Ford Focus V8

[Jaffman]

RobXjcoupe said:

Are you using the original mk1 focus uprights and front suspension?

yeah but theyre not 5 stud to match the wheels which i bought to match the 5 stud rear.

[Jaffman]

RobXjcoupe said:

What is the 5 stud rear pcd then?

5x114.3 (nissan fittment)

front ford is 4x108?

I have used the s2000 hubs to fit but they dont allow the brakes I want to use to fit

[Jaffman]

RobXjcoupe said:

Just trying to figure something out for you.
Making new custom hubs isn’t difficult but dimensions are essential together with the correct tolerance with your sizes. Then what about brake discs and calipers.
The rear 5 stud fitting I would think is easier to convert to match the front standard parts. Does that make sense?
I’m a toolmaker by trade

so it was a choice, im using the 350z read subframe as a whole and they have a sort of integrated bearing carrier that bolts on that determines the hub that fits and the handbrake drum inside the disk and the offset. it also has a driveshaft coming through it so its just complications all around. i decided its easier to elave the rear as it is and get wheels to fit the rear. (5x114) so i bought them and they fit nice.



so that left sorting the front out which is something i was going to have to do anyway converting them from driven wheels to not driven wheels. normaly youd just cut the CV joint off a driveshaft and pull the bearing down like that. but that leaves me with the 4x108 pattern on the hub. so to fix the 4x100 pattern i searched for a stub axle on a rearwheel drive car that had the correct stud pattern (5x114) and was big enought hat i could turn down and have it fit in the ford hub as a replacment meaning im not cutting driveshafts etc. and its just a simple bolt on. thats something i managed to do wihtout too much effort using my crappy little lathe...


(standard ford with the hole on the left, turned down s2000 hub to fit on the right)

worked fine apart from the offset on the hub to fit the focus RS calipers and bigger disks.

now im coming around to fitting the brakes they dont because of this offset so what i want is the offset fixed on the hub by making new ones from scratch (hence the CAD drawing) that ive drawn up

trust me, ive been over this over and over and over again lol. this is the simplest solution providing i can find someone to do it for me

[Jaffman]

RobXjcoupe said:

If the s2000 hubs are ok in the ford uprights why don’t you use a spacer to get the correct offset to fit the front discs you want?

because the s2000 stub axles arent long enough to recover the offset.

look at the turned down hub here...



and compare it whith the offset required on the CAD drtawing...



the difference is about 12mm

so I could have a 12mm spacer behind the disk like a lot of the focus owners to when they upgrade but tbh that makes me feel uneasy and if im modifying the front hubs why not make them that fit first as last?

[Jaffman]

RobXjcoupe said:

Just read your more detailed explanation. Right so to correct the front s2000 offset. I just see a spacer of given dimension and correct pcd with a concentric design and use longer studs to clamp everything together?

see above, i could, but its behind the disk which i dont like because its not the normal thing to do. and if im pissing about, why not make a hub the right size?

[Jaffman]

RobXjcoupe said:

Honestly a 12mm spacer is nothing. Using good quality longer wheel studs wouldn’t give you any issues.
I would say make the spacer from steel rather than aluminium as it’s the disc to hub rather than wheel to brake disc contact. The steel won’t deform like aluminium.

could do.

its an option, id still have to turn a freaking spacer lol.

my lathe is poop

[Jaffman]

RobXjcoupe said:

Have you got a picture of the front of the s2000 hubs?

top left ford focus
top right s2000
bottom - my hybrid to fit into the focus hub



although the disks and calipers for the focus RS are much bigger

lathe is a tiny thing with a 3 jaw chuck. managed the 2 hubs with a great deal of effort though.

might see if i can get a collett to fit it

[Jaffman]

RobXjcoupe said:

Right, the s2000 front has that raised centre Diameter. What’s the height of that from the rest of the hub front face?
Tell you what send me a message in the morning/lunch tomorrow and we can chat properly if you want?

its 11mm.
basically flush with the disk when its on there

can do (Y)

[Jaffman]

so whilst the 3 jaw was good enough after a fight, i'm not 100% happy with the result. the smaller disk visually oscillates when turning, its not much, less than 1mm, but its enough for me to want to have them redone. id probably risk it if the disks fit as its so little, but it would be high on the "fix it " list.

if i'm redoing them i'm redoing them from scratch and having them the fitment I want, hance the cad drawing. it didnt take me long so no harm no foul.

im open to the spacer idea, i know what youre trying to explain, I have extended studs anyway so thats no issue.

appreicate the offer to help by the way, if i havent sorted it in 2 weeks ill be PM'ing you lol

[Jaffman]

Bobberoo99 said:

Just a question, and please don't be offended by this, did you clock the hubs in before you machined them? You need to clock the O/D in and the face in otherwise you end up with the problem you have!!

I did, got it to within 0.05mm, but it dont particularly trust my lathe as i ended up further out than that between either end of the bearing face.

what i should have done was turn it between centres but i just dont have the facilities.

hence my request to get these ones done properly on a proper machine.

if i wasnt stuck at home id probably use the colchester up my mates but is till dont 100% trust that. my turning knowledge is basic at best

[Jaffman]

yeah id probably need a spacer behind and in front of the disk too thinking about it as clearance with the calipers is too close.

