Rear Axle and Rear Disc Brakes Continued

The parking brake cable mount is at a good angle. I intend to use the factory '66 parking brake cables but will have to modify the ends to work with the Ford Explorer type backing plate.

So the next bit will be to drill the holes for the backing plates and install the 3rd member. Then there is still a whole myriad of other details to sort out regarding these brakes.

Some more progress today.

I leveled the jig to the flange and triple checked everything.

I bought a brand new split point 3/8" bit for this, glad I did as it was a chore to plug a 3/8" hole through the flange.

The little pilot portion really aides in drilling.

The holes are very snug for the 3/8" Tee bolts, there is no wiggle room.

However the new Torino/New Style axle bearing retainer plates fit like a glove.

Same deal on the other side.

Similar results. This jig will come in handy in the future as my 1968 XL fastback also sports factory disc brakes which are the same that were on the '68 LTD which are now on this chassis. My '68 XL also has this axle and it should be a whole lot easier to convert it to rear disc with the jig. If in the future I want to convert the '66 LTD I can use it as it also has this axle.

That little jig just saved me 800 dollars in buying new axle housing bearing ends and the alignment jig to weld on your own ends.

Next is to install the 3rd member/centre section.

Holy crap. I never want to try and lift that into position ever again. That was stupid. It took everything I had and I still had to borrow from next week to get it in there. I should have done it like I did on the '66 LTD. I brought the 3rd member over to the power winch in the ceiling and then lifted it up and placed the empty axle housing underneath and let the winch take the weight and I just guided it into position. Then I installed the whole deal into the chassis.

Much easier on the back.

So now comes more experimentation. I need to figure out the depth of shim needed between the axle shaft and the bearing to make sure the axle itself does not rub on the parking brake components and also determine if the rotor, pads and caliper I have will work on a parts stack up.

I did some quick research and there are a few different rotors and calipers for this type of rear Ford brake. There is early and mid Panther and Explorer. I think they'll all bolt in place, however there are small subtle differences in the dimensions and placements.

I pillaged used rotors and calipers off a '97 Panther and I have new pads. I will test fit those first and play with spacers on the axle shaft to see if those components will play nicely together on this Explorer backing plate.

In order to facilitate this I installed a plastic faux bearing in lieu of the real bearing. It's ABS and 3D printed. This allows me to slide the new axle shafts in place and experiment with shims and such.

I have to admit it is neat to see a Panther style rear disc brake on this old crock

This is the bearing to plate spacer that is needed to take up the space of the thicker disc brake backing plate versus the drum backing plate. I ordered these from Moser when I bought the new 31 spline 1541h alloy axle shafts.

So for now I have that spacer installed and the axle bearing retainer plate snugged in.

Once I figure out the shim, rotor and caliper next will be finding an OEM hydraulic caliper hose that best fits this application and run stainless lines to the main hose atop the axle housing.

Onward with a little more progress.

I was experimenting with some differing thickness spacers when the Moser spacers arrived in the post. Turns out these Moser 3/16" thick spacers are perfect for the job. I should point this out. No one (and by non-one I mean the common manufacturers of axle shafts) has the 3rd gen full size Fords axle shaft lengths on file, so I measured carefully the old 28 spline axles, filled out the form and had these made exactly as the originals just 31 spline and 1541h alloy.

You can see I'm using the faux plastic (ABS) 3D printed bearing as a mock piece to check the parts stack up. I can just slide the axle shaft in with no pressing required.

So far so good. No more rubbing on the parking brake springs.

The rotor is darn near perfectly placed in the centre of the caliper slide area.

I temporarily installed the caliper and new pads to check fitment.

Everything fit beautifully. The rotor and caliper are from a '97 Panther. I had a check on RockAuto and the application range is from 1996-2002.

Bloody hell, we have factory style Ford rear disc brakes on a large bearing originally 'Old Style' flange 9". It was a long road.

However we are not out of the woods yet. The hydraulic hose to caliper has yet to be determined. The shock bracket is really close.

Armed with all this visual evidence, I ordered new seal kits for the calipers (will rebuild these and powder coat), new hardware, new rotors (they are so cheap it's not even worth having these cut), and a couple of rear brake hoses that I thought might work based off the pictures (thank you RockAuto for posting detailed pictures and specs).

Onto pressing the axle shafts together with shims and real bearings now.

Continued in next post.