting outside under a tarp in subfreezing weather. NO amount of money will get me out in that stuff to try to take the parts off! (Well, ok, I'm sure I'd do it for the right amount, but no one is likely to offer that amount!)
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D
thanks for the info... I hope to have better luck finding rear disc spindles.

dave
truckIRS.com
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