Wheels-Tires 04 Mustang Wheels won't sit against rotor

[pindude80]

Yeah, the old school 5-lug rotors won't fit some of the newer Ford wheels. The snout of the rotor contacts exactly where pictured.

You can try spacers, different wheels, or convert to Sn95 brakes. You can't just swap the brake rotors on, it's a more involved conversion requiring a spindle change and new calipers and potentially a new MC as well depending on if you do rear disk brakes or not.

94-97 Cobra wheels, 94-95 tri-bars will fit those rotors. 96-98 Split 5-spoke 17's will mount up, but you won't be able to run the center caps up front.

The car had split tri-bars on it before I bought it so what your saying makes sense on the wheels that will fit on my current setup. I thought about spacers also but I just lowered the car and would be afraid the spacers might cause wheel to body clearance issues.

My car does have drums in the rear so it sounds like a conversion would involve a master cylinder swap also.

 

[Mustang5L5]

There isn't.

So with rear drums you stick with your current MC and pick the best calipers to use. Any of the 4-wheel disk MC's are just too big and will give you a very firm pedal.

99-04 GT Front : 44.5mm pistons
-6220mm^2 x2 calipers (piston surface area)

87-93 60mm calipers
-5654mm^2 x 2 calipers (piston surface area)

99-04 COBRA 40.5mm pistons
-5152mm^2 x2 calipers (piston surface area)

So 99-04 GT calipers gets you a slightly softer pedal due to increasing piston surface area relative to the MC/rear drums not changing

And 99-04 Cobra calipers gets you a slightly firmer pedal.

 

[pindude80]

I think you can get caps on the tri-bars. Never had a set in hand but the Cobra R version used the 1993 chrome pony center cap, so I would assume it would work.

This is correct, I bought the 94-95 tri-bars off of the previous owner. I installed one to see how it looked and I was able to install the center cap.

 

[pindude80]

If your going to use a stock K member the 94-95 spindles are the optimum way to go....
Some aftermarket K members allow the usage of the later 96 spindles.. Check with the supplier first..
The 94-95 spindles have a dog leg to the tie rod connection
The spindles in the pic are both 94-95.. This picture was a before cleaning and after pic.....

I will be using the stock k-member so good to know I can only use 94-95. Do you know if the V6 will work and are the same as 94-95 V8?

 

[pindude80]

What you have ( Ranger ) works fine but limits your use of upgrading brakes and limits what wheels you can use...
When upgrading to the 94-95 spindles you have many more options of wheels, options of better stock brakes, and you switch to a separate hub/rotor assembly instead of an " all in one" like what you have ( Ranger )...
Pic of what I did.... 94 spindles, 99-04 brakes, a separate sealed hub.... All bolt on using MM brake lines.....

Thanks for the info and pics! Ultimately, this is what I would like to do but I will need to start gathering parts. I guess I'll just run the Ranger wheels I have for now until I get all of the swap stuff together.

 

[pindude80]

There isn't.

So with rear drums you stick with your current MC and pick the best calipers to use. Any of the 4-wheel disk MC's are just too big and will give you a very firm pedal.





So 99-04 GT calipers gets you a slightly softer pedal due to increasing piston surface area relative to the MC/rear drums not changing

And 99-04 Cobra calipers gets you a slightly firmer pedal.

Thanks for letting me know I can use 99-04 GT or 99-04 Cobra calipers with my drum brakes and drum master cylinder. If in the future I wanted to upgrade to rear discs would I be able to keep the 99-04 GT or 99-04 Cobra caliper and just install the rear discs and change to a 4 wheel disc master cylinder?

 

[limp]

I would recommend you start looking for 94-95 spindles first.. Once you have them the rest of the stuff you can buy..
If you have some local wrecking yards online, check their stock of cars daily if not weekly...
If one comes in get on it immediately and get the spindles... They are out there, but they are getting harder to find..
I was buying parts off an 84 at my local yard and looked up 94-95 cars... They had one and it still had its spindles.. Went the next morning and got them...

 

[pindude80]

I would recommend you start looking for 94-95 spindles first.. Once you have them the rest of the stuff you can buy..
If you have some local wrecking yards online, check their stock of cars daily if not weekly...
If one comes in get on it immediately and get the spindles... They are out there, but they are getting harder to find..
I was buying parts off an 84 at my local yard and looked up 94-95 cars... They had one and it still had its spindles.. Went the next morning and got them...

There is a local yard with a 94-98 convertible v6 car; I'm not sure of the year but I'm going to try and stop by in the next few days to see if it's a 94-95. I'll check local wrecking yards online also.

Can I use V6 spindles or do they have to be from a V8 car?

 

[2000xp8]

You can use v6 spindles as long as they are 94/95.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Thanks for letting me know I can use 99-04 GT or 99-04 Cobra calipers with my drum brakes and drum master cylinder. If in the future I wanted to upgrade to rear discs would I be able to keep the 99-04 GT or 99-04 Cobra caliper and just install the rear discs and change to a 4 wheel disc master cylinder?

Yes. When you add rear disks you can swap the MC. There are solutions for that.

There’s a pinned thread in the tech section regarding 5-lug swaps. Give it a read when you have some time to kill.

