Click on any photo to enlarge.

If you're reading this, you probably realize by now that the stock brakes on the Fox-chassis Capris (or the Ford version, the Mustang) leave quite a bit to be desired. While ten-inch front discs and nine-inch rear drums were fine for slowing my 4-cylinder Capri down from its top speed of 38 MPH, slowing down the car with a V8 under the hood could be a white-knuckle endeavor. (Must have been because of the extra weight or something.)

Normally, the first step to take would be to swap out the front brakes with the 11-inch binders off of an '87-93 Mustang V8, or from an '84-86 Lincoln or SVO if you wanted to bring your lug nut count to five. However, I picked up the whole set of rear brakes off an '84 Continental in a U-pull yard for $40, and I was tired of the box of parts laying around in my "oughta do that" pile.

A quick note: If you're changing both fronts and rears and going to 5-lug rims, you can use the front suspension off of a '94-up Mustang (including A-arms) and the Lincoln/SVO rear axles, bolt the rear discs on without modifications, and use the M1007-R179 rims all around. You'll get a better suspension geometry in the front and a good excuse to replace those worn-out front bushings.

The first thing you'll need to do is pop the axles. To do this, jack the car up, put a drain pan under the axle, and pop off the cover bolts. Leave the top two on until most of the fluid is drained. Next, apologize to your wife for the smell, and promise it won't happen again, again. Take off the wheels and brake drums. If you look at the picture, you'll see there's a bolt in a notch on the carrier. Using an 8mm wrench, unbolt that and slide it out. That bolt holds in the pin in the middle. With the bolt out, the pin should slide out easily. Push the axles in from the ends, and you should be able to remove the C-clips with a magnet or needle-nose pliers (or gravity). Either slide the axle shafts out carefully, or plan on replacing the wheel bearing seals (cheap).

Next, you'll want to do is get rid of the stock drum brakes, especially if yours look remotely similar to mine. Twelve years and flipping the odometer twice don't make them look any prettier. Easiest way to do it is to unbolt the four nuts next to the axle bearing, disconnect the parking brake cable (a 13mm box wrench helps), and try and sell it on eBay. Don't disturb the brake dust too much, unless you like breathing asbestos.

Now, if you look at your Lincoln brackets, you'll notice that the hole for the axle is the same size as the axle tube. Ding! We can solve all our spacing problems (which you're aware of if you tried to bolt on the discs) by just attaching the bracket directly to the axle. Using the photos as a guide, cut the stamped-steel caliper bracket in half (so you wind up with two non-symmetrical pieces). Drill out the brake rotors for four-lug. Bolt the rotors to the axles, and "assemble" the brakes so you can get the spacing right. Use compressed air to hold the caliper closed. Tack-weld the stamped-steel bracket onto the housing, and when you're sure everything is lined up right, disassemble everything and MIG-weld the bracket. (I had all this work done at Takash Racecraft in Orlando for about $200, 'cause I didn't have a MIG welder at the time. Beautiful work.) Make sure you get the bleeder screws above the center-line of the axle, or you'll never get the air out.

Now, go ahead and bolt all your brake hardware back onto the axle. If your car didn't come with dual exhaust, you can use the factory Lincoln brake tubing on the axle. Otherwise, modify your existing tubing and install the brake hoses. On mine, the brake hoses rubbed against the bracket (since it's an extra inch inboard), so I cut a piece of vacuum hose lengthwise and wrapped it around the brake hose to give it some armor.

The next steps take place in the engine compartment. Since you've got rear discs now instead of drums, they use a lot more brake fluid to make them grab. Source a master cylinder out of a Lincoln or SVO. My 4-cylinder also used a 21mm (about 3/4 inch) bore, but the Lincoln used a 1-1/8 bore. You may need to replace your brake booster as well. Since the Lincoln uses a Hydro-Boost setup, a rebuilt SVO vacuum unit is a better choice (if you need it).