Based on members responses and request, You've asked to see it again. So Here it is.
This is how our 2020 Ford Transit Connect 2.0L Cargo started off.. We paid a little over 19K for it new 24 miles on the odom back in April of 2020.
Based on members responses and request, You've asked to see it again. So Here it is.
This is how our 2020 Ford Transit Connect 2.0L Cargo started off.. We paid a little over 19K for it new 24 miles on the odom back in April of 2020.
Here's what it looks like today or most recent image of the van..
Hum, doesn't look like much has changed from when we first bought the van.. other than changing the factory 16'' wheels to 19'' after market wheels. That's because everything we've done to the van has either been hidden or installed inside or underneath the van..
We were thrown into the build early on, when the factory struts blew out due to rough Maryland roads.
So instead of installing the same ole same ole.. we went with a set of the Bilstein B6 struts.. But this also meant having to upgrade the sway bar end links.. which, over time turned into a nightmare..
We purchased at least 8 different sets and brands of end links over a 3 year time frame just to find the correct end link that would work with the Bilstein struts.. The issue here is all of the end links had one thing in common.. the ball joint stud bolts have a spacer on the threaded part of the stud.. these spacers are meant to retain the ruber bushing etc within the end link housing. But what's been happening is that these spacers are too long. so when mounted in the strut mounting position, the end link housing would hit and gouge the inner wheel well fire wall.
Looking past the yellow strut into the wheel well, one could see the deep gouging of the end link ball joint housing was making contact with the inner wheel well. At one point the end links got jammed between the coil spring and inner wheel well and we had to jump the curb just to unjam the end links.
About this time around, an Amazon vendor who claimed he was with Zeder Corp the makers of Superpro and whiteline.. said he would send me a set of superpro end links for the van. When the links arrived, I researched the part number and found out they were meant for a Volvo not The Connect. But we tried them anyway. Installing these links proved to be too long, so we opted to have the shop cut these links to 10.5 or 266.7mm. We drove the van link this without any issues for 3 years in the hopes we finally found a set of end links..
One of our biggest mistakes came when we wanted to upgrade the wheels from 16'' to 17'' and opted fo use CariD. We trusted the sales person to know what they were talking about and we shouldn't have. they sent the wheel tire package to my nephews house in NC. When they arrived, they weren't balanced, didn't have air in the tires and had the wrong valve stems. In other words everything CariD promised didn't and never happened..
They even sent the wrong lugs and while going through all the steps to getting these wheels on the van, we had to stop every 10 miles or so just to tighten up the lugs as they kept coming lose. This was one of the worse mistakes we've made to date when working on the van.. we hated the wheels and tires, hated the service we got and lost 1,800 bucks on the deal.
The van just didn't look right and it wasn't what I expected to see.. we had to do something.. but it took us 2 years to save up enough to correct that mistake..
Before we started in on a new set of wheels and tires, we opted to do something about the spare tire. Mainly where it was located.. under the van. Every time I wanted to feel independent and rotate the tires myself, the spare was very difficult to lower, drop to the ground and drag out from under the van..
So while at the tire shop we had them lower the spare, cut the cable holding the spare up to the chases and throw it away.. sort of. This means we had to come up with a better idea. Using a site called roadkillcustoms (no relation to the show) we located a spare tire that fit our build perfectly. According tot he roadkillcustoms site.. the 2005 Ford Thunderbird spare being 17'' would fit the Connect's bolt pattern and center bore. Only trouble.. searching salvage yards didn't turn up the wheel we needed. Until we search farther out.. SC salvage yard had the spare. So we packed up and drove from MD to SC just to pick up the wheel and drive back home.
Before leaving the salvage yard I asked them to pop the tire as I just needed the wheel. Researching the Thunderbird forum, shows that Tbird owners were complaining that sometimes the spare Maxxis tires would explode in the trunk of the car. So just to make sure the salvage yard blew up the tire for us.
Now that we had the spare, we needed somewhere to put it.. I went to an offroad site and purchased a razorback offroad spare tire carrier.
Then removed the passenger side rear molding to access where I might want to mount this..
The flat spot on the forward side of the cargo are was used for seat belt for the passenger wagon.. I opted to use that flat area to mount that spare tire carrier. I took the molded panel to the shop and had them cut out a section of the plastic as to allow the mount to poke through so we could mount the tire on the clean side of the molded panel.
Then just mounted up the spare using the M12 lugs..
As you can see the wheel was powder coated by a different company who actually made a mistake int he color.. But I'll not go into that.
While the rear molded panel was off the van we notice something disturbing and potentially deadly. There was a rubber plug missing from the rear floor which allowed gas fumes and exhaust fumes inside the van, could be one reason we would end up with headaches.. so if you buy one of these van, remove the passenger side panel and check the rear corner to see if there is a round plug in the floor. If not best buy one.
