I recently decided to upgrade my stock drum brakes with a set of factory disc brakes..I found these a few years back on what was left of a totally rotted 69 cougar ..I unbolted them at the spindles and took the whole assemblies.....
Next I removed my old drum brakes including the spindles and flex lines ...
The drum brake flex lines only have one bolt holding them to the frame rail and the new disc brake flex lines have two bolts holding them on...Luckily the holes are already there in the frame rail you just have to use some force to get the bolt to thread into the unused hole...
Step #2
The drum brake hard lines go towards the front of the car and then do a 180 degree turn and thread into the flex lines facing to wards the rear of the car..This is exactly opposite of how the hard lines go into the disc brake flex lines...Initially I was going to try re-bending the hard lines to face forward until I realized the disc brake lines also require a different size fitting..So I just bought new hard lines from my local Napa store..There is a connector on the long passenger side front brake line just behind the shock tower so you don't have to replace the whole line...
The drivers side is just a short line to the master cylinder and is easy to replace as well....
Step#3
Next I tackled the rebuilding of the disc brake assemblies themselves..The splash shields were in very rough shape..One side was badly bent up and the other side had some bad rust around the 3 mounting bolts...I ordered a new set from Chokostang...
Step#4
The originals had gaskets between the splash shields and the spindles and no new ones came with the new shields...Luckily I had a sheet of gasket material and was able to trace out some new ones from what was left of the old gaskets.
Then I bolted them to the spindles...
Step#5
The little rubber pieces that protect the caliper bolts were in very rough shape as well so I replaced them..
Step#6
Next I replaced the wheel bearings and installed the rotors on the spindles..Luckily for me they had lots of meat on them and with a minor resurfacing they were ready to go..
The calipers were not reusable so I got a new set and some brake pads from the local CarQuest store
The outer brake pads install to the calipers with two small pins and a retainer clip
Step#7
Next I installed the caliper and brake pads along with the hose protectors..
Step#8
That pretty much wrapped up the spindle swap so I turned to the master cylinder..Disc brakes require a different master cylinder than drums so I bought one of these as well..There are many different opinions on which master cylinder to use since I was not using a power brake booster and mustangs never came with non power disc brakes..I decided to use the stock 68 mustang power brake master cylinder..
Step#9
Since I wanted to plumb in a line loc and an adjustable proportioning valve I removed the old junction block altogether since it wouldn't be used...
Step#10
Next I fabbed up a simple "Z" shaped bracket and attached it to one of the rear shock tower bolts..Then I bolted the proportioning valve and the line loc to the bracket using a piece of threaded rod..
Step#11
Then it was time to tackle the brake lines..I bought a "T" block and connected the right and left front brake lines as well as the "out" line from the line loc all into the T...I connected the proportioning valve to the rear brake line using a connector and a short piece of brake line...
Step#12
Next it was time to install the master cylinder...After fighting with the old master cylinder to release the push rod I discovered that it slid easily in and out of the new disc master cylinder..
Conclusion:
There was no internal groove in the new master cylinder for the spring clip to snap into. I was a little concerned at first but then realized the brake pedal on my car cannot be pulled back far enough to dislodge the push rod from the master cylinder once it is installed..The push rod doesn't need to be locked in with the power brakes since it is sandwiched between the booster and the master cylinder and cannot get out..Thus no retainer groove in the power brake master cylinder...
After installing the master cylinder I just had to plumb the rear reservoir to the "in" side of the line loc and the front reservoir to the "in" side of the proportioning valve...
Here is a picture of my brake lines with labels to hopefully make it a little easier to follow
I have yet to drive the car but look forward to trying it out and will report my findings..Hopefully it will stop a little better than the old 4 wheel drum setup..
Today
