Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Today was more of a hands on type of day. Removed the leaf spring brackets and tramp bar brackets. I hate removing the brackets but I have to say I love the clean look. Too bad I need to weld some brackets back on.
Then I cut off the original oil pan and welded on the extended one. Im not very experiensed welder but decided to have a go. Not the prettiest of beads but it did hold its liquire so thats good enough for me
Now I need to find me a band saw and a lathe to make the Atlas wheel bearing conversion.
meanwhile I hope the diamond brackets will arrive so I could slide'm on prior to welding the new housing ends on.




Those are the new longer atlas, well Koln actually, housing ends.


This must be the better side.


I'd really like to add a drain plug but I do have my doubts. The plug obviously can't intrude the diff housing much. This would mean I'd need a weld on thread for the plug which will make the plug scaringly high leaving it prone for scrapes. Not good.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

The brackets arrived. Now I can cut the axle.

[RWD fords rule]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Nice work, adding a brace bar under the axle going out to the diamond brackets is a good idea although its probably not necessary for racing

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Thanks Jason.

I'm more worried about the axle bend laterally affecting the toe in or out during braking and accelerating. So I'm working on some large boxed gussets on both sides of the oil pan. Like so




I was originally planning on the axle brace but as you said I'm not all that sure I need on on a race car. And the large boxed section will propably offer added support against vertical forces too

These gussets are the last things to be welded on once the axle is all lined and the tracking and wheel angles are sorted. I'm thinking of welding the whole axle to a huge steel plate or work bench to prevent it distorting again during welding. And even so I'll need to weld it extra carefully in tiny sections

[RWD fords rule]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

That is a good idea, it will certainly help keep the wheels pointed in the right direction, the english cases are quite light with a thin wall tubes, tacking the plates everywhere first and then stitch welding a bit here and there will do the job, tacking the axle onto something solid would certainly help make the weld pull instead of the axle case when it cools down

Will be interesting to see how much weight you save vs the old axle, it will surely be a very light combination

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

I'm expecting a 15 to 20 kg weight save. With the alloy pumpkin it would be 5kg's more but I'm now having serious doubts about buying one. I have been warned they are not so so durable / race provan and a pain to set the CWP correctly. I'd hate buyin more trouble with 450£

I learned to be a bit cautious with the tran-X episode

[Adam151082]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Awsome project you have there pal, when does the snow start there?

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Thanks Adam I appreciate that. It was two days after the first snow when that photo was taken. But I believe the first snow was a bit early this year.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

The Mentalist was on so I snuck to the garage.
Did not do much but simply could not resist taking out the drill and leaving me own fingerprint on the diamond brackets. Now that I'm leaning away from the alloy diff carrier I need to save the weight where I can. I know I'm fooling myself but hey It got me past The Mentalist.

Thats 22 9mm holes to a 2mm thick steel.


As I said It looks like no alli pigs head for me. After all this is a Hevy duty not featherweightEnglish project so reliability is a huge issue. I'll be pushing the CWP to its limits so I believe the right build up is at most importance. I've been warned twice now. The quality of the alloy carriers seems to vary and some of them can't be set up right.

So it seems this is what I'm stuck with. I've acid dipped and painted this for another project earlier but as thats on hold now I'll stick this carrier to me housing.



This means the axle will be moving along faster now. I can go on with the differential build up too

[RWD fords rule]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Looking good, totally agree about the alloy housing, I think some of the alloy type 9 gearbox cases are also rubbish, things like this are big money for hardly any gain at all, I personally draw a line at std atlas with ZF plate diff, 4.6 or 5.1 cw+p and a solid pinion shim + pinned drive shaft flange to pinion, cheapest reliable 200bhp+ axle there is but I can see what you are up to with the english axle, with a high revving low cc engine and uprated shafts it should be plenty strong enough and a little lighter

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Strong enough is perfect. Anything above that is just extra weight . And around here anything Atlas is mega bucks whereas the English are affordable and plenty.
It may still be I'll be having some brake kick back with this english which I'm really trying to avoid. That would pretty much mean I'll need to think this axle thing again. Or get me a quife "floater kit". Luckily I've not sold the Mustang tank axle.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Looking good, totally agree about the alloy housing, I think some of the alloy type 9 gearbox cases are also rubbish, things like this are big money for hardly any gain at all, I personally draw a line at std atlas with ZF plate diff, 4.6 or 5.1 cw+p and a solid pinion shim + pinned drive shaft flange to pinion, cheapest reliable 200bhp+ axle there is but I can see what you are up to with the english axle, with a high revving low cc engine and uprated shafts it should be plenty strong enough and a little lighter

Never heard of a pinned drive shaft before. Thats a good Idea!

[RWD fords rule]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

That should have been "pinned drive shaft flange to pinion NUT" left out the last word, using a 4mm roll pin, 4mm hole drilled through the nut's outer flange and into the driveshaft pinion flange with the nut fully tightened with loctite, we had one gradually get loose one time hence the pin there to stop the nut moving anywhere problem solved

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Never heard that one either.

[RWD fords rule]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Things like this happen to rallycars, if there is a weak link anywhere it will be found, that is the thing about a rally car it is only as strong as its weakest link