Wheel Bolt Pattern on CV

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » December 8, 2007, 4:59 pm

It just read that the 03-06 Crown Victoria bolt pattern is 5 on 4.5, while I believe the bolt pattern on my 64 F100 is 5 on 5.5. How have those of you who have made the swap to the CV crossmember/suspension upgrade handled this with wheels? I probably will continue with steel wheels and 15" hubcaps, but would like to option of going with a different (maybe spoke) wheel down the road. Thanks.

Post by **Greg D** » December 8, 2007, 6:29 pm

1. If your rotors have enough "material" in the hub you could have them redrilled.
2. Get 2 drivers side axles & drums from a late 70s (I believe) Ranchero, T-Bird or Couger and put them in your rear to change the rear pattern to 4.5 inches.

blackagatha · Post by **blackagatha** » December 8, 2007, 7:05 pm

Greg D wrote:1. If your rotors have enough "material" in the hub you could have them redrilled.
2. Get 2 drivers side axles & drums from a late 70s (I believe) Ranchero, T-Bird or Couger and put them in your rear to change the rear pattern to 4.5 inches.

yah. go for some car axles. You may have to swap pumpkins though, I think my dad's '68 LTD has axles that would work, if I had a 31 spline pumpkin. Eh, pull the pumpkin with the axle...

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » December 8, 2007, 7:09 pm

After I asked the question, I'm wondering if you could just use different rotors on the front to get the 5 on 5.5 bolt pattern.

61ford · Post by **61ford** » December 8, 2007, 7:33 pm

bolt pattern is made into the hubs on these ud have to switch the whole hub out and far as i know nothing else will work just go get a set of driver side axles out of a 77-79 cougar or whatever thats how im gonna end up doing mine

Post by **Greg D** » December 8, 2007, 8:03 pm

One more thing I forgot to type. You will have more wheel options with the 4.5 inch bolt pattern if that makes a difference.

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » December 9, 2007, 9:55 am

I am very frustrated! I guess it's good I discovered the 5 on 4.5 situation with the CV swap before next week as I have a check coming in and was prepared to head off to pick-a-part.
My frustration is that I really want to keep my stock (or at least 15" wheels) so I can use my original wheel covers and keep it stock looking from the outside. Does anyone know if 15" wheels (5 on 4.5) will fit over the disk brakes on an 03 CV front suspension? If so that would solve my problem, as I could keep my current rear end.

Post by **Greg D** » December 9, 2007, 10:09 am

Those wheel covers should fit about any Ford 15" steel wheel. You will just need to get a pair with a 4.5 pattern.

Johnny Canuck · Post by **Johnny Canuck** » December 9, 2007, 10:10 am

Grits. Don't panic now boy, it's ok buddy, breathe in breathe out. You can run 5.5's on the back and 4.5's on the front if you want.
Also there's an option not mentioned here, and that's having your current rear axle flanges (and brake drums) redrilled to 4.5 on 5 by a machine shop. Unfortunately, that still involves pulling the axles.

And Yes the crown vic wheels fit over the crown vic brakes, vics come with 15" wheels. What type of wheel covers are you using? The full cover ones in your avatar pic? those will likely go right on the CV steelies, they are the type that grab the wheel edge lip, no? Greg is right if you want to run bottle caps you can just get some outies with a 4.5" pattern that you can run bottle caps on.
Here's a link to bottle caps, innies and outies,, scroll to the bottom of the page to see the diff. (courtesy Fordification)
http://www.fordification.com/hubcapID.htm

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » December 9, 2007, 11:31 am

Thanks guys for talking me back from the edge. I want to run the full covers (as in my avatar) not the bottle caps. Apparently, from the link J.C. sent (good info BTW) the wheels on my truck are actually from a 65 or later. Also was unaware that all cars from about 49 on were the 5 on 4.5 pattern. Opens up the availability options considerably. I'll go with the 5.5 on the back and 4.5 on the front until such time as I decide to do something different with the wheels. Thanks again.

blackagatha · Post by **blackagatha** » December 9, 2007, 9:43 pm

one problem with running incompatible patterns....

You either have to haul 2 spare tires, Or I guess you could get an extra set of holes drilled in the rim.... That would be the slickest way to deal with the problem, if you decided not to change rear axles out...

Rosati · Post by **Rosati** » December 10, 2007, 12:21 am

FYI some shops will not weld and redrill your rear axles due to liabilities. But you have to ask them.
Should run you about $45 per axle. It makes sense to replace the seals and bearings while your in there.

I ordered new axles and upgraded the rear brakes to 2 1/4" drums from Currie Enterprises.

blackagatha · Post by **blackagatha** » December 10, 2007, 1:36 am

oh yeah, shops sometimes get freaky about that sort of stuff.

