Put 5x4.5 bullet wheels on my Gen 1. Pics inside/write up

[dlachance]

Well I went ahead and stuck a pair of bullets that were laying around on the M8 today. I think I am going to wait and do the front cobra brake swap for the front.

For the rear, I picked up a set of bolt pattern conversion spacers from EZaccessory.com that are 1" thick. They shippied to me in less than 2 days. Installing them was a learning process, sort of, on the best way to cut what.

-I ended up cuttting the original studs from the end and 2-3 threads.

-I left the lug nuts on all the way so that when I was done cutting, removing the nut would help re-thread the stud.

-The lugnuts still stuck out since I went with the 1" spacers. So, I cut of a little bit of the end of the lug nuts so that they would be at least flush or lower. I torqued these down to 98 ft/lbs.

Bolted the wheels up, and they look great. They do stick out a tad, but it looks aggressive, so I am fine with that. Hell, I had 255/50/16 tires on stock snowflakes, so this is no big deal. Overall, I am very happy with this mod, and I did not need to buy new tires. These are size 245/45/17. Cost of the spacers were around $90 shipped. I can do a full write up if people are interested, with pics. Also, I used a 4" cutoff wheel powered by and 80gallon air compressor. Made everything go a lot faster. Thanks for reading, and sorry for the crap pics, I used my phone and it was raining/tornado-ing.

This picture makes them look like they are out really far, it is just the angle, they are not too bad.

 

[slowmkviii]

looks good glad it works for you
but I still recommend a hub swap

 

[dlachance]

I would really love to do a hub swap, just a lot of expenses have come up. Had to drop over $1,000 on the Navigator recently. I already had the wheels and tires, so $90 to put them on was cheaper than the swap. I will in the future though, along with DD 10th ann. cobra rims. Thanks!

 

[slowmkviii]

it will also look a little nicer when they are moved in about an inch
also get some real lug nuts I am guessing you already planed on that though

 

[dlachance]

I have a set of bigger tires I am going to try and stuff under there next year, and yes, those are a sore excuse for lug nuts. I'm ordering a set next weekend. I love Mark Viii's. I picked this one up for $1400. The inside is perfect minus a torn drivers seat. The outside is decent, has a few hail pings and some paint that is missing near the roof that I will be fixing next week also. These cars are great.

Thanks

Also, do you know anything about "sensor lowering" a gen 1? If so, let me know what's up.

 

[chicken]

http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/tech/lincoln-mark-viii/Sensor-Lowering/index.htm

 

[dlachance]

What kind of damage will this cause? I saw the disclaimer. I do not believe there are any air ride problems as of now on my car. What is the mechanical difference that results in damage?

Thanks.

 

[Lunchbox]

Well this is my experience with the sensor lowering. This looks awesome and my car rode good. Now if you do any kind of highway driving over 60mph you will not want to do this. I found that my car had a boat in the ocean feeling to it. Last week I went to the races and I had no choice but to drive through a bunch of pot holes. Well needless to say.... I never had a bag problem and now I do. It is intermittently which is weird. One day I will drive it and it will stay up till the next day like it used to. Other days it will lay on the ground. That is my experience with it recently. But I will lower it again after my vacation trip to concord, nc cause i love the ride in town it gives and the fact it just looks bad ass.

 

[dlachance]

Well it sounds like I will not be doing that. Too many problems associated with it. Thanks for the reply!

 

[slowmkviii]

normally the reason an air system starts to leak when lowered is cause the bags
are already getting cracks in them and when lowered they are now exposed
as for extra wear you have a little extra on all the component's but this is minimum
if you have the car aligned after it is lowered
my bags have never leaked cause of lowering have had it this way 7 years

 

[chicken]

i lowered mine right when i got it (77k) and ive put 100k on her and no sensor problems. only had one bag leak and im on the highway all the time and usually a runnin a bit over 60. oh and i slam it with the switch when i park it about 75% of the time.
an alignment is a must after you lower it, i did shyt tons of alignments at ford and i could play with my car when we were slow. i lowered mine and fine tuned the ride height on the alignment rack (since its perfectly level) then aligned it and it changed all the settings a good amount. some say you dont have to do it, but the only way i can see this being possible is if the settings were out a little to begin with

 

[dlachance]

So should I do a thorough inspection of the bags to see if there are any cracks, or just do the mod and hope for the best?

 

[chicken]

there will be cracks, the question is if they leak or will leak, i just tried it and had good results

 

[CobraStar_LS8]

buy new sets of bags from Eddie at American Air, install them, sensor lower them, and enjoy!

 

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

bullit wheels

I have the bullit wheels on my 96 and just love them.They are color coded to the car and look sweeeeeet.The hub swap is a must and in my opinion safer not to mention sticking the tire back up under the wheel well.Then you will probably want the bigger cobra brakes on the back so the stock hub change is a must.JMO

 

[lincolnboy]

Welcome to the texas club. I'm in irving. Seem like dfw mark guy leave and a new owner replaces the ones that leave. Look good 'cept the rear skinny tires.

 

[Scorpio1118_2000]

welcome to the site and give updates on this mod, I'm interested as to how well it does.