Stupid on my part

[zwack88]

Ok so I ordered pads and calipers a long time ago. So I am doing a brake job on the brick and I go to find out that I accidently ordered police calipers insteads of just the regular ones. I did however order regular pads. I misread something so that is how I got in this issue. I notced that because I went to put the pads in the new calipers and the piston was too big.

So my question is, if I just order police pads I can run these police calipers or is there anything else different about these calipers.


Thanks,
Zack

[85crownHPP]

I think the only difference is the size/type of the piston. If you use police pads they should work fine AFAIK

[Lincolnmania]

yea you need a set of 150 pads that is all

[zwack88]

Alrighty that is what I needed, thanks guys!

[Grand Marquis GT]

Police calipers are better anyways, with the metal piston and all.

[Blaze86Vic]

The retaining clip that come with the police pads can be moved to other pads to make any pad work. That's how I get performance pads specked for 86-93 Mustang GTs to work on my police calipers. Below is the transformation from mustang to Police Vic pads.

[torquelover]

Sweet pics. Have you ever used the Performance Friction pads on the track? They work well on the street, just wondered how they hold up on the track.

[Blaze86Vic]

The Performance Friction Z-Rated pads are street/track pads I have used them for two events and been very happy. But unless you are running the Z-Rated pads for your car, the PF pads you are using are not as good. They don't make Z-Rated pads for direct use in a box panther as far as I could find.

[packman]

I heard that you could get some sort of heavy duty package for the box Lincoln TCs and that they included better brakes. Are the brakes the same as PI brakes or are they different (better or worse)? I would like to change the brakes over on the CV one of these days.


Packman

[mrltd]

I heard that you could get some sort of heavy duty package for the box Lincoln TCs and that they included better brakes. Are the brakes the same as PI brakes or are they different (better or worse)? I would like to change the brakes over on the CV one of these days.


Packman

The only thing I've seen is the bigger rear drums on the boxes. The towing package cars got the big rear drums and standard front calipers and brakes.

[P72Ford]

The only thing I've seen is the bigger rear drums on the boxes. The towing package cars got the big rear drums and standard front calipers and brakes.

I personally think the bigger rear drums make a huge differenmce in these cars; despite the fact that they're only 1" larger in diameter... I guess that equates to what, another 12 or so square inches of braking material across the rear (assuming the shoes span the same angle, that the shoes are 2" wide, etc). My '90 CVPI has the small brakes on the rear (recently corrected the adjustment), and it stops like shit. I CANNOT lock the brakes up. My '88 had the large rear brakes, and it stopped so much better.

[LTDMan83]

I have the large rear drums on my 87,fully re-done with all new hardware,by myself.The car will stop on a dime,without locking the rear brakes.I really don't understand why people are so afraid of Drum Brakes.Even my first time doing them I found nothing hard about it at all,and these are the self adjusting type as well,which throws a few extra parts into the mix.

I have the police front calipers as well,running Z-Rated pads.I couldn't possibly need to stop any better currently.

[Blaze86Vic]

They stop great, but you could take those drum brakes off and stop just as fast. Those front brakes are doing everything. Drum brakes also suck up a lot of the pedal. Converting to rear disk will improve pedal height and response.

[gadget73]

Drums tend to be grabby too, just from mechanical amplification. As the drum turns, it wants to grab the brake shoe and tilt it out, which applies more pressure. Discs are a lot more even and controlled feeling. Locking up the tires easily isn't a good thing, and grabby brakes are poor for control in reduced traction situations.

My old setup with the 11" drums in back and big brakes in the front would make the rears lock up if I hammered the pedal. The cylinders were shot, and only one piston per side was moving properly so that may have been related. The pedal was definitely a lot closer to the floor, and had more of an abrupt feel to it, there was an extremely small area between no brake and lots of brake. With the discs in back, the brake pedal is a lot higher, and its quite a bit easier to control braking effort. It also stops extremely well should I feel the need to mash it. I'm also still running the original 1986 master cylinder, and its working fine. I might get a bit more performance out of it if I replace the MC, but for now its working and I'm leaving it alone.

[P72Ford]

Drum brakes are counter intuitive in my honest opinion. There seems to be too much movement for it to be a reliable set up. But, they are effective when adjusted correctly.

The thing about drum brakes is this: you can have alot more surface contact with the shoes. Thats why big trucks with air brakes have drums and not disks. Manufacturers can't make the pads to have as large a surface contact as the drums.

Given a choice, most people, including me, would choose the disk brake set up.