Back when I was just gettin Aggie goin, I was doin a full brake job, and didn't realize till I tried to put it back together with new drums that the right front hub was "too big" well, turns out, that corner of the truck had experienced some trauma, apparently due to the hub parting company from the spindle.

Anyway, I think it was an F250 hub, and it was too big around to fit thru the drum. I took it to the machine shop, and they would have NO part of spinning it on the lathe. I eventually thought about my ma's friend's husband, who works in a big metal manufacturing company. He cut them down for me, no trouble. Didn't even charge me...

jakdad · Post by **jakdad** » December 10, 2007, 7:14 am

It's a truck! There is a reason for the larger bolt patern! If I couldn't keep my 5 x 5.5 patern, I'd scrap the suspension swap. OK, fire away, ear plugs in......................... :lol:

The Big M · Post by **The Big M** » December 10, 2007, 1:00 pm

61ford wrote:bolt pattern is made into the hubs on these...

That is correct. I don't think there'd be any easy way to change the pattern on them.

Johnny Canuck wrote:And Yes the crown vic wheels fit over the crown vic brakes, vics come with 15" wheels.

I think a lot of the later-model Crown Vics came with 16" aluminum wheels and some came with 12" rotors, so I'm not 100% sure they would fit a 15" wheel. You CANNOT get a brand new model with 15's, so you may want to check into that further.

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » December 10, 2007, 5:02 pm

The Big M wrote: I think a lot of the later-model Crown Vics came with 16" aluminum wheels and some came with 12" rotors, so I'm not 100% sure they would fit a 15" wheel. You CANNOT get a brand new model with 15's, so you may want to check into that further.

I think you may be correct about the 16" wheels (both aluminum and steel) and along with the larger wheels probably came the 12" rotors. Called the local Ford dealer and they didn't have a clue as to when Ford changed from an 11" to a 12" rotor. It's not like the old days when the parts guys actually knew something about the vehicles rather than just looking in the computer.

I'll have to do some more research at the local pick-a-part. Wonder if an earlier rotor would fit on the later hub? Too much to ask I am sure.

The Big M · Post by **The Big M** » December 10, 2007, 5:39 pm

Here ya go:

http://www.mitchsplace.com/crownvicmusc ... ims_brakes

It appears that Ford switched to 12 inch rotors in '98. I would really look at keeping the bigger rotors and calipers and use a 16" wheel, but I would assume that you could use 92-97 rotors, hubs, and calipers if you absolutely had to have 15's.

As for the rear, I would have the axle flanges drilled to 5 x 4.5 to match the fronts.

Gritsngumbo · Post by **Gritsngumbo** » December 10, 2007, 6:25 pm

The Big M wrote:Here ya go:

http://www.mitchsplace.com/crownvicmusc ... ims_brakes

It appears that Ford switched to 12 inch rotors in '98. I would really look at keeping the bigger rotors and calipers and use a 16" wheel, but I would assume that you could use 92-97 rotors, hubs, and calipers if you absolutely had to have 15's.

As for the rear, I would have the axle flanges drilled to 5 x 4.5 to match the fronts.

Thanks for the info and the link. I may pursue the pre-98 hubs and rotors (I will still have the 12" hubs and rotors from the CV when I change my mind and switch to larger and fancier wheels.)

The reason I was going with the CV crossmember swap as it appeared to be an easier and cheaper way to obtain power rack & pinion steering, and disk brakes, but It's looking more and more problematic.

I'm not hung up on the 5 on 5.5 pattern per se (I believe Ford, in their infinite wisdom, changed to trucks to 5 on 4.5 around 1980 or so), but I would like to keep the exterior looking stock, including the wheels and hubcaps.

I'm reconsidering my options and may just elect to add a disk brake kit to my straight axle and use either No Limit's Rack & Pinion setup or Frank Simon's (Gearhead Cruiser Products) power steering box made for the 64. I can live with the ride quality and the bump steer.

61ford · Post by **61ford** » December 10, 2007, 8:10 pm

the hubs may not interchange between those years since they changed the crossmember in 03 just something to think about.far as wheels i cant tell you will need need some large wheels atleast 15" ive got a 14 on the front of mine from a ranger and it rubs and really hard to get it to turn.far as cost youll prolly stll be cheaper with a cv swap last time i checked inot a disc brake kit it was gonna run 350.00 itself

blackagatha · Post by **blackagatha** » December 10, 2007, 8:58 pm

you would think that the bigger spacing might be stronger, as it IS spread out more. But LOTS of racecars and such run the smaller bolt patterns, I have never heard of anybody trying to get a 5x5.5 bolt pattern for a hotrod...