Another thing to note on these cars (this may not be true on this particular year, but was true for many of these and the cougars of that era). The oil pan hung below the cross member. It was common for a person to bottom out, ripping a hole in the oil pan, it would dump all the oil and the car then had a rod knock before they realized there was a problem. We used to take a piece of 2x2 angle iron and weld it to the bottom of the cross member so it would be lower than the pan and save it from hitting the road. Think of it as a $3 engine insurance policy. I remember this being particularly bad on the 3.8 cars. Ford may have fixed this by the time they built yours.
Gearhead,
I appreciate the information. The swap is a well researched one. Mustang dual piston brake calipers bolt onto thunderbird hubs (same hub as mustang with different bolt pattern.)
I need a new booster b/c the stock 20+ year old one is leaking down. When I fixed vacuum to it i got a bit more peddle firmness but the pedal slowly leaks down to the floor. I dont want to go to the effort of replacing the stock MC, only to have to take it back out to replace the old booster. I know the current MC is not the original. (I remember it needing to be replaced when the brakes failed on my wife in college.) I just do not know if it is the booster or the mc that is dead. I suppose I should replace the mc and see. I also have a leaking caliper. Not sure if that is involved in the leakdown or not.
There shouldnt be any reason why a booster should cause leak down. The only symptoms i have ever seen from a bad booster are
1) Increased pedal effort
2) engine stumble when the brakes are applied
I dont think you need a booster. If you want to replace it as preventive maintenance i get that, but dont expect it to fix any of your current issues. If your pedal is normal at first hit, then slowly goes down as you sit with the brakes applied, 95% of the it is from an internal leak in th MC. A leak anywhere could cause this, but it would have to be a pretty substantial leak.
pedal is never normal, soft until the floorboards. Based on your recommendations and thinking about it some more I'm going to order new hubs, go to the JY and get the mustang calipers, bleed the entire system and see where I am at. no new mc/booster saves me $200 on my budget. 10% of the challenge budget is not a small hit.
So, driver window now works. Well it did until the battery died halfway up to close it before I was done for the night...
got the mustang hubs in the mail. Wife and I played golf on friday, then worked on the kiddo's playset. So no jy trip for the calipers/rotors I need to finish the front hub swap.
I did get a line of a set of SN95 mustang Bullit wheels. they are asking $350, hoping I can talk them down to $200.
Need to figure out what to do for the rear. I can either spend $$$$ on cobra hubs and then cobra brakes/calipers/brackets to swap to 5x114.3 or I can redrill the stock hubs to it and press new studs in. Then drill new rotors to this bolt pattern. With the mustang wheels it'd almost be better to have the mustang rotor with the hub centric diameter being correct for it. (70.3 vs smaller for the thunderbird.)
I may be able to arrange a cheaper set of bullitt wheels depending on what exactly you are looking for.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
round. greater than 16' diameter.
the ones I found are 9" and 10" wide. While I'd love some wide wheels, that makes rubber expensive and at 215hp, she does not need it. Square would be much better. ET +39 or so.
Any chance you've got a line on the mustang calipers/rotors? I'm looking ahead, going hunting next weekend with my FIL. I just do not think i'm going to have time for a JY run. At least for a while.
(also, that means I'll be in Charlotte next weekend.)
edit: the wheels I found look nice, but i really do not care.
At this point they need not be bullit. Round, modern mustang et and bolt pattern. With tires would be better for my wallet and my sanity (I need to drive this thing.)
Ill double check tomorrow, but i believe that i have multiple sets of the factory 17x8 bullitt wheels. The perfect set is on the duster. The less than perfect obes are in storage. I scrapped all the bent and cracked ones a while back.
See, i think i have a problem with being a wheel whore. Im pretty sure that i have 7 sets of wheels not mounted to cars right now.....
Depending on condition, im pretty sure that i can beat the E36 M3 out of a 250-300 set of aftermarket staggered wheels.
Ill be in Fayetteville saturday, but Friday night and sunday should be open to meet up.
I can grab tuna's door if you have it and bring it up this way if we do meet up.
no lie, I bought my 2006 track pack 350z for the wheels alone. 18x9 up front, 19x10.5 in the rear. Like art.
Dropped the door off last night actually. Had i known, i had plenty of extra room in the truck.
Lemme dig tomorrow after church and see what i have.
Sent you a message. Got you covered on wheels
Responded. Do not be insulted. Just #challengebudgetreasons...
I feel dirty for hashtagging.
GCrites80s said:
Justjim75 said:
It didn't impress me much at the time, lots of 17 to 23 yr old girl miles
"GO, CAR!"
