81 ford granada marquis (brakes, steering & suspension)

It would be a little dangerous making the Ford Granada Marquis “go”  if I didn’t also pay some attention to making it stop, steer and compensate for the extra weight of the V8 engine and transmission.

Brakes

As mentioned earlier when fitting the engine the OEM brake vacuum servo was too big to remain in its original location and would have to be either changed for a smaller vacuum servo or relocated.  I posted the problem on LincolnsOnLine (The permier forum for Lincoln enthusiasts) and member Hrmwrm came up with the idea of using a Hyroboost system, which was a cracking idea, not only does it solve my brake booster problem but it will significantly increase braking assistance.  For those of you wondering what on earth a hydroboost power braking system is, it uses a valve instead of the usual vacuum servo and hydraulic fluid pressure from the power steering system to provide braking assistance.

After a little research I settled on using a hydroboost unit and brake master cylinder from a Ford F250, the particular unit I fitted to the Granada Marquis was salvaged from a 2008 Ford F250 Super Duty.

I modified the OEM vacuum servo mounting to accept the hydroboost unit but actually had to fit it upside down, the only minor inconvenice of this was it took a short while to bleed the air out as the fluid return was now at the bottom, I managed to use all the original brake pipes only making one short pipe from the compensator valve to the master cylinder.

Steering

The original car came with a manual steering rack which was tough enough to steer without the extra weight of a huge American V8 sat up front so I upgraded to a power steering rack.  Another steering problem mentioned earlier was the fact that one of the lower column joints was now located in the middle of the exhaust manifold, the solution was to extend the steering column and make a “new” lower shaft assembly from one of the original Granada joints and a joint from a Ford Transit.  It was also discovered during the first few test runs that the steering fluid got very hot very quickly as it was now powering the steering and brakes, so I fitted a fluid cooler behind the transmisison cooler.

Suspension

To compensate for the 300lbs (136kg) of extra weight of the V8 engine and transmission I fitted some heavier duty front springs.  Fitting the heavier springs was a little scary as I was using parts from two different spring compessors and some threaded bar, at one point whilst releasing the spring conpressors it all went twang sending one spring compressor across the shop.

more information about the ford granada marquis

Please follow the links below to find out how the 1981 Ford Granada Marquis was created. (Click on pictures to see at full size)