Well, guess this might be another sign of the times, but I am going to give my blogging a try over here and see how it goes…
Time for an update on my 4 wheel Cobra Disc brake conversion, the rears in particular (fronts were completed around Thanksgiving). The rear conversion is complete with the exception of installing an adjustable proportioning valve (currently underway).
I decided on 9" Russell universal teflon/SS brakes lines and brake hose mounting tabs (Allstar Performance) welded onto one of the leaf spring U-bolts on each side of the rear for the hard line side of the hoses. This way I am not modifying anything that cannot easily be undone. The SS brake lines I used run right past the U-bolts anyway.
Here is one of the U-bolts after welding the tab on, cleanup and spraying with natural spray paint:
Let’s see if this picture posts and then I will edit/continue. Hmmph, looks like the link in the browser window does not work/is different than the picture properties link (on the site where I post my pictures). Posting pictures is going to be a bit more work (and think perhaps I need to decide on where to move my picture hosting to).
Okay, onward.
I got the idea from a picture on Mustang Steve’s site. I decided on Street or Track bracket kits though because they are one of the few companies (or the only one) making a rear bracket kit which does not require changing the axle bearings in order to install the brackets (my bearings are already new).
Here is a picture of one of the '99 Cobra emergency brakes cables I got from Advance with a $50 off $100 online order coupon I got when I ordered new brake pads for my wife’s car - $65 delivered for two cables and two cable repair kits (for the ball ends) did I mention that I love, love, LOVE Advance Auto??! 
This is after cutting off the inner cable car end stop, sliding the cable out, removing the original car side outer cable end, pulling out the plastic tube liner, cutting the cable to 29 1/4" overall length (a length I came up with after measuring a couple of times), cutting the liner to fit the new length and reinstalling it and then crimping the car side outer cable end back on using the 1/2" opening of my double flaring tool bar to make the crimp. Not as pretty as original, but very functional:
The cable end fit a little sloppy in the body side bracket so I removed the rubber seal ring that the cable came with and took a couple of the SS shims (washers) from the S or T Cobra bracket kit and drilled the hole to 0.625". Took a little wrestling to push the washer over the three tangs (like the drum E-brake cables have at the backing plates) but the resulting fit to the stock body bracket is real nice:
Long story, but the “Stam-Bar” 3/4" adjustable rear sway bar ends/links were smack-dab in the way of the Cobra rear calipers and brackets. I looked at possibly mounting the calipers on the leading side of the differential but the E-brake cables would have been too difficult/too large a radius to make the turn. So, I modified the end link parts to make the link mount on further inboard, over top of the spring rather than on the outer edge of the spring. Here’s a couple of pictures of that work.
Shortening the end links themselves:
Not sure why my bar looks so much different than the pictures Cougar Bill sent me of his, my links are WAY longer (and the bar end clamps were actually banging the wheelhouse/trunk floor pinchwelds as a result). My bar ends seem shorter as well. In any case it was modify or buy something else. You guessed it! I went with the modify route. Made a number of measurements to ensure my modifications would in fact alleviate the interference at the extreme of suspension travel.
Here are the links and associated hardware, on left is (DS) modified, right (PS) original:
The links now mount opposite from original, I abbreviated the bar ends clamp assemblies considerably, in the original orientation the bolt ends were (just barely) rubbing the frame in addition to the problem I described. The leaf spring bracket I had to whale on to bend the plate into an angle sort of affair (so the link end could sit over top of the spring rather than off the edge of it) and then cut back the tube and part of the bracket plate to position the link more or less vertically from where it now attaches to the bar ends.
Before:
After:
A good 1/2" to 3/4" between bar end/link clamp and back of Cobra disc caliper, brake hose is out of harms way as well (but was sweating this whole thing a bit, (fingers-crossed) made it work, so far appears that way anyway!
Okay, back to the E-brake cables. I was NOT about to settle for some hokey cable pieces attached to original inners cut off and fastened together with wire rope clamps, no way man! My buddy gave me a broken Snap-On double flaring tool bar and I “sculpted” out a half moon in the back of each half of the bar using a Dremel tool and stone bits, along with grooves to allow the cable to enter without being crimped along with the ball:
This tool, the ball ends from two Dorman 21119 E-brake cable repair kits (that have smaller cable for some reason) - holes drilled to the appropriate sizes - 1/8" for the Cobra inner (DS) and 9/64" (IIRC) for the original Cougar inner (PS) along with my buddies machine shop 50 ton press and about 10 - 15 tons of pressure yielded these:
Added a small weld (using stainless wire) to each of the ends, for insurance.
