Best 96 brake upgrade kit?

[Paulm]

Could someone give me the heads up on who offers the best 96' brake upgrade kit? How is the sho nut kit? Are the offered parts stock Ford parts?
I am looking to upgrade the brakes on my 95' sho because they are terribly warped, and I tend to brake hard. Thanks.

 

[kaoticSHO]

I would look at TCE Willwood brakes they are freakin awesome!

 

[RTStabler51]

I'm sure the TCE kit is awesome if you have 300+ ponies under the hood But for the average SHO guy, the 96 is sufficient. The cheapest/easiest way to do it, is go to your local parts store, but the calipers (turn in your old, stock calipers later..they will never know), and buy the OEM pads & the 'better' rotors (at advance Bendix is our OEM pads, and top of the line rotors). And hit the bone yard for spindles. and other parts needed

 

[olympic]

PaulM,
If you have a 95, don't both looking for a kit. Go to Ford(or a junkyard if your felling lucky) and get a set of caliper brakets part#F6OZ-2B134-AA and go to your favorite auto parts store and get a set of 1995 Lincoln Continental rotors(they're usually cheaper than 96 SHO rotors but are exactly the same). If you need new pads than get those too(95 SHO pads).

 

[JustinSchick]

You can find a complete parts list here:
96 brake upgrade

This was a costly conversion on my 92 (needing new knuckles and everything), but your 95 would be a piece 'o cake.

Justin

 

[Foxwulfe]

olympic
If you have a 95, don't both looking for a kit. Go to Ford(or a junkyard if your felling lucky) and get a set of caliper brakets part#F6OZ-2B134-AAQB]

What year, model, and trim level would one find those brackets on?

<small>[ April 18, 2002, 11:33 AM: Message edited by: Foxwulfe ]</small>

 

[olympic]

Those brackets are from a 96-99 SHO. I was informed that NAPA now carries the brackets at a substantial discount from the Ford price so you may want to check it out.

 

[Tommy's SHO]

olympic:
If you need new pads than get those too(95 SHO pads).

If you upgrade to the '96 kit why would you use '95 pads?

 

[RJ-92]

hhhmmmmmm... The best 96 brake upgrade? Probably the one I'm doing now with PBR Cobra calipers.

 

[Xs SHO 1]

on the '93s shos, if u will do the brake upgrade using '94 Sable and '95 Continetal parts. u will need new bearings and hub retainer nuts, the nuts hold the torque. once it is removed, u need to get new ones. see links below......

http://www.shoforum.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=21;t=000228

http://www.shoforum.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=21;t=000210

http://www.shoforum.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=21;t=000174

 

[olympic]

Tommy the Greek:

olympic:
If you need new pads than get those too(95 SHO pads).

If you upgrade to the '96 kit why would you use '95 pads?

I'm still unclear if the 96 pads will work with the 95 calipers but I would imagine they would. If so then the 96 pads are the way to go since they are bigger. I have the 96 rotors and brackets with 95 calipers and pads and it works fine.

 

[94MassSHO]

a little off topic, but which are better the Baer Brakes or TCE Wilwood brakes?

TIA

 

[drivinhard]

The PBR's are sorta apples and oranges to TCE's kit. PBR is a floating 2 piston caliper. TCE's kit uses a fixed 4 piston caliper. Depending on application (biased to track, to street, etc) there are pro's and con's to both.

We finished up a group buy on the TCE awhile back, and I'll say I think Todd does a great job with his kits. Quality is first rate, and Todd is helpful to any tech help. There are many options/custom set-ups you can go with his kits, worth every dime IMHO.

Also pretty much the lightest set-up you can run, which is why they are the official brakes of the SR71 wink

96's work pretty well for the street (have them on my 92), the biggest thing I hate about them is they weigh a ton. They are marginal for track use, will get the job done if you hit the track every now and then, but I've burned up lots of piston seals, pin boots, pads and tore up a few rotors through the yrs.

There's an old saying, is especially true with brakes, you get what you pay for...

 

[DougLee25]

Supposedly Napa's part number for the 96 SHO front caliper brackets is BK 6751579. The price is $26.99. Better than 50 to 60 bucks from the dealer.

