Lets see. In I want to say 04 the Explorer Sport Trac moved up to a 12" rotor. The spindle on the sport track is the same as on all 2wd Rangers as such the rotor will slide right on like it was made for it. Other than the larger rotor this upgrade uses the stock components on any 95-97 Ranger. Catch is that you have to space your caliper out away from the knuckle enough to clear the larger. Only way to do that is to make a bracket that goes between the caliper bracket and the knuckle. That's why you have to have the later model knuckles. There's a member over on Ranger Power Sports (RPS) that makes (or made) these brackets, can't tell you if he's still got any available. Looks like they would be fairly easy to make if you can weld really good and have the patience to do the measuring required. I have neither so I bought a set from him a few months back. As for your wheel clearing the caliper that's on you. Have to make sure you get the proper offset/backspacing to clear it. A 16" wheel is recommended for this upgrade, some 15" wheels may fit but not all will. FWIW the brackets cost $130 when I bought them.
The difference between stock and 12":
This is what the brackets look like. (click the pic for larger)
The other upgrade is to 13" Mustang Cobra brakes. This one is a kit made by another member over on RPS. Big difference is it uses both the cobra rotor and caliper. The Cobra rotor is made to slip over the studs on a hub (like most Mustangs I guess), rather than mount directly to a spindle like the 2wd Rangers. To adapt these the guy takes a brand new Ranger rotor and machines off the braking surface, leaving just the hat to make a hub for the mustang rotor. He also machines off a little on the back side of the rotor so the track width will remain stock. You mount this hub to the spindle just like you would a stock rotor, and slide on the cobra rotor on over it. He also machines a bracket out of 6061 T6 billet aluminum to mount the cobra caliper. There are varying opinions about which of these two kits are better. The big advantage to this kit is that if those big 13" cobra brakes aren't enough you can also install any aftermarket big brake kit or calipers made for that car. There are a few disadvantages as well, including wheel size, price and availability. First off the 13" brakes require a 17" wheel like, the other option a 16" may fit but most won't, and if you go to one of the after market options with this kit then you you have to go even larger on the wheels. The price is the biggest issue though, they are $425 for the kit. That's just the hubs and brackets, the rotors, calipers, etc. are not included. There is also availability to contend with. They will only be made in sets of 10, and a $225 deposit is required prior to production, as you can imagine it is difficult to get 10 people who want them and are willing to put that up front. There's currently a group buy on going for these, sitting at 8 participants myself included. Hoping it will reach 10 by the end of the year.
As I mentioned in my previous reply to use either of these requires the following parts to also be swapped onto your truck.
- 89-97 I-beams
- 95-97 Knuckles
- 95-97 Calipers (12" upgrade only)
As for my truck. It's currently torn apart and I've already installed the newer beams and knuckles. I am doing the 12" brakes on the front, and Explorer disk rear axle. I'll also be swapping the master cylinder out of my 98 Explorer V8 donor, not sure if there's any difference from my stock 86 Ranger one but it had a busted reservoir. I'm also going to attempt to retrofit the 4WABS system from the Explorer into the Ranger but that's just a personal challenge, if it don't work I'll do away with it and go non-ABS which the Ranger already is. I'm going to stick with that set-up for a while.
I'm also attempting to buy the 13" brake kit and the plans are to after I have the Stroker and TKO combo in the truck (few years down the road) to do the swap over to them. Will not install them right now because obviously I don't have the kit yet, and it'll allow me time to collect the parts to do the swap to mustang brakes on both front and rear rather than drop thousands on it at once. By then I should have decided on a set of 17" wheels I like, or if I decide to stick with 16" wheels and the 12" brakes I can sell all of it back off probably for what I paid for it. FWIW this is going to be a street truck not a strip truck, and plans are to after the Stroker is in and running good to make the move to forced induction (remote twin turbo). It'll be a rather light truck with way too much power built to handle turns a stop well. Will all of it come to reality, probably not but a guy can dream and scheme right.
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