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Conversion
After securing all the necessary second hand bits and having cleaned them, proceed as follows.
Set the car on a level concrete floor and measure the ride height at the front.
Jack up and remove the front wheels and set the car at ride height on wooden blocks under sills.
Remove the old struts and the steering column.
Suspend the motor at standard height with block & tackle or with a heavy bearer across the guards (protected, of course) and a chain to studs/bolts either side of the block.
Remove the old cross member
Remove the old sump and fit the new one, after fabricating and welding in external dipstick tube in a suitable position.
Offer up Escort cross member to chassis rails. Cortina's have parallel chassis rails and Escorts taper towards the front, so simply make a small hacksaw cut and re-weld, heat and re-shape the cross member mounts to suit (about 10mm taper or so either side).
I suggest you seam weld the cross member while you are at it for even more strength. You will need to ascertain the correct position of cross member so the control arms are reasonably straight fore and aft when you have correct caster (see later).
You can now bolt in the cross member using two of the original four cross member bolt holes for the time being.
Now remove the springs from the new Escort struts and bolt the struts in using the Escort strut tops. You may need to file the holes very slightly.
You can bolt the steering rack in now.
Refit the front wheels so they sit on the floor at basically normal road position. Due to the slightly different "king pin inclination" angle (i.e. the angle between the stub axle and the strut), the track will be slightly wider but will still accept at least 6" wheels easily.
Now bolt on the Escort engine mounts. I "boxed" mine on the top for extra strength. These are left and right handed to match cross member.
Raise engine slightly, bolt on the new Escort 2 litre engine mount rubbers and check the clearance between sump and rack/cross member. If necessary, use a couple of packers washers to adjust. I removed my cross member after making this measurement and welded a 4mm plate on either mount face and partially boxed the uprights, then re-installed it.
Now for some geometry. The vehicle is at normal road height with the front wheels choked in a position close to their normal road position, fore and aft, with zero camber (use a spirit level). From here you can measure the control arm length, measure from pin hole to inner control arm bolt hole. From this measurement you can then add for negative camber or use after market adjustable strut top kits. Alternatively, you can add a camber adjustment kit on the cross member at this point if you wish. I used the original Escort control arm inner mounting points.
BuySellCortina 'Uniting the Cortina world'