Capri suspension into a Mk2 Consul
I have run a standard Mk2 Consul and later a Mk2 Zodiac on and off over the last 10 years, when on the road acting as my only and everyday car. One day I was flagged down in my Zodiac by a guy who asked me if I knew of anyone wanting to buy a Consul. He was losing his rented storage as the building was due for demolition, so needed to shift some of his cars in a hurry. I went to look out of interest and found a very sorry looking Hiline Consul. Everything said "walk away"; it hadn’t been on the road for years, the sills were shot, the interior was a faded ‘70s buttoned draylon job… but when he lifted the bonnet to reveal a nicely installed Rover V8 and mentioned "yours for £300" it was inevitable I would take it home.
The Rover and autobox had been nicely installed with neat bulkhead modifications, the front brakes upgraded to discs, and a telescopic rear damper conversion too. The car had clearly spent some time on the road in V8 form, seeming to be well sorted with an oil pressure gauge, heater, electric wiper conversion, etc etc, but judging by the style of the car it was probably done in the ‘70s or early ‘80s and had been off the road for quite some time.
There were a few things I didn’t like about the car. First off, the standard Mk2 steering box left no room for the offside exhaust manifold and so it had a truly horrible set of tubular headers; the pipe from the front cylinder passing underneath the track control arm! Secondly, although the car still had its 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.
Looking at the car, I decided that if I could sort out a rack and pinion conversion for the steering which would put the rack in front of the crossmember this would free up space for a more normal exhaust manifold, and if I could reinstate the column change too, then the car would be worth saving.
I have in mind a car built for cruisin’ not racin’. I reckon the Rover V8 in more or less standard tune will be power enough and most importantly, make the right noises! I intend to keep the car 99% standard looking from the outside, only wider wheels and the twin exhausts giving the game away.
I had seen a number of Mk2s for sale in Custom Car (UK mag) described as having Capri front suspension although I had never had the chance to examine such a conversion. I bought a complete set of struts, crossmember, steering rack, and antiroll bar from a 2.0 Mk3 Capri. I also got the brake master cylinder/servo, steering column, and after some measuring, the back axle too. I figured that if the suspension and braking system was all from the same donor car, I couldn’t go far wrong. The choice of Capri components is hardly state of the art, but it means I can upgrade easily to 2.8i or aftermarket brakes, even rear disks, if the car proves a little heavy for the brakes. I can play with different axle ratios easily too.
The rear axle was straightforward enough, cutting off the Capri spring seats and welding on the pair cut from the original Consul axle. For this, I built a simple but sturdy wooden gig to get everything in the right place, including keeping the nose of the differential at the right angle. The axle went back on with retempered Consul leaf springs and poly bushes from Superflex (www.superflex.co.uk). (Super Pro in our FAQ parts section as well.)
The Capri single-cable handbrake set up should be easy enough to deal with. I’ll keep the car’s current floor mounted handbrake lever under the front seat if I have to, but I hope to reinstate an umbrella handbrake lever somewhere into the bulkhead.
A Capri has an antiroll bar above the rear axle, if possible I will retain this and make up some chassis mounts, but this will wait until I am routing the exhausts over the rear axle (the exhaust getting priority!).
The front end presented a few problems, but I am happy with the way things have come together. The main differences between the Consul and Capri suspension set ups are that the Capri struts are shorter, and that the track control arms bolt into the middle of the Capri crossmember instead of sitting in front of it as on the Consul. Thus the Capri crossmember has to be fitted further forward than the Consul one to ensure that the track control arms remain in the right place. The Rover engine was already nicely mated to the standard Consul engine mounts so I decided to weld the two crossmembers together, reinforced with steel plate as necessary. I imagine that if this conversion was being done as part of installing a Pinto engine into the Consul, then it would probably be easier to retain the Capri engine mounts and lose the Consul crossmember altogether. There was a small problem of the Capri steering rack stem conflicting with the Consul engine mount, needing a little cutting away from the engine mount and a sturdy steel plate with a hole in the appropriate place welding in to beef things up again. At this point I was slightly unlucky that the downpipe of the Rover P6 manifold I’d hoped to use was a little too close to the steering stem, but a pair of "block hugger" headers from Pop Browns (www.popbrowns.co.uk) should solve this easily enough.
