VicCrownVic's 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis GS

[DerekTheGreat]

Sta-Lube[d], a woman's best friend!

[VicCrownVic]

My winter tires finally came in. I got out of work early today and dropped off my wheels to have the tires installed and balanced while I went and took care of stuff at the bank.
The weather looks perfect for swapping these onto the car tomorrow.



Hmm... 2015 date code (week 30 on three of them, 29 on one). They look brand new so I suppose they have been properly stored in the warehouse.

I just looked it up, the heat resistance on that stuff is lower than any other caliper slide pin grease I could find... I think I'll go with this stuff next time:

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...sn=146&jsn=146

I ended up getting this instead: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...450317&jsn=306 That drivers side wants to drag still. It wasn't doing it after I put the new rotors on and re-greased the slide pins but has slowly returned to dragging. We replaced pads, calipers and hoses last year. I'll give it a better cleaning and re-grease things while I'm swapping wheels tomorrow.

[VicCrownVic]

Winter tires are on.
The wheels look naked. The hubs stick out too far for the P71 center caps. Next time I'm at the JY I'll have to look around and consider my options. Maybe some 90's Mountaineer center caps would work.

Should have taken a before picture, bur here's the after pic.

[87gtVIC]

The p71 caps are kinda flat pankcake like correct?

Id say the mountaineer variance will fit. If they are anything like the explorer ones there is a bunch more room underneath.

[VicCrownVic]

Yep, flat pancake like, not much room for anything behind them. Luckily I only paid a $1 each for them last week.
My uncle has a '90s Mountaineer at my parents' place so if I get up there before I get to the yard I could actually test fit the caps. Like you mentioned, I also think those would have plenty of room behind them for the front hubs.

I'm not certain what the problem on the rear is. The P71 caps felt like they weren't grabbing the lug nuts. I didn't think there was anything special about the lug nuts on the whale(s) that I got these caps off of. They looked like the same ones used on box steel wheels, not the short ones used on box turbines. One possibility is the '98-'02 wheels have a narrower center diameter that doesn't allow the caps to sit in far enough to grab the lug nuts. Or, maybe I just need to give the caps a good whack to engage the lug nuts, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case. I didn't bother investigating the rear any further after figuring out that the front would never work.

Edit
Mountaineer caps:


P71 caps:

[BigMerc96]

You should be able to fit the '98-'02 style tall center caps on a Box, same ones used on some 2WD Rangers. AFAIK all of them use a lug nut with a shoulder on them for the caps to grab onto. Mountaineer caps should fit as well.

[VicCrownVic]

A little more searching tells me you are correct. I'm not at all familiar with whales, but it does look like the '98-'02 caps would fit as you said.
In the yard last week all I found was (what I assume are) '03+ P71 (Ford steel wheel is probably more accurate) center caps and didn't think to look in the truck section until after I checked out.

I finally drove the car, when I went to dinner, for the first time since putting the tires on this morning. It rode beautifully. Something wasn't right with the balance on the old all seasons, but with the new tires I made it up to 80 on M59 (center lane, still getting passed on the left) without realizing it and few times fully aware.
The old all seasons are also more worn than thought. I knew they were getting bad so I really needed new tires for winter and that played a big part in deciding to get my first ever set of snow tires.

The left front brake is behaving again. Cleaned everything more thoroughly this time before re-greasing and re-assembling. I used an old bottle brush I keep in my random stuff tool box. The brush has a small bristled wire end intended for cleaning baby bottle nipples and it worked perfectly for cleaning out the rubber slide pin boots.

[Giraffe]

Yep, flat pancake like, not much room for anything behind them. Luckily I only paid a $1 each for them last week.
My uncle has a '90s Mountaineer at my parents' place so if I get up there before I get to the yard I could actually test fit the caps. Like you mentioned, I also think those would have plenty of room behind them for the front hubs.

I'm not certain what the problem on the rear is. The P71 caps felt like they weren't grabbing the lug nuts. I didn't think there was anything special about the lug nuts on the whale(s) that I got these caps off of. They looked like the same ones used on box steel wheels, not the short ones used on box turbines. One possibility is the '98-'02 wheels have a narrower center diameter that doesn't allow the caps to sit in far enough to grab the lug nuts. Or, maybe I just need to give the caps a good whack to engage the lug nuts, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case. I didn't bother investigating the rear any further after figuring out that the front would never work.

Edit
Mountaineer caps:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]51379[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]51380[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]51381[/ATTACH]

P71 caps:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]51382[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]51383[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]51384[/ATTACH]

I was looking into but decided against using those Mountaineer center caps on my car when I big brake swap. The wheels they were mounted on from the factory have a recessed area for the lug nuts. The cap has a design because of this that would make a quarter inch or wider gap on steelies.

I ended up buying a set of these to use when I swap. They'll sit flat with no gap.

[BigMerc96]

^^There was a guy on CVN ages ago that ran those on a early Whale Marquis. Looked interesting because they aren't the usual CV/Ranger caps you usually see on them. IIRC the wheels were widened '98-'02 steelies.

[VicCrownVic]

I was looking into but decided against using those Mountaineer center caps on my car when I big brake swap. The wheels they were mounted on from the factory have a recessed area for the lug nuts. The cap has a design because of this that would make a quarter inch or wider gap on steelies.

I ended up buying a set of these to use when I swap. They'll sit flat with no gap.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]51391[/ATTACH]

I didn't see your post until now, but I went to the closest JY and actually got a set just like that.
I also grabbed the correct lug nuts that will actually hold these on. The stock box steel wheel lug nuts don't work for holding any of these covers on, they have to be the collared lug nuts.
These:

Not these:


With a stock box hub in the front the hub dust cap needed to be modified a little. I did a test fit on a '90 CV with a whale steel wheel so I knew this before leaving the yard. I found that these center caps fit without any issue if the dust cap is removed, so led me to believe the dust cap could be modified. I only needed maybe a couple mm.

Beat up stock cap on the right, modified stock cap on the left. Not exactly precision work pictured here.


And now my wheels aren't naked.

Still need to clean off whatever the installer used that's all over the tires.

[DerekTheGreat]

I dig the Ice Queen's new steelies & the center caps, looks rugged.

[BigMerc96]

Now all you need is some trim rings. The '98-'02 steelies look good with rings and caps, they aren't a boring looking wheel like the flat '03-'05 wheels.

[VicCrownVic]

Hey, that does sound like a good idea. I'm so used to having white walls and full wheel covers that I do feel like something is missing/it's not quite what I'm used to. I think some trim rings would work nicely for the look, but I doubt I will ever get them. I just wanted to make sure my (lug) nuts were covered, lol. Out of sight out of mind, so hopefully nobody will mess with them. I do have McGard keyed lug nuts on each wheel though, but still don't want them out in the open.

[DerekTheGreat]

I like the look of no center caps but chrome lug nuts. Not sure how trim rings would look with your car but I definitely dig the center cap only look.

[87gtVIC]

Looks nice. to me.