How To Install Four-Wheel Disc Brakes On A Fox 5.0

Before the strut can be separated from the spindle, the lower control arm must be supported to contain the coil spring. After removing the stock rotor and the two bolts fastening the strut, the cotter pin and nut holding the stock spindle to the ball joint are removed. Striking the side of the spindle closest to the ball joint should free it, again sparing the grease boot.

The new spindle is actually a '94 Mustang piece, which will mount a sealed-bearing hub instead of the stock Fox spindle's tapered inner and outer bearings. An included spacer must be placed on the ball-joint stud before the nut is installed. Note that the steering arm is in a slightly different location, which will require a toe adjustment later

The new hub comes with the sealed bearing installed. It slips over the spindle, fastening with a special nut that has to be torqued to 190-250 lb-ft. The new hub even came with antiseize compound on its face to prevent corrosion between the wheel flange. A new dust cap is also included.

The included stock-type backing plate is usually left off by racers, but we opted to install it since our car is mostly street driven. The kit includes the factory-style rivets to attach it, which require a large rivet tool as shown. As an alternative, the mounting holes could be tapped so the plate could be bolted on.

Now the rotor can be slipped over the hub, followed by the new caliper. There are no fasteners for the rotor-it will be retained by the wheel. The caliper is shown mounted in its "cage," the piece that attaches to the spindle. The caliper bolts are torqued to 70-95 lb-ft.

Once the front brake hardware is mounted, the plumbing can be addressed. The kit includes new flex hoses. On the driver side, the new piece mates to the factory hard line, but the passenger side requires an adapter fitting. The fitting is included, though the instructions advise to reposition the hose bracket by drilling two new holes in the unibody. Rich Bellmund, also of Jimmy's Car Care, felt he could avoid this by tweaking the bracket, thus making it look stock. He was right.

The flex hose is connected to the caliper with a banjo-type fitting. The kit includes the special fitting bolts and copper sealing washers (two per fitting); the fitting is torqued to 30-40 lb-ft.

The rear drums aren't befitting a performance car. Not only are they small, but they also don't contribute much to overall braking, leaving the fronts to do most of the work. Rich begins the rear upgrade by removing the drums.

Before the stock rear brakes can be removed, the axleshafts have to be taken off. This requires opening the differential so the C-clip axle retainers can be taken out. After pulling the cover, the crosspin is loosened and slipped out, then the axleshafts are pushed inward so the clips can be removed. A magnet tool can grab the C-clips.

With the C-clips detached, the axleshafts slide right out. Then the drum brakes can be taken out as an assembly, rather than disassembling the individual brake parts. First, Rich disconnects the brake lines from the wheel cylinders, then removes the four nuts and bolts fastening the backing plate to the axle housing. The backing plate comes out with the shoes and springs intact.

To get the rear brakes completely off, the parking-brake cables must be disconnected. Once the backing plates are removed from the axle housing, the cable retainers are unbolted from the unibody, then the cable ends are removed from the balance bar that connects to the parking-brake lever. This is located in the transmission tunnel and is much easier to access with the driveshaft removed. After the cable ends are disconnected, the cable housing is detached from its mounting bracket by pressing a 13mm box-end wrench over the retaining fingers.

With the drum-brake assemblies removed, the first step in installing the discs is to mount the new caliper brackets. These are specific for left and right, and are clearly marked. The kit's instructions say to reuse the same hardware that fastened the drum-brake backing plates. We also took this opportunity to install new axle bearings and seals.