I just bought a 73 Maverick, it has a 302 not in the car with a C4. It also has drum brakes.. I want front and rear disc, can anyone please help my out a little bit and tell me what I need to do. Is there a donner were I can get parts from?? Any comments or tips are GREATLLY appreciated.
You came to the right place for answers... Try a search using the search function at the top of the page. Prepare, as you will get MANY hits, with lots of great information. Welcome to the board, and post some pics of your car...We can never get enough pics...
The '75-'77 Maverick/Comet and Granada/Monarch are the most popular vehicles to get the disc brake spindles from. If you do a search on Disc Brake conversion, you'll find countless threads discussing it.
I just fininshed my 4 wheel dics conversion last weekend. Granada fronts are the way to go, you can usually find someone on the board that has a set for sale. For the rears I used 90's Lincoln town car rears minus the e-brake assembly. Check out my post in the new members section for pics. It was a pretty straight forward swap with the right tools, and patience. Let me know if you need any help. Ed
Thanks for the fast response. What rear end did you use? I have a 8.8 sitten at my friends house to use.
I believe the lincoln axle is a small bearing 8". I could be wrong, but the flange pattern is exactly the same. Check out the tech articles section and look for the 8" disc brake writeup. I pretty much followed that to do my install with a few minor adjustments. I'd say as long as you have a grinder and plans to lower the rear of your maverick 2" it's a direct bolt on. If you are going to leave the car stock height, you will have to reposition the holes in the caliper bracket to adjust the bracket away from the leaf springs. The article explains this better I'm sure, but I just went thru this so it's fresh on my mind. You could also use explorer 8" rear axle caliper brackets and calipers as well.
You want the discs off an 8.8" to bolt to your 8" rear. Don't bother with putting the entire 8.8"... Certain years of Crown Vic rear discs fit big bearing 8" rears (5 lug) and small bearing 9" rears. Exploder rear discs fit certain 9" rears (Torino bearing). Then there are Lincoln discs that fit too, but they are a little different and I don't know the specifics. There are some Cobra Stang 8.8" rear discs that can be adapted as well. The Cobra brakes, and certain Linc brakes require large diameter rims because of their size. Other front disc setups that bolt on when complete with spindles: 69-73 Mustang 68-72 Torino, Fairlane, Falcon, Montego, Cyclone 68-73 Cougar Most earlier Mustang, Fairlane, Comet, Falcon, and Cougar discs will bolt on too... However they are rare, expensive, and the old technology makes them very complex. If you run across a set like this, eBay them for some big bux and buy the later stuff with part of the dough. Versillies rear discs are much the same: Old technology VERY heavy Complex Expensive to work on Won't bolt to an 8"
Thanks for all the tips guys. i'm gonna make a list and see what I can find at the junkyard. I will post some pictures up as soon as it stops raining.
