• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Spacers

ZeroHour

Mod/Salad Tosser
Moderator
Joined
Feb 7, 2005
Messages
2,275
Location
Eastern PA
The other day I was just messing around with ideas for my car, and I wonder this:

If you made 1 or 2 inch spacers that bolted onto the normal stud/hub and the spacer had its own set of studs, could you widen the car?

Has anyone done this or is there a kit already avaliable? It was just an idea and I was wondering what is in existance.

And is there any adverse effects on the car?

I know widening the distance from the hub will add a larger torque but I doubt it would really snap any pecies off the car.

Also the fenders would probably need to be modified in the front for turn radius.

And of course fender flares to keep the wheels covered.

Let me know some opinions!
 
you could do this. People sometimes do this to convert to a different lug pattern (i.e. 5 lug in our case). But yeah, definetely not good on the wheel bearings.
 
i put spacers on my 65 mustang and had no problems

how thick were your spacers...less than 5mm? Thats usually what most people run to just give it a more aggressive stance. I think Dion used 3mm spacers in the rear on his svt. The spacers hes talking about would have to be at least an inch thick.
 
how thick were your spacers...less than 5mm? Thats usually what most people run to just give it a more aggressive stance. I think Dion used 3mm spacers in the rear on his svt. The spacers hes talking about would have to be at least an inch thick.

my spacers are 1 in thick i put on my car
 
The wear on the bearings would be caused because of the higher torques applied from the turns?


Half the points of the spacers came from the problem with my ebrake cable catching the tire and making a clunk. Any increase (even 3 or 5mm) would stop the rub.


And yes I thought a wider stance would look better because the tires are well under the wheel wells.
 
It's a bad idea. You dramatically change the suspension and steering by changing the offset. It would destroy wheel bearings and make the car handle poorly. Your scrub radii, caster, and ackermann would go all wonky.
 
I found a set of Quarter Inch spacers on Summit Racing. quarter inch is 6.3mm.

Considering ordering just one set for the rear.
 
Anyone have any before and after pix of Contours with spacers?

I'm thinking anything less than 15mm probably won't hurt things too much. Obviously, the thicker the spacer the more stress you'll put on the bearings.

Anyone know of a place that sells the spacers cheap (hubcentric).

Henry
 
Anyone have any before and after pix of Contours with spacers?

I'm thinking anything less than 15mm probably won't hurt things too much. Obviously, the thicker the spacer the more stress you'll put on the bearings.

Anyone know of a place that sells the spacers cheap (hubcentric).

Henry

Btw, I have 13 mm, Ive already replaced one wheel bearing and I have another thats bad that i need to replace. Maybe its just because the car has almost 100K or perhaps its both.
 
100k! I'd say thats normal wear. On the two contours I've owned they each needed the fronts replaced around 80k miles on completely stock wheel hardware and offsets.
 
Since my car is at home, and i'm on campus I did my best to judge how the lugs will fit with the spacers on (I did so by checking out pictures on my PC). It seems like it will work out okay.

I went ahead and ordered them already. If they don't fit I'm out 30 bucks and I could just turn around and throw them on ebay, maybe even make money on them! lol


I'll give you an update when they arrive.
 
Spacers in the back is not as bad as putting them on the front. Both in the front and rear will add more stress onto the suspension and wheel bearings. When putting them on the front, that will change your scrub radius. If you have a scrub of .5" and you add a .25" spacer, your new scrub radius is .75". I don't know what the Contour runs, really good handling cars run a 0 scurb radius. The more scrub you run the more it effects steering, turn in, self centering effect, and other stuff, it will be most noticed on ruff roads.

Sorry Phill but adding spacers does not change camber or Ackermann. Camber is the angle of the hub, adding a spacer will not change that. Ackermann is the line from the LBJ through the tie-rod and where the the left and right side lines meet in relationship to the rear of the car. Also Ackermann is only important at low speeds and tight corners, Ackermann is less important at high speeds. Ackermann is very important in autocrossing. Most racing cars run 100% Ackermann anyways, i have seen some setups with 200% Ackermann. I don't know where the Contour is, but i am guessing that it is around 30% to 40%.


Also keep in mind the thread engagement of the wheel studs and lug nuts, you should have a min. 2.5 times the dia. of the stud in the lug nut.

Just wanted to pass on some info before you do it.
 
my spacers are 1 in thick i put on my car

I have a 1966 Mustang that I am trying to fit 2005 Mustang rims onto, where did you get your spacers from and how much did they cost?

Do you notice any weakness or wobbling? Do you have aftermarket rims.

Oh and if you want spacers on a contour, you might as well add gold rims and a mexican flag on the back window. It wont look right.
 
It would look alright if you do it right. lol


But yeah I got the spacers, the lugs a little too short for me to feel safe driving around. They would have worked if they were 1/8"

But anyway. Not only was the flap on the cable hitting the weight on the wheel, the wheel bearing itself is taking a crap. Which is probably why the thud/clunk was so irratic. Sometimes I was hearing the bearing and other times I was hearing the cable...


Would have been nice to know the wheel bearing was shot when i did the suspension 3 months ago :blackeye:
 
Back
Top