The Ford of Fiestaness...

[m20b25]

Now I got some free time today But not much light

However...

Time to clean it out

That looks desperate like that, better do something or the next update...

So to this

That's just disgraceful to let a car go into this sort of neglect. That's an original fuel filter from new

But I sorted that

And its running much happier so far

Onto the ramps it went...

And out with the stuck compressor :bang:

Just needed repositioning. What misery to find a place :shakehead:

But its fitted

To complete the mudflaps...

And a temporary solution to the missing wheeltrim

Keep watching, just a few days and its on the road for the winter...

 

[m20b25]

Saturday What to do...

Well take a trip with the blue van to get fuel for the house to begin with

So for the afternoon...

Inspecting the interior after a good cleaning. This seems to have been resprayed. Should have set alarm bells ringing...

Alas, I motored on

Just need to vacuum the front and give it a damn good cleaning!

Onto this multiple problem... Apres the Makita

Followed by

Result

Thats temporary...

Onto this

After more hammerite

Sweeeet

Some parts were niggling me. Time to test the sills in places...

:bang:

Thats, er, rotten

Time to fight back

Thats the bigger one. Smaller one on the same side

Back to the bigger one. I think this was a recurring problem...

Yes, thats filler :bang::bang::bang: What miserable people stuff filler into a rusty sill

Time to do the job right

Words just failed me :shakehead:

Now to get another sill... :chin:

My favorite power tool of all time :devil:

MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I used a tractor to do this Rammed the Vectra and drove its arse in while I was at it :devil::devil::devil:

After that happy hour...

Time to cut a piece out for the big hole

Cleaned up the sill some more

Now to leave the welding to someone who knows how its done

Just tacked in as we ran out of time

Keep watching...

 

[m20b25]

It's now taxed, insured and awaiting its NCT

The sharp eyed might see the discs on the screen

Or maybe not...

So I have to cover these up somehow...

And my starter packed up

So I pulled this one out of thin air

Keep watching...

 

[m20b25]

Day 2 of regular service

Flawless? :bang:

Now to change the starter is simple:

• Disconnect the battery
• Take out the 13 and 10mm nuts for the positive lead and the lead to he alternator
• Undo the 10mm bolt at the rear bracket, then remove the 2 10mm nuts to remove the bracket
• Take out the 3 bolts and withdraw it

Its even at the front for easy access!

Except whoever designed this intended an orangutan with 2 feet long fingers to work on the engine no space atall

Eventually...

Good old reliable Ford, keeping the parts the same, yeah right

Note the new starter has no bracket at the back, unlike the old one :shakehead:

Heres what happened: this is the "new" starter

Now the old one

Basically the solenoid was crying enough and was either sticking off or in this case sticking on

Anyway, must press on

And it was all put back together

Later on...

Yep, that hole is now fully welded

Just have to dress it down and fill it in, followed by a good dose of schutz

Keep watching...

 

[m20b25]

Day 5 of festy zesty

Day 4 wasn't so great... The gearbox began whining quite loudly and the brake fluid level dropped! :bang:

Will have an update with pictures later

 

[m20b25]

So back to day 4!

I was on the motorway. First time this car was on the motorway under my ownership!

Onto the off ramp. Suddenly there's this loud whine. And there's me thinking I've stuffed a new box

Well the box is ok needed a lot of

The whole bottle to be exact

Tis partially my own fault for thinking the box was minded properly. I'd collected the spilled oil and made up the difference when putting it back in :bang:

So thats the whine almost gone

Onto fitting the air duct. The new one doesn't look like a transformer

Well I'll get a picture of it in day light...

While the hoses were off, cleaned the tb again!

I hate seeing a dirty tb

Finally, into the festive spirit

Let it snow springs to mind...

 

[colinf1]

Whats with the USB stickers on the radio?

Thankfully my radio is locked to Nova

 

[m20b25]

Whats with the USB stickers on the radio?

Thankfully my radio is locked to Nova

The radio can connect ipods and other jazz with an adapter at the back plus it hides the model of the radio

As for the station think of it as festive cheer! Don't worry Nova never gets changed

So a week on... Had to tramp around Dublin on multiple errands... Worked really well in the city!

Only one pic though, outside college again... Oversized picture!

Good grief that wheeltrim looks naff on that car... :bang:

Oh well, keep watching, still have to sort the sills fully and change the front arms!

