S1 Turbo/RS1600i 

Front Tie-Bar  

This is one of those fantastic modifications that are so easy it's criminal! The picture show's the standard front suspension anti roll bar setup at the top

(except pre-may '83 1.1 cars), and the seperate anti roll bar and tie-bar set up

as found on the Series 1 RS Turbo underneath.

As you can see, the standard set up comprises of a rather bendy looking anti-roll bar that also acts as the tie-bar to locate the front Track Control Arms.

Due to the shape of the bar, it allows a certain amount of movement of the

TCA's away from there normal plane. This does have the benefit of providinga little extra comfort by soaking up more of the bumps and 'insulating' the

driver a bit more from the road. However, it isn't so good as far as roadholding performance is concerned! Under hard cornering it allows the front

suspension geometry to get rather out of shape as the anti-roll bar flexis andgets pulled straight by the loads put onto it by the TCA's.

The lower set up overcomes this by having seperate rigid tie-bars that keep theTCA's fixed where they should be and only allowing them to move in one

 plane of motion so retaining correct geometry. This set up was used on theoriginal racing version of the Series 1 RS Turbo to bring the handling of the

car up to scratch for the demands of the race track. As the Series 1 RS Turbo

is a proper homologation car, it had to retain this uprated suspension system.

 

The Series 2 RS Turbo did away with this system as it was not a

homologation car so went back to the cheaper standard set up as found on theMK4 XR3i.

The RS 1600i was also a race bred version of the MK3 Escort and came

 before the RS Turbo and has it's own tie-bar set up. There are differences

 between the two but they both achieve the same goal. The main differencesare the RS 1600i version has a one piece cast alloy cross member thateverything mounts onto and the front mounts of the tie-bars are of a different

design. The shape of the anti-roll bar is also different and it is of a thicker section at 26mm diameter. I have only covered the RS Turbo set up here asthat is what I have and is the more comonly available, but fitting both types is

the same.

To fit the bar you will need a complete unit available from many specialist breakers and should set you back around £80. You will also need 10mm

longer mounting bolts for the iron plates as they are thicker than the pressed

steel originals. It is then simply a case of un bolting your old bar and fittingthis one in it's place. It really is that simple, well, almost. There is a couple of 

trouble spots. First of all, tha clamps that hold the anti-roll bar to the tie-bar usualy break when you try to dismantle them. This is due to corrosion

 between the alluminium clamps and the steel bolts passing through them this

causes the clamps to swell and grip the bolts. As there only cheap castingsthey usualy break under the force of trying to seperate them and replacementsare no longer available. This is not the end of the world, get your local

 

engineering firm to make you some new ones giving them the originals as a

 pattern.

The other bit that'll iritate you is trying to free the gearbox mount as this tendsto suffer in a similar way and you won't beable to remove the mounting bolt.

Chances are the replacement unit will still have this attached anyway but if 

not, then cut through the bolt between the arm and the rubber mount. Youshould then be able to punch the remainder of the bolt out of the arm. Newmounts and bolts are still available from Ford.

All you need do now is get the tie-bars set up at a suitably equiped garage and

look forward to nice crisp handling. That is of course assuming that you have

replaced your suspension bushes aswell!