Procedure for making adapter plates

[carnut1100]

What is the procedure for making adapter plates to fit different engines and gearboxes together?
How do you measure the positons of al the holes, i imagine a ruler would be way too innacurate, and it is hard to meaure to the middle of holes and the holes must be right to have the shaft and engine in alignment.
how is it generally done?

You might have guessed that I am pretty newto ghis game compared to some of you guys.

[enjenjo]

Here's one way. The only special tools needed are a dial indicator, and some transfer punches. And it only works well for a plate adapter.

Cut a hole in an oversized plate of the proper thickness to fit over the bearing retainer pilot on the front of the trans. Install that on the trans, clamp it tightly in place, and use transfer punches to locate the trans mounting holes.

Then clamp the plate to the engine, and center the trans pilot hole using the dial indicator mounted to the crank flange. then using the transfer punches, mark the engine mounting holes. You can get threaded punches that will screw into the threaded holes on the engine.

Any holes that overlap can be countersunk for flat head bolts.

Simplified, but it will work.

[carnut1100]

Thanks, I am looking very soon at adapting a Toyota truck gearbox to a Ford six cylinder engine, as the van has just about eaten the Falcon gearbox and we are lining up a Dyna heavy duty gearbox for it.
I think modifying cars is fascinating, as there is always  something that was not meant to go with something else and for our own contrary reasons we want them to match, and thinking up wasy of doing it is interesting.
Thankyou for your simple method of making adaptor plates, It would have taken me a long time to think of it myself.

[1FATGMC]

Thanks Frank, I really appreciate that advice also.

c ya, Sum

[GPster]

Here's a dumb tip that may or may not fit your application. The early Ford sixes (not real early, '60s on) that were in Falcon and some other small car applications, used a Borg Warner transmission. T86 I think. That bellhousing style would bolt to early Jeep transmissions. There is an old-time machine shop near here that put numerous !70" and 200" Ford engines in old Jeeps and it seemed the only thing they had to do was change the imput shaft on the trans to one that was shorter so that they wouldn't have to build a spacer between tne bellhousing and the trans. That would bring the engine into the firewall so there was room under the hood for the longer engine and a radiator. I think the 250" and 300" sixes have a differant block and I don't know which way the 240" goes. Maybe this will help keep an Econoline going. GPster

[carnut1100]

Um, it's not exactly an Econoline. We didn't have them in Australia.
It is a 1969 Mk1 Transit from England.
It was originally a V4 but we have fitted an alloy head crossflow 250 from an 83 Falcon and it has the 4 speed gearbox from an 85 Falcon and 71 Falcon front discs with a mid 70s Falcon diff. The gearbox is a Borg Warner 0503 "Single Rail" 4 speed.
A Jeep gearbox if I can find one would be fantastic. I do know where there is  Jeep but am not sure if the owner will sell it. Is the Jeep box you are referring to a 3 or 4 speed?
Also how do I convert it from 4wd to 2wd?

It has been a lot of fun so far converting it and so on. The next stage will probably be a diff from an F100 as the Falcon diff is too narrow and needs deep dish rims.
It is alos getting sooner or later an IFS from something, preferrably with power rack and pinion steering. Ultimately I would like ti to get the OHC engine from a newer Falcon, best of all a twin cam one, a 5 speed gearbox, and the IFS with LSD and ABS from a current model Falcon.


Here is the engine in the engine bay.


Here is the van.

[nzsimon]

I think you will find that castlemaine will have a bellhousing that will allow you to bolt up a toyota 5 speed box direct inc clutch fork and pilot bearing as I remember they are not expensive

[carnut1100]

I think you will find that castlemaine will have a bellhousing that will allow you to bolt up a toyota 5 speed box direct inc clutch fork and pilot bearing as I remember they are not expensive

That would probably be to a Celica or Supra box. It is running a Single rail now, and we do a fair bit of towing and heavy load work in it and the single rail is getting a little tired so we are looking fo rsomething a litte heavier duty, that is why we are considering a Toyota Dyna light truck box. Also the shifter on the single rail is too far back, we did look for  one out of a Cortina six cylinder which is 4" forward, but they are a little hard to find. Ideally we are looking at something with 4, preferrably 5 speeds, linkages going to the side of the box, not a lever coming out of the top so we can put the shifter where we want it. SOmething with the lever coming out of the box would work if the lever comes out fairly forward on the gearbox.

