My little brother just totaled our 1995 explorer. I have to let them know tomorrow if I want to buy it back from the insurance company. I've heard things about 1996 explorer brakes working for a disk brake conversion on a 1971 Maverick (non-grabber). Anyone know if the disk brakes from a '95 explorer will work for the swap? I can buy the car back from the insurance company for $400 and there is nothing wrong with the brakes. Will this change me to a 5 lug pattern and could I use the rims and tires from the explorer on my mav? this would solve so many of my problems if it would work... sorry for so many questions in one post, gotta make a quick decision. Here's the specs on the explorer and it's rims and tires. 1995 Ford Explorer, VIN 1FMDU34X2SUA80987 Engine: v6 4.0L Tires: P235/75R15 105S Brand tire: Ladardo AS AWP SUV tires (think this is a Uniroyal tire) the brakes from the explorer were newly redone and the tires are brand new. Thanks guys. Almost got this thing as my daily driver...
The reason people talk about 1996 Explorers when referring to the rear disc conversion is '96 and up had rear discs standard. They were optional in previous years, so if you're '95 has rear discs they will be the same. The rear disc brakes from that Explorer will work on a 5-lug Maverick rearend per Frank's instructions in the tech article. It will not convert a 4-lug application into 5. I imagine you could re-drill the Explorer discs for 4-lug but I don't know for sure, I don't think anybody's tried it. It's also likely a factory 4-lug rotor of some type would work, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what application. None of the front disc stuff is compatible. If you did do a 5-lug conversion though, the wheels would fit. But probably not the tires.
Yeah, people have done that. It's far from a direct bolt-in though. The rearend either has to be narrowed or you have to use wheels with late Mustang type backspacing. (Maverick or Explorer wheels would stick way out) Also the leaf spring perches would have to be ground off and new ones welded on, and the driveshaft may need to be addressed too.
in your opinion is it worth it to do all of that or am I finding a hard way just to use the explorer? my 4 drums currently work fine. i need new rims cuz mine are rusty inside but I have wanted disks since I got the car. Is there a cost/benefit opinion about this idea compared to other ways to go to 5 lug with disc brakes?
Depends... See if it adds up for you: $400 - Explorer (Wheels, brakes, rearend) $400 - Tires ~$100-300 - Granada parts for front 5-lug/disc conversion (Really depends on where you get it and how lucky you are) ~$200-300 - Modifications to make the rearend fit $-??? - Whatever you can sell off the Explorer OR ~$100-300 - Granada parts for front 5-lug/disc conversion ~$100-200 - 5-lug Maverick/Granada rearend ~$100 - Explorer brake parts $400 - Tires $300-[the moon] - Wheels Same results, different paths. You also have to consider whether you have a Trac-Lock rearend in the Explorer, and what the gears are. If you do have Trac-Lock and 3.50 or better gears, that's a significant upgrade and it would cost $400-600 at least to put something comparable in a Maverick rearend. Explorers have an 8.8 gear which has some pro's and con's too. There's a lot of aftermarket support for the 8.8 and it's pretty strong, but it's a c-clip rearend and it doesn't have a removable carrier. To some people that's a big deal. I ain't scared of c-clips myself, and disc brakes do kinda mitigate the worry that comes with that... So, you see, it's hard to say. It looks like a wash unless you're doing this for gears and Trac-Lock, and if you really like those Explorer wheels. You can potentially do it cheaper if all you want is wheels, tires, disc brakes and 5 lugs, but you can sell parts off the Explorer to offset it. That could be a lot of work though.
i understand what you're saying. I was under the impression that it was about $250 a set for explorer disk parts without the pads. that made me think $500 for all 4 wheels. Then the cost of doing a 5 lug conversion on top of that. I figured if I swapped out the whole rearend with the explorer then that would convert my rear to 5 lug with disk brakes. I would still have to figure out how to do the 5 lug conversion on the front but I'd have the disk brakes to put on them. As it stands now my stock rims are rusty on the inside, so I'll need new rims and tires either way I go. don't know if this changes your opinion any. I guess I should've included more of these thoughts in my original post - learning as I go with this. The gear ratio issue was brought to my attention recently too. Is there an easy way for me to find out the information I would need to see if the gears would present a problem? I usually like to research these things more first, but I just found out about this today and have to decide by tomorrow. sorry for being spaztic.
I spent less than $100 on my rear disc conversion using junkyard parts. I found "fresh meat" at a Pull-A-Part and was able to get the rotors and calipers in good condition, even the hoses were in great shape. Only things I bought new were the pads and some little u-bolts to make the e-brake work. But I got lucky on that. You may have to (or just want to) get new rotors and/or calipers, so that's where I came up with the rough figure of $100. There should be a small metal tag somewhere on the differential which will tell you the gear ratio and whether or not it's a locker. If you can get to it, write that down and we can help you decode it. There are probably other ways to find out but I'm not familiar enough with Explorers or Fords in general. If it was a GM I'd say check the RPO codes. Hopefully someone else can jump in here. It's hard to say, it really might be worth your while to keep it, then again maybe not. Nothing from the Explorer will "just bolt on" to your Maverick like it is, you'll be spending some money either way to get what you want. If that's ok and you find out the Explorer has a desirable rearend, and you think the Explorer wheels would look good, then I'd say go for it. Just keep in mind you'll have to significantly modify the rearend and you'll still need to do the Granada/Maverick spindle and brake swap on the front. And those tires won't fit. But you can sell 'em... Tough call.
k. update... bought the explorer. had the community college agree to remove the engine and tranny for me for free and I just had to pay for the tow to take the rest away and take the differential and brakes off myself. the timing for them doing it didn't work out and it was going to be 5 days of storage for the car at $40 a day and then a $150 tow to get it to my house until I could go to raleigh to take the differential out so I ended up selling the car. Sucks cuz I got so excited about the swap and trying to learn and figure all the stuff out. Plus it would've been so cool to keep our old explorer alive in the mav lol. I think of something crazy again soon. thanks for all the help guys. It really helped. now to figure out why I won't idle... but that's for another thread.
