• Hello there guest and Welcome to The #1 Classic Mustang forum!
    To gain full access you must Register. Registration is free and it takes only a few moments to complete.
    Already a member? Login here then!

Versailles rear disc brake e-brake hack

Mach1Mark

Ramrod extraordinaire
Donator
I'm in the final throws of getting my coupe on the road and I'm trying to hook up the emergency brake I have the cable that attaches to the levers on the calipers but I cant get them to fit correctly. The cable I have was part of the axle purchase and I assumed it was the correct one. I've put this rear disc set up in a race car decades ago and at the time we wired the levers on each caliper open which eliminates the self-adjusting feature when you engage the e-brake. I don't use the e-brake on my regular drivers but since my coupe is a manual trans I'm more inclined to start using the e-brake. In the meantime until I figure out if I have the correct cable have any of you also wired open the e-brake levers on this set-up?
 
Surprised nobody has yet commented on the issues with the Versailles calipers . I think GT289 is the only person who has had some luck with the ebrake cables .
 
Hey Mark, I have the Versailles rear end working well in my '66, including the parking brake. If I remember correctly, I took the 79 Versailles parking brake bracket on the caliper, attached 79 Versailles parking brake steel cable/spring, fed it through a '66 Mustang parking brake cable housing to mount it to the car body, and crimped the steel cable to '66 Mustang front half of the parking brake cable to allow it to hook to the stock '66 Mustang parking brake bracket near the trans. All of the parking brake hardware near the trans is stock '66 Mustang. I'm not sure of the source on the bracket holding the cable to the rear end u-bolts.

I also had to move the rear parking brake cable mounts, which screw to the rear seat floor pan, further inward toward the drive shaft to prevent the cables from rubbing on the rear tires.

I have 2 years and 6000 miles on this setup, and I use the parking brake regularly to keep the rear adjusted, and it works well without showing any signs of bluing or exhibiting any other issues. One issue I did discover after about 1000 miles is that the rear-center brake hose I'd sourced, which I don't remember which make/model the hose was originally for, had rubbed almost all the way through the outer rubber layer due to contact with the shocks. Since the stock Mustang rear-center hose was too short for my application (I believe due to the angle I mounted the distribution block on the rear-end), I discovered a '77 E150 Econoline Van (1/2-ton, V8) brake hose (Raybestos BH38524) is a perfect solution, or just use steel braided hose in the proper length.

Cheers,
Brent
 

Attachments

  • 2016-03-20 18.24.01.jpg
    2016-03-20 18.24.01.jpg
    346.7 KB · Views: 12
  • 2017-06-28 21.08.44.jpg
    2017-06-28 21.08.44.jpg
    314 KB · Views: 12
  • 2017-07-10 19.20.28.jpg
    2017-07-10 19.20.28.jpg
    212.7 KB · Views: 12
  • 2017-07-10 19.20.54.jpg
    2017-07-10 19.20.54.jpg
    302.7 KB · Views: 12
  • 2017-07-10 19.21.05.jpg
    2017-07-10 19.21.05.jpg
    205.4 KB · Views: 12
Brent,
Thanks for chiming in, its been a loooooong time since I have installed this same rear end in a Mustang.

I did figure out both of the e-brake levers on the calipers were installed 90 degrees off from where they should have been. They guy who helped me rebuild the brakes didn’t look at the shop manual I had bought. I am going to install the cable brackets next. They install in the axle u-bolts. After that I will install the new cables.
 
Brent,
How did you connect the e-brake cable coming from the OEM under dash lever to the cables coming from the calipers? I have installed a T-5 transmission and had a support bracket made that works with the newer transmission but I had to cut off the e-brake bracket where the OEM e-brake lever pivots. I'm left with a single cable with a pressed-on ball near the firewall. I am going to need to fab an intermediate cable to bring them together. Ideas?
 
Mark, I took the front half of the '66 Mustang brake cables and crimped them together with the rear half of the '79 Versailles brake cables, using the connector shown. The crimps are in the middle of where the cables hook into the front parking brake bracket and where the cables go into the sheath.
 

Attachments

  • 1DLE3_AS01.jpeg
    1DLE3_AS01.jpeg
    14.1 KB · Views: 3
Back
Top