5-lug trouble

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5-lug trouble

August 22, 2014, 06:38:14 PM

A couple years ago I bought a late 80's Mustang in order to rob the engine and 5 lug conversion off of it. In the front the 5-lug was done with 95 Mustang parts. Front part of the swap to the T-Bird complete. The back side is a different story. They did not use 95 Mustang parts there, and I don't know what they used. The original vehicle had rear ABS and an 8.8 axle. The rotors measure to be 11.25 in diameter and are vented. I really need to know what the original donor vehicle was so I can buy new pads, rotors, and calipers. Any ideas?

5-lug trouble

Reply #1 – August 22, 2014, 06:39:33 PM

My guess would be Mark VII

5-lug trouble

Reply #2 – August 22, 2014, 07:44:33 PM

Thanks Thunder Chicken! I looked up Mark VII brake parts online, and the pics that come up look identical to what I have. I must now wait until payday to get the needed parts.

5-lug trouble

Reply #3 – August 23, 2014, 09:08:50 AM

This is what I have gone by over the years and it seems to be pretty accurate:

- '86-'93 Fox 5.0 Mustangs have a 57" wide 8.8 measured from axle to axle with the exception of the '93 Cobra which basically has an 8.8 TC rear end which is pretty much the same width as the SN95 8.8's.
- '94-'98 SN95 V8 Mustangs have a 58.5" wide 8.8 measured from axle to axle .
- '99 and newer S197 V8 Mustangs have a 59-7/8" wide 8.8 measured from axle to axle .
- Lincoln Mark7 LSC, SVO Mustang, and Fox Body Saleens use a 59.5" wide measured from axle to axle .

Another piece of info is that the Fox and SN95 cars have the exact same rear end housing. The only difference is the axles on the SN95 cars are 0.75" longer per side to accommodate the ABS exciter rings. The V6 and V8 SN95 cars have the same axles, brackets, rotors, and calipers so when doing a swap you can use everything off of a V6 car if you already have a Fox 8.8 housing.

The '99 and up S197 Mustangs have a longer rear end housing and even longer axles so this one is more like the MarkVII housing. These rear ends are not optimal for a Fox Mustang at all but seem to work okay in a T-Bird. I have heard that the wheel selection using a Mark VII width axle is not as good as the SN95 rear ends due to more of these cars being on the road so lots of offset and backspacing selection.

Darren

5-lug trouble

Reply #4 – August 24, 2014, 04:48:09 AM

Thanks Darren. This also coincides with what I am seeing. The Mustang looked like it had massive rubber out back, but only had 225/60s. It was just the axle width that made them look so big. Axles are already in Parts car #2 which is a TC that I will be swapping the entire rear axle assembly out of. Setting the old rotors on and sliding the wheels on for an idea of what it will look like made me happy. It looked right at home on the Bird. From what I have been reading, the housings themselves are the same width. I will measure to make sure. Looks like I am well on my way to having 5-lug at all 4 corners, and 3.73 gears with Trac-loc not a bad upgrade either!

5-lug trouble

Reply #5 – August 24, 2014, 11:12:52 AM

I can tell you from experience that the TC rear end housing is 100% identical with the exception to the quad shock mounting holes (never really cared as I do not use them) to the Fox Mustang and SN95 Mustang housings. This is why Fox guys robbed these rear ends from the salvage yards to get disc brakes and deeper gears under their cars with no mods.

Read Matt's site:

http://home.comcast.net/~mjbobbitt/mustang/page5.html

Darren

5-lug trouble

Reply #6 – September 06, 2014, 07:10:16 AM

The 8.8 in a TC 87-88 is 60 and 3/4 inches to . They use 30" axles on each side and the pin is 7/8 thick. The pin size is thinner on the 31 compares to the 28 if you are using a stronger posi unit of 31. . have a great day guys.