'96 brakes on a '93 SHO. HELP!

[93' green SHO]

ok, so i bought a car about a year ago from a guy i know that upgraded the brakes and knuckles up front to the larger '96s. Everything was working fine until a few days ago where the brake pedal started just going to the floor and not stopping the car until it got there, and just barely. So i take it to the garage cause my inspection is up, and they and i assume it is the master cylinder. however, they called and talked to ford about it, and the official statement from ford is that the front brakes are too large to be operated by the stock master cylinder from a '93 and it will overstroke it and shorten the life of the master cylinder. The '96 master cylinder will not work with the gen 2 booster, and everything would need to be swapped to work right, however, it may not fit in the engine bay...

so, has anyone else heard about this? like with ford advising not to put the gen 3 sho brakes on a gen 1 or 2? They say a lot of people do that, and mess with the car and shouldnt. I may go back to stock size at some point...but i really prefer the fact that it stops better, until the master cylinder fails...

do you guys upgrade your master cylinders when switching to the bigger brakes? or does no one bother to think of that?

 

[yamahaSHO]

Sounds like BS... I've run many different braking setups on my SHO's and have yet to have any type of problem. The '96 upgrade is the smallest setup I have used to boot. I'm sure my 4, 1.5" pistons (per caliper) were more taxing than the '96 caliper.

Did you try bleeding the brakes and inspecting everything yourself? Self-inspection should ALWAYS be your first move.

 

[93' green SHO]

Well, I said the same thing the first time when they asked me if it was too harsh on the master cylinder... No, the piston size and travel is marginally larger, and if that really is the case, then ford did a **** job picking the correct parts for a decent saftey factor. Yes, i bled them, but really the master cylinder is original and has over 180,000 on it... so it was time for a replace anyway. and state inspection. but i replaced the rear pads and a caliper that was frozen before taking it in, and a rear wheel abs sensor. but they have to bleed the whole system for me with this master cylinder replace.

thanks for the info

 

[pjtoledo]

the amount of fluid the master cylinder needs to move is directly proportional to the diameter of the caliper piston.
All the pistons are the same size. From 86 to 95. I never measured anything newer, so my numbers stop at 95.
I even installed 94 knuckles/11" rotors on my 87 wagon, drove it for many years with no problems.

what you were told is the "legal" answer so its your fault, not theirs if something goes wrong.




Perry

 

[pjtoledo]

I just checked the NAPAonline catalog, they show the same master cylinder for 93 and 95 SHos. The 96 upgrade uses 95 calipers, so they should be compatible.


Perry

by the way, the calipers are placed farther out from the center on the larger system. which means more leverage with the same amount of pedal pressure, which means you won't need as much pressure for the same stopping rate, which means the master cylinder will see LESS travel!!!!!!

 

[dantheman68]

by the way, the calipers are placed farther out from the center on the larger system. which means more leverage with the same amount of pedal pressure, which means you won't need as much pressure for the same stopping rate, which means the master cylinder will see LESS travel!!!!!!

correct, and ford also knew what they were doing when they designed brakes for the SHO :laugh_ti: , so i would defniately listen to them now, 15 years after they made the friggin car


I still think it would be hilarious for one of the MTX V8 guys to take their car to ford to have it inspected for the O/D light on.

 

[Randall]

yeah man, I too have upgraded '96 brakes on my 92 and know all kinds of local SHO guys who use 13"s with a stock master cylinder with no issues at all. Perry is dead on in his answers, and if it makes you feel more at ease, my first SHO that was a '94 ATX lost its master cylinder at 175,000 miles, so I think it is more than safe to say that if you replace it, you will be fine for years to come. When I replaced the master cylinder, I used a Thexton Tool Company electronic brake bleeder that hooks onto the ABS computer and cycles on the ABS solenoids to get all the fluid out of the lines, and I STRONGLY recommend you do this too, although it is not a must, but pedal feel was way better on mine after I did it. Most shops have a tool similar to the one I used, and if I can find it, maybe I can ship it to you to use when you do the swap. Anyway, don't worry about what the Ford tech said, they were just covering their butts, and were wrong as what Perry said is true, less leverage is needed to stop the car with the 96 brakes anyway, so theoretically, they are easier on the master cylinder than stock units.

 

[St Louis SHO]

funny.... 95 cals are the same as 96, and the 95-93 master is the same.... I call

 

[Sammy~D]

look around, a line could have cracked check you fluid level

 

[93' green SHO]

thanks for the answers and suggestions guys. the problem has been fixed and works fine now. I just wanted to check on here to see if i was being bs'd or if i was being told the truth. I wasnt sure if a Master cylinder upgrade was necessary, but now, i know it is not. turns out the master cylinder in my car wasnt listed as one of the main 3 used in the SHO during the second gen, it was an obscure one that ford had on file, but since it was so limited in use it may have gotten ignored and not transfered into the mechanics manuals, which i happen to have. but it got fixed and i'm done with that issue now.

however, now that this is working, i replaced a rear wheel ABS sensor and the ABS always kicks in now when around like 3 or 5 mph when slowing down/stopping. its really annoying, i believe i can live without ABS, so i might unplug the sensor i just replaced.