RS Motorsport :: Classic Speed Restored

If they're superpro ones they should be OK. There's a red style of bush that crumbles with age too.

Just got off the phone with Bilstein in Victoria, the shocks I have are for the standard ride height, and they are the correct shock for the Mk1 Escort, so thats good news.

If the lower spring on the drivers side were to blame, I would have though that this scenario would help prevent the wheel from picking up in hard right hand corners not the other way around. But I don't know what I'm talking about.

I see you have a thickish full length extra leaf. That will contribute picking up a wheel when cornered hard.

With new bushes and shocks it probably corners a bit harder than before?

The front springs may need to be a bit stiffer.

That is a good point, I assumed that the springs were the standard. Ill have to worry about the arse end later.

Out with the old




Freshen up the wheel arches.

Very excited to get these in.

The rubber boots on the old lower control arms were shot even though the ball joints seemed alright, but freshies were cheap. New poly bushes in the arms and new ones for the sway bar. All the bushes in the front end were one spirited drive away from looking like the rear ones.



I cleaned up and painted the sway bar that was on the car. Its a 20mm bar, standard for a 1300XL or something else? I wish I had a before shot, it was a red, with about 40 years of overspray on it, some tar and what looked like wall render.

I've been trying to find new bolts for the lower control arm to the cross member. The shank on the ones I've found is slightly shorter than the original bolts. The taper at the end of the shank just seats into the other side of the cross member without going the whole way through. I'm concerned the thread will be taking the load. Risk it or keep hunting for a better bolt?

Its a 3/8" bolt, the original item had a 50mm shank. New one has a shank that 46mm to the beginning of the taper, then the taper is an additional 2mm. Feels like the 2mm might be a problem.

Bloody big image.

That new bolt is not unf.

Get unf bolts for it.

When tight the sleeve inside the bush pulls tight to the X/M, so it's not an issue.

Those studs will work but I woud look at the 12x1.5mm studs instead of the smaller 7/16" unf
If it was me and it had a 1300 in it I would just stick a decent set of pads in a P16//m16 Escort caliper
How much hp are you looking at going to?

Ultimately I want to go to a 2.0L Duratec. Do the M/P 16 callipers bolt straight on? Would that use the standard capri disks, 245mm?

The capri calipers will bolt straight on as the hole in them is imperial. If you are using a Mk2 Escort caliper you will need a special stepped bolt (metric caliper hole to imperial strut). We actually made a very thin spacer tube and used the original capri bolt. I do track work in my car and it just runs a spaced Mk2 caliper/vented capri disk with Bendix Ultimate pads.

The wheel studs I ended up with are , mainly to match the studs that were already on the diff. I'm pretty sure the hubs I have are the same as yours, they will need drilling/reaming to suit.

I have some Girling callipers that were on the Mk1 struts, would they be M/P 16? If they bolt straight onto the capri struts I would happily reuse to get the car moving again. Do you have a part number for the rotors that you're using? Are they slotted or anything fancy?

I'm pretty sure the original Mk1 discs were smaller, so the caliper isn't the same.

The vented discs bolt straight to the capri or Mk2 hub:
Vented Discs - Plain
Capri 2.8i, EBC part = D246, same as RDA7578

Thanks for the info. At this point I would have to buy new capri callipers, rotors etc. Its why the kits are so appealing. I would have loved if my Mk1 callipers fit.

Does anyone know the bolt spec for attaching capri steering arms to the capri style struts? I bought a set of steering arms online that came with a set of what appears to be M10 bolts. The bolts fit perfectly in one arm, the second arm has slightly smaller holes and the supplied bolts wont fit.

The M10 bolts also don't fit through the holes in the strut, I'm not sure if this is because there is fairly thick paint in the holes or if im going mad. So far the supplied bolts only fit through 1 steering arm. I don't want to drill out the struts and the second arm if it turns out I have the wrong bolts and 1 steering arm that has been incorrectly machined.

Cheers,

3/8 unf

Cheers!

After clearing the paint from the holes in the strut and putting some fresh 3/8 bolts though - I'm concerned that there is a fair bit of slop in the steering arms. The 3/8 hole in the strut locates the bolt beautifully snug, basically no play in the bolt what so ever. Putting the steering arm on and its a hot dog down a hall way situation. Even the arm that fits an M10 bolt is sloppy (with the M10) so you can imagine what its like with a 3/8 bolt.

This isn't normal surely? These arms have been poorly machined. This feels like that last place where you would want any play.

Options:
I don't want to modify the strut, then it becomes non standard - The idea of modifying an expensive part to work with a poorly made, comparatively cheaper part doesn't thrill me.

[*]New Steering Arms
[*]Have the bolt holes in the steering arms drilled out and have a sleeve pressed in to take up the slack
[*]Install them and try not to think about it every time I turn in

Thoughts?