MkII Escort Gearbox, Mount and Crossmember

Colonel57 · 16-07-2013, 07:30 PM

Two of my sons dirt track race Mk11 Escort which is fitted with a 2 litre and 4 speed. The car was originally a 1600 but already had the 2 litre in it when they purchased it.

After an incident the last time they raced it became necessary to replace the front suspension cross member and the gearbox. Both replacements were purchased as suitable for a 2 litre.

However when refitting engine and gearbox to the car it no longer fits. The gear lever now finishes up behind the hole in the hole that that it should be coming thru. The gear lever is not actually fitted but this would be the scenario if it was. Also because of this the gearbox wont go high enough in the tunnel to fit the rear mount.

What is the problem?? Could it be a cortina gearbox as opposed to an escort? I dont see what else it could be. Unfortunately I dont have the old gearbox to compare them side by side but I always understood all escort gearboxes were the same.

allanv6gt · 17-07-2013, 08:09 PM

Could be a Cortina or even Capri gearbox.
You'll probably find the gearbiox case is common (where the gears spin) with different length input shaft/bell housing. Should be able to identify via first part of part number of bell housing.

e.g. Capri part numbers stuff...
- - - 7500-5 - - HOUSING ASSY. - CLUTCH
1969/ All 1600 cc - manual 3038E 7505 D
1970/ GT 3000 cc - Manual 72EB 7505 EA

Also, I don't know if this is possible, but is the engine cross member fitted back to front ? (which would push everything further back)
(pretty dumb question IMHO !! but worth checking. People make simple errors when fitting things after a long day)

Just some vague suggestions. Hope this helps somehow.

Colonel57 · 18-07-2013, 01:05 PM

The bellhousing has "72AA7505AA' on it and the extension housing has a tag on it with "72BACA FNZ6K01" if this makes any sense. Upon looking at the gearbox now it is out of the car I would not be surprised if it is not the original extension housing for this gearbox. It just looks to me like it has been off.

Crossmember in back to front is not as silly as it sounds and it is the first question I asked them also. They assure me it is in the right way round as the steering rack has been re-fitted and an connected and works like it should. They have also compared it to the original damaged crossmember.

Today we are going to retrieve the stuffed gearbox and compare the 2 side by side .

thanks for the help.

Colonel57 · 19-07-2013, 09:11 AM

It is pretty obvious when you compare the two boxes side by side that they are different.

The damaged one on the left fits and the one on the right doesn't. A lesson learned hopefully. Curious if anyone can tell me what the right hand box would be from.

whooligan · 20-07-2013, 01:59 AM

One on the right is a cortina box. If the Escort gearbox is ok, just swap the bell housing over.
They are essentially the same box but the extension housing mounts the gearbox further back. (This is how the UK cars were built)
Don't bother messing about with crossmember changes to suit the cortina box, just source an escort box instead. They are pretty cheap still but getting harder to find.