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How to use Cobra (SN95) pedals in fox

82K views 34 replies 23 participants last post by  larlar 
#1 ·

I recently came upon the issue of installing the hydroboost and figuring out how I wanted to set up the pedal assembly. As with most people I really wanted to use the 04 Cobra pedal assembly for several reasons:
A. The clutch/brake pedals are much bigger than the Fox ones, and spaced farther apart as well.
B. The spacers that go between the pedals and the firewall are metal (sturdier) on the Cobra set-up, versus cheap plastic on the Fox ones. (SEE PICTURE)
C. The appearance of the Cobra pedals is much nicer.
D. The brake pedal doesn't have to be modified to connect to the hydroboost plunger.
My issue is that I'm keeping the Fox dash, so I need to have the mounts in place for the dash and steering column. Once I got the pedal assemblies side by side, I knew that I couldn't just bolt in the Cobra assembly because it didn't have the brackets to bolt in the Fox steering column. The placement of the pedals and sensors was the same, as well as the upper mounting hole. I thought about swapping the pedals from the Cobra to the Fox bracket, but the placement of the pedals wouldn't work because the come down at a different angle on the Cobra set-up, versus straight down on the Fox. So I consigned myself to having to rig up the Fox pedals to work with the hydroboost, and I set about building a spacer out of an aluminum plate to replace the cheap plastic spacers. When I was almost done with that set-up I was comparing the 2 assemblies side by side, and came up with an idea to make the Cobra assembly work after all, the steps of which I will detail here.
These pictures show the comparison of the spacers, and the alignment of the brake pedal to the hydroboost plunger when the fox bracket is finally bolted to the hydroboost.


The first thing that you want to do is mount the Cobra assembly in the car and bore out the holes in the firewall to match the holes in the pedal assembly spacers, and trim out the large middle hole where the center of the hydroboost comes through. You can pick up a decent inexpensive set of transfer punches Harbor Freight tools if there's one near you. Most of the holes will be 5/16 or 15/32.


What I keyed in on that made me realize that I could make a hybrid pedal assembly was that the hole for the upper mounting bolt, that's in the top of the bracket, is in the same location on both brackets. So I figured that if I trim off the excess parts of the Fox bracket, I could align those holes with each other, and weld the 2 brackets together. The pictures below show the lines that I made to mark the parts of the Fox bracket to cut off.


I did the cutting with a cut off wheel on a die grinder, and after the initial cuts I had to do a little trimming to get enough material off the Fox bracket to be able to get it inside of the Cobra bracket so that the holes would line up.



I then drilled 5 small holes around the alignment hole on the Fox bracket. Two of these were so that I could mock up the set-up with rivets before welding to make sure that everything lined up. One place to make sure to line up is the bracket with the forward mounting studs for the steering column in order to verify that it's bolt holes will line up. I then drilled out the rivets and the holes were used for the initial spot welds. Make sure to put a bead along the top where the brackets meet because that's going to be a stress point as you put weight downward on the steering wheel. You will also note in two of the pictures that I added a couple small pieces of metal in to add extra bracing.





Once the welding was done, I bolted the assembly and hydroboost in, and everything lined up perfectly. Now I have the best of both worlds with the Cobra pedals underneath a Fox dash/steering wheel. I bolted up the steering linkage and connected the brake pedal, and everything works perfectly.


 
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#2 ·
There is a much easier way. I used the '03 cobra assy, opened up the holes like you did, bolted the fox steering column back in with the rear mounts that attach to the firewall bracket, and fabbed up 2 brakcets to pick up the forward mounts on the column, one to the firewall braceing, and one to the cobra pedal assy.

Your looks way more factory though! My way required a Flaming river steering shaft about an inch longer than the stock one.
 
#3 ·
The factory look is what I was going for, plus safety and reliability. Once I got into it, it took about 30 minutes from start to finish to get it done.
 
#5 ·
X2. Getting ready to get rid of the manual brakes and go to hydroboost myself... Also have a set of Aerospace rear discs..........

James
 
#6 ·
Here are some pics of the finished product after everything was painted and permanently installed.








 
#8 ·
I've been seeing sereral recent posts regarding hydroboost/pedals installs in Foxbodies, so I figured that I'd resurrect this thread in case it can help someone. Trust me, having the wider spacing of the Cobra pedals is a HUGE blessing in the car.

Additional info to this is that I was able to use all of the factory 03/04 Cobra hydroboost lines w/ a Fox steering rack. Hope this helps someone.
 
#15 ·
Thanks for the write up, this looks like the route I'll take!

I've been seeing sereral recent posts regarding hydroboost/pedals installs in Foxbodies, so I figured that I'd resurrect this thread in case it can help someone. Trust me, having the wider spacing of the Cobra pedals is a HUGE blessing in the car.

