89 cobra brake swap

[SHOlemon]

Is this swap possible? I see it for later years, but are we SOL? Went racing this weekend and wore into a caliper piston and another SHO team said they set their brakes on fire several times and did the Cobra swap for better performance and less fuego. Im told that it may invole a knuckle swap, caliper bracket adapter plates, some possible rotor drilling, etc. Anyone know this stuff off the top of their head? Im just starting my research.

Thanks,

OCP Racing

 

[luigisho]

Check shosource for parts list and pricing. Also yes it involves knuckle swap for the earlier SHO's. If you order non SHO vendor drilled rotors then you will probably have to redrill some holes to get the stud spacing correct vs mustang spacing.

 

[Irish Pride]

89 or 98? Didn't know of a Cobra in 89.

 

[rbruso]

Completely doable. You'll need:

1) 94/95 Taurus spindles. 89 didn't have ABS, so you can get these from non-ABS Taurus/Sable
2) Cobra calipers and caliper mounts
3) Cobra rotors.
4) Cobra pads and hardware kit

Was running a set on my 89 for about seven years before I (possibly terminally) parked her last fall.

For the rotors you can either redrill them to 5x4.25 or just use a Dremel (or similar) and elongate the holes to 5x4.5. It's not really a lot of material to remove and goes pretty quickly.

You will absolutely need 17" wheels. There was one set of 16" wheels that just cleared this setup, but I'd be worried about getting a pebble or other debris wedged between the wheel and rotor.

 

[BaySHO Performance]

I've used the Cobra twin Piston PBRs under 16" slicers for years without problems on my 90DD. Works with 12" rotors, but 17" needed for 13".