 

[m20b25]

More stuff done to this car since the last update!

First, its racked up a fair few miles since that photo was taken (approx 400...)

It even did the vans normal job and carried 2 bags coal!

However, on the motorway it was getting fairly wanderly wagon...

So I got these

These are the easiest arm change I've ever undertook, one side done in 10 mins :worship::worship::worship:

And heres why the car wasn't happy at motorway speed...

:shakehead:

I also got this as I'm quite afraid of the car failing on emissions...

We'll see how well it works on Saturday

 

[m20b25]

Well it went through its NCT.... And FAILED!!! :bang:

On trivial stuff tough

1. Driveshaft nuts need staking
2. Sort a fluid leak
3. Tidy up my wiring
4. Put my spare wheel under the boot......................... :bang:
5. Fix my bumper

Now the cataclean....

The previous fail sheet showed the cars low idle was 1050rpm. Its vol was 0.49% and CO was 367PPM. The limit is 0.5% vol, this had me worried

With the cataclean, the idle speed was the same. The vol is now 0.012% and CO just 14PPM!

Would recommend it as a cheap solution for high emissions

Also, as I "fiddled" with the handbrake, it's performance went up from a dismal 7% to a much better 36% I gave it a damned good testing too :devil:

Now some pictures...

First, a small design flaw...

Corner hard enough, petrol flies out the cap!!! :bang::bang::bang:

Got the sills finished too

More pictures when I start ironing out the faults...

 

[BlueDan]

Corner hard enough, petrol flies out the cap!!! :bang::bang::bang:

You could take it easy around corners?

.................

 

[m20b25]

You could take it easy around corners?

.................

Design flaw!!! :bang:

Update!

I began to iron out the faults...

First, to the spares car

Rather whats left of it

Piece I'm looking for is entangled in orange twine

What a disaster to remove... What will it be like with the engine in the car?

Also got this

Because the car failed for this...

Naturally, I'm not going to put my Berlingo wheel there!

Out with...

Shudder... What a horrible wheel :yuck:

A few minutes later

Better

On a side note I think my master cylinder has given up...

 

[m20b25]

New clutch slave cylinder time!

Ford using a plain box, too ashamed to put their name on it

Why didn't I do this the first time... Oh yeah its a Ford

So for the second time in 3 months it begins...

After removing these...

We get

To remove this

You can see the difference....

In its new home

And while I was at it...

All put back together, new fluids and coolant. Runs perfect

Interest has been shown by a potential buyer...

 

[m20b25]

Still going brilliantly

Tip: when it's windy out an you have a fester in your driveway, STAY IN!!! This is the worst car I have ever driven in crosswinds. I went up the motorway, the poor car was flopping all over the road, wind pushing it everywhere. I now understand the term "White knuckle driving"

Nonetheless, I never put up a vid of the car running...

Its not great but there's no rattles or squeaks from the car

I'll get a better video someday

 

[bluejohn125]

Project has gone very nicely.. hopefully you'll pass it on to a new owner and get back on the TEMPRA!!!

Incidentally, how come the 2 clutches look so different? New one looks much meatier...

 

[m20b25]

Project has gone very nicely.. hopefully you'll pass it on to a new owner and get back on the TEMPRA!!!

Incidentally, how come the 2 clutches look so different? New one looks much meatier...

I have some free time, I might get started on the Tempra

The old clutch was smaller... Just like the Fiat 1.2 16v, some take a 180mm friction plate, the later ones take a 190mm plate

Short update time...

Ooooh yeah

 

[m20b25]

Still going strong

A bolt fell out of the gearbox mount, had to drive home with the engine flopping and the gearstick going up and down

Alls well though, new bolt and back to normal found the old bolt too

Currently, this is how it looks

Spotless as usual

 

[BlueDan]

Join the club, good to see you're looking after it. This is light coverage for me, though I did manage to get the mirror :slayer:



Gearstick flopping around due to a dodgy engine mount reminds me of a mk3 Escort we had years ago, I suppose it runs in the family

 

[m20b25]

When starting it on 2 mounts it made a horrible sound! Reversing made the lever shoot up, forewards made it go down

That's after just one day, I had it virtually spotless before that!

 

[colinf1]

Looks well with the dirt effect paint!

Dont think theres much point washing them until weather picks up, thats probably october!