1993 Cobra rear brake questions

[Jack Hidley]

Over the years, we have run into a few customers who claim their 1993 Cobra came with different rear brakes than what Ford says were put on the car. Because of this, I'm doing a survey of 1993 Cobra owners to see if I can find any concrete evidence of this. If any of you own or have owned a 1993 Cobra, I'd really appreciate it if you could take a minute or two to answer a few questions about the brakes. If you aren't sure about something just leave it blank. My goal is to get the most accurate possible information.

Are the rear brake rotors solid or vented?

Have you ever measured the diameter of the rear brake rotors, and if so, what were they?

If you ever changed the rear brake pads, can you give me the part number for the pads that you used?

If you have ever rebuilt the rear calipers, and happened to measure the diameter of the piston, what was it?

Of the 5,xxx 1993 Cobras built, what number Cobra do you or did you own?

Thanks for your help. I'll compile the results of what I find and post them here in a month or so.

 

[stangbear427]

Hey Jack! Didn't think I'd ever see you on a message board again! Anyway, not much info for you here, I have car #1386 and it had vented rotors. I got some of the last NOS rear rotors from Ford before they sold out, and they were vented as well. Didn't pay any attention to the diameter, piston size, or anything else, and my pads weren't from Ford. Sorry I can't be more help.

 

[cobr96]

I have seven ranging from #383 to #4104 and all have vented rotors. people who say vented are confused or thinking of the 94 and up, I've had people say theirs were solid , and ask them for a pic and they come back and say " they are vented"

 

[robertlyons]

My Cobra is #399, built 2/15/93. It had 10 1/8" diameter vented rotors and Valeo (sp?) calipers. When I still had them on the car, all the brake pads in the parts books for 93 Cobras were correct for my car, and matched the Ford set in shape and thickness. WHen I switched to 5-lugs, I machined down a set of 1992 Lincoln Mark VII rotors to work with the stock calipers. When I upgraded to the SN-95 rear rotors, I had to switch to the smaller sized SN-95 rear calipers to fit the increased rotor diameter.

 

[kcp203]

93 cobra rear brake info:

Rear brakes were the same as the ones used on the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. Axles were 3/4 longer on each side and required special offset wheels. Axle part numbers are F3ZZ-4234-A. Rotors in the rear measured 10.07" in diameter and were 0.945" thick. Part number is F3ZZ-2C026-A. Calipers in the rear were manufactured by Varga for Ford and were a single piston design. Part number is F3ZZ-2552-A (RH) and F3ZZ-2553-A (LH). Parking brake cables were changed for 1993 and the 93 Cobra also had specific parking brake cables for the rear disc. Part number is F3ZZ-2A635-A for both left and right sides.

 

[kcp203]

Also, I don't know about brakes specifically, but there are some minor differences in parts (i.e. intake manifold) on the very early production Cobras with January/February build dates. I doubt there are many differences once production scaled up, particularly with an item such as the brakes which were not Cobra specific anyway and were pulled from the Ford parts bin of other models. There's no reason Ford would not have had supply for the brakes which would come from the Tbird.

I've got a set of NOS calipers and pads buried in the garage. If I can get to them (they are BURIED!! under piles of parts stripped off my 72 mach1, which may get put back together someday this century), I will measure piston diameter to confirm.

 

[robertlyons]

A couple of things that come to mind that are different between early and late cars. The casting ridge on the intake manifold (noise supression), dipstick tube color, slightly different AC line, and something to do with the fuel line that caused a hold in production and shipping in February 1993 (I'd have to check my notes on that one, I forget a lot of things these days).