I was originally going to go down the escort route for my locost, but things have changed again!

I acquired an escort rear axle, steering column & rack. But I also managed to get some decent alloys for silly money.

Problem is, I assembled the rear axle and put the wheels on so I could measure the gap between the tyre inner edges. It came to 42.5", ooops, the chassis as per the book is 42"!! This is due to a larger offset on the wheels I have. I had thought about building the 442 chassis as I'm rather long but that put paid to that. I figured that with some 1" wheel spacers I could get around the clearance problem but would have to stick with the standard build chassis.

But......

I now have managed to get a live axle from a sierra P100 pickup which is actually 3.5" wider than the escort axle. The diff is 3.77 but as it is a Timken I can use the one from the escort axle which is 3.89. I am using a sierra engine and 5-speed box so once I've sourced my propshaft this should be fine.

After all this ranting on, my question is, what is the minimum clearance between the chassis and the tyres that is recommended?

Cheers,
JB

Are you sure you can use the Escort diff in a P100 axle? The P100 axle is a massively overbuilt thing with a rear loading diff and is a semi floating arrangement, while an Escort is a front loader with no common ground between the two. Even the wheel studs are of a different number, type and P.C.D.

You would be beter with the capri atlas back axle ,its 4" (52"wider than the escort and helps fill out the back end.

This axle is commonlly used on the locost.

I had the same problem with a standard chassis as i am using the escort axle and using 6j wheels, had i used 185/195 tyres it would have been ok, but i used 205 and the tyres fouled the two suspension bracket bolts, so i have put a couple of washers on the wheel studs,
now clearance is about 10mm and no problems

spacers and longer studs to be safe ?

quote:

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Originally posted by gazza285
Are you sure you can use the Escort diff in a P100 axle? The P100 axle is a massively overbuilt thing with a rear loading diff and is a semi floating arrangement, while an Escort is a front loader with no common ground between the two. Even the wheel studs are of a different number, type and P.C.D.

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P100 axle has 5 stud flanges and the tubing is like cast drainpipe, way bigger than Escort.

Back to the original question - I only have about 4mm clearance between tyre and chassis and its never rubbed yet despite the most 'spirited' cornering. If you have a 'book' dimension chassis an axle 3.5" wider will mean you will need wide arches to get the wheels in.
If you need just a little bit more clearance 'Burtons' sell spacer down to 6mm which could probably be used with your existing studs (check first though!).

I would definately go this route rather than drag a truck axle around with me!

- Alan

quote:

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Originally posted by Peteff
P100 axle has 5 stud flanges and the tubing is like cast drainpipe, way bigger than Escort.

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So just use the axle as it is. The 3.77 diff will make very little difference to the 3.89 in the other axle, just give a slightly higher top end. If you are using sierra instruments you can get the speedo to read correctly by fitting different size rear tyres

"spacers and longer studs to be safe ?"

ive been on the road 6 years, and have not had a problem yet??

Thanks for all the input guys, guess I'll be using the axle as is then. I'm sure everyone here has seen it, but I used the 'Gear Calc' program from the JM site which gives you an idea on what effect wheels, ratios etc have on top-end and speed-per-gear etc.

BTW if I put a piccy of the axle on here will anyone be able to give me a more calculated decision on where this thing came from??

JB

If it's a Ford item somebody will have one like it

'ere u go folks, any ideas ????

HELP! My piccies don't seem to be piccies!!



JB

AHA!

Sussed it , so.....

'ere u go take 2....


??? Axle 1


??? Axle 2


??? Axle 3


??? Axle 4

JB

Mmmm certainly looks like a ford item but in the photo the banjo case looks Huuuge.
There are also what look to be anti-rollbar mounts so its not an escort IIRC.
It does look like a leaf spring jobbie though so it might be a Capri i suppose.
There are also what look to be some sort of mounting eyes on the leaf spring saddles ( anti tramp brackets perhaps )
But the thing that sticks out is that the diff case looks bigger than any thing i can remember although it could be an optical dellusion.

Just looked again and cancel the anti tramp bit. Why would the mountings I thought were anti tramp be mounted on opposite sides of the axle? could they be shock mountings (but why opposite sides)

[Edited on 1/8/05 by omega 24 v6]

Looks a bit Capri ish to me.
BTW My Escort had the anti roll bar (1978 vintage)


Marcus

I should have put them both together so you could see that they ae identical in size except for the length of the tubes.

I have attached a piccy of the escort axle.

JB


[img][/img]

Looks like a Mk1 Capri, the one with the hockey stick side swages. They were available with 1300 and 1600 crossflows and 3 litre essex V6 engines.

SO back to your original question .
Yes you can change the diff if you want. The halfshaft splines should be ok and you'll need a new gasket for the casing flange. The only other thing that might be different is the size of the propshaft flange. I would advise not to change this from diff to diff. You would be better to make your propshaft to suit.

Many thanks for all the input chaps . Not sure which diff to use yet, Can't see there being too much difference between the 2 wrt acceleration and top-end.

JB