Will have to work everything out but i have to make a new stub axle now anyway as i used one side as a test.

ive had a price of about 700quid for 2 hardened steel hubs as i initially asked. im thinking thats a little on the steep side

[Jaffman]

Fastdruid said:

Issue is probably that it's a hefty old chunk of steel to start from and a st load of metal to remove...which means time. Originals I imagine would be cast then machined which means the machining is fairly minimum.

yeah i get that, i know full well having to deal with my little lathe and how little it can remove so i understand. but i dont want to spend that much LOL

[Jaffman]

Fastdruid said:

It might actually be cheaper to abandon the current uprights and get some custom ones made instead, use off the shelf "gen 3" hubs as they have bearing and hub integrated.

It's what I've done with mine, I'm using 350Z hubs as they're the "slimmest" I could find. Obviously a totally different setup, but you get the idea.

I have thought of it, but im currently in the situation where any money i have spent could be mostly recovered in items such as the rear subframe and the engine/gearbox. i think the most i have spent on the car that isnt recoverable really is the machined adaptors for the steering arm movement and they cost 100 pound. to drop 700 on a set of stub axles is just adding to the "dead money" if this all ends up in failure

[Jaffman]

Jonny-Jimbo said:

The other thing to consider with all this is the cost of replacement parts if the worst were to happen and you bend a front corner etc. If parts are custom made that will give you a delay on getting the car back together and probably more expensive, so if you can use as much off the shelf parts as you can then it may pay dividends in the long run, should a failure happen.

this is a big thing i consider when im doing things.

im pissed ive had to redrill the disks from 4 stud to 5 stud, means im going to have to do the same to every disk when i change them.

in this case, if ive stacked it enough to break a stub axle id suggest its probably beyond repair.

[Jaffman]

RobXjcoupe said:

With the brake discs, you need I presume a Nissan stock part to match the 5 stud pcd. Once you have those. It’s just a matter of getting the caliper centralised over the disc. In theory another bit of machining but nothing that wears out like the brake disc.
Drilling out the new brake disc every time they are replaced isn’t a good idea. I don’t so anyway. If you look at the mtec brake disc website they give the disc offset dimensions so you should be able to find something suitable.
I think you should use stock Ford rs parts up front and convert the rear to suit. 5 stud Ford pcd 5x108 covers all the big Jaguar brembo standard fit brake discs. To convert the fwd hubs to free wheeling is a doddle and cheaper than £700 for custom hubs and gives cheap replacements if damaged.

converting the rear is a no go, id spend more money on new wheels, brake disk, fannying around getting a driveshaft to fit than i would 700 on new hubs on the front.

drilling out wasnt so bad, just a pain in the arris. its not something that happens often anyway. I have everything i need to bolt up the brakes onto the front hubs apart from the stub axle. stock focus RS parts are not easy to come across and will be just as expensive as getting these machined too.

ill have a look at mtec for brake disk sizes for future, if it saves me a job of drilling new holes every time

[Jaffman]

[Jaffman]

Fastdruid said:

TBH I've gone with machining the ~5mm off the outside of the disc on mine as the only disc with the correct *fitment* I could find was with too large a diameter to fit the caliper mounts (and in preference to welding up and re-drill the caliper mounting holes holes).

(halfway through to show how much taken off).


...but my plan long term was to get aluminium bells and suitable rotors to fit as machining the disc every time I needed a new one would be doable but a royal pain.

That’s not too bad to do every disk change? I mean disks should let you at least 25k? (Unless it’s a track car?) that’s 2-3 years realistically

[Jaffman]

InitialDave said:

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with using spacers behind the disc, and if it'll let you stick to using off the shelf components, I'd argue it's in some ways better.

Is there a combination of spacer thickness and brake discs that will let you use the standard disc from something, with the spacer behind it compensating for the bell height relative to your caliper alignment, and the spacer on the front of it dealing with the wheel offset and caliper clearance you need?

but im not using off the shelf components anyway lol. if i stack it and i break a hub, then i need to attain s2000 hubs (have to buy the full assembly) strip it down, machine it to make it fit. so fundamentally im not using off the shelf parts. after i do all that then there is no doubt a selection of off the shelf things i could buy to make everything fit but at what cost?

I have the disks, i have the calipers, i have the wheels, I have the standard hub assembly.
all im missing is the bit in the middle.

ive actually had a local engineering firm quote me a reasonable price on 2 hubs now anyway so i might end up going down that route.

then everything should fit correctly without needing spacers (apart from a wheel spacer maybe) and changing disks and pads is a simple task if i can find comparable disks with the correct offset but the right amount of holes lol.


im currently 3d printing my hub anyway so I can test fit it and check everything is spot on. if were good i might just pay that company to do it and get it done

[Jaffman]

It Started today

only minor oil leaks and an idle problem to deal with

[Jaffman]

StuntmanMike said:

Cool, bet your dead chuffed.
And rightly so.

yeah considering the engine was out fixing a starter motor problem only yesterday im quite pleased.

ill put the fornt end back on tomorrow, fill it with coolant and let it run for a bit to see if i can get it to idle correctly