"You mean these tires are bad?"
"So all these keychains are why I can take the key out while I'm driving? I don't believe it."
"So. Slow down in the rain. Got it."
So you have a daughter or younger sister.
Got a few parts this weekend.
I'll post pics tomorrow.
New pbr calipers from the JY, one looks brand new, the other not so much. New pads on them too.
Met with Mr. Duster and spoke to him for too long lol. I could have stayed up late jawing about this and that.
He does have me convinced on a Rustoleum paint job for the car.
He also has me pondering a few other extra curricular items for it.
It was great to meet you.
No matches in storage. Just got upstairs from the shop and wasn't going to text/call this late. (Been home for about 20 minutes now)
I will enable you however i can, and help think far outside of the box whenever you need me to.
Here are the wheels I got from Duster.
So this is what I got from the JY:
and at this point I realized I needed to tidy up the garage and got little to no progress on the car...
halfway through cleaning the garage.
pads look to be pretty damn good with the calipers.
Hmm, 39.99 each for a set of powerstop slotted/drilled rotors. (Purty)
Or 20 bucks each for a set of daily driver wagner rotors...
Speaking of which, how does Tax figure into challenge costs?
We have to add the actual tax and shipping for everything after purchase of the car. We dont have to add tax/title/plates/tow bill for the car.
Justjim75 said:
GCrites80s said:
Justjim75 said:
It didn't impress me much at the time, lots of 17 to 23 yr old girl miles
"GO, CAR!"
"You mean these tires are bad?"
"So all these keychains are why I can take the key out while I'm driving? I don't believe it."
"So. Slow down in the rain. Got it."
So you have a daughter or younger sister.
Nope, somehow I have wound up around that demographic often still to this day.
So today I ran out of work to do at work. Yeah...
But it meant I could run by a car parts store and by some caliper paint. This is nice because it means I might possibly get the hubs/wheels on on friday... instead of only painting friday. Woot Woot. (probably should find my kerosene heater according to mr. weatherman.)
It amazes me that after tons of brake cleaner, and sand paper, more crud came off by wiping the caliper with a paper towl than the prior two methods. I did briefly think "damn you Seth, I want your bead blaster right now!"
Dirty Dirty
after a little spray paint.
The other much nicer "looking" caliper. Well it's silver, but all kinds of rough and dinged up. Not sure if the vendor did this or if whomever did the part replacement did, but nice to see some blue locktight on the caliper slide pinbolt.
Ready for paint 2.
I did not paint the second bracket as it's all rusty, apparently mr. mechanic replaced ONLY the caliper and not the bracket. I only noticed this, after i'd started painting or i'd have sanded it first.
Pause for a vampire attack.
voila
plan is to start on the hubs/etc this friday.
(Note: I plan on sanding the roughest spots after this cures and painting again to try smooth out the worst bits, the newer looking caliper is in way worse shape??? but it is also the passenger side caliper.)
My Daughter and I both chuckled at the "pause for vampire attack"
Well played 
Those calipers look eerily similar to the 2002 Z28 brakes I'm putting on my IROC right now. Mine don't have PBR molded into them but PBR was definitely a supplier for late 3rd Gen F-Bodies.
So update for the weekend.
Starts out thursday night when I was again home early. I took the nasty caliper bracket and sanded the heck out of it.
Then painted it.
Next I jacked up the car and tackled taking off the wheels/old nasty brakes.
Looks like the bushings I put in in 2013 are done. ( ball joints etc).
The only 36mm socket I had was for a bmw oil filter cartridge and was 3/8's drive. I tried it anyways which inevitably led to snapping the 1/2" to 3/8" adapter I used on my breaker bar.
whoops.
End of Thursday Night.
So friday morning I stopped at autozone, who proceeded to tell me that the socket I ordered online (25% discount duh) was not in stock at all, they did give me the front rotors I had ordered as well as the new lug nuts I needed as the stocker thunderbird ones do not match the mustang thread pattern. I got them to loan me the rental 36 mm for the day and off I went home.
So much easier with the right tools as always.
new vs old hubs.
spindle was not the cleanest unfortunately.
Old vs new pads size. More on this later.
That new new.
Other side is mirror of this one. The only difference being that you have to shave the caliper to allow the stock thunderbird brake line block to fit.
I used a baby medicine syringe to suck the old brake fluid out then put fresh in the master resevoir.
because it was NASTY.
Wife told me excitedly that the brakes felt much better. I can unhappily report that I get SOME pedal firmness now, but the pedal still slowly travels to the floor and is never FIRM. I did not bleed the rear of the car b/c my pumper was complaining of a sore leg.