Moving on, we were just about ready to set our sights on a new set of wheels and tires. But after seeing this picture of a guy in UK who didn't like his wheel and tire purchased.. we changed our minds and went right for the 19'' wheels.
What's misleading here is that the wheels and tires might be fine, but the space or gap between the tire edge and fender edge was always the same.. So no matter what size wheel and tire combo you installed, the gap between the tire and fender edge would always remain the same. The wheels and tire just didn't fill out the wheel well like that should.
I searched for images as to what is the largest wheel and tire combo you could put on the van.. turns out Butler tire in GA installed a set of russian made 20'' wheels on a customers Transit Connect..
So while the smaller wheels made the van look silly, so did the largest wheels, I had to find just the right combenation.
Using sites like RoadKillCustoms, TacomaWorld, Wheel-Size and Fitment Industries.. we narrowed in on what wheels we needed. The wheel had to be 19"x8.5 with an offset of 40 and utilized a 5x108 bolt pattern. The biggest support and help came from a company I've never bought anything from, just that the guys at Rotiform were very helpful in helping us isolate the correct wheels. more and more I started hanging the stance and slammed forums.. and located a pic of a VW caddy with the wheels we needed for the van..
These are 19x8.5 ET40 5x108 Axe CS Lite wheels but was not the ideal color as the Axe site listed them in black, hyper dark, polished silver and hyper silver.. but was out of stock on almost ever version expect the black and hyper dark. I took a chance and bought the Hyper dark as they resembled a pewter color. But I wasn't willing to buy all 4 wheels at once.. I need to test 1 wheel first.
The single wheel arrived 2 weeks after ordering and this meant having to wait for the wheels as they slowly passed through customs.. As you can see customs did their re-wrap of the box but the wheels themselves were not damaged.
The most difficult part about this was yet to come.. tires..
Interesting build. Glad to have you back
Just a reminder, with the current post, we've just started the build as its taken us 4 years to get to where the van is today. So I'm trying to get everyone caught up with the van's current status. Also, when I say "build" nothing has been built or built by me for the van. I tend to hire others to do what I need done to the van. I have the ideas just need others to make it work. So nothing serious has had to happen to the van to make something that's doesn't fit or modified to fit, it just hasn't gotten tot hat point.. The only that's been made for the van is my next story..
With the new wheels I need hub rings that would adapt the wheels to the van's center bore. This eman going from 63.4 to 73.2. Now I could've order a set of these rings. But I had a better plan. I couldn't wait to get over to Uncle Eddie's house to have him mill us a set of the rings. Eddie being a retired mill worker has all the tools in his basement shop. The mill he worked for as a retirement gift gave him the lathe he worked on for 40 years. The only trouble is the lathe was belt driven.. But he had a plan.. he parked his old ford pickup outside the basement window jerry rigged something off the rear wheel drive, ran the belt down into the basement through the window and Bam the lathe was working.
yeah thats eddies basement shop. Looked a mess but Eddie knew where everything was. he got to work on taking some round stock and mille dout 4 wheel rings for the van in no time..
Sadly, Eddies passed away last year and he is sorely missed.
Now that I had one wheel, and 4 wheel rings.. I needed to make sure the wheel actually fit before we bought tires.. I made a deal with the general manger of Discount Tire and he agreed to allow us to check tires on the wheels. Mind you I live in Maryland and there isn't a discount tire near us. This meant a drive of 3 hours to get to the store's location in West Virginia. But anyone who knows us, knows we don't mind the drive.
Once there, the store manager himself took on testing the wheel on the van, once he approve the clearances, he started testing tires.. I believe he use a random home brand tire on the wheel.
Being given the green light, I ordered the 3 remaining wheels from UK. Although this wasn't a true or accurate reading with just one wheel, it was good enough for me to approve the order of the last 3 wheels. Again waited 2 weeks and the last 3 wheels arrived as expected in manged boxes.. Now came the challenge of finding the right set of tires.
Because of Diecount Tires Policy and the store manager kindness.. over the next 4 weeks we tested 5 different set of tires on the van. The issue we ran into is that all of those tires we tested had weak sidewalls or aren't load rated beyond the "W" value. This meant that while driving and taking curves.. the tires would flex and in most cases over flexing almost like the tires would flop off the wheels.. This over flexing issue caused the van to be unstable and nearly collide with several curbs along our travels..
Every tire we tried had some degree of flexing or over flexing and driving the van wasn't very safe. We had 2 options left for tires.. and one of them being runflats.
