Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Brazilian Ford Pampa 4WD

One of the Brazilian derivatives of the Renault 12, which was already scheduled to be manufactured in Brazil when the local branches of Ford and Willys-Overland merged in '67, the Ford Pampa was made from '82 to '97 is more often found on the same front-wheel drive layout of the Ford Corcel (Stallion in Portuguese), yet a now very rare 4WD option had been offered from '84 to '95 always with Ford's own spec of the 1.6L Renault Cléon-Fonte engine named CHT and more often ethanol-powered instead of gasoline-powered. Exclusive to the Pampa 4X4 was the dual-tank fuel system, with the main fuel tank placed midship under the loading bay floor and a secondary after the rear axle, each other with its own filling cap. While the standard tank had its filling cap right behind the driver's door, the secondary had it closer to the rear-end. Usually the main tank was only removed when a Pampa underwent some dual-cab conversions which were quite popular in Brazil, in order to clear room for passengers' feet in a rear bench seat when a raised roof section and taller mounting brackets for the seat were not fitted, yet this one caught my attention for retaining the regular-cab while only the rear filling cap was at its place. The differential housing and the rear wheels with clearance for the more salient hubs fitted only to the 4WD left no doubt, even though the front wheels were the same standard fitted to front-wheel drive versions. Unlike larger 4WD trucks which used to be rear-wheel drive by default and resorted to a transfer case, the Pampa 4X4 had the rear axle driven through a power take-off at the 4-speed manual transmission, which had been retained along the CHT engine even after other versions became available with a 1.8L Volkswagen-sourced EA827 engine and 5-speed transmission.

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