Disc Swap to Ford Small Bearing 9" or 8" Rear Ends

mad max I believe the bronco are the same setup.
I have use some of them but cant remember if they were small bearing or the large bearing (Torino) setup. measure the bolt pattern on the axle to make sure.

 

Who would ever have thought '92-'02 Crown Vic would be hard to find?!

 

rear ends were a little week, we replaced a lot of the on patrol cars, cheaper then fixing them and now everyone is trying to get the disc brake setup off them.
Crown vic front suspension set up is the same thing people wanting the for the ford trucks (cheaper then mustang 11) and the cars are pushing 14 years old

 

Im in canada and the big issue is rust.....tons of salt on the roads which can destroy the underside of a vehicle within a few years if never protected.
I will look into the Bronco but i think it is big bearing

 

I wish I would have sen this sooner,my next project will get 4 wheel disc brakes.

 

picking up a complete rear disc set up from a 1998 Crown Vic. I've also acquired a 1994 set up but seems that E brake cables are phasing out as my local carquest claims they can't get them. The 98 dust shields will be cut off as there is a bit of rot but that's no problem as car won't be seeing harsh conditions. Will keep you all posted but I'm sure it will turn out more or less the same as the project that we see at the beginning of this great thread.

 

Small update. rather than cut a washer and slip it in to make up for the space between the axle bearing and retainer plate, I had a friend machine a spacer and then put it on when presing on the new bearings. I did tons of mock ups/measurements using a spare axle with the old bearing still on. Using a bench grinder I lighty took a thin amount off the bearing so I could slide it in and out easily then used various washers until I built it up enough to be firm against the bearing/retainer. I needed a 6mm thick washer so had a pair done up out of steel. Aluminum would work also.


As for the flange center and ID of the brake rotor I went a different route. My 9" came form a 69 Mustang and when I ordered new wheel studs I noticed the collar was much higher. The new rotor would not sit flush on the flange so I opened up the holes to fit snug over the studs and voila !!
Making a sleeve to fill in the gap as originally described will work just a good, I just chose another way as it suited my application.

 

That's actually a better setup.
Eliminates any racking on the threads and much stronger.

 

One other I did was use 79-81 camaro front caliper hoses as they allowed me to move them around on the Crown Vic calipers and I did not have to deal with adapters for ISO brake line fittings. I also spun one side 180 so both calipers are at the rear...this alos made things cleaner for the e-brake set up,

 

Nice work!

 

Does anybody have a link where I can view the pictures? This is a great article but the pictures no longer show. Willsolano76@yahoo.com


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

They are a victim of Photobucket de-activating 3rd party links. If there is still interest I could move them to a different host, I've just been lazy about that.

In the meantime the album they're in at PB is public. Go here:
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Hughee/library/8inch?sort=3&hotlinkfix=1525711868870&page=1

 

I, for one, would be very interested in seeing the pictures. My son has a small bearing rear end that we are planning on doing, and I have a large bearing 9 inch that I am also going to want to convert to disk brakes.
Bob

 

Me too, Bones

 

Looks like PB links are working again- at least for now. I see pics

 

Thanks for the writeup.
I've read this a few times over the years, finally getting ready to do this on my not to be mentioned here project car.
Gives me the confidence to do it.
I did buy the spacers from the ebay guy, and his instructions are pretty good, but 4woody's writeup filled in all the questions I had about it.
Russ

 

What a great write up,I’m picking up a complete diff out of a 99 CV in a couple of days and this article is a lifesaver.
I can finally ditch my manually adjusted drums off my 57 Ford and have 4 wheel discs!
Cheers,John

 

I read about this swap many years ago and saved from the HAMB only to loose it when computer went down, but there was one topic that was mentioned that I cannot find in this post. Not saying that this post isn't great, because it is. I am scratching my head though because in this post it seems that the Crown Vic caliper backing plate bolt patern and the 8 inch housing flange bolt patern is the same. The Crown Vic rearend would be a 8.8 which is a newer style than the 8 or s/b 9 inch. My charts all say that they are different bolt patterns. Yes they can be made to work , but they do have to be modified.. Where was this step? The difference is to great for the bolts of proper size to just slide right in. click on diagram to see where I am coming from.

 

Second question. I am using the disc brake setup from an 8.8 from an explorer. my chart says that all 8.8 rears are the same caliper and dust cover size as for the bolt pattern to axle housing flange. I measured the hole that the axle goes through and it is 3 inches on the 8.8 brake calipers and dust shield. Then measured the 8 inch axle bearing outer race and it was 2.84 of an inch total. So what holds the axle in because 2.84 will go right through 3 inches. Measured them with calipers so measurments are right. What am I missing?????