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5 lug conversion

6

68GENERAL98CONTOUR

CEG'er
Joined
Jan 15, 2003
Messages
58
Location
Ohio, Marysville
Is there any way to do this. It is so hard to find wheels for a good price in this size, if they were 5 lug it would make so much easier. Just wondering if anyone has done it or if it is even possible.

Later
Josh
 
i would say that nobody has done it. i was looking at doing it because i had such a sweet set of rare cobra wheels on my 95 SHO, i almost tore the two cars apart just to see if i could make it work. it would take a ton of modification, but people do 4 to 5 lug conversions on other cars, so i'd say its possible. safe to say nobody has tried it though.
 
SVT Focus wheels and many other options in this bolt pattern for good prices, no need to do a 5-lug swap and no easy way to do it either.
-J
 
probably not worth the price but the Jag built on this platform has 5 lugs:shrug: /////////just saying
 
TRicker said:
i would say that nobody has done it. i was looking at doing it because i had such a sweet set of rare cobra wheels on my 95 SHO, i almost tore the two cars apart just to see if i could make it work. it would take a ton of modification, but people do 4 to 5 lug conversions on other cars, so i'd say its possible. safe to say nobody has tried it though.
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This thread is an oxymoron, they guy wants to do a 5 lug conversion because he cant find wheels he likes for cheap enough.

The short answer is yes, with enough money anything can be done, however, the OP would be doing it to negate his reason for doing the conversion.

Stick with 4x108, and dish out the couple extra bucks to get a nice set of wheels. That or keep perusing craigslist to wait for some good deals to pop up. I just came across 3 sets of SVT focus wheels for $300 a pop on craigslist, thats dirt cheap for a set of decent wheels. A couple of weeks ago I found a set of 17 inch Enkei wheels for $300 with newer tires on them.

Like I said, search craigslist, search ebay, something you like will pop up cheap if you are patient.
 
This is a conversion kit but Im not sure how well it works.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CONV...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories


Ive also been thinking about doing this for quite some time. Ford taurus come in 5 lug. So what Ive been trying to do is seperate a contour knucle and a taurus knuckle. Then press the contour bearing into the taurus spindle and install on the contour knuckle. I havent done enough homework to see if they would work with each other but its worth a try.
 
I believe it will Sam. I checked it out one day on my sister 03 Taurus when I had the chromies on the myst. We were going to put them on her car and I measured it all out and I do believe you can just use the taurus hub on the contour spindle.
 
svttour said:
This is a conversion kit but Im not sure how well it works.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CONV...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
Click to expand...

I had a set of those ebay things for my grand am... they worked great up until 70 when the car would vibrate. took them off thinking I had screwed something up during the install, did not appear that way. Put them back on with some 17's and had the same problem until the back passenger wheel came off and went rolling down the highway. Needless to say, they were disposed of.
 
i've just been working on my rear brakes and i was looking at the hubs and thinking about this thread. If the taurus hubs don't work, is there any reason why you can't just weld up three of the bolt positions in the contour hub and drill four more to make the 5 bolt pattern ? ...G.
 
gorman said:
i've just been working on my rear brakes and i was looking at the hubs and thinking about this thread. Is there any reason why you can't just weld up three of the bolt positions in the hub and drill four more to make the 5 bolt pattern ? ...G.
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You definately could do that, but its not as simple as "just weld it up and drill new holes". To do it properly, you would want to determine the grade of steel, and what the heat treat is, get comparable steel to make plugs for the holes to be filled in have them welded in by a skilled welder. Then drilled on a mill for accurate and parallel holes, then re- heat treat the hub to the original spec. It would probably be a lot easier and possibly cheaper to have custom hubs made at a machine shop out of the same or better steel. All you would have to do is disassemble a hub, and measure it up and draw a new one, adding in the desired lug pattern, and give it to the machinist to copy. Granted it requires some "engineering", but help for that part could easily be found, and in some cases you can just take the old hub to the machinist and say "copy this, but do a 5x??? bolt pattern".

Like it has already been said, the 5-lug conversion is definately do-able, but the cost to do it safely negates any benefit you get in wheel cost savings. Most wheels can be had in custom bolt pattern and offset for a reasonable extra price. I know lots of folks that had OZ's custom done before they started offering the contour/focus bolt pattern and offsets as regular production.
 
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thanks for explaining that Rara, ... looks like there could be a run on taurus hubs if it pans out then. Anyone got a donor hub for exploratory surgery ? ..G.
 
The only problem I would see with a taurus hub is the size of the axle and the number of splines in the hub.

Not only that, you will have to figure out what rotors to use.. then if they are a different diameter or shape, expect to be also searching for calipers/pads that WILL work. I guess there is a chance you could have the rotors custom drilled, but that just changes the engineering of the thing.
 
it is possible then that the taurus 10.8 rotors could be used with svt calipers/brackets depending on the hight of the hat on the rotors
 
hmm i upgraded the front brakes on my sable to the 11.6 i may have to find my old 10.8 rotors and compare them to the ones from my contour. i also swapped from drums to discs in the rear on my sable i will have to measure my discs and see what the diameter is
 
autozone specs a 00 sable as having 276mm rotors in the front and 257mm in the rear. my Ford CD doesnt specify diameters for the taurus/sable
 
any taurus from 99 to 07 did not come with rear discs except wagon and sho. sables came standard with rear discs untill the 2000 model year when drums were the only option except on wagons untill 05. so i am going to assume that the info they give is either for the older models or for the wagons. i know that the rear discs on the sho are the same as the sedan but i am not sure if they are the same as on the wagon. and from 96 to 00 the taurus sable got got 10.8 front discs except sho which got the 11.6 up front then the 2001 up models got the same 11.6 setup

my sable has the rear discs from a sedan and front discs from a SHO/01-up much better and not expensive
 
Sable23 said:
my sable has the rear discs from a sedan and front discs from a SHO/01-up much better and not expensive
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X2. my car has 12" (300mm) OEM front brake conversion. I recently had my annual inspection and the front brakes are now registering 400 on the rollers instead of 300 with the 11.12 (278mm) front rotors... a 33% improvement and a lot less fade ...G.
 
When I had the chance to change my car to five lugs I thought about it for a day. After thinking it over, I could not find one good reason to convert. I came to this decision with most everything that I would need to convert it over none the less. There just isn't any real benefit to have a five lug hub. There really are plenty of 4x108 wheels out there. Also, the 4 lug setup is strong enough for pretty much everybody here to include myself. If you truly want to take on a modification project, your efforts will be better spent elsewhere.
 
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