Dumb question about brake upgrades....

[Pirate]

Another dumb question....

What is the smallest diameter wheel you can run with the 98-02 brake upgrades? 15" or 16"? And what is with the PBR caliper upgrade? Does it work with the 98-02 stuff, or earlier models?

As for why I'm asking....I forgot.

[Lincolnmania]

16" for the 98-02 brakes.......and not all 16's......i had to grind on my calipers to get the 88-89 lsc wheels to fit with 1" spacers

pbr caliper upgrade?

[Pirate]

1
pbr caliper upgrade?

Yes, I recall you mentioning that they fit some way or another. Enlighten me again, please.

[Lincolnmania]

no was not me........the 98-02 front calipers are more than adequate and they dont cost alot either......looking for weight savings?......just ordered a pr of 99-04 sn95 calipers for a mk7 brake upgrade.....they are aluminum, but the pistons are a little smaller......might be possible to bolt some cobra calipers.....the 98-02 rotor is 12.2".......the cobra rotor is 13"..........order one of each in at work and compare

[Pirate]

no was not me........the 98-02 front calipers are more than adequate and they dont cost alot either......looking for weight savings?......just ordered a pr of 99-04 sn95 calipers for a mk7 brake upgrade.....they are aluminum, but the pistons are a little smaller......might be possible to bolt some cobra calipers.....the 98-02 rotor is 12.2".......the cobra rotor is 13"..........order one of each in at work and compare

If the 98-02 brakes are adequate, then that's all I need to know.

[Lincolnmania]

it's a great setup with the dual piston calipers.......i cant wait to feel the results on the lincoln mark vii.......it's been done before on those cars but not by anyone i or my local club friends have ever driven.......i even found posts by you that were around 5 yrs old asking questions about the brake conversion lol

[1980c10]

pbr calipers are from 99-04 mustang gt's

Anyway I've been wondering somthing similar to this for a while.

If the newer brakes 92-02 use a seperate hub and rotor like the 94-04 mustangs use and they are the same bolt pattern. Is it possible to use mustang rotors on a panther? And calipers with a custom bracket of course. But are the rotors interchangable?

If so and in theory on the rear end also since they are all 8.8's couldnt you just get a big brake kit for a mustang and modify it for a panther?

Just curious lol

[Lincolnmania]

i have a pair of 99-04 mustang gt calipers here that i am putting on a lincoln mark vii.......they are aluminum, but smaller in size than the 98-02 panther calipers

[Lazerbeans]

So if I am following, if you have the "aero" vic brake upgrade, you can buy the 13" cobra calipers and rotors and they will fit? Or did I misunderstand?

[gadget73]

So if I am following, if you have the "aero" vic brake upgrade, you can buy the 13" cobra calipers and rotors and they will fit? Or did I misunderstand?

I don't believe its been proven to work, its speculation at this point,. The 98-02 rotors are not that much smaller than the Cobra brakes though. 12.2" vs 13". If you want to try out the Cobra stuff, that would be pretty cool to find out it works.

[Lazerbeans]

I took a quick look at Autozone, because they show measurements on the rotors and compared '98 Vic and '98 Cobra. The hub inner hole diameter is 71.7mm versus 71.1mm, so thats easily "grindable". They figures were blurry on the Cobra's, but from what I can tell the depth of the "hat" is shallower on the Cobra, so maybe the Cobra caliper would make up the difference. I haven't done the "aero" swap yet, but when I get it completed I would be up to going to AZ and buying the stock Cobra parts to find out if they will fit. Cobra brakes are awesome looking and bigger, and I am pretty sure if my stuff didn't fit, AZ would take it back, or ebay it. Overall I think it would be worth the trouble. However it maybe quite awhile before I get that far. Maybe this spring?

[hemihotrod402]

If so and in theory on the rear end also since they are all 8.8's couldnt you just get a big brake kit for a mustang and modify it for a panther?

Checking at Wilwood's website, all of their rear big brake kits are specified by rear end end, not car. So in theory yes a Big Brake kit fir an 8.8 rear end would bolt up to a panther,

hmm that might be worth trying. Maybe if someone knows someone with cobra brakes they could ask for the cores when they replace them to see if they could be made to work? I would do it myself but I still haven't done the brake swap yet.

EDIT: Just another note, if you really wanted the effects of the cobra brakes, wouldn't you have to have the master cylinder as well? That I don't know if it would work

[hemihotrod402]

Sorry for all of this, this really sparked my interest.

Could you run cobra calipers with the 98-02 CV rotor? The calipers themselves are 400/pr from Ford Racing, but I would imagine you could find them cheaper through somewhere like Rockauto.

[gadget73]

If they bolt up to the 98-02 caliper bracket, or if they bolt up to the spindle and have the proper offset relative to the rotor. If they're sucked too far in, then the pads just won't fit over the disc. I also imagine that since those are expected to run on a larger diameter rotor, you may find that the outer portion of the pads doesn't actually contact the disc, which could be a problem. You'd end up with a "ledge" in your friction material where it doesn't ever meet the flat face of the rotor.

Other than the disc size, whats the gain on the Cobra rotor, are the pistons bigger or something? I've never really looked at them from a technical perspective. If the pistons aren't bigger, you're not getting any more clamping force. Larger pad contact area is cool, but if you don't have a rotor large enough to make contact with the whole pad, you're not gaining anything there either. It would be like fitting 98-02 calipers on a box with stock rotors.