Pinto Car Club of America
Shiny is Good! => General Pinto Talk => Topic started by: ahawes on August 10, 2011, 10:48:38 PM
How difficult is it to get a Ford 5 lug front disc for the early Pinto? Looking at swapping the rear with a early Mustang 8" and would rather swap the front discs to 5 lug rather than the rear's axles and drums. Seems to be more options in the 5 lug for wheels anyhow.
The thread below has a great discussion on converting the early Pinto disc spindles to 5 lug with larger rotors.
http://www.fordpinto.com/pinto-faq/front-disc-brakes-(4-5-lug)/msg8025/#msg8025 (http://www.fordpinto.com/pinto-faq/front-disc-brakes-(4-5-lug)/msg8025/#msg8025)
I missed that thread on my searches last night somehow. Thanks for posting it up. So I notice there was mention of changing the ball joints and completely swapping the spinde w/ brake and all. What ball joint swap would this be and what spindle would you wind up with?
I believe a few were asking about swapping in 74-80 spindles for which 5 lug set ups are available. The later spindle is significantly taller and I suspect it would throw off the geometry without further modifications.
The one I liked was turbopinto72's use of Granada 5 lug rotors, GM metric calipers, and modified brackets intended for later Pinto's. Maintenance parts can be obtained at most parts stores.
That seems to be the most viable option at this point. For some reason it just scares me a little to only have that article to go off of without seeing it all more closely. If/when I make the leap that's probably the route I will go.