fairmont/zephyr

sneakster opined in news: snipped-for-privacy@uniserve.com:

-z z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-

These cars are unknown to me but, I do not know of a 4cyl automatic-transmission which will tolerate the torque of a six cylinder without blowing up.

2nd hand trans are usually cheap....and a gamble, but this would be one way of seeking a solution to converting your zephyr (weren't those English?).

Jason

The C3 and C4 were available on the 140/2.3 and the 200/3.3 in 1980. The

255 V-8 was a C4 only affair. Other years were similar... and the C5 showed up in 1982 behind the I-6 and V-8 as the C4 replacement. The V-8 was gone in 1983, the car line was then retired / rebadged.

There was no AT OD in 1980 or otherwise from the factory on the Fairmont/Zephyr. The 6 could have had a C3 or C4, or a homebrew OD setup from an LTD or Thunderbird...

The carbed I-6 got pretty decent economy for the day, even being choked w/emission controls. It was a silky smooth but anemic powerplant in it's final incarnations.

Rob

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Dad's Zephyr was custom-ordered before we left Japan in '80. He got the highway gears in the diff (don't remember the ratio) and the 4-spd overdrive M/T for mileage. We did an awful lot of x-country driving in that car! Never had a maintenance issue with it, either. It made numerous trips from Idaho to South Carolina and from Maryland to Florida. Matter of fact, the only real problem we had with it were the Firestone 721 radials... The separating tread and all.

Do you have any web references to older Asian-market Fords? That would be interesting. I'm wondering if the availability in Japan would have been similar to Australia... except the Fairmont is/was an LTD/Falcon option, I think. Did your Zephyr have the ESO option? Those ESO's were pretty nice driving cars.

Rob

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