brake plumbing

thrashperformance · Post by **thrashperformance** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:42 pm

well you all problably already knew this, but i was pleasantly suprised to find that the front brake hoses thread right into my pbr mustang calipers banjo bolt holes:D now if only adapting the rear lines to my grand am calipers is so easy...

Frag · Post by **Frag** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 5:29 pm

Grand am calipers!?

whitelx · Post by **whitelx** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 7:10 pm

Frag wrote:Grand am calipers!?

yeah, grand am calipers?

Mike McCreight · Post by **Mike McCreight** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 10:42 pm

Careful how you position those hoses...

thrashperformance · Post by **thrashperformance** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 6:43 pm

rear calipers from an 01 grand am. i had them on hand and they work nicely with my scorpio rotors. i was going to have to fab a caliper bracket anyway, and the rear hubs were getting redrilled to 5 bolt anyway, so i used the nice aluminum calipers i had laying here.

deathbypsi · Post by **deathbypsi** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:23 pm

What front hoses do most people use with the Mustang calipers?

Mike McCreight · Post by **Mike McCreight** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 10:24 pm

Braided stainless, with banjo fittings.
I have some NICE sets here.

thrashperformance · Post by **thrashperformance** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 7:18 am

here ae some pics. the front pic got a little dark. i converted the fronts to mustang spinldes as i had bad struts,wheel bearings, ball joints, brakes, and pretty much every other bushing up there. all i have left to do is redo the sway bar, and plumb the rear brakes.

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whitelx · Post by **whitelx** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:13 pm

what did you have to do to fit the Mustang spindles on? I have tossed that conversion around in my head a few times.

Jman · Post by **Jman** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 1:17 pm

yes please tell.

thrashperformance · Post by **thrashperformance** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:49 pm

fabricated control arms that have a mustang lower ball joint. this all started with a bad wheel bearing. i had a replacement for that, but found too much bad. as i was planning to do all of these upgrades anyway, it got moved up. reworked the crossmember to take the pinto manual rack. my radiator was crap too so i got one of those fancy rad/ic combos. since i no longer have ps i moved the alternator down where the ps pump was, and this will make way for the rotated upper that will be coming soon. i do not know if/when it will ever end.

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monstermerkur · Post by **monstermerkur** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:15 pm

Awesome! I've been thinking(daydreaming) about stuff like this since i first priced merkur suspension bits-mainly that ball joint that is attached to the lower control arm. If you have any more pics, I would definitley like to see them.
Jeff

thrashperformance · Post by **thrashperformance** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 9:00 am

when i started this i was going to use the proper size tube to hold the ball joint. i had nothing in stock but i did have some old control arms. i ended up cutting the ends off of the control arms and using that to mount my ball joint. i tried a host of ball joints that have either 3 or 4 bolts to the control arm, but all of them that would have worked didnt even come close to having the same taper in the mustang spindle. my first attempt at the control arm was a one piece, but it didnt take long to find that the strut rod, for aft locating arm, what ever its proper term is, pivots on a different axis all together, and it severly binds the suspension. the swedged tube with hiems fixes that. plus it looks cool. my favorite part of the whole thing is the swaybar will now be located in front of the suspension, which will help the t5 swap that is coming as soon as the t9 comes all the way apart. i feel the sway bar should be a dedicated part anyway. doing the locating and the stabilizing compromises things in hard braking/cornering. problably never ever an issue in this street driven car, but once you get used to engineering things on a race car the mentality doesnt seem to go away. i caught myself drilling weight reduction holes in my rear hubs before i realized that what i was doing was completely un necesary

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thrashperformance · Post by **thrashperformance** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 9:03 am

once things slow down with headers i may consider fabbing the control arms. would it be worth my time? what would people be willing to pay?

Post by **DPDISXR4Ti** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:02 pm

Interesting stuff. Is that a manual Mustang rack?

What did you do up top to accept the Mustang shock?