One of the first things that I wanted to do to the car was upgrade the rear end and convert drum brakes to disc brakes. Since the cobra is, after all, a sports car, I plan to drive the heck outta it (this is a PG web-blog). Disk brakes dramatically improve the stopping power and as an addedd bonus, this would also change from a 4-lug to a 5-lug setup for the wheels (this means 5 nuts & bolts hold the wheels on instead of 4). Much stronger and it also opened up the world for a choice of what style of wheels I can use on the cobra.
I looked into buying kits that would use the existing housing and differential. These usually included: bolt on a brackets to hold the disc brake caliper, new brake lines, rear axles, discs, etc. and the kit even included new front brake rotors (since they would also have to be converted to a 5-lug setup).
Unfortunately, these kits were only about $150 cheaper than just procuring a new/rebuilt rear end that has all of these things, plus it was also modified so that it had the same width as the front (the kit would be about 1" wider, thus I would have to procure wheels with 0.5" different backspacing than the front wheels (=pain in the @$$). Not to mention, the new rear end would already be COMPLETELY assembled (no Scott assembly required). Thus, for only $150 difference, done. Sign, sealed and delivered (the rear end was coming from outside Atlanta, GA).
Ironically, I was able to sell the old rear end for $150 ta boot! Take that!
Putting in the new rear end went super smooth and only took about 4 hours. Thus I am really worried about what I did wrong, nothing goes together that easily! :) Of course, this is the day that I re-injured my shoulder, which required surgery later this fall. :-(
The Cobra now has a completely rebuilt rear end with:
- 10.5" 5-lug disc brakes
- 59.5" width (same as front)
- 3.27 gears (upgraded from 3.08)
- All New bearings and parking brake lines
- Four bar link suspension with horizontal dampeners
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