Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

[RWD fords rule]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Yes they do have a good grip, its just the closer the head of the bolt is to the diff the better imho to resist any unwanted movement from the shearing action of the crown wheel, for example I would prefer to use flywheel bolts without any washers, less risk of the movement imho, a small factor but I believe it counts in an application like this with shearing forces

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

You may be on to something there. I'd never put anything to under the flywheel bolt either.

I wonder if the ARP's should be torquend down with lubricant as usual or with thread lock?

[FOSSIE]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Yes they do have a good grip, its just the closer the head of the bolt is to the diff the better imho to resist any unwanted movement from the shearing action of the crown wheel, for example I would prefer to use flywheel bolts without any washers, less risk of the movement imho, a small factor but I believe it counts in an application like this with shearing forces

Totally agree.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Todays huge update. Bored still waiting for the ARP's really.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

The ARP's are here

A big update about an insignificant detail but bare with me.

These ARP's are just what the doctor ordered. First off they came with the right/ recommended torque specification so I don't need to keep quessing anymore.
An interresting detail is that these are actually BMC A series flywheel bolts not english CW bolts nor Xflow flywheel bolts.



22,5mm UHL and a solid near 13mm of thread penetration. Minust the chamfer in the CW still leaves me a perfect over 11mm of thread engagement.





Bolted them all in hand tight to see none of them would bottom out. All came out with 6mm gap to the CW. Again Perfect.

unnecessary pic of the huge task


While on the topic of bolts the longer bolts I had proved a good guide to align the CW holes. The CW is a snug fit around the LSD and this way the holes line up first time.






So, in conclusion I recommend the use of ARP bolt for every English builds. Or not the OE bolts are known to work well too
( I like'm)

[exboyracer]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Nice one mate

[RWD fords rule]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Well didn't get too far today. I degreased the CW and the bolts and bolted them on. I plan to do as I do with flywheels. Tighten the bolts snug dry and then loctite and torque them to spec one by one. This way theres no chance for the thread sealant to make its way between the two surfaces. So far so good.
But then I noticed my 14mm 12point socket to be too tight for the bolt heads I need 12 point 9/16" socket. And as I live in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by wolves and polar bears, no dealer in 60km radius has one for sale. And for the very same reason I could not find the Loctite 242 sealent and had to settle for 243. Do not know the difference though. Nor did the clerks, wolves or polar bears. Tomorrow I'll continue my hunt for the 9/16

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Found the bloody 9/16 socket today and got a chance to take out my uber wrench.




Reconstruction of todays events

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Had a go at building up the diff. It was a bit of a gamble since I have no idea what size shim was under the pinion bearing. I bought the CWP second hand but un used. It had the bearing pressed on as it has been fitted before but even that had no shim under the bearing

I took one from another diff and hoped it would be the right size.



So I built the diff up with the shim I had. I've never done this myself so I had help from someone whos done them for years. Only, he goes by feel whereas I count on mesuring things and following the book.









Pinion bearing preload




Side bearing preload





Easier to store when assembled these.




Heres How it turned out. I think this is ok. The pattern is mayby a bit high but I still had room to take the CW closer to the pinion as I measured 0,17mm backlash. Only the pinion gears contact seems a bit iffy and had me wondering.
My plan was to crush the crush washer and take the diff apart again and replace the crush washer with an equal (crushed) lenght solid spacer.
Now that I have it in bits again I may well change the shim for another one if needed. I'll ask a third opinion when I collect the steel spacer.





Should the pinion gear pattern be interpitted similar to CW's. I was thinking should there bee some blue left on the top side of the teeth or does it always rub off as the pinion turns? Perhaps a higher shim ?



For a moment I had a whole diff I could use so half shaft time

Measured how mutch I need to take out of the shafts



48mm was removed. 356g's was saved.



Perfect fit first time





Used the flange to "gently tap" the bearing in



One cut to lenght Half shaft assembled.





For a brief moment I had drive !




Hopefully I'll get the axle assembled next week. Then I can get the wheel alignement done and do some more test fittings on the car.

[exboyracer]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Nice work Markus

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Thank yoI'm pleased with the outcome myself too . Setting up the diff for the first time was very interresting indeed. I enjoyed it. Hopefully I'll have a chance to do the final build up next week.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Burned the midnight oil yesterday and did the final build last night. This time with the solid "crush sleeve". At first I could not get the pinion preload needed. No Nm reading at all. But no slack either. Only few strokes with a file put me well within the tolerance with a 2,5Nm reading . Says something how close these tolerances are.



As I was inspecting the threads in the casing I noticed the cap bolts do not bolt down enough. When I bought this casing it came with some none Ford bolts. They were shorter than oe so I wanted to get original bolts for this build. Now the new bolts didn't bolt down propperly. The threads were literally filled with thread sealant. I mean solid down to the half way of all the four threads.

Could not get a good photo of the threads




It soon came obvious that a bit of poking with a screw driver would not cut it. I had to drill out the sealant. And there really was some.

Too bad I thought of filming the drillin only at the fourth hole as there were holes worse than this but you'll get the idea. Ever seen thread sealant used like this?
I bet someone thought theyd fill the hole up and the screw in the bolt "to make sure" they'd stay in

http://youtu.be/8aedc303kzE

The drilling worked nicely. This Is how they turned out.




A second dial gauge would've made the work much easier but by midnight yesterday the contact pattern looked like this.

I'm not an expert as only lost my rear end virginity but I'd say that'll do.





All ready. Set up torqued and loctited.




So today I got a chance to offer the built axle to the car and make it stand on its own again. Almost got all misty eyed.
Everything fitted nice and I do belive there will be no problem lining this axle up with the correct nose down angle. Deffo a good thing. This way I can use the Mustang axle if needed and the English with the same set link bars.

Next: the blow torch and bending the axle tube...

[FOSSIE]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

I do belive there will be no problem lining this axle up with the correct nose down angle. Deffo a good thing.

Can you explain this a bit more?

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

My link bars are made for the Mustang axle. They are longer since the brackets on my axle are futher back. The holes for the link bars are not on the centerline like they are on the diamond brackets. I was worried if I would have to make the link bars shorter to get the wheels centered to the wheel tub with the english axle. I have not had a chance to check but today whilst I got the car on to the axle I found theres plenty of adjustemt to center the wheels.
And as for the nose down angle I mean the degree the pigheads nose is pointing down. The nose (flange) tends to climb up as the rear squats and I aim at a straight line with the propsahft during launch. This had me worried too. If I would have needed to elongate the lower link bars too much it would've forced the shock absorbers to a weird angle.