I am in the process of fitting adjustable Ford Escort struts and have run into a problem, with the standard Datsun castor angle and 205x60x13 tyres, the tyres stick out around 2" past the wheel arch and therefore hit the forward edge of the arch, 1) Has anyone fitted Escort struts before?
2) Do you just cut away the forward part of the arch?
3) Why do you guys not seem to use them?

Cheers,
P.S. I could change the castor angle but this will make the car twitchy, has anyone done this and how did the car handle?

1) not me. do they bolt up to the steering arms? Do the 1200 strut tops fit the insert shaft? I guess I'm asking how many mods/parts are needed to fit them.
2) yep, just cut the front lower edge of the gaurd.
3) dunno. lots of bolt in Datsun options with decent brakes. Do those Escort struts have the nice little twin piston calipers?

I wouldn't recommend escort struts to anyone, the reason I started fitting them was that I read on someones 1200 site (not here) that they bolt straight in and coincidentally a mate of mine had an escort race car with Toyota motor and box that he was going to re-body into a Corolla, so I bought the escort driveline (adjustable bilstein front, escort diff converted to disc).
Did it bolt straight in? NO!!!
The front struts are too long, so they've been shortened to accept Starlet inserts (I swapped the escort inserts for some adjustable Starlet Koni's) the tapers of all the ball joints are really, really close but aren't right so I will have a company here in Christchurch put escort tapers on Datsun balls (no problem), the stub axle to strut angle means you end up with positive camber even at the limits of the top plate adjustment so I have now made the bottom arms adjustable which means front track is about 2" wider than rear (although I might be able to rectify this with different off set rims).
Still only ball joints, flares, and brake lines to do.
Sorry, yes I have twin piston calipers, they actually are factory items on the Austin Princess.
On a happier note the diff only requires the spring perches to be moved out to suit the Datsun springs, drive shaft alteration, brake lines and hand brake cable modification, much easier!
Sorry for such a long post.
Cheers

i personally dont trust info on the net unless i can discuss it with a person who has done it, thats why i started making my site, so people could ask me directly about the modifications ive done, but unfortunately i havent updated recently and got around to getting the bulk of modifications in and clarified.

Hey Matt, How about slotting the holes on the Dattos bottom arms to bolt the Ford struts on??It will save doing the reaming etc and your steering angles don't change. If you don't want the wide track at the front though I would think it would be an advantage in gravel, cut almost though the bottom of the strut where it joins to the casting with the stub axle. Now get it on an alignment machine and bend the struts to where you want them and tack weld them in place. Once your at home you can fully weld them and everything should be sweet. Another old trick with struts is called wedging this is where a tapered piece of steel is welded into the gap between the strut tube and the stub casting to strengthen everything.. I have fitted Escort and Capri struts into several 1200s and although they almost bolt in as you have discovered there is more to it. But the advantages of a better choice of shocks, wheels and calipers is available to you. You can even get alloy hubs for when you get really serious about unsprung weight..

I have actually already converted the bottom arms to adjustable rod ends (rose joints), I can't actually change the stub axle to strut angle because with the offset of the rims I intend to use the rims almost touch the strut. However they are all but installed now, the only thing I was really worried about was whether to cut away the front of the wheel arch or try less castor. Also I'm using 205x60x13 tyres at the moment and wonder whether they may be a bit wide?

hey mat what are you going to use the car for? I dont know about rally but on the track its real easy to over size the tires and mess with the handling. lots of guys say the bigger the better but depending on the horse power youll just end up sledging and the steering will become real hard. ive got a well worked 1200 and i run 185s which are real good.

I intend to use it in the odd club day at Ruapuna and also theres a club here in Christchurch that run sealed hill climbs that I will join.

Apparently you just swap the left escort strut to the right Datsun strut and vice versa.
So left goes on right and right on left. :)

Thats true and you've probably been reading the same Web Page I did (not here), And the struts I have are Bilstein so they may be slightly different to standard escort but there are still a lot of differences as stated earlier, that mean everything is really close to fitting but not right.
If want a sub standard front end you can bolt them straight in, although from memory you will still have to lengthen the steering arms slightly and adapt the brake lines together.