Factory Five Roadster Build Part 7: Project Snake Charmer

Front-Brake Assembly
There are a few options to fit five-lug wheels and brakes to the FFR, one of them being the use of '94-and-up Mustang spindles, which were five-lugs from the factory. The added benefit of these spindles is their sealed cartridge bearing and "divorced" rotor. The high-quality bearing requires no servicing, and the rotor can be removed without messing with the bearing or dust cap. If you want to maintain the desired front track of the '87-'93 Mustang parts, be sure to use only '94 or '95 spindles. The '96-and-up are a bit wider, though they will work.

Due to the design of the spindle, the lower ball-joint castle nut ends up being too short to properly engage the cotter pin when installed on '87-'93 Mustang control arms (or the optional FFR tubular arms like we're using). The solution is simple: Use a machined spacer or a stack of washers to allow the castle nut to engage the cotter pin correctly, as shown here. Our spacer is from Stainless Steel Brakes Corp. (SSBC).

After slipping on our directional ball-milled and zinc-washed 13-inch rotors from our SSBC Force 10 Tri-Power front brake kit (PN A112-11; $1,295) a test fit of the caliper and caliper mounting bracket showed a need for a small amount of caliper shimming. The shims are supplied with the brake kit and installed over the caliper mounting bolt to move the caliper and mounting bracket out just a hair, centering the rotor in the middle of the caliper.

With the shims in place and the caliper centered, the caliper mounting-bracket bolts are tightened to the torque specifications found in the SSBC instructions. We're using the white tie-wraps because our spindle adapter brackets are AWOL for powdercoating.

The SSBC Tri-Power calipers use a banjo bolt for the braided flex-line attachment. Be sure to use a copper sealing washer on both sides of the flex hose. We opted to simply snug the banjo bolt for now, leaving final tightening for when we can fit a wheel and check for any interference with the brake line.

At the opposite end of the flex hose, a retaining bracket and U-clip will be riveted to the Roadster's frame. We upgraded to the stainless steel brake-hose brackets and U-clips from Totally Stainless for our project.

Once the spindle-adapter brackets came back from powdercoating, we were ready to continue the front brake installation. These brackets replace the long strut assembly from the late-model Mustang and allow the spindle to bolt to the upper control arm supplied with the FFR kit. The fit is tight, so the use of a lineup bar and rubber mallet is recommended to get these suckers on.

Before sliding the upper ball-joint stud home into the adapter brackets, carefully rotate the stud with a pair of pliers (grasp above the threads) so the cotter-pin hole is parallel with the opening in the adapter bracket, otherwise you'll never get the cotter pin installed.

Seat the upper ball joint into the adapter bracket and install the castle nut and cotter pin. Depending upon the upper ball-joint style, a small shim (supplied with the upper control arm) might be required for proper cotter-pin engagement. That was not the case on our build.