Topic: Calling all Gen I Escort Gods

So I am doing a good Samaritan thing tomorrow.  Another kind soul is donating (for the nominal fee of $100) a 1989 Escort 2-door he has owned since 1994...and even drove 3K miles round trip to ask for his wife's hand in marriage permission from the father...to helping out a Vet a little down on his luck.  It has about 1 gazillion miles on it but its only active mechanical flaw is a rapidly failing clutch,

It is an MTX-II 4-speed and internet lore is sketchy at best.  It appears the clutch swap is best done pulling the passenger half shaft, unbolt and remove a bunch of stuff, remove the driver half shaft from the hub, unbolt the tranny and slip it out to the drivers side.  Ford in their infinite wisdom appears to have built the diff in such a way that both axles cannot be removed without a placeholder in the diff or it falls apart.

Do I have that basically right?

Re: Calling all Gen I Escort Gods

Not a guru or a god, but i'll second that.  An older tech buddy of mine used to use a broom stick through the transaxle to keep the carrier (?) In place whenever it was clutch time on a tempo.  Might need to be split if it drops.

Re: Calling all Gen I Escort Gods

Never mind...seller was an odd duck but also not a practical mechanic.  I should have known when he said he was not only an engineer but teaches electrical engineering.

Both front bract calipers are frozen.  We made it part way home and parked it in a 24 hour gas station...going back in the morning and slapping in in new pins to see if we can limp it home.

Still,,,$100 car than a about $150 parts can make tolerably reliable.

If anyone finds a passenger side headlight for one of these, send it my way.  The bulb melted the bayonet mount and all the adjuster slots are broken.  Even Ebay failed us on used.

Re: Calling all Gen I Escort Gods

Jeez, all the first gen Escorts must have been crushed a decade ago! Just did a quick search and there is hardly any around. The closet one to the Chicago area is this diesel version in Nebraska.

Fourteen time loser. You'd think I'd know better by now.

Re: Calling all Gen I Escort Gods

Maverick74 wrote:

Jeez, all the first gen Escorts must have been crushed a decade ago! Just did a quick search and there is hardly any around. The closet one to the Chicago area is this diesel version in Nebraska.

This one is appropriately terrible but once we get it back to the house we can assess the safety.  I think it just needs a couple hours of going through and about $150 in parts to keep it running for a year or two...and that is all this guy needs.

Car-Part lists on literally on our drive home but they are a very annoy place to deal with.

Re: Calling all Gen I Escort Gods

Well, two new calipers (both originals were missing chunks of the pistons), lots of replacement vac hoses and repacked rear bearings and the car is very drivable.  I NEEDS rear springs and a drivers seat but both can wait.

I think I will cobble the existing headlight assembly together somehow.

It really is an awful car but runs pretty good.

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/onkeludo/Escort.jpg