The Capri antiroll bar wanted to sit where the Consul crossmember panel (under the radiator) was. This may not be a problem on a Zephyr or Zodiac, I am not sure where the all of the extra length of a 6-cylinder car comes over a Consul. I could have spaced the antiroll bar down a bit, but I feared this might affect the geometry too much. As the crossmember needed welded repairs anyway, I installed a section of sturdy steel square section tubing instead, allowing the antiroll bar to come up into the correct position. I upgraded the antiroll bar to one from a 2.8i Capri as the one from the 2.0 looked a little weedy compared to the Consul one that I’d taken off. I then made front mounts for the antiroll bar bush clamps using a combination of the original Consul brackets, steel plate, and cut-down Capri front mount brackets (see photos). I may yet beef these up further and/or tie them together.
The Capri struts are approx 4" shorter than the Consul ones, and the bolt pattern on the strut tops is different anyway. I got a Capri strutbrace from ebay which once cut up provided two "rings" with the correct bolt pattern, which I combined with standard Consul strut top mounts to make an "adaptor" for each side. I made these to set the ride height correctly (i.e. the measurement from the strut top to the bottom of the chassis rail as near as possible to Capri dimensions), and also to incline the struts inwards as much as possible. The measurement between the "new" strut tops is now approx 1¼" wider than a Capri, but it would need major mods to the inner wings to incline them further. I’ll see how the car behaves on the road first, and what the tyre wear is like. If I need to I can fit aftermarket struts which have narrower springs, and adjustable eccentric strut tops to pull it back to standard Capri geometry (expensive, but quick & effective).
Back on its feet, the ride height seems ok at the front but I’ll need to get it on the road to see if the springs are up to the job. If it’s too soft, uprated Capri coils are cheap enough. The retempered rear springs have sat the rear a little high (even with 1" lowering blocks installed), again I’ll wait to see if it settles down a bit once on the road before I attempt to change anything.
As the Capri axle is slightly wider that the Consul one, my initial thought for wheels was to use 14" or 15" Mondeo steels, these having an offset which would narrow the track again. There is actually room for a wider wheel though, and I prefer the deep dished look, so I am on the look out for a set of plain steel deep dish wheels. There’s plenty of choice of 13" wheels from early Cortinas, Escorts, and Capris, but I would like to find a set of 14" or even 15" ones. At the front, with narrow steel wheels & 165 tyres taken from a RWD Escort things look a little "weedy" so I’ll go for a wider set with 185s (there’s one of each on in the photo), but again I’d prefer 14" if possible.
Whilst stripping the Consul down to perform this work I was pleasantly surprised to find how sound it was, "only" the sills, one outrigger, and rear arches will need to be replaced. The floors, inner wings, chassis rails, and A-posts are all untypically sound. Door bottoms are rusty of course, but this is taken as a given!
The steering column is my next job. This is proving a bit of a headache, but this is of my own making. If I was happy with the floor change, I could fairly easily fit a Capri column complete using standard Capri UJ’s, or graft the top half of the Consul one on to retain the standard Consul steering wheel. Through Galeforcezephyrs I was offered a column from an Australian Fairline (I think) which has an autoshifter with the correct gate pattern for the Rover autobox. The actuating lever on the bottom end of this will be very close to the rear of the exhaust manifold though, and whether it can be made to work the shift lever on the side of the autobox using a rod remains to be seen. I will need to use rose joints at each end I think. I have the option of buying or making a cable to do the same job if the rod won’t work (www.lokar.com/interior_pages/colshiftlink.htm). I then need to somehow adapt the Consul steering wheel to sit on the top of this column, and I don’t even have a Fairline wheel to work with. Nothing insurmountable, just a challenge. The Capri master cylinder/servo looks as if it will sit on the bulkhead ok, operated by the standard Consul brake pedal. I might need to fiddle around to get the stroke of the pushrod ok.
I hope these scribblings may help someone who is thinking of a similar conversion. I’d be happy to send more photos if anyone needs them. Equally I’d like to hear from anyone who already runs Capri front suspension in their car.
Updates to follow as and when I tackle the steering column.
Robert Ashworth
rfashworth@btinternet.com
January 2007
DO YOU HAVE A STORY ON THE CONTINUING BUILD UP OF YOUR CAR? CAN YOU SEND US A FEW WORDS AND PIC'S ON THE CAR YOU'RE DRIVING AND THE PLANS OR STORIES OF IT?
AVOCALEA@XTRA.CO.NZ