Doug

 

[drivinhard]

Some weights from the 12.2" TCE kit...

note, my scale isn't a $5000 accurate to .001 ounce deal, but I weighed the
stuff against the OEM pieces, so even if it's off in and of itself, the
relative weight differences (from OEM) will still probably be the same (or
very close).

10.1" stock rotor - 11 lbs
96 rotor - 15.5 lbs
89-92 oem front caliper (with pads) - 8.5 lbs
94/95 OEM caliper w/ bracket and pads - 14 lbs

4 piston wilwood caliper w/ TCE bracket and new pads - 5.5 lbs
12.2" rotor w/ alum hat - 10.5 lbs

So basically the wilwoods replacing the stock 89 rotors/caliper are actually
1 lb lighter in total rotational weight, and are about 6 lbs total lighter
than the stock 89-92 calipers (and 17 lb lighter than the 94/95 set-up, 96
should weight about the same, maybe a tad more for the slightly larger 96
caliper brackets and pads).

Only negative is the 12.2" rotors push the weight farther out the axle
centerline, so it's got more rotational centrifugal force, but I'll live
with that I guess. Total unsprung weight is still less.

I'm happy. Nothing worse than putting on an upgrade and having it weigh
more than the OEM part )

 

[94MassSHO]

Does anyone know how much the Baer brakes weigh?

 

[drivinhard]

It's gonna vary from set-up to set up, depending on what size rotor, etc. I think you can get solid rotors for the PBR stuff, or custom alum hats (which shave off a lot of weight). The PBR's are a lot lighter than the OEM stuff, but I don't think they are as light as the 4 *** billets from wilwood.

The 12.2" TCE kit is roughly a 30 lb total savings (all unsprung) over the 96 brakes, which is a TON. And about 10 lb of that is driveline rotational weight (just like a lighter flywheel).

 

[viperrt450]

all i have to say was i was going to do my upgrade today, took off the caliper and brackets. When i took off my bracket to put on the new one it was the same as my old one. SO DON'T go to AUTOZONE and order a caliper bracket for a 96 taurus from them. They even had to order it for me, so now i have to find the brackets before spring zing and see if they will refund my money for the ones i got from them. Also my friend did the upgrade on his SHO and he used his old 94 brake pads, and they work fine for him he said, but the top of the rotor about a 1/4" does not get touched by the pad.

 

[Tom L]

I did a search on the TCE willwood brakes and it led me here: http://www.empire1.net/racing/neonracer/powerslot_cars.shtml
for powerslot brand rotors. They have the listing for the front SHO rotors as part #'s 8149 PSL & 8149 PSR. And the price listing is $109.86, does anyone know if this is the price per rotor or is that the set? Also does anyone have any experience with power slot rotors? Are they a good choice? Better than brand X? Worse than brand Y? Stuff like that.

I also found this site that carries willwood, but they have quite a few listings for rotors and none of them list application: http://www.precisionbrakescompany.com/rotors.html
They had orbit rotors (pretty much look like Raybestos Brute Stop with the slots and holes) that I found on ebay, but that auction ended and the guy just got back to my original question today. So I have no clue how much those cost. But does anyone have any experience with them and those Orbit rotors? A google search for "orbit brake rotors" pretty much leads only to them, so I'm assuming it's their exclusive line.

I was originally planning on Raybestos Brute stops, but after so many phone-calls, and countless emails to Raybestos that were NEVER responded to, it appears that they do not make the Brute Stop line for the '96-'99 SHO. Which confuses me because they're referenced to a few times on the V8SHO.com site? But I pretty much need to get a set of these tomorrow. Either order them online so I might get them by next monday, or buy a set locally. If I cannot find a reasonably priced set of performance ones (that are decent) like the ones I listed above, I am most likely just going to pick up a set of the standard Raybestos PG Plus rotors locally, and a set of their quiet stop pads. I'd REALLY like to get the Carbotech pads but they are way outta my price range. Thanks!

Tom Leser

<small>[ December 11, 2002, 10:40 PM: Message edited by: Tom L ]</small>

 

[1fastsho]

the 13" rotors are sooo heavy...I think like 11-12 lbs...I can't remmeber

DO NOT use 95 pads on teh 96 upgrade...I do not care who has done it and who says it will work. The pad for the 96 brake is larger than the 95 pad...and the 95 pad will shift some in the bracket.