Front End

People rave about how interchangeable all Ford bits are. Personally I haven’t noticed it. The switch between imperial and metric has caused all sorts of wierd

I have:

Mk2 escort rack, billet alloy brackets, Mk2 RS2000 TRE, Capri Mk2 uprights (modified by STM), Capri 3litre steering arms, Alloy hub (some NAS number), capri bearings, and Escort Mk2 brake disks.

I won’t list the parts that didn’t fit!

Steering racks

Mk I Escorts. Some have long stems (not good), some have a UNF thread (finer than the M14 versions) on the end (to connect to TRE). Some are the same as Mk II

Mk II Escorts. All have short stems, all have M14 thread for TRE

Mk II Escort RS2000 uses the same thread as the MkII Escort (different TRE taper)

Mk I Escort RS2000 uses the same thread as the MkI Escort (different TRE taper)

Otherwise these are identical

Capris have a much longer stem with the UNF thread and have the same TRE taper as RS2000

Standard ratio is 3.9 Lock to Lock

Others available include 2.9 (£50 from Rallydesign), 2.4 (£70 from Rally design). Internals are available separately.

Mounting holes seem to be around 9mm, and people fit using M8 (with nylocks)

Brackets, standard are steel and have rubber (£2.90 rallydesign) or clever plastic bushing (£7 rallydesign), alloy available (£20+vat+postage rally design) requiring no additional fillers.

Front uprights

Escort MkII RS2000 uses the same as the early (2litre MkII) Capri, although sometimes these are wedged for extra strength

Escort MkII have different uprights.

The camber is different between the two.

Escort MkI seem to be different again

Capri 3litre have different hubs, not sure about uprights

Steering Arms

Some uprights have removable steering arms. Capri and RS2000 are certainly removable and equivalent. Mk1 seem to be removable but not the same.

Steering arms are expensive (£40 2^nd hand for a pair).

Grp4 an rally suppliers make new steering arms. I don’t think these are necessarily better, but they are available. Rallydesign stock these.

Escort MkI/II have different steering arms. The distance between the bolts to the upright is larger, and these steering arms have larger taper on the end. Some (Mk2 I think) are welded on, in which case they don’t have bolts.

TRE (Track Rod Ends)

There are two different tapers and two different threads

• Escort MkII Escort are M14 with the metric (large) taper. (this also include granadas to 1987, Cortinas MkIII and Mk V to 1982). FT722 , QR1834
• Capri MkI, MkII, MkIII all up to September 1987, also some Escort Mk I and other fords (Fiesta up to 1993, Orion and Escort MkIII and MkIV, to 1990). are imperial thread and imperial (small) taper. Part number; Ford 6128814 & 5021410. Direct Part Number DR2377, AMR1205
• MkII RS2000 uses MkII Escort rack and Capri uprights and so uses a hybrid TRE (M14 thread, but small taper). These are also known as “green” TRE, as they are (you guessed it) Green (at least the For original one, this doesn’t apply to the equivalent pattern parts!). AMR4118. 1564468. AM260

Most TRE labelled RS2000 on e-bay are wrong. I had to send 2 pairs back before spending more money on proper ones.

Resources:

Amsteer http://www.amsteer.co.uk/index.html