We do have a Landcruiser 4 speed box which has a good shift, is strong, and the lever is in the right place, but it is hooked up to a transfer box. If there is an easy way of removing the transfer and running it 2wd I would like to use it, as we have a Castlemaine Rod Shop adapter plate to mount it to a Ford six cylinder motor. Is it hard to convert a 4wd box to 2wd?

[PCFree]

What I think is confusing the guys here in the US is that the Falcon nameplate died here when the '60s Falcon platform became the Mustang.  Down under, the Falcon name has lived on into modern days!  Is it still current down under?

[nzsimon]

yep you can still get a brand new one XR6 with a 6 even a turbo one or XR8 with the v8 plus the 290 kilowatt version or the plain jane 6

every car nut in NZ and OZ will be watching the shootout today between Falcon and Holden on the greatest racetrack in the world Bathurst in Australia takes 6 odd hours plus and sorts the men from the boys

On the box front I put a plain old corona box behind a hot 302 it lasted about 6 months till it blew the lay shaft I replaced the bearings with needle rollers and never had a problem with it again

[carnut1100]

Bloody Holdens won! never mind, there is always next year.

The early 60s Falcons were virtually identical to US ones, but we started to design our own. They had basically the same engine as the Mustang for yonks but changed to an iron head crossflow ( which will bolt right on to a pre crossflow block) in the mid 70s. They changed to an alloy head around 1980 or so and that lasted until 1988 when an all new OHC engine came out. That has been upgraded a few times and 2 years ago they brought out a DOHC version rated at 182Kw ( around 240hp ) with a turbo version at 240Kw ( around 320 hp ).
The V8s were originally stuff like 289W from the late 60s but the Cleveland was offered in 302 and 351 from about 1970 until 1983 when V8s were cut from the lineup and when V8s were re offered the new engine bay would not fit a Clevo so from then ( 1993 iirc) until 2002 they had EFI 5.0 litre Windsors and now they run the OHC V8 ex Mustang etc.

We have an 87 Falcon wagon for a shopping hack and my brother has a 71 Falcon ute ( pickup)

[PCFree]

Even though my "cool" ride is a chopped '78 Monte Carlo, I get a touch of the "down under" with my '91 Mercury Capri.  Did they offer the Capri in Australia? Did it have the same name?  Why was the quality so bad?  Was it just the one model or do you have a lot of quality issue down there?

[carnut1100]

They wer Ford Capri here, and although tey were designed and built here they wer powered by Mazda's finest.
The Mk1s had a really bad reputation here for quality, with teh roof leaking being the most common but series 2 cars are generally thought of as ebing much better sorted.

We sometimes have a quality issue or two but usually build quality here is pretty good, although it is generally thought that the japanese have better fit and finish.
What problems have you had?

[PCFree]

MK1?  MK2?  Are these Capris?  Yes, my roof leaks but I thought it was from the top shrinking and the threads rotting out.  I have ordered a top that uses the type of canvas found on BMW & Mercedes.  Hope it does better than the vinyl one. I had thingd like missing bolts, bad spot-welds. I hear the automatic trannys sucked.  What years did they offer them dowm there?

[carnut1100]

Sorry, Mk1,2 and 3 were the English Capris, shat I should have said is series 1 and 2. they were here IIRC from around 89 to around 93. I don't know anything about the autos, but the entire powerplant was Mazda sourced.  Series 2 were from around 91 onwards. They had a minor facelift mostly in the bumpers and are said to be better quality. The roof leaks are the most well known problem with them here and they got the reputation within a couple of months after being put on sale when a television progreamme did an expose on them. They eventually did stop them from leaking when new, but I don't know how well they stand up. They are getting cheaper now, around $A6-9,000 for a good one depending on year.