I found 3 Grand Marquis 2000 and I read this in ebay, really this works? or the rear disc of Explorer are better? http://www.ebay.com/itm/1965-1973-M...Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item56470a166d Tks
The Crown Vic setup is pretty much a bolt on for an 8" or small bearing 9. The Explorer setup fits the large bearing 9's.
Cemiat, The guys are right! You want the Crown Vic/GM/Town Car parts as they are a direct bolt-on to your housing. The Explorer parts, while looking identical, have the MEDIUM housing bolt pattern with a LARGE bearing diameter. (Think 74 Torino etc....) There are so many Crown Vics etc around why bother with non-fitting parts! I am the same fastmerc selling the parts on ebay, so if you have questions, please ask!! I also offer a "reduced kit" for half the price, for you guys with the 74+ large hub axles. You do not need the hub spacers as your axle ends are already the same size as the ID of the brake rotors! 73 and earlier will need the kits I sell on ebay. I recommend buying new rotors and pads for use while fitting stuff to your cars. Unless of course you find the receipt for new pads and rotors in the trunk of the donor car!!! Then go for it! The new rotors and pads allow you to check maximum clearance issues with new parts, for checking rim fitment. Also, if you are taking these apart in the yards yourself, get a 6-point box 8mm box wrench for taking out the pinion shaft retaining bolt/pin. These can break, and you cannot get in there with a socket...and 12 points can round off these bolts too! The 6 point just plain works best. If you take the bolt out and only get a short threaded piece about 3/4" long, wrap up your tools and find another donor car! The retaining bolt should have about 3/4" of threads and 1" of unthreaded "pin" area. Once broken, your chances of removing it go down dramatically. You can do it, but you will need a drill and lots of time...... One last thing, is that your rear end housing flanges may need to be modified, to a symmetrical pattern, from the "D" shape that is has now. This can be done with a cut off wheel very easily, and must be done to allow the backing plate to fit properly with no interference. Doesn't hurt the housing at all in terms of weakening it. Ford changed the housing ends to not have this extra metal on the flanges sometime in the 80's as far as I know. I haven't seen that many later Maverick rears, so can't say for sure if they are all "D" shaped or not..... Please feel free to drop me an email if you have more questions! I will double check my settings to allow that to happen! Cheers! Steve
Crown Vic parts are the parts! Cemiat, You want to go with the Crown Vic/Grand Marq/Town car pieces as they are a direct bolt on once you modify your housing ends just a tad! (more later!) The Explorer pieces look the same but have a LARGE bearing hole, and the bolt pattern is for a MIDDLE sized flange. (Think 74 Torino, Cougar, etc) Why mess with parts that don't fit when there are literally thousands of these cars in the junk yards now? You may need to modify the axle housing ends (flanges) to remove some metal that is not needed. (Ford changed the style towards the 80's to not have this unnecessary metal on them!) Not sure about later Mav's or not! This is easy to do with a cut-off wheel and some cardboard for a template. One thing you will want to do, if you are removing these parts yourself, is take along an 8mm 6 point box wrench for removing the pinion shaft locking bolt/pin. 12points tend to round off the hex....and you cannot get a socket in there properly..... IF you remove this bolt and it is only about 3/4" long with no unthreaded portion, pack up your tools and move to the next donor car! This bolt/pin should have about 3/4" of threaded section and another 1" of unthreaded section! You will probably not be able to remove the remaining piece without a drill and a LOT of time. I speak from experience. Also take a good hammer along, for knocking out the wheel studs. You will want these as well as the e-brake cables! I am the person (fastmerc) that is selling the kits on ebay. For those of you with later model cars with the large hub axles, I sell a reduced cost kit that doesn't have the unneeded parts in them! At half the cost! Ford changed to the larger size diameter hub in about 74, that matches the inner diameter of the new brake rotors! So no spacers needed. For those of you with the smaller diameter older hubs, you want the spacers to keep your brake rotor centered properly!! If you have questions etc, feel free to email me through this forum! Also, unless the rotors and pads look like new, and the receipt is in the trunk, it is probably best for you to just purchase new rotors and pads from your local auto parts stores. This way, when you are fitting things together for wheel clearance, everything will be at it's maximum position for checking clearances. These rotors and pads are relatively inexpensive and you don't get but maybe two or at most three chances to turn these rotors down! So why buy scrap metal? Hope this has answered some questions, take care! Steve
Thanks Steve, yes I bought the set of brakes but still no attempt to mount them in a few months ago he and I communicate with you.
More drill bits please? Earl, Can I venture a guess that you had to do a lot of drilling to fit the Explorer brakes to your housing? You did put spacers between the bearings and the retainer plates right? (Otherwise your axles can move in and out as much a 1/4"!) The reason that I recommend the Crown Vic etc. brakes is because the backing plate centers on the wheel bearing properly. The Explorer type, being the "large" bearing dimension may not center properly. Unless you are REALLY good with a hand drill.... one could end up putting the backing plate off center and potentially causing all sorts of bad things. Not a task for the average idiot to perform.....so I stick with what is "safest" for the average Joe with a set of Craftsman wrenches! With so many of the cars available for donor parts, there is really no reason to use the Explorer brakes....UNLESS you do have a large bearing housing already! Cheers! Steve
Steve; There is a tech article on what we did to put the Exploder brakes on my Mav. I have the regular housing. We did have to drill out the holes to clock the caliper mount so the brake hose wouldn't hit the spring, and we didn't have to space the bearings. Just put them in, and they tightened right up. BTW, the housing was from a Falcon, if that makes any diff. I have had them on for 3yrs now, and never a bit of trouble out of them.
I used the Crown Vic/Merc/Lincoln brakes on mine. Very similar to the Explorer, but the pads and calipers are just a bit bigger. It was mostly a straight bolt-on. I think I may have used either two left or two right side brackets, not sure on that, and I had to grind a bit off the plate on the axle, but wasn't a big deal. I didn't need any kind of spacer, (I have a '75 axle if that makes a difference) and these brakes have been in daily service for a couple of years.
I had to add a spacer between the axle retainer and the axle bearing with the Explorer setup(this was long before I knew about this site) and slot the holes slightly to line up with the axle housing. I'm using 75 axles and a 72 housing. All factory equipped disc brake cars should not require the rotor to axle centering spacer since they had the larger disc brake centering hub.
Carl, I updated your tech post. I REALLY must object to anyone recommending using the Explorer backing plates on a small bearing housing when the car version is more plentiful and costs no more/no less, and fits better. There is just TOO much room for error and failure. The Explorer brakes are really most at home on large bearing housings, where the bearing will help center the bracket. THEN and ONLY then can you safely mount the brackets to the housing flange and drill/file the holes to fit. It's not much work, less than doing the small flanges! I don't know why a Falcon housing wouldn't require spacers......unless it was the tiny bearing version...perhaps. All common 8" and 9" housings that I am familiar with need a bearing spacer. Your 75ish cars won't generally need the hub spacers as they already have the increased "corporate" sized hubs. Therefore, I sell my kits without the hub spacers for youse guys too! Just gotta let me know! Cheers! Steve
Lots of people here have used Explorer brakes with success. Nobody has mentioned having any trouble. I guess Maverick/Comet builders are just less prone to all that error and failure...
Yea, and most of us are used to having to make stuff work that isn't supposed to fit our cars since hardly anyone makes anything to fit a Maverick/Comet specifically. I assure everyone that my install is as secure and safe as anything out there even with the modifications necessary to make it fit and I drive the car on a daily basis in Atlanta traffic 30 miles a day. I still give kudos to Steve for providing a service and taking the time to engineer something that works
