Luther-The-Escort-Van

Hello all!

I am new to this forum as I have run Jap cars (Civic, Celica and 3 MR2s) after my last ford (1.6 mk4 Orion GL) 3 years ago.

I have in the last week bought myself "Luther" a white 51 reg 1.8 endura diesel engined Escort van and the brakes are terribly shocking.

Info would be greatly appriciated from you lovely ford fans on weather I could use 4x4 Saph Cossie front calipers with 2wd Cossie discs on the front of my van as like can be done on mk4 escorts.
I have bought some 16" Mondeo Zetec 5 spokes for the van so disc & calipers clearance wont be a problem.

Many thanks in advance!
Cheers, John

zippyobrien

iTrader: (2)

Yh you can mate. Or rs2000 front breaks.


Or, you can use st170 discs (300 mm) with mondeo mk3 calipers. Much beter than cossies.

Luther-The-Escort-Van

Thanks for the reply mate, Much appriciated.

I think I'll just use the Cossie calipers tho coz I only need to buy discs & pads as I already have the 4x4 Cossie calipers kicking around in the garage.

Also they will only be stopping a 1.8 endura 60hp motor anyway! HaHa!

Thanks again mate!
John.

Escow-Van

RS2Ks will fit on, will need a bigger wheel obviously if you still have the 13" steelies on.

Luther-The-Escort-Van

So.......lol


I went to do the brake conversion today only to find that on a 51 plate Escort van I need a 6mm spacer to sandwich between the hub and caliper mounting space and with the 6 mm plate in place my caliper bolts were 6mm short lol.
I found some bolts to cut down, then realised that I need Sierra front flexy brake pipes due to the fitting being totally different on the Cossie 4x4 calipers to what the shitty van caliper fitment is.

I Phoned Autoparts in Thornaby and ordered some for collection tomorrow morning then found an old Sierra leg in the garage with a Flexy still attached to the caliper! Great I thought for mocking up.
Then it was apparent that the sierra flexy is a male end and the vans is a female end. Doh!
So the big brake conversion is now on hold till get chance to change the front pipework on the van for snazzy new copper brake pipes with the correct fittings for Sierra flexys!
Happy days lol.
I'll let ya'll know how I get on when all the bits I need are in my possession.
Cheers.

Luther-The-Escort-Van

I got up round 9am yesterday morning and went to Teesside fasteners to get some longer, proper high tensile caliper bolts and washers for spacers (only 4 quid!!) Then around around 1pm I got a call from Autoparts to say the Sierra flexys were in.(12quid each!!!) So I went to pick them up, got some brake pipe and brake fluid while I was there and 42 quid later I had finally got all the bits I needed to crack on. Yeey!

So I got the van in the air, wheels off, took the shitty old calipers and discs off, fabricated two new pipe brakets to attach the flexys and copper pipe to the inner wing as the van ones were totally wrong. Removed the old brake pipes, made two new ones (as my dad has got a brake pipe flaring tool thats older than me! lol) Put on the new discs and Cossie calipers, bolted everything up, tightned all the pipe fittings checked everything over, filled with fluid and blead the system.
Wheels on, all on the ground and fook me, them big ass discs and calipers look super sweet behind my 16" Mondeo 5 spokes compared to the crappy little ones the van was made with! 100 miles or so to bed them in and I'll be laffin!
Just thought I'd share my experience lol.
Cheers all, John

Escow-Van

Sounds like a good job well done! I bet it stops a lot better than it goes now

Any pics of your van?

Luther-The-Escort-Van

Haha yeah mate, the brakes are unreal now!
I have a few pics of the van but I seem to have trouble uploading them at the mo.
I'll keep on tryin tho!

AJC

iTrader: (6)

i assume its on alloys to clear the brakes

Luther-The-Escort-Van

Yeah mate, 16" Mondeo Zetec 5 spokes (the cossie lookalike rims)
with a 195/50/16 tyre on so the rolling radius is the same as the 165/80/13 van tyres so accelleration is not altered and the speedo reads about right.
I know this thanks to the etyres website where they have a tyre size calculator!

Luther-The-Escort-Van

http://s1198.photobucket.com/albums/...he_escort-Van/

zippyobrien

iTrader: (2)

You want 195 45 16 tyres.

Luther-The-Escort-Van

I don't mate, they will make the rolling radius 12mm smaller than a 165/80/13 and the ones im using are 7mm bigger. When I was using my tom tom the other day my speedo was reading 70mph and the sat nav was reading 65ish so the 7mm bigger tyre diameter should make it more accurate. As a sat nav speed reading is more accurate than a mechanical speedo.

Luther-The-Escort-Van

Just thought I'd mention that the tom tom speedo reading was when the van was still on 165/80/13 tyres. So now the speedo should read more accuratly with the 7mm larger rolling radius.(195/50/16)

zippyobrien

iTrader: (2)

An escort van should have 165 70 13 I think.

And if you ever want to lower it you want 195 45s. Other wise will scrub. Trust me. And 45s look better lol.

Luther-The-Escort-Van

http://www.etyres.co.uk/tyre-size-calculator.htm