Rear disc conversion question

[His Royal Ghostliness]

K, will do, if you don't see anything posted by same time tomorrow that means I forgot about it so send me a PM to remind me.

[Tiggie]

The box should have a 1310 u-joint and an aero should be 1330, measure to be sure.

LOUD EXHAUST IS FUN! AM I SHOUTING?

This. Brain fart on my first post. But measuring is good away. 1310 should be 3.5 inches.

[BigMerc96]

Oh fuck the '92-up brake hose arrangement:

#1 fuck having the brake hose so close to the tires, tire are known to com apart and tear stuff in their near vicinity to pieces.

#2 fuck needing to pop the brake calipers off for just about any work that requires supporting the car by the frame with the axle hanging way down. You know, work like replacing your rear shocks or springs. And if you're not extra careful where you attach the brake hoses on the frame, you risk ripping one (usually driver side) apart if the suspension goes into max droop position even with shocks still attached and thus limiting down-travel.

#3 fuck running brake lines first way the fuck back behind the axle for the driver-side hose, then way the fuck up over and across the frame, then way the fuck forward of the axle for the passenger-side hose.

I have owned 2 Aeros and a whale, and I've worked on many more of them. I even replaced the hard-lines on my Town Car. I fail to see any of these issue with the factory Aero/whale configuration. I've never removed the calipers to do anything to the rear of the car except when I pulled axles. There is enough length in the hoses to allow for full suspension travel without pulling. The only time I came close to pulling on the hoses was when I had the shocks unbolted to lower axle and remove coil springs. Yes the hard-line routing doesn't make the most sense, but, its not difficult to run. From the drivers side hose it goes up a couple inches then its a straight shot up and over the gas tank where it comes out and turns forward and runs a further foot or so and connects to the other hose. I agree that if the existing lines are good, you can make the box brake line configuration work, it is not unlike how a lot of trucks and other solid axle vehicles are plumbed. If the lines should be replaced anyway, then there is nothing wrong with the Aero/Whale configuration.

[BlackVic_P71]

This. Brain fart on my first post. But measuring is good away. 1310 should be 3.5 inches.

Yeah, I just did all measuring last year so it's fresh.

LOUD EXHAUST IS FUN! AM I SHOUTING?

[gadget73]

I fail to see any of these issue with the factory Aero/whale configuration.

Keep in mind that his idea of "sufficient" is being able to do Dukes of Hazzard style jumps over the zombies during the apocalypse with zero chance of anything going wrong.

[sly]

Keep in mind that his idea of "sufficient" is being able to do Dukes of Hazzard style jumps over the zombies during the apocalypse with zero chance of anything going wrong.

I approve of this methodology myself.

[gadget73]

I had a wheel come off my car, and my 92+ style lines were not affected. *shrug*

[Elias]

I approve of this methodology myself.

Just wanted to say thank sly(Jason for the wireing job. Looks great ��������

[Elias]

After fighting with the upper bolts for the upper arm they finally came out. Also finding a 12mm 12 point socket is hard in the junkyard here are some pics 97 cv p71 rearend and a 97 p71 drive shaft looks very light I wonder how heavy the original one is.

[gadget73]

Steel is roughly 3x the weight of the same size hunk of aluminum.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

I have owned 2 Aeros and a whale, and I've worked on many more of them. I even replaced the hard-lines on my Town Car. I fail to see any of these issue with the factory Aero/whale configuration. I've never removed the calipers to do anything to the rear of the car except when I pulled axles. There is enough length in the hoses to allow for full suspension travel without pulling. The only time I came close to pulling on the hoses was when I had the shocks unbolted to lower axle and remove coil springs. Yes the hard-line routing doesn't make the most sense, but, its not difficult to run. From the drivers side hose it goes up a couple inches then its a straight shot up and over the gas tank where it comes out and turns forward and runs a further foot or so and connects to the other hose. I agree that if the existing lines are good, you can make the box brake line configuration work, it is not unlike how a lot of trucks and other solid axle vehicles are plumbed. If the lines should be replaced anyway, then there is nothing wrong with the Aero/Whale configuration.

