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

    You can register to join the community.

Can someone get a messurment for me?

Swazo

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Aug 20, 2002
Messages
2,325
Location
Salt Lake City, Utah
I was hoping someone could get a messurment for me? I need to know what the messurment is from rear wheel mounting surface (rotor face, whatever you'd like to call it) to the other side's wheel mounting surface.

TIA!
 
Last edited:
alright, who cares..


I'll get you the measurement tonight, if nobody has done so before then, Swazo.
 
Try contacting anyone that sells axles and have them measure it for you?


I need to know what the OEM setup's width is, before I can do anything like that. I'd like to stick with an 8.8 or something very common. If I'm lucky, I can find the proper width rear-end without having to have a housing cut down and custom axles made. :shrug:

After totally redoing the rear suspension on my Impala and changing to a narrower rear-end, I feel very comfortable about taking this project on.

Thanks Ray, that'd help a lot :cool:
 
maybe you can use the IRS out of an XR4Ti, already has the 4x108 :laugh:

Turbo Coupe, too. 8.8 inch Traction-Lok with your choice of 3.55 or 3.73 gears, depending on whether you pull it from an automatic or a stick. :cool:
 
Make sure whoever measures it, measures it when the suspension is at ride height . . . which isn't easy when the wheels are off.
 
Yes, the 8.8 is my first choice because of the bolt pattern. Solid rear-end, it can handle decent power and are a dime-a-dozen.

I might have to polk around a car lot with my tape messure. Good point Rara, the width would be narrower if it was up in the air and the suspension wasn't compressed :ponder:
 
What about from a Jag X-Series???

Also.. what did they use in the Focus that was converted to RWD with the 302 in it?
 
Swazo, Ill be swapping the suspension on my car this weekend (assuming the parts get here friday). if i remember ill see if i can jack up the rear from the knuckles after im done so its got the weight on it and get what measurments i can.

What about from a Jag X-Series???

Also.. what did they use in the Focus that was converted to RWD with the 302 in it?

the X-type would be the logical choice but it was IRS.

the focus is a little narower than the contour so that may not be possible either. of course, IIRC, they actually had custom housings and axles made anyways.
 
Awesome, that'd help me a lot. Thank you :cool:

Exdelayed has found me a Pre98 with drivetrain issues that's going for peanuts, but I'd like to do a bit more part sourcing before I spend any money.

I know there are others out there that have thought long and hard about doing something like this. Narrowing a rear-end, adding a 4-link or trianulated 4-link or even a simple wishbone w/ 2 LCA's wouldn't be hard to do.

The biggest PITA of doing this would be the front subframe. The easiest/cheapest way to do this IMO, is to mod an OEM subframe to reuse the front suspension ( w/ coiloovers with the correct spring rate for the new setup) but be able to mount an engine and transmission the traditional way. The only thing I'm not 100% on at the moment is if I can swap the knuckles to opposite sides to be able to mount a manual rack and pinion setup from the front side. A new swaybar setup shouldn't be hard to come up with either.

The rear-end, rear suspension, floorpan mods and a new fuel system is all straight forward and nothing new to modified cars.
 
Last edited:
the only problem with swapping the knuckles is that it puts the calipers at the back of the rotors instead of the front. im not sure how that will effect stopping performance.
 
the only problem with swapping the knuckles is that it puts the calipers at the back of the rotors instead of the front. im not sure how that will effect stopping performance.
should be irrelevant. all it might do is make bleeding the brakes harder (might need to take the caliper off to bleed properly)
 
Swazo, from what i could get it looks to be about 62" from disc face to disc face for the rear, maybe just a touch over.
 
Back
Top