FYI, I checked on some specs while at O'Reilly's last night renting a couple of tools.
I checked the caliper pistons sizes, rear rotor, thickness, and pad sizes, for four vehicles that I might consider to swap rear brakes, to my 99 Explorer and 91 Lincoln. Fortunately the store has those specs listed if needed, which helped a ton, versus hands on comparisons.
The vehicles I checked on were the 2011 Ranger, a 2003 Crown Vic, a 2003 Mustang Cobra, and my 91 Mark VII. The caliper piston size is the most critical spec to consider for swapping brakes. You must not alter radically the actual brake force of the caliper, with much larger pistons than the original, or smaller at all. The Cobra rear calipers have 1.5" pistons, two others have 1.9" pistons, and the Lincoln being 1.8" basically(within a few thousands). The Mustang calipers would be a bad choice to swap to, those would reduce brake power, even with the rotor size gain.
The rotor diameters and thicknesses are the same between the 11 Ranger, Cobra, and 03-11 Crown Vic. They are all 11.65" and .72 thick, bigger than 2nd gen Explorers but just slightly. They are all vented, which is a big plus.
The Ranger and Crown Vics have the exact same pad available, some alternative pads for each(compounds). So those use the same pads if it matters.
I'm hoping to find that the 03-11 CV's have the same 8.8 bracket bolt pattern as the 8.8 Explorers. I have a complete set of the parts from an 03 CVPI, and those are much easier to get at a JY, so that might be the best answer. Will the calipers center over the rotors(axle offset), and last the pads, is there any larger pad that could be used, like the 3rd gen Explorer's? Will that go into the 2011 Ranger caliper, which would also match the 03-11 Crown Vic rear calipers?
I didn't ask to see a 3rd gen pad, I only looked at a 2011 rear pad, which are just a hair bigger than the 2dn gen pads. I don't have a wearing problem with the rear brakes, I would not modify much to be able to use a different pad than the caliper is made for. It's not a big enough deal.
I'll dig out my 03 CV brakes from a box I've got them in, and the parking brake cables. I have my 99 Explorer almost ready to work on, and the brakes will be one of many items to do before driving it again.
I just priced the Crown Vic rear rotors and pads by EBC(with red pads(higher weight and heat)) at about $205 from Summit and Amazon sources. That's a decent price for high level brake parts. There isn't a feasible choice for a cryo rotor, one is close to $150 each, so the EBC rotors are better at the $150-$185 a pair range. The pads run about $65 themselves, so the kit(EBC S4KR1378) is cheaper if you need both.
