Brake Shoes

[ptstew]

Now that I am back on the road I want to get better braking for my strictly around town street car. I have stock 1991 manual front disc and rear drum brakes with Porterfield pads and OEM style shoes. I have the Mustang foot box and did the brake pedal modification to get more leverage. I am using the stock 1991 proportionating setup with an OEM style M/C. After just installing a new engine, completely updating brakes is not in the cards.
Based on all the Forum comments I am going to try Hawk HPS pads but can’t find anything posted about more aggressive rear shoes. Any suggestions?
Thanks, Phil

[Gordon Levy]

Porterfield used to have a set of shoes for that application, you can give them a try.

[ptstew]

Thanks, Gorden

[CraigS]

better shoes is going to be tough to find. A couple of thoughts for you. 1- get rid of or gut the proportioning valve. All it does is reduce rear braking which is the last thing you want.
https://live.staticflickr.com/4893/46020310544_c5b9d07f46_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2d7E815)BrakeControlValvecopy (https://flic.kr/p/2d7E815) by craig stuard (https://www.flickr.com/photos/152454123@N04/), on Flickr
Way back when there was a new cap you could but w/o a hole in it. Last one of these I did, I drilled out the hole a bit, bought a socket head bolt, two aluminum washers and a nylock nut. The head of the bolt went inside w/ a washer under it, a washer and the nut on the outside. The aluminum washers are soft enough that they will deform a bit if needed and make a good seal.
2- Do you know what the bore is in your MC? Smaller bore will give more effort multiplication and require a bit more travel. I believe 7/8 is what you want. I hope others will verify that as it is a decade old memory.

[ptstew]

Thanks so much, Craig. I always wondered what that brake control valve looked like inside. Those plugs are still available from eBay and others to use when converting to rear disc brakes. I will try one to see how it works. Right now it is hard to tell how well the rear brakes are actually working.
I am on my third M/C, not an easy job with the body on. This one is a Cardone with a 0.94” bore so that’s not helping compared to 7/8”.

[ptstew]

Installed and bedded in Hawk HPS pads today. They are a major improvement over the Porterfield ones I had. Will now proceed with modifying the Brake Control Valve to Get the rears into the game.
Thanks for help.

[CraigS]

If I were you I would put a parts wanted listing for rear calipers and all brackets etc. I am thinking somewhere there is some one who upgraded to Wilwoods. If you can get calipers, be sure to check pad availability first. As much better the HPS are then your previous pads, Hawk HP+ or Street/Race are even better. A pretty good combination is HPS front and either of the others on the rear. They dust more but the grip is unbelievable. I use this
http://armorall.com/products/wheels/brake-dust-repellent
I also have a small 2 gallon shop vac that is dedicated to cleaning wheels w/ the brush end attachment.

[BEAR-AvHistory]

If I were you I would put a parts wanted listing for rear calipers and all brackets etc. I am thinking somewhere there is some one who upgraded to Wilwoods. If you can get calipers, be sure to check pad availability first. As much better the HPS are then your previous pads, Hawk HP+ or Street/Race are even better. A pretty good combination is HPS front and either of the others on the rear. They dust more but the grip is unbelievable. I use this
http://armorall.com/products/wheels/brake-dust-repellent
I also have a small 2 gallon shop vac that is dedicated to cleaning wheels w/ the brush end attachment.

+1 on "OUTLAST" Dry paper shop towel will clean the dust in one swipe. My HP+ are very dusty wipe them down once a week but the suckers really stop exceptionally well.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazine.com-vbulletin/580x435/80-dirt_d124e8b5ffcc49bf13cff6b7d8d6466a13ed4110.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazine.com-vbulletin/580x435/80-clean_c1a085bf08bae175271ea8707a3303028e67aea8.jpg

[ptstew]

Thanks so much, guys. I have ordered the Armorall. I’ll give conversion to rear discs some thought. Kind of depends on how well rears work after gutting brake control valve. I have 4 lug, 10” Compomotive rear wheels so will have to see what works with those.

[CraigS]

One other thought for you is to look for wheel cylinders w/ a larger bore. It may take some investigation but remember that Ford built a lot of other models w/ suspension/brakes near identical to the Mustangs. So you could find a cylinder for a Fairmount or a Falcon w/ a larger bore.