Rover V8 – Column change in Mk2 Consul
by Robert Ashworth.
I have a Mk2 Consul Hiline which came to me ready fitted with a Rover V8 and 3-speed auto (see my article Roberts Capri suspension into Mkll ).
The Rover and autobox sit well back and quite low, the radiator although uprated is in the standard position and the Rover has a "long" water pump and standard oil filter. As a consequence, the bulkhead has been extensively modified and the standard heater was history. I don’t mind the engine being so far back, it should help with the handling!
Although the car still had a front bench seat, the automatic gearbox shifter was floor mounted. Not a problem as such, but I do like a column change… I regard it as one of those things that gives a Mk2 its character. Also, due to the modifications to the bulkhead, the umbrella handbrake had been lost and a conventional floor mounted handbrake lever installed poking out from under the front seat.
The automatic gearbox has a lever on its right hand side, linked by a rod to the shifter mounted on the transmission tunnel. Doing away with this, I reckoned I could connect the same lever via a rod to an actuating lever on the bottom of a steering column (a little like the gearchange arrangement on a MK2 with a manual gearbox)
I couldn’t use the standard Consul steering column, bearing in mind that I am also fitting rack and pinion steering, and that the exhaust manifolds don’t leave room anyway. I think on a Zephyr/Zodiac, or on a Consul with the V8 fitted further forward, using the standard column may be possible.
Through Galeforcezephyrs I was offered a steering column from an Australian Fairlane (I think) which has an autoshifter with the correct gate pattern for the Rover autobox.
Trial fitting for size, the actuating lever on the bottom end of this was too close to the rear of the exhaust manifold though, in other words the column was just too long for the application. On the plus side, the diameter of the column shroud was exactly right for the standard Consul mounting cradle underneath the dash.
I decided to try to shorten the column and at the same time join it to the bottom half of a Capri column, thereby giving me the splined bottom end I needed so I could use Capri UJ’s to connect to the steering rack. The Fairlane column was quite involved when dismantled but it was straightforward enough just taking it "slow and steady" and of course "measure twice, cut once". I didn’t manage to retain the steering column lock which I would have liked to do, but otherwise it went ok. Note that when joining the Fairlane upper half to the Capri lower, I welded the join with chamfered edges to help penetration, then ground it flush and sleeved it, welding the sleeve at both ends. Finally I drilled two holes right trough one either side of the join, and pinned it with a high tensile pins, finally finishing with a blob of weld to keep them in place. ("High tensile pin" sounds a bit flash, actually I used the flank of old drill bits… exactly the right size for the hole!).
The actuating lever on the bottom of the column previously "cranked" forward taking the rod further into the engine bay, I imagine to keep the rod as flat as possible, i.e. operating in the horizontal plane and pulling/pushing the gearbox lever from the front. For my application, with the gearbox near to the column, I needed tie pull/push the gearbox lever from above. I cranked the lever back, which further took it away from the exhaust manifold.
I modified the lever on the side of the gearbox with a slot to give adjustment.
The rod to connect box to column is made from 8mm threaded rod,with rose jointed ends bought new through from ebay (surprisingly inexpensive).
In operation, it is very effective and at the moment the gate on the lever is matched to the "clicks" of the lever on the gearbox as it moves through the positions. I am a bit concerned though that this might be too "tight" when the gearbox is moving around under power and with bumps in the road, in which case I might have to build in some free play and rely on "feeling" the gears.
Another small headache was the steering wheel, the Fairlane column had come to me without a steering wheel and in any case I wanted to use a standard Mk2 wheel to preserve the look. Of course, the diameter & spline pattern of the Consul wheel was not the same, that would have been just too easy! I could get a Fairlane wheel from ebay Australia, but the postage was a bit prohibitive and even then I wouldn’t have been 100% sure if it was the right thing. I knew I could modify the Consul wheel centre to accept a different boss, if only I could find something that fitted from which to cut the centre. A trip to a local scrapyard didn’t turn up anything that fitted. I tried a number of wheels from various classic cars and modern cars, nothing worked. I measured and counted to splines, and found I could order an aftermarket "quick release" boss kit (Mustang, I think) which would have done the job, at a price. In the end, the answer had been sitting in the garage next to my Consul all the time – Mk2 Escort! One of the first wheels I’d tried was from a 1970’s Capri, so I’d assumed that a wheel from a 70’s Escort wouldn’t work either. Wrong!
I’ve been concentrating on getting the gearchange to work properly recently, and next, the brake master cylinder/servo from the Capri needs fitting to the bulkhead and a pushrod making up. With that in place, I will have to consider the handbrake set up. I want to reinstate the "umbrella" handbrake, albeit I intend to use one from a lowline not a hiline. Whilst there is room for the handle and ratchet mechanism, I am unsure if there is room to the route the cable into the engine bay and back under the car. If this proves impossible or unsatisfactory, I will resort to an "upright" handbrake under the dash against the modified bulkhead. I really do not want to have to have a floor mounted handbrake if I can help it having gone to so much trouble to do away with the floor mounted gearchange!
I hope these notes may help someone who is thinking of a similar conversion. I’d be happy to send more photos if anyone needs them.
Robert Ashworth
rfashworth@btinternet.com
July 2007
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