The strongest tire out of those we tested was the Nokian one tire, yet still had some flexing issues. The store manager said he could get a set of the Nokian G4's as this might be a better option for us. he had to order them from Tirerack and had them shipped to the WV store.. Meanwhile we were driving on poor tires and driving slower than normal. The manager called us to let us know the tires arrived and again we drove 3 hours to WV to try these tires.. and it was worth it.. The tires worked and the van handled like a dream. But something happened along the way that made the store manager change his mind about offering us services. I believe what happen was that their tech over tighten the lugs on the van even cross threading one of the lug studs.. our welcome mat was pulled out from under our feet.. No longer could we use or buy wheels or tires from Discount tire.
With that under out belt, driving home, we stopped at a local Walmart where they happen to have a set of the Nokian g4's in stock.. so at least we knew these tires could still be bought elsewhere and cheaper. I took a photo of the rear of the van and noticed that even with what ever size wheel and tire combo, the distance between the tire and fender edge was always the same.. 4''. That's like balling up ones fist and being able to place it between the tire and fender edge and that's too much.. it was giving the van that hotrod appearence we didn't want.
Low in the front, high in the back.. I need to do something about this,.. so I set out to research lowering springs..
One thing I've pride myself in doing is as an ex-seamstress for a major textile company in North Carolina.. I want to do something for the van.. Now that I'm older, I'm not able to manipulate fabric like I use to. Plus being that type of fabric I wanted to use is very expensive. but we save up for just enough to do a few things to the van.. I've never liked these ply board panels in the back of the van. So I bough about 5 yards of diamond tucked carbon fiber which I was going to use as panel covers to get rid of these unsightly panel blanks..
This just one of the 6 panels in the back of the van. This panel is one of the smallest so I wrapped it first just to see if my concept would work and actually be presentable.
The thing I'm not thrilled with this the plastic pushpins and I'll replace these with something more secure later.. I started this project 2 years ago and all though I've not completed the entire cargo area of the van like I wanted it.. at least all of the panels are wrap or covered now..
2 months ago I finished one more item on my diamond tuck carbon fiber list..
The spare tire cover..
FlordPerformance said:The strongest tire out of those we tested was the Nokian one tire, yet still had some flexing issues. The store manager said he could get a set of the Nokian G4's as this might be a better option for us. he had to order them from Tirerack and had them shipped to the WV store.. Meanwhile we were driving on poor tires and driving slower than normal. The manager called us to let us know the tires arrived and again we drove 3 hours to WV to try these tires.. and it was worth it.. The tires worked and the van handled like a dream. But something happened along the way that made the store manager change his mind about offering us services. I believe what happen was that their tech over tighten the lugs on the van even cross threading one of the lug studs.. our welcome mat was pulled out from under our feet.. No longer could we use or buy wheels or tires from Discount tire.
With that under out belt, driving home, we stopped at a local Walmart where they happen to have a set of the Nokian g4's in stock.. so at least we knew these tires could still be bought elsewhere and cheaper. I took a photo of the rear of the van and noticed that even with what ever size wheel and tire combo, the distance between the tire and fender edge was always the same.. 4''. That's like balling up ones fist and being able to place it between the tire and fender edge and that's too much.. it was giving the van that hotrod appearence we didn't want.
Low in the front, high in the back.. I need to do something about this,.. so I set out to research lowering springs..
I'm not tracking you exactly, did you fire Discount or was it the other way around ? The words make it sound like they banned you from their stores or something.
Correct, Discount Tire Banned me from their stores for pointing out that their techs over tighten and even cross threaded the lugs on our van, even after I told them not to. i checked this before driving off their lot, pulled over to one of the parking lot spaces and checked the torque myself.. it took the wife and I to stand on a pry bar to remove the lugs.. this is and was totally unacceptable. Furthermore I sent an email to Discount Tire corp informing them of this discrepancy. DT Corporate did nothing (that I'm aware) to correct this issue, other than to remind me that they warned me they would not test these wheels and tires on our van yet that store manager allowed for the testing. Our discount tire account was flagged so even if we drive cross country, NO discount tire center is to offer support if we have a wheel and tire issues. Proof of this came when we stopped at the Discount tire in Greensboro NC and asked them to remove a nail.. they decline to do so and asked me to leave their lot.
Thank you for bringing the thread back. We're the Bilstiens intended for this van or adapted from something else?
Thanks for the question. According to parts sites these struts are listed for several (but limited) different vehicles. I've often wondered if the Focus knuckle could be installed on the van which would allow for more camber caster adjustment as these single tube design are limited in these adjustments. I suspect that if one would install a camber adjustment plate on the top strut mounts one could gain some camber or caster.
Ideally, if one can get a set of coil overs for the van, this would be the way to go and yet we've had several offers to buy a set of coil overs as 3 manufacturers have give us discount codes of 25% to buy their products. But at $1,500 or more for their coil overs, this is why we developed the custom springs.