A shot of the DS finished:
Okay, that’s eleven pictures, let’s see if CCC has the ten picture limit per post, I’m thinking not. Will continue to edit/add to this post if there is no problem.
Edit: no problem! Onward.
PS finished:
BTW, I am not sure why I have not run across or heard that anyone had problems with or needed to change the rear axles studs to work properly with the Cobra rear discs, I sure did! I was only getting 5 or 6 threads of engagement once I put the discs on, maybe something to do with the Foose Legend hub thickness, but I was not about to settle for that and have wheels fly off at the drag strip or whatever! Anyway, the solution is use front drums studs. Dorman 98193 singularly or a set of ten (cheaper) Dorman 610-153. Some people use those nutty drag-car 3" long studs, but that is a little nuts (and you’d have to cut them for any type of capped lug nuts). If you do change the studs to the ones I suggest, you also need to open up the holes in the rotors a little bit, 0.625" would probably be easiest, but I like things to fit closely so I used the trusty Dremel tool and sandpaper drums on a rubber arbor to open them up just enough to fit, around 0.610".
The Cobra E-brake cables are (as one might imagine) pretty long and the route they have to take to get to the calipers is longer/more circuitous to get aft of the rear rather than just plugging into a backing plate on the forward side of the rear. The cables come with a metal tube crimped onto each outer cable and (for some reason) two different style clamps. Having never looked under a '99 Cobra, I couldn’t say why they are different (but I’m sure there’s a reason). It just so happens that the way I cut the cables (from the front), these tubes end up right over the top of the leaf springs. After trying a large zip tie and thinking how much less than sexy it was, I remembered having some leaf spring “sandwich” clamps (my name for them anyway) left over from when I took apart my leafs and put concours correct clamps in their place after painting each leaf natural (even though they are not concours correct springs, I still try to put my best foot forward nearly always). Nice that I had these (and this is how hoarders think) but how will I EVER get my abode properly cleaned up if I keep everything?!! That’s another story for another time/post. So I took two of those clamps, beat them into the shape/bends I wanted, welded a 1/4-20 bolt to the top of each, painted them aluminum, carefully C-clamped and beat them over the springs (this is how to make them fit tightly) and then put a tack weld on the overlap (as the tabs broke off when I took them off - works for me). Here is the result (after a very long-winded description, huh?!):
The clamps are from Lowes hardware, a run of the mill sort of thing. I would have used what the cables came with but only one of the two looked kind of like what is pictured in my arrangement.
Okay back to the cable inners. I measured for the ball locations by loosening the front cable stud to maybe 3/4" of the adjustment stud was showing past the end of the nut (so loose). Then I held up the Cougar inner (PS) to the Cobra inner (DS) along with the cable “joiner” thingie and marked the Cobra cable. Crimp the ball on the original Cougar inner right on the end since it is now a little shorter than one would like it optimally since it has to run through a longer outer cable to the caliper in its new application. The joiner does overlap the floorpan a tad when the brake is applied, but nothing that can’t be lived with and there is no binding. Worst that will happen is the undercoating will scrape a bit in this area, nothing that doesn’t already happen the way the cable lays up (original and ECI-Bob-style) tight to the floorpans anyway.
A couple of shots of the modified Cobra E-brake cables. You can see how the S or T rear bracket kit plate has an opening at the bottom which allows the plate to slip over the axle and between the flange plate (no longer needed but there) and the axle bearing.
Couple shots of the cables overall:
And that’s all he wrote! Will post the adjustable proportioning valve install when I finish that (probably tonight).
My wife wants to know why “now that the car is done” I am still working on it incessantly, any suggestions as to a good answer for that? Maybe it is time I sought professional help… (darn, where is my 
emoticon?, oh well, this will have to do). All things in good time. Tweaking is good and I can do more clean-up around the house all winter long, right? I got rid of the Bronx cat, right? I “neatened up” the (ton of) crap in the garage, right? The car needs to be “right” to before ECI-Bob can rest, right? And the list goes on and on…
Happy Holidays everyone.
Regards,
Bob
Oh, and my vag’ hurts a little too… 
sign in front of the word error!!!