What year is your Mustang? 65/66's have less room in the wheelhouse than  other years. I would probably turn down a wheel spacer to whatever minimum thickness was needed.

If the clearancing is minimal, I would first check all the wheels on both sides. If none fit, I'd space out the wheels with varying thickness half inch washers to confirm how much material needs to be removed.  I've bought the washers as thin as .035". Only once it's known the amount that needs removed and the location on the caliper to remove material, would I proceed. Many folks have clearance calipers without issue.

Last edited by rpm (12/31/2016 5:24 PM)

laff66 wrote:

rpm wrote:

What year is your Mustang? 65/66's have less room in the wheelhouse than other years. I would probably turn down a wheel spacer to whatever minimum thickness was needed.

If the clearancing is minimal, I would first check all the wheels on both sides. If none fit, I'd space out the wheels with varying thickness half inch washers to confirm how much material needs to be removed. I've bought the washers as thin as .035". Only once it's known the amount that needs removed and the location on the caliper to remove material, would I proceed. Many folks have clearance calipers without issue.

It is a 66, so definitely tight in there.  I'm hoping to avoid a spacer, as the extra 1/4" of backspacing in the 4.75 as opposed to the 4.5 wheels is apparently pretty valuable on the 66 with the V45's.  
Great idea with the washers, I'll definitely do that once the car is together.  

 
I used Steves brackets on my 66 with a set of narrowed Mustang 17" wheels. They were freebies so I don't know the year. See pics and history section. Anyway the clearance is very close but clearance is clearance and I've had no issues. BYW,I had those wheels narrowed to the same specs MS used on his car.

DC wrote:

I am not familiar with the brackets you have, but I was able to shim where the bracket bolts to the spindle to get the calipers away from the spokes of the wheel on my car. I bought some stainless shim washers from McMaster Carr.

I am going to use the Mustang Steve brackets, but haven't ordered yet so can't play with them at the moment.  I did pull up the diagram, and it seems that if I were to shim where the bracket bolts to the spindle, it would move the caliper closer to the wheel?  I do see where bracket B appears to be inboard from bracket A with a shim in between.  Maybe I could increase the size of that shim to move it in a bit?  Great idea that I'll keep in mind.  Hopefully Steve will see this and can comment.

I have MS brackets on my car and they fit perfect. That is as I bolted them on they centered the caliper bracket perfectly to the rotor. A little shim moved that a bit, but if you are like me and keep an eye on brake pad thickness and change them early before they eat the rotor, that little bit of offset shouldn't cause a problem.

My issue was the bracket too close to the rotor. A little shim fixed that. With the after market spindles and rotors, the tolerances were not consistent side to side. I also found that not all pads are equal either. Some are thicker than others out of the box. It all affects where the caliper ends up.