As a side note and before buying the rear set of shocks, I emailed Bilstein asking if their rear shocks were designed fo fit on lowered vans. According to them, they said the shocks we ordered at the same shocks that's in their B14 coil over kits. yet when the shocks arrived and we installed them, They bottomed out and again, Bilstein would not honor our warranty.. This is one reason we reverted back to the OE shocks as they can be used for lowered and raise vans because they have more articulation in both directions unlike the more expensive Bilstein rear shocks.. I had the shop remove those and installed a set of the factory shocks.
In other words, there's not too many options for struts or shocks for the van.. it's either OE, Bilstein, 3 different coil overs or a bagged system. if the front knuckles could be swapped out, this would open up new products for the van as this would be crossover parts from the Focus.
if one is unsure about what they want to order for any car or truck. then need to open rockauto and partsgeek and compare parts, this would mean doing a bit of research and cross referencing. Another page is Mevotech's parts link as they have a long list of cross referencing parts.. like our new control arms are listed for the Focus and not for the van, but they fit anyway.
which brings me to another issue, even after we inform mevotech and moog and duralast etc that their parts either fit or don't fit, they just say ok and leave their sites as is. Not saying anything about these parts fitting or not fitting the van. So be warned.. if you have not seen my fail end links list on my blog, and you buy one of those end links and it doesn't fit.. at some point those sites I contacted will change how they've listed parts. in other words.. these companies just do paper work without any testing.. I've done the testing and they decilened to belive it.
The search for the lowering springs continues.. The main stream spring company is of course Eibach.. I checked their set up and realized that I didn't need the front springs as the Bilsten B6 struts actually lowered the front of the van. Plus a 20mm would be too much, So I'm leaving the front as it.. for now. Not sure how I found this company, But Cobra Suspension out of Netherlands forwarded some photos of the Transit Connect with their lowering springs.
The first image shows 16'' wheels with the 20/40 set up
The second photo shows 17'' or 18'' wheels with the 20/40 set up.
I was tempted so I emailed them and asked if they could sell me just the rear springs as the front springs we're not needed. They agreed and all for 100.00 bucks.. The odd thing about these springs which everyone asked about is why is the center section of the springs touching? According to Cobra suspension, these are call road rated springs.. and it's acceptable for the center section to be touching..
I cleaned up the rear of the van and repainted several parts in preparation for the new springs. In order to install these springs, one would have to support the dead axle and remove just the lower shock bolt. The wheels didn't need to be remove either. Once the entire setup was complete, the van went from 101mm down to 40mm. Which is less than 2 normal sized fingers between the tire edge and fender edge.
The kids in the shop were all calling the van Slammin.. Over time and up until today.. these springs have been sagging.. the distance between the tire and fender edge has decreased.. from 40mm to 34.5mm and we have to be extremely careful driving over humps and pot holes now.. it's a shame these springs did not work out or last as long as we had hoped. We could have used poly/rubber spacers to extend the life of these springs but we opted for something better.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone
About this time in the build, It was time for another oil change, But I wanted something different. The Castrol and Motorcraft oils just weren't holding up.. extremely dark and sludgy looking. We've been watching Throtl on youtube and noticed they always talk about the motul oils. Went to the motul site and did some researching and comparison. But something bothered me.. some of text on the site didn't add up or look correct. I sent Motul corporate ane amil asking if the text was in error or was correct. Motul spokesperson replied back saying it was in error and thanked me for catching this discrepancy. Mind you in order to contact them through web mail, they needed my name address etc.
Two weeks later, I get something in the mail from motul. The letter reads, thanking me for catching the page error and sent me some things for the effort. The letter goes on to read, Although we're not able to sponsor your build, we can unofficially support it.
Our first garage banner with more items in the box..
5 liters of their 5W20 ECOlite motor oil. This gave me the perfect opportunity to change the van's oil. We've changed the oil several times since then using the Motul brand each time. I've notice that the oil is very clean and clear looking.. no more heavy dark sludgy looking oil for the Van. Plus I'll continue to use the Mobil 1 oil filter.
BREAKING
Powder coater just called said tech would be there today to allow us into the shop to pick up the coil springs.. they took time our of their own schedule to allow us to come visit and pick up the springs.. They didn't have to do this, but we're grateful.
AFK
Just got back for the powder coater as this was about 1 hour's drive for us and man these springs look mint.. shame I can't show them to you just yet. Cause I have to work the build post up to that point.. so hang in there..
I'm sure everyone gets the jest of how the build is going with it's many ups and downs. It's been difficult to remember what and when things happened along the way. so I'll be continuing to post the rest of the build on my blog.
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