Brake Upgrade
The stock brakes are adaquate for normal driving, but not for any serious performance use. I needed to upgrade the brakes, but need to be able to fit 15 inch skinny tires/wheels on the front. This limits me to stock size brake rotors. The 1999-2004 standard Mustang brakes will fit with minor modifications. The Mustang calipers will double the clamping force on the rotors, and increase the brake pad size about 50%.
The stock single piston caliper
I used Calipers and Brackets for a 2003 GT
You will need Mustang calipers, pads, and mounting brackets,. You will also need to use Mustang Bango Bolts, since the Mustang caliper take a bigger one, with a different thread pitch. When mounting the new caliper, use the Tbird mounting bolts. If you get pre loaded calipers from places like Advanced, you get them with new brackets, brake pads, bleeders, and crush washers for the brake line fittings. You will have to order the 2 new banjo bolts, which are around $17-23 each.
The passenger side caliper will need trimed
to clear the Tbird brake hose fitting.
The calipers will need to be clearanced
slightly to get some clearance at the spindle.
The new dual piston caliper and rotors
To make bleeding easier, I just left the bleeders loose till the new calipers filled with new fluid, forcing the air out the base of the bleeder. As soon as it started flowing fluid, I closed it and topped off the master cylinder, then did the other caliper. When they were both full, I did a touch up bleed the regular method.
Switched The Rear From Drum to Disk
The car tries to push through the lites to easy with the shinnies up front, so with Disk in the rear, I can put an adjustable brake perporting valve, and shift slightly more braking to the rear where the wide Drag Radials are. This should make hauling it down on the big end easier also.
Old
The New Aluminum Lower Control Arms
With the aluminum lower control arms, and going from the heavy drum brakes,
to disk, this should take about 30 more pounds of unsprung weight off the car.
With the car being IRS, and having a tremendous amount of torque, it tries to squat a lot on launch. This throws the rear Camber way off, thus reducing the foot print of the drag radials. With the air bags, I can up the pressure to shift the camber to about 1 degree positive, and limit the squat so it is zero camber on launch. With the air pressure reduced, it goes to zero camber for good tire wear while cruising. The pressure can be varied left to right also to get even launches.
Getting it ready for the Strip
Full Project