Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Brakes Is this possible?

I am looking at doing the big brake kit on my SVT, but all the kits I am seeing are for the front brakes only. Is it possible to put the front brake setup on the rear after I take them off? I was wondering this cause I would think that you would want to upgrade the rear along with the front. Am I wrong?

Like nearly anything, it can be done if you are willing to put enough into it (actually, I don't think all that much would be required to do it here) but the question is it worth it . . .
Keep in mind that the vast majority of your braking effort is extended by the front brakes, and even on stock systems, the pressure to the rear brakes has to be reduced through a proportioning valve to keep the rear brakes from locking long before the fronts.
Some people would want to do it on looks alone, which is fine if that is what floats your boat, but even if you're only doing it for looks, you still have to do it right, because after all it is your brakes, and the safety of your car is drastically affected.

If you are going to do it, keep a few things in mind.
1. You will likely need custom caliper brackets, to go from the rear knuckle to the existing caliper bracket (assuming you are using the stock front caliper)
2. Parking brake. The front stock caliper has no provision for a mechanical parking brake. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but can be a big hassle to get to work properly, AND if you don't have it, you have NO backup method of braking in event of a hydraulic failure.
3. Brake Balance. You will need to get a new adjustable proportioning valve to re-balance the brake system to a safe setup (ie NOT heavily rear-biased) otherwise the vehicle can be quite dangerous under a dynamic braking situation.

Plus I'm sure there are more items, but these are the ones that stick in my head off the bat.

TCE offers both a big front kit and rear kit for the Contour.

If you're going for a basically cosmetic rear upgrade (with a little more performance I suppose) I would follow Shaun's advice and buy the kit from Todd at TCE performance. The rear kit retains the stock rear caliper (no parking brake iussues) and fits larger rotors to make the comestic look more proportional with a larger front kit. I'll most likely be upgrading when my wallet permits...unfortunately that won't be any time soon

Plus, Todd is a great businessman, quick to respond and very customer oriented. Can't go wrong with TCE.

I think that someone here posted that they used the front and rear Focus SVT brakes on their Contour. The Focus SVT rear brake is larger than the Contour SVT brake.

People have done a write up on the fronts so look for it somewhere. But for the rears, the Focus discs are simply not really going to be cost effective compared to what I've got offered. At the risk of sounding like an advertisement, the rear kit I've got for $435 is not too bad really. Stock Ford discs for the rear of the Focus run about $120ea retail. Add to this whatever changes needed and you're half way to what I've got. Or take the $435 and deduct about $200+ and you see that this option is really only about $250. Keep in mind that the Focus STOCK parts (and my kit for it) are solid 3/8 rotors, whereas the Contour kit is a .75 center vented rotor. The solid one is fine for the Focus as it doesn't weigh anything, but the Contour can use the extra cooling too. Just some info to compare.