Mk1 escort van rolling/running project

[mike77cos]

Like that a lot

[freddy6868]

Thanks i was after a two door but seen this and fell in love with it. So progress being made on her soon too.

Well as you can see from the title the four speed box is frying my head on the motorway but is great for round town. but what pushed me over the edge was the 27mpg so i had a look under the van and i could see that all the mod work needed to fit a 5 speed had been done. i.e move the gearstick hole and gearbox mount back. All i have to to is buy a different clutch which is great as mine is on its last legs mod the propshaft and buy a quickshift and drop it all in.

Im picking up the 5 shifter tomorrow and the propshaft at a bargin price and at the end of the month i will be concentrating on reducing/eliminating the understeer by fitting the rollor top mounts i bought along with a twin cam anti rollbar which will give me more castornabout a deg or two and some adjustable tca's to add some nice camber and last but not least a double width kit to reduce the body roll up front. Pictures will follow when im on the pc.

I have been doing some working outs too and i have noticed the 1st,2nd and 3rd gear on the 2.8i capri gearbox i m using will be longer than my current box making the escort a little slower. 4th gear is the same ratio as the one in the four speed so anything in fith is a bonus Soooo i am going to reduce the tyre diameter by 1.5-2" and that will make the first three gears shorter than the original gears and then ive still got about 25 mph top end which means it will have the same finalmdrive speeds as and s2 106rallye box.

[freddy6868]

Well after a full 7 days of chasing a gearbox that has been sitting in the back or a scrap yard all that time in a mk5 cortina estate with a 2l pinto in. So here it is! A quick question is should there be play in the input shaft as there is a little, i am just hoping that the bearing in the flywheel supports it.
capri 2.8 type 9 box

The end of the prop and the rubber donut that it bolts too

Wreaked i know but another problem is that the donut is attached to the output shaft and i would like to get rid of it. How would i get rid of this? I'm thinking about turning it off and making a new flange and welding it to the output shaft would that be a good idea?


Here is a picture of the gashness of some people. From what i can see it is a 5 speed type 9 mount bolted throught the floor and a four speed mount welded to it. Which makes me think it has deffo had a 5 speed in it at some point

Finally some not very clear pictures of the strengthening brace that hass been removed already to fit a type 9

[freddy6868]

Another photo but this time it is suspension related. My new/old roller top stut mounts that i bought off a mate . Also on the way is a brand new twink arb for the much needed caster and a double width kit to bolt it on both from rally design.

[freddy6868]

And some more goodies that arrived today i was going to fit them over the weekend but i haven't recieved the adjustable tca's and the mrs gearbox on her 106 needs upgrading to a 5 speed s1 rallye box.
Double width kit

Twin cam antiroll bar

[freddy6868]

More shiny bits and now i have a deadline of the 13th to fit all the gear get it set up and sort the starter as i have anOther autotest to skid around in tk see if the bits and pieces have sorted the understeer. Hopefully they will have as the polybushes are going to tighten the front end loads on thier own never mind the changes to the suspention geometry.

The tca's i bought at a bargin price.

[/QUOTE]

[freddy6868]

Progress!

Old shite removed. There was no resistance in the arb bushes at ALL. They are mullered. But the tca's are nearly new.

So i had a couple of hours today fitting my nice new shiney bits, or should i say removing the old rubbish. Well the first thing i done was get it on axle stands unbolt the arb brackets in the front corners of the engine bay and the end of the arb that goes through the tca. But i couldnt take the arb out of the brackets so i dropped the tca's off the crossmember all at the sametime.
Up she goes




Off with the old stuff an the new stuff to go back on


Judging by the state on the old arb bushes the double width kit coupled with the hardness of the bushes used i cant see there being much body roll at all!

My new insitu adjustable rosejointed tca's compared to the old ones which were in fairness almost brand new



Old arb brackets gone



New ones fitted



Ignore all the rust looking stuff too that is mud that i still haven't washed from underneath

[freddy6868]

Well fridays progress after work was bolting on the tca's and the arb loosely in the high winds and really heavy rain. As i wanted to take the escort to watch a road rally on saturday.

So fridays progress






So slightly hung over on saturday morning i was back out there on the damp floor but no rain thank god. So i then finished tightening everything up and very roughly setting up the camber and tracking.





All back on the floor and the wheel
Is sitting properly in the wheel arch too!





The old position of the wheel



The position of the wheel now.



So i took it for a drive saturday afternoon and it turns in very sharp but because it isnt set up it is unstable when it is going over bumps and at higher speeds. So i dropped over a mates to get the tracking and camber set up before we went to watch the rally. I wanted the camber set to 1.5 degs but the safest camber we could set it too was 0.75degs because the steering arms were too short. So if anyone knows for some longer steering arms so i can set up the camber properly that would be brilliant if you could let me know.

[Mark M]

well done. brings back memories lying outside in the rain working on old escorts.

and the prop with the rubbers. throw it in the bin, and use the 4 speed one. it will fit ok.
and if its a 2.8 box, will need a bit trimmed off the input shaft, and a little play is ok. good luck.

[Mark M]

just re-read. if box has already been on a pinto, it must have already had the shaft shortened.
cheers.

[freddy6868]

Yeah it has been shortened already and i was under the impression that the output shaft on a 4 speed is different to a 5 speed?

[freddy6868]

Well i done an autotest on sunday. Had a good little skid but i am in real need of a plated diff to stop the inside wheel spinning up all the power. But the escort had survived another autotest or so i thought, on the way home i went round a round about abit enthusiastically and this haPpened when the back end stepped out on the greasy road.





So she is now at a mates paint shop and he is going to do the repair as he is shit hot whennit comes to paint work.
I am also tinkering with the idea of ripping off all the rs stripes and putting mexico stripes on in matt black. It makes sence to me as it is running mexico running gear after all.

And i will be running some 13x6 alleycats im going to buy at the end of the month.

[freddy6868]

Well i recently bumped the van as you all know but. I have found out that the rear arches and sills are welded over the older ones so im having them ripped off and the rear quaters sprayed too. But on to some bigger news.


I seen this in a magazine





Shortly after i seen this in a scrap yard



Weirdly after that i lost 175 bucks? Hhhmmmm wonder where the hell that went.

[freddy6868]

Abit of progress today
I picked the engine up from the yard and drove home the mile with the engine hanging out the back of the car like this

The whole lot was dumped in there by a fork lift truck but ehen i got home i reliesed that this was a serious lump with some serious weight. . . . So i had to strip it down in the back of the car to unload it.

Finally in the shed


So i took the cam cover off to check for any signs of oil starvation of the top end and i was told it was a really quick engine by a mate and that it was ment to be cammed. So i had a nose and as all these really quick standard engines turn out to be its not but its in geat nick inside so im happy.

mmmm timing chain


Also if anyone has any info on this conversion i would be greatful for any info i could get hold of to make life easier. Thanks for looking, John

[freddy6868]

Well the flywheel is in being lightened so it started like this.



If you look carefully you can see where i have marked for the material to be removed from the flywheel and that will be about a quater of an inch deep.


More Pictures of that after the flywheel has had the material removed from it.

Same here, this is crank pulley that drives the alternator, power steering pump and the water pump. I think in needs to go on a diet as it really heavy.





The same as everything else i have taken off the engine the powersteering pump and bracket was really really heavy so that was scraped and i will have to make a new alternater bracket as it mounted on the powersteering pump