[Abomination]

So, I have a 1965 cobra factory five kit car. I was doing the brakes and the front brakes are from a mustang cobra (94-04).

The rear brakes are problematic, I ordered them for the cobra but they were too big. So I ordered stock GT brakes... and no go. It looks like they are lincoln/tbird brakes, the rotor is exactly 10" around but the hat is much bigger than the ford rotor and wont fit on the caliper bracket. If its a lincoln/tbird rear end, then it looks like someone redrilled the rotor slightly to make it all fit. It's weird, they even had the mustang brake pads, not tbird pads, with the weird huge springs... not sure how its all even working.

Basically, Id like to reverse it. Mustang guys are at a loss, hoping you guys would be more help. HOW did they do this? What did they change? Since it's a lincoln/tbird rear end, how would I swap that over to rear cobra brakes with the mustang bolt pattern?

Thanks in advance

 

[supergordo]

Try looking up a stock rear rotor for a 1997 Thunder bird with rear disk brakes. That's what it looks like to me.

 

[Abomination]

Try looking up a stock rear rotor for a 1997 Thunder bird with rear disk brakes. That's what it looks like to me.

Yeah, thats what I'm assuming it is. The question is... how do I convert it to rear cobra brakes with the mustang bolt pattern.

Basically its currently a tbird rear end with a mustang bolt pattern somehow, the hub got changed I'm guessing. Now I'm wondering how to convert it to cobra rear brakes, just like you guys would on your tbirds

 

[Grog6]

You need a relocation bracket to use the cobra disk. It's vented, and slightly bigger. But if you try to use the cobra rear calipers, they don't have the same parking brake design; so if you're depending on the PB, you cant use those. Their is no advantage to the cobra rears anyway; the advantage is the vented disk.
For relocation brackets, call fast ed. If you search it, you'll find his business.

 

[MadMikeyL]

That rotor is a 93-97 Tbird/Cougar rotor. You can see someone ovaled out the lug holes to be able to run it on a Mustang bolt pattern, which is what I assume you have on your Cobra. If you have the Mustang bolt pattern, then you could have gotten that in one of 2 ways. Either someone swapped in 99-04 Mustang Cobra rear hubs, or someone re-drilled the T-bird rear hubs. Basically if you have an extra set of holes in the hubs, then they are Tbird hubs, and if there are no extra holes, then they are Cobra hubs. If you have re-drilled T-bird hubs simplest thing to do at this point would be to oval out the holes on the new rotors. However if you have Cobra hubs, then you have another issue to deal with, namely the hub center bore is larger on the Mustang, so to use a T-bird rotor you would also have to enlarge the center bore. If you want to run actual Mustang Cobra rear brake rotors, you need to either make or buy a set of adapter brackets. You can retain the T-bird caliper, with a relocation bracket that moves the caliper away from the centerline of the axle to deal with the larger rotor diameter, and also in toward the center of the car to deal with the deeper hat on the Cobra rotor. Dave Dalke aka Super Coupes Unlimited makes a really nice version of the brackets machined out of billet aluminum, and his kit comes with the needed hardware and even centering rings to center Cobra rotors on T-bird hubs (which you won’t use if you already have Cobra hubs). Here is a link to his kit.

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[Abomination]

You need a relocation bracket to use the cobra disk. It's vented, and slightly bigger. But if you try to use the cobra rear calipers, they don't have the same parking brake design; so if you're depending on the PB, you cant use those. Their is no advantage to the cobra rears anyway; the advantage is the vented disk.
For relocation brackets, call fast ed. If you search it, you'll find his business.

Thank you. Do you have a link or a brand of relocation bracket? I've searched but cant find anything online.

That rotor is a 93-97 Tbird/Cougar rotor. You can see someone ovaled out the lug holes to be able to run it on a Mustang bolt pattern, which is what I assume you have on your Cobra. If you have the Mustang bolt pattern, then you could have gotten that in one of 2 ways. Either someone swapped in 99-04 Mustang Cobra rear hubs, or someone re-drilled the T-bird rear hubs. Basically if you have an extra set of holes in the hubs, then they are Tbird hubs, and if there are no extra holes, then they are Cobra hubs. If you have re-drilled T-bird hubs simplest thing to do at this point would be to oval out the holes on the new rotors. However if you have Cobra hubs, then you have another issue to deal with, namely the hub center bore is larger on the Mustang, so to use a T-bird rotor you would also have to enlarge the center bore. If you want to run actual Mustang Cobra rear brake rotors, you need to either make or buy a set of adapter brackets. You can retain the T-bird caliper, with a relocation bracket that moves the caliper away from the centerline of the axle to deal with the larger rotor diameter, and also in toward the center of the car to deal with the deeper hat on the Cobra rotor. Dave Dalke aka Super Coupes Unlimited makes a really nice version of the brackets machined out of billet aluminum, and his kit comes with the needed hardware and even centering rings to center Cobra rotors on T-bird hubs (which you won’t use if you already have Cobra hubs). Here is a link to his kit.

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You sir, are a scholar and a gentleman... I will sing your exploits next time I punish this cobra. Thank you

 

[MadMikeyL]

No problem, enjoy!

 

[Abomination]

So update. I got the brackets to put the cobra brakes on... buuut, completely different brake pads. Can someone tell me what these old pads are from? A t-bird??

 

[MadMikeyL]

Yes, this setup uses T-bird pads and calipers, with the Cobra rotors.

 

[Grog6]

Those weird spring pieces were anti-squeak devices; I use the carbon metallic pads from RA. None of the good pads have those.