From a purely functional standpoint, yes the aero/whale lines routing works fine. But I've seen firsthand what a tire suffering thread separation at highway speed can do to sheetmetal, and I want no brake hoses anywhere near the vicinity of such carnage. What's the chance of a tire suffering such a violent failure - idk, probably very very slim, but it's nor zero either, and if I'm doing the work anyways I might as well try to minimize the collateral damage should the bad stuff actually happen.

When it comes to running the new lines, the aero/whale sucks cause you got fairly limited space to work with between the body and the frame. Whereas with the full axle-mount routing the main lines is rather easy to make reach the factory center hose location on the frame, and from there on out you just let the axle hang by the control arms and pull up a chair and sit behind it and under the fuel tank and the two pieces are right there in front of you - no need to reach up above your head while trying to guide the crossover line towards the passenger side.

As far as hoses length is concerned, factory aero/whale setup is pretty borderline, I just worked on a full-factory whale last week and had I popped the shocks off the axle with calipers still in place I'd be in need of new caliper hoses, this from the weight of the axle alone (air springs were already deflated). And being that a conversion on a box is just that, it's quite easy to fuck up the ideal location for the bolts that retain the hoses to the frame, and end up with less hose length than suspension travel.

So overall it boils down to that doing the lines box-style is simply easier and faster for me, with the added benefit of reduced chances of major fuck-up due to circumstances that are beyond my control.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Keep in mind that his idea of "sufficient" is being able to do Dukes of Hazzard style jumps over the zombies during the apocalypse with zero chance of anything going wrong.

Lol, yeah something like that. But really, after having a development vehicle rub thru a brake hose with its tire due to poor hose routing and length choice (neither of which was my call), I have a thing about keeping brake hoses and tires as far from one another as possible. On my 1-ton I got IIRC 4" of clearance at any given time, which is almost double what the OEM setup provides - I can cycle from full compression to full droop and back at stupid high frequency and never have to worry about things touching other things regardless of steering knuckle angle, it's a great peace of mind most normal folks won't ever even think of. But since I'm the one putting the thing together, I have to think of it, so I come up with all sorts of operating conditions (unlikely as they may be to actually occur) and make sure the chance of something going wrong is as low as reasonably possible.

For the record I don't think even 4" of clearance is acceptable for an offroad vehicle, therefore I'd much prefer to keep the caliper hoses as close to the axle housing as possible and then use hard lines to bring the connection between the axle and the restd of the chassis out somewhere in the middle of the frame where it's well protected against tires and anything they may grab a hold of and sling around. Which is exactly what the rear of a box Panther ends up like if the factory style center hose and hard lines are retained. And yes I realize that Panthers are not exactly offroad-friendly, but principle still applies.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

In any case, Elias, take a look at this post here:

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?54558&p=795049&viewfull=1#post795049

If you don't have a welder you can easily make mounting brackets out of flat stock (steel is cheaper to buy and easier to cut, but aluminum is easier to drill), bolt them onto the housing via the smallest-diameter pair of holes punched out the rear wall of the mounts for the lower control arms (you can see said holes in the 1st and 3rd pictures).

[Elias]

Last question I have is what do y'all recommend for the rear control arm bushing brand

[Elias]

In any case, Elias, take a look at this post here:

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?54558&p=795049&viewfull=1#post795049

If you don't have a welder you can easily make mounting brackets out of flat stock (steel is cheaper to buy and easier to cut, but aluminum is easier to drill), bolt them onto the housing via the smallest-diameter pair of holes punched out the rear wall of the mounts for the lower control arms (you can see said holes in the 1st and 3rd pictures).

Thanks
Also what would y'all recommend for painting the rear or the steps in painting it and materials