Site
Mustang
8.8 LSD Axle Into
A Mk3 Ford Capri
A Mk3 Ford Capri
| After
many years of racing with my capri with the stock LSD axle, it finally
informed me it was struggling with the new V8 engine, by giving
me a set of twisted and bent shafts, |
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| And broken spring perch mounts. | ||
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| So we decided to go the Mustang axle route, this prooved
to be a difficult choice to be made, We tried to find a 8" version with LSD, as these are the correct width for the capri, same PCD etc etc, but these are like gold dust, (and dont i know it), So the next mustang axle to hunt down was a 8.8" version from a mustang, this too prooved to be a hard find here in the UK, After many months of searching, we located an axle in Croydon, was a 8.8 LSD axle 4 stud PCD etc, after arriving home with the axle we found it to be 2" wider (59" wide) than the current capri axle :-( so we had to decide wether to run different offset wheels front and back, or get the axle narrowed, |
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| As
you can see above the 8.8 is a chunky axle, bigger diff unit, bigger shafts which are held in with C clips, and 3" axle tubes, Stock Capri diffplate to the right in above picture, |
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Another
shot of the 8.8 diff unit with cover removed showing the LSD unit. |
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As
you can see the mustang axle has lots of bracketry that is used
for holding the axle into the mustang, this is not needed when fitted to the capri, |
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Another
shot of unwanted brackets etc. |
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Next
job is to remove every thing that is not needed, so as you can see
above the grinder came into action, |
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After
a few hours work the axle is bracket free and cleaned up ready for
the new axle brackets to fix into the rear of the capri, At this stage we are still unsure what to do regarding the width. after a few phone calls to wheel companys, and Race car builders, we decided on having the axle narrowed to suit the current setup and wheels, After a few lengthy emails and phone calls between 4 of the well known race car builders, we decided on having the work done by ARRC (Andy Robinson), On the 18th November 2010 the axle was taken to Andy Robinson Race Cars, to have all the work done, The following pages shows the narrowed axle as collected from ARRC on Saturday 29th Jan 2011. |
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Newly
shortened 8.8 axle by ARRC, features Strange Engineering Forged
racing shafts with 4x 108 PCD, 9" ford bearing end conversion, this does away with the current C clip retainers as used by the 8.8 axle, |
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Above
is one of the Strange Engineering 9" bearing end conversion
cups welded to the shortened 8.8 axle tube. |
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I
think this says it all and we mean business this time - Strange
Engineering Forged racing shaft, One problem we have found so far is the center locating stub is to short, this will need attending too. |
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One
of my vented discs fitted for trial fit up, ready for making the
caliper brackets, |
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Strange
Engineering shaft top, stock capri LSD shaft below, |
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Capri
shaft left, and Strange Engineering shaft right showing the bearing
conversion kit fitted with locking collar, similar to the capri
design, (note the rubber 'O' ring around the 9" bearing) |
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Capri
shaft left, Strange Engineering race shaft on the right. |
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| Start of the axle mounting brackets, we are still going to be using the leaf springs at present, |
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| We turned the heads down on some 12.9 metric allen bolts as these were a more snug fit than the supplied UNC bolts in the bearing cap holes. | ||
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| To eliminate any risk of cover leaks, we made a similar thing as now used on many capri stock diff covers, the diff cover spreader kit, | ||
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| New locating stubs made by a very good friend who owns his own engineering company, not cheap but a very good job, note the slight raised part near the shaft flange, this is for locating the rear discs on, | ||
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| Another part made by my friend, billet ally base plates to clamp the axle to the 2.8i single leaf springs, | ||
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| We have opted once again for the cosworth
vented rear disc conversion as done by the guys at Caprisport, Here you can see the start of the rough set-out drawing for the rear caliper brackets by caprisport. |
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| A trial fit to see if the holes are lining up ok, | ||
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| Again after a bit of bending, grinding and bracing welded in, | ||
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| The finished bracket, awaiting prep and paint, | ||
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| So D-Day arrived, and it was time for a
trial fittment of the axle: A hole where once a capri axle lived, |
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| And
it fits, the axle sits nice under the car, and everything lined up
spot on, the axle is now back out and having all the mounting brackets fully welded along with the shock mounts Will be off to sort out a prop in the coming weeks, more to follow............................................ |
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| Axle complete with mounting brackets, ready for final mock up in the car and to setup the top rose joint link arms. | ||
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| Start of the brackets and rose jointed link arms. | ||
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| Axle all fettled and cleaned, etch primered then top coated black. | ||
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| © Capriracing.co.uk 2004 | ||||