Axle and Hub Cap question and help needed

[eresseraca]

Hi, new to the forum.

I bought an 1998 150 LWB Semi-high roof, 2.5TDi, that started it's life as a 9 seater personnel transport for the fire department, it seems to be in brilliant condition all in all, no rust so far, serviced regularly and very few kilometers on the meter. It's registered as a 3 person van now with the extra seats in storage and we will be travelling with it during the summer.

It's running 225/70R15 both summer and winter tires. I'm going to get the steel rims painted black and would like to get the end of the axle covered with a black center cap along with some black wheel bolt/nut covers.

My plan was to order Ford's genuine center cap cover and some aftermarket bolt covers, see links below:

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Genuine-FORD-Tra ... xyOMdS-Jos

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TPI-Injected-Bl ... SwMgdXz~OC

But my question now after removing the silver hub caps that it came mounted with is, will the Ford Center Caps fit and if so, how do they mount to the center of the wheel? My front and rear axle "ends" also look different from each other. So my other question is, do the axles on my Transit look like the regular stock variants or some kind of custom order (it has an diff lock that is electrically controlled on/off from the dashboard) by the fire department when they bought it new?

In the pics below the one with the rusted centre is the rear axle.

Thanks in advance for you help!

[Aardvark]

You won't get centre caps for the rear of your 6-stud Transit. There is no way to attach them. The wheel itself locates tightly on the ridge in the centre of the hub. There is nothing on the wheel near the centre to attach anything to. And you would be very fortunate to find a new cap for the front axle hubs from Ford either. Mine were very bashed and bent and a friend of mine in the trade tried loads of sources south of London six years ago and only found One. Oh, and you won't find nut covers to fit those nuts either. Only available from a couple of sources in the states that won't post abroad.
Apart from all that, you're good to go!

[MinorMatt]

The hub cover is for wheels with 5 wheel studs...

the wheel nuts are 24mm.

Ford did a cover smaller than a normal hub cap that went over the nuts. A 1998 should have the dished type - but be careful they look very similar to the ones for van with 5 wheel studs.

These are the earlier ones

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Transit- ... SwLnBXVWak

and won't fit unless you fit early wheel nuts too

Yours could have something like this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wheel-Trim-Hu ... SwFdtXxWe5

but thats a later one (may fit though)

[eresseraca]

Thanks guys, appreciate it!

Will go with my alternative route then, wirebrush and the rust proof black paint... as soon as we get sub-freezing temps aroudn here

[MinorMatt]

http://s201.photobucket.com/user/mjh_0/ ... c.jpg.html

[eresseraca]

Thanks for the pic MinorMatt! I didn't realize it's that big, then I'm definitely going for painting it black as I want the bolts visible. Would be nice though to find some sturdy gloss black lug nut covers though, but covers for those 24mm nuts seems to be a rare find.

[eresseraca]

Looking at the list here, http://www.componentforce.com/category/10/nut-caps ... you wrote they're 24mm, which would be M16 correct? (I'm not in the same city as the car so I can't unfortunately measure myself right now).

So if I happen to find M16 sized hex nut covers those should hopefully fit right on.

[transit-town]

The centre caps Matt has mentioned would be more ideal as they protect the nuts and wheel centres from the elements the best, just spray wheel black and cap silver/black