Rear disk caliper

[toddz69]

bringing this back to life to keep my brake threads in one place. watching a video where a guy smashes is 200k build when brakes go out and thinking i need to get ebrake on mine before it gets on the road. i can get a set of eldorado calipers pretty cheap ~131 for the pair on ebay. i found a explorer setup for $465. is the explorer rear disk better and worth the extra $$? being 20 years newer i would imagine it would be a better option. and also being ford on ford parts. have read that both parking brakes kinda suck. I have the small bearing 9" so i know its not a direct swap but hoping this kit has everything. i was not able to find DIY on this conversion with small bearing housing.

If you're referring to the recent red Mercury Comet video where the guy runs into the back of the mini-van, he had a lot more problems than his brakes! One being not very smart to drive the car with a sticking throttle!

The e-brakes on drum brakes do work better than the ones on discs do work better/are stronger simply due to their design - they have more surface area for holding the vehicle. However, the disc brake e-brakes can work acceptably for us - for example, my Explorer rear discs hold my truck just fine. I currently run 33" tires but used them with 35" tires for over 10 years without problems. I like discs for their simplicity, their ability to work well when driving through water/snow, ease of maintenance, and that intangibile nature of just being cool (me being of a certain age when only sports cars/race cars/very few production cars had 4 wheel discs).

The only vehicles that I know that still use the calipers with integrated e-brakes are some Ford products (Mustangs in particular) along with a host of vehicles with electric e-brakes - a completely different animal. All the others, particularly in truck applications, switched to the drum-in-hat style over 20 years ago, for good reason.

The Explorer kit does have certain parameters required on the axle for it to work correctly. Since you have a small bearing rear end, I'd do some searching for the conversions here using the Crown Vic parts, which are similar to the Explorer stuff but work on small bearing rear ends. Here's a link with some info:

https://classicbroncos.com/forums/threads/crown-vic-rear-disc-brake-conversion.176129/

Todd Z.

 

[Big Slim]

thats the one. that guys face into the dash.
but also i have a manual so it doesnt just hold itself like a automatic. is a bit weird that one caliper is in front and other is in back.

 

[SteveL]

Depends on tire size. The explorer don't hold well. With 33+ tires