5 lug front rotor conversion...need help

I checked out those sights, unfortunatly no one really spells out the proper bearing selection. I was already familiar with the sight that "smcmains" posted, I used it to do my rear 5lug conversion and select the mid 80's Ranger rotors for the front. I actually e-mailed the guy who runs that sight. He cant give me an exact selection for the bearings. He recomended measuring all the parts to choose a correct bearing selection. The sight that "joeyalex" posted offered the best info so far. It says that you must use the inner race from the Ranger and the inner bearing from the Mustang, T-bird etc. Then the outer bearing and race are from your car as well. The inner seals are the same. I'm going to pull the rotors on my car as soon as I get over the flu and see if the rotors are the same size or not. Hopefully someone out there has done this same conversion and can tell us exactly what parts to use. If and when I figure it all out I will post it for future reference.

Here's a parts list I'm copying from a CARQUEST reciept. I did this swap over late last year.

I bought two new 1985 2WD RANGER front rotor's from Autozone. I don't have there part#'s.

THESE PARTS ARE FROM CARQUEST-

2-BOS 6815 OIL SEALS
2-BGS A17 BEARINGS
2-BRG A12 BEARINGS

The part about swapping certain races are true. It's really not hard at all. GOOD LUCK~!


_________________
PONY's 1983 GT
408W / DNE 5 Speed / 3.73
--> 10.84 @ 126.40 <--

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: PONY1 on 1/9/03 11:46am ]</font>

So it does appear that you use the bearings from a mustang. If you can remember...As far as using the race(s) from the Ranger, did it just involve using the inner race?

PONY1...did you have to mill down the Ranger rotors 1/4" or have to grind any clearance into the calipers?

I finially got around to pulling off one of my 4 lug rotors today. The fist thing I noticed is that the 5 lug Ranger rotors are almost 1/4" wider, as I had been told earlier. After doing a mock up I determined that just about 1/8" would need to be shaved off the inside of each caliper, both at the top and bottom. As it is now, the rotor would turn freely but does scrape slightly. I next compared the bearings. If you use the origional spindles on the Mustang or T-Bird, you will have to use the inner bearing for your car. The inside diameter of the Ranger inner bearing has too small of an inner diameter to fit over your spindle. Heres the problem, I read on the "Coolcats" sight that you need to use the Ranger's race with your inner bearing. I dont think that this will really work. The two just dont match up that well. When I dropped my inner bearing into the Rangers race, it does not fully seat. In fact it sticks up almost 1/8" higher than it does in its own origional seat. That cant be good. I checked out the grease pattern that it made on the race and verified, that the rollers are sitting up just too high in the seat. I next wondered what would happen if I used the bearing and race assembly from my car and press it into the Ranger rotor. That will not work at all. It turns out that the outside diameter of my inner race is a too big to fit in the Rangers rotor. I believe that it will work to use my outer bearing and race assembly, on the outer side of the Ranger's rotor. I am just not very comfortable with using the inner bearing from my car with the Ranger's race, if it not going to seat all the way. I think this would result in extra heat and premature bearing wearout or failure. I'm going to continue to research this, but wonder if some of you have used this combination and if so have you observed any problems?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: BBCFORD on 1/13/03 4:26am ]</font>

The bearing does stick out some but it still rides true to the race. I've had no problems on my stang.

Oh...I didnt think that it would work if part of the bearing's rollers stick out from the race. It isnt really much, but they do stick out. Aside of sticking out, I was not sure if the bearing rides true on the race. Thanks for the info.