 

[limp]

There is a local yard with a 94-98 convertible v6 car; I'm not sure of the year but I'm going to try and stop by in the next few days to see if it's a 94-95. I'll check local wrecking yards online also.

Can I use V6 spindles or do they have to be from a V8 car?

I would recommend you jump when you see one in a parts yard... ... People charging big money on Ebay selling these.... LOTS of people looking...

 

[Mustang5L5]

Not a bad deal for a 94-04 GT rear setup already pulled. Just need 94-98 axles. Will work if you plan on running only SN95 17x8 rear wheels. If you ever want to go 9” or 10” you’ll want fox offset axles

1994-1998 Ford Mustang Rear End Disc Brake Caliper Mount Brackets GT LX V6 for sale online | eBay

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[pindude80]

I would recommend you jump when you see one in a parts yard... ... People making big money on Ebay selling these.... LOTS of people looking...

Ok, thanks for the advice. If I see a '94 or '95 car with front spindles I'll snatch them up asap.

 

[2000xp8]

Not a bad deal for a 94-04 GT rear setup already pulled. Just need 94-98 axles. Will work if you plan on running only SN95 17x8 rear wheels. If you ever want to go 9” or 10” you’ll want fox offset axles

1994-1998 Ford Mustang Rear End Disc Brake Caliper Mount Brackets GT LX V6 for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1994-1998 Ford Mustang Rear End Disc Brake Caliper Mount Brackets GT LX V6 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

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I'd buy it like that and then use northracecar brackets for the fox axles.
One way you are buying the axles, the other way you are buying the brackets.
If the wheels sit in too far, just use spacers.

 

[Trogdor]

Back in the late 90's I did the same 5 lug conversion you have with Lincoln rotors and Ranger axles. I wanted to use the 1997-98 split spoke 17" wheels and the caps would not fit on the front. So 21 year old genius me bought some wheel spacers from the parts store and bolted the wheels on. A couple of weeks later I'm on the side of the road with the driver side wheel pointing straight and the passenger side wheel pointing right. I can't remember what broke, but I then ordered the Cobra brake conversion kit from Ford and did it the correct way.

 

[2000xp8]

Your issue had nothing to do with this type of 5 lug setup or spacers.
It was mechanical failure. Most likely a tie rod.
There is a reason it was called a Lincoln rotor swap, because it was used on Lincolns from the factory. It was done before the sn95 was even made.
I don't necessarily see it as right or wrong, more like different.

 

[Mustang5L5]

I ran the Mark 7 front rotors and rear drums for a long time with 1997 Cobra wheels. It worked perfectly fine. Wasn’t wrong, it just was one way to do it.

I did it back in 1999 so I was one of the first 5-lug fox-bodies around. Back then the M-2300-K kit was expensive and SN95 cars were still too new to one them being extensively parted out.

 

[pindude80]

Okay guys, I'm back to trying to get the OEM Ford Mustang GT Bullitt wheels to work on my '88 Mustang that has the Ranger / Mark 7 rotor swap. For the time being I would like to use my current Ranger/ Mark 7 rotors. I have a line on a guy parting out a 94 Mustang GT but he is dragging his feet on starting the project; I want to get the spindles off of this car and a few other things.

I bought some 5/16" wheel spacers and need to get longer lug studs for the front rotors. I found some longer studs on late model restoration that are made by moroso. In the description it says not for wheel spacers. Does anyone know why that might be? I don't really want to do anything that is potentially not safe. I kind of wonder if they say that to cover their butt?

I also re-read this thread and forgot that one of the members that posted mentioned having my current rotors machined down to work with the Bullitt wheels. I like this idea and it sounds like it might be the safer option compared to the extended lug studs and wheel spacers.

My questions at this point are:

1.) what do you think about running the wheel spacers with the lug studs?

2.) If I were to have the rotors machined what size would I have the rotor hub machined to? Would I take them a SN95 hub and tell them to make the rotor hub on the Ranger / Mark 7 rotors the same size as the SN95 hub? Is the hub what centers the wheel on a '94/95 car?

3.) Do you think it is safe/okay to run the extended lug studs with a 5/16 inch spacer?

4.) If I were to run the extended lug studs, do the Mark 7 / Ranger rotors take the same lug stud as a Mustang? I read somewhere that a guy said he was pretty sure that his Ranger rotors took a different lug stud than the mustang.

I am open to having the rotors machined or running the wheel spacers. Just need to know what you think the better option is and what I would need to make each option work.

 

[AeroCoupe]

You may end up having more in the machining than it would cost to just buy the SN95 spindles out of a salvage yard. Typically you can get the spindle, hub, rotor, and caliper for $100 per side. Toss the rotor and buy new and use the calipers as your cores for rebuilt units. Hubs are typically good for 200K miles so those should be in good shape and it keep you from having to pull them off the spindles. Pads are cheap and you will need the caliper brake hoses and maybe an adapter on the passenger side. I would suggest a 1993 Cobra master cylinder.

Yeah you are probably talking $500+ dollars but the SN95 brakes are just superior to the woefully undersized Fox brakes.

 

[nickyb]

I never trusted spacers, I would just do it once the correct way, probably save you time and money.