Colin Clarkson

Back in the mid 70s I had a MK4 Zephyr and the V6 Essex engines had an achilles heel. They used to strip the teeth off the fibre timing gear and bend all the exhaust valves a bomb to fix at the Ford dealer. A bronze one was available but it was noisy and eventually chewed out as well. This led the charge in the mid 70s in what was an innovative NZ back in those days to repower these cars with Ford US 289/302 engines. I got my hands on a 327 Chev it was originally mounted on Chevy engine mounts on 2 steel bars about 100 x 10 thick running from the original cross member engine mountings to the front unit construction front member under the radiator. This was OK for a while but started to crack the front cross member joining welds. The best solution of all for mounting whatever engine in these cars is to use another original cross member bolted directly in front of the original. I managed to get one from a wrecker complete with all the bolts for a song. The front suspension control arms for the McPherson struts are bolted to this cross member. Then you can put a shorter plate between the 2 cross members to mount whatever engine mount for whatever engine you have for maximum strength which I cut up from bars I first used. Chevys have the engine mount two thirds to the front of the block Fords more to the centre but with a V8 being longer than a V6 you have to put your engine mounts slightly forward of the original engine mounting spot. There was some outfit back in those days (after I built my car) that had cast some 289/302 bell housings that would directly mount the Mk4 gearbox. I had an adapter plate mated it to the MK 4 gearbox but my clutch kept slipping under power towing or even just going up a steep hill MK4s were reasonably heavy. I then changed to a Chevy Hayes pressure plate which had a ring and weights on it the harder you accelerated the more the pressure on the MK4 clutch plate. Back in the mid 70s you could get a MK4 clutch plate and inch bigger diameter as well which solved the clutch slip problem. The MK 4 Zephyr originally had the 2.5 litre motor and 3.9 ratio diff. The 3 litre cars Zephyrs and Zodiacs had 3.7 diffs. I had a 350 hp corvette cam 4 bbl holley d/per block hugger headers and msd ignition it was a beast fun to drive with high back buckets seats from a Torana floor change and cheap petrol back in those days I went everywhere in it. MK4s are tall and tend to be front heavy, roll quite a bit cornering even lifting the inside rear wheel on occasions with standard cars My car had 14' Jolley wides some air shocks I picked up from a guy who trashed his Camaro on the rear and an extra anti roll bar on the front with koni front towers it handled seriously sports car well with just those easy mods. I used to throw out gearboxes with regular monotony every 12 months. The English Ford gearbox design was crap in all their cars Cortina Capris MK 3 and MK4s. It had no support for the centre bearing and it used to flog up and down the whole centre shaft under power or load eventually destroying the gearbox. It became unrepairable because even the housing became warped as well. Boat mooring block material. Best use a T10 on 289/302 or a Muncie on Chev or go auto. Never ever had a problem with the diff I cant ever remember even changing the oil in it. After a while wheel bearings go front and rear UJs on the half shafts and drive shaft. I had a special drive shaft made up with the Mk 4 gearbox spindle welded to much bigger UJs on both ends. Original front towers are crap use Konis. Rear brake calipers used to leak brake fluid all the time as they had a very unusual handbrake set up where the caliper was hinged and also utilised to activate the hand brake as well as normal braking. It did work OK and was easily repaired with a brass sleeve. I am quite tall and I fondly remember MK4s as having good vision on the road as you sat more upright in them and they were much easier to get in and out of compared to the MK3s or even the late Falcons which I am still driving today. I drove the car until about 1982 when it rusted out around the shock towers until it became unviable to repair. Sold it to a Wrecker less motor and gearbox bought off the same wrecker a 72 Belmont V8 ex cop car less motor and gearbox changed it all over including the Torana buckets seats which were the same colour. It had V8 diff heavy cop suspension heavier UJs on the original Belmont driveshaft which I had shortened and adapted to the MK4 spindle. It built into a great road car with a much higher diff ratio 3;23 I think it was a great cruiser very fast with good handling but I wrote it off in 1985 on a rainy stormy slippery road one day I later found out had tallow spilt on it. Memories from 50 years ago.