Additional info to this is that I was able to use all of the factory 03/04 Cobra hydroboost lines w/ a Fox steering rack. Hope this helps someone.
 
#10 ·
I'm not sure what I may have done wrong, but I put a '97 hydroboost setup on a '91 fox, expecting to do some fab work. After I enlarged holes to make it bolt up, it worked great! Granted, I didn't have late model pedals, but I didn't have to modify the pushrod or anything???
 
#11 ·
By the way Kenley, Just so ya know, this is what hot rodding is about GREAT JOB!!!
 
#17 ·
Awesome write up! Thanks for explaining things in such great detail with nice pictures!

This is a little off topic, but just out of curiosity, why do you want to keep the stock dash? I mean, you're doing all these mods to the car, why not do a little more and update the interior? I know it's a huge undertaking, and that resources are limited, so you'd want to focus your resources on the motor side of things.

Anyways, the pedals look great.

Can't wait to see the motor in there!
 
#19 ·
Awesome write up! Thanks for explaining things in such great detail with nice pictures!

This is a little off topic, but just out of curiosity, why do you want to keep the stock dash? I mean, you're doing all these mods to the car, why not do a little more and update the interior? I know it's a huge undertaking, and that resources are limited, so you'd want to focus your resources on the motor side of things.

Anyways, the pedals look great.

Can't wait to see the motor in there!
Probably because a Foxbodies interior styling goes better with a Foxbody that a SN95's interior.
 
#22 ·
I like the 4-Eye Fox dash because it's the easiest one to put aftermarket gauges in, and keep them looking stock. Many people seem to do the whole dash swap because it's been thought that you can get the modular swap to work without using the gauge cluster from the donor car, because the computer needs to communicate with the cluster. I found a way to trick the Cobra computer into thinking the Cobra gauge cluster is present, without having to put the actual gauge cluster in the dash, so that didn't become an issue for me.
 
#26 ·
im new to this site but im pittin a 03 motor in a 91 and i have ben researching for 2 years while buying my parts i have a doner car which ive been racing a little and i decided to start my project 2 days ago and i already have my pedals in and my steering colum to evrything is bolted up then i saw all your pics on how you done your pedals. so i took mine back out and brought them in my house to compare to the pics and couldnt beleive they were the same i had evry idea you had i wanted to us my fox dash since it was black and adapt the 03 harnes this is the easiest way i think you can put the 03 signal switch on the fox steering wheel to make some of the wiring easy it bolts right up and plugs up to the 03 harness but im glad i found thuis post just to be sure it all works this site is great
 
#28 ·
Just a heads up guys I did this setup on my 91 and I'm having trouble with the clearance between the wiper motor and the fitting for the powersteering setup. Just an fyi. Excellent write up by the way. I can provide pictures if any one is interested also I started a seperate thread about this.
 
#30 ·
well following the write basically picture for picture I have an inch clearance between the wiper motor and the top of the casting of the booster not a good deal I tore it all apart hoping to be able to move the studs up and inch to gain clearance but there is a big square nut in the back I can't get of to take the plate off the booster. Reasoning begining there is one stud the is trapped by the booster.
 
#32 ·
Great thread. Doing my car now. I plan on using braided lines and AN fittings. I have both 96-98 and 99-04 units. I plan on using the 2003 unit. I have been shown pics of the clearance with the 2003 and the stock lines as well as aftermarket. It is tight but it does fit. I will post my results when I am done. Does anyone know what size and pitch the booster and pedal assembly bolts are? I did not get them with the purchase and do not have any at home that work.
 
#33 · (Edited)
I have discovered that lining up the eliptical hole on the 99-04 pedal box and fox box results in the entire fox steering rack mounts being pushed forward 3/4" more or less. If you do the welding like this you will have to push the steering rack toward the rack and pinion 3/4". This will cause the stock steering shaft to be too short and only a flaming river solid shaft that is 3/4" shorter to work. The other option is to move the rack mounting points backward 3/4" which is some work. If you are shooting for a clean install this is not your option.

As well, if you are using offset rack bushings and you have a rack that is in the upward offset position, then you will also have to take another 1/4"-1/2" off of the shaft, for a total of 1" removed.

I am using a 00R rack and MM hybrid shaft. I measured the existing flaming river that I had on my other car, same setup, and with the 3/4" less room there is not enough room to use the MM hydrid shaft. I am going to have to redo the pedal box moving the fox pedal assembly 3/4" backward from where the two eliptical round holes align. I purchased a pedal box to replace a clutch pedal in my 93 and used that one to make this box. Just letting you all know what I ran into. My build is a little different than most so I encountered these issues.
 
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