Sunday, March 22, 2015

1979 Ford Mustang Brake conversion from 4 cylinder to V8 brakes

Now that I am finished with the suspension it is time to address the brakes.
This has been a long time need for this car. It started it's life as a 4 cylinder and ended with a V8, but unfortunately it never had the brakes upgraded. It was all go and no slow. lol Who needs brakes right, there overrated.

I am on a budget, so I am not going to put sn95 spindles on the car or convert to 5 lug. I scored a lot of parts from a guy I met at Jefferson County swap meet and a couple of those parts were 1992 Spindles to match the 1992 possi rear end in the back of the car.

So I purchased all components matching a 1992 and I adapted the original brackets on the body to work with these new Russel stainless steel brake lines. Below I will show how and what I used.

There are people out there that believe you should swap all components, but really there is no need. I reviewed Part numbers for the 1979 V8 master cylinder and 4 cylinder master cylinder and the replacement parts are the exact same. That is also the case for the brake booster. Don't waste your money if you don't have too. I like to use RockAuto.com to compare things with their site's database feel, it made it very easy to compare.





Picture below to the left is a CarQuest Part number for the adapter you will need. I also thought it would be nice to share the knowledge that Advance Auto bought out CarQuest. The picture to the right is how the original 1979 Ford Caliper Line appears. I searched the salvage yards for a replacement and every mustang I came across had the mount rusted gone, so I decided to modify my original. Take great care when doing this. 


Here I took the "C" clip off of the line so that I can insert and trace material needing to be removed.


After the clip is removed insert and scratch an outline on the bracket.


Below I used an air file that I bought from Harbor Freight a few years back. Take it slow this file makes things go quick. Take your time do multiple tests fits. Removing material is much easier then adding. 


Below to the right you see finished product and it fits like it was from factory. Holds the line snug and secure with no play as it should be.






Adapters installed and line secure. 


This is the clearance from the strut to 17x9 wheels. 


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