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It’s been ages since I’ve had time to even think about my LS. I left Openreach after 35 years, got myself a physically demanding but stress free job, had a new knee and been looking after two ailing parents. Sadly we lost Dad in January this year. Anyhow today I took time out to fit a new battery and bring the old girl home for a wash and a quick tinkering. Need to order some new tyres, adjust front wheel bearings and go through the carb next time out. Good news is I still have the Cortina mojo 😀 Here’s a few of the old girl taken today because we all love a few Cortina snaps!

1795 3.0 XLE “Big Six” Import from South Africa

FOR SALE £8500 Ford Cortina GL 1.6 1983 Y Reg HAR 476Y This car has undergone a restoration over the past 2 years. Lot of work done. New weber carburetor, New air filter, New oil filter, New oil, new timing belt, new radiator hoses, new water pump, 3x New door seals (2 front 1 rear), New boot seal, New fuel tank, New temperature sensor, Reconditioned fuel/temp gauge electronics, new ventilation seals + insulation, new washer fluid seal, New rocker cover seal, New spark plugs, New chrome window trim, interior and gutter chrome reconditioned. Whole interior removed, deep cleaned and reconditioned. New soundproofing fitted. Whole car detailed in and out. Undercarrige and suspention fully rustproofed, double coated in problematic areas. I repaired bodywork, paintowork and other imperfections around the car. all electrics checked, fog lights fitted. Brake fluid replaced. Brake disks, pads, drums in Great condition, low milage since last brake change. Great condition for 42 years, almost no rust and paintwork in decent condition for its age. Full history, one owner 1983-2004. Original invoice and dealer letters, lots of paperwork from 80s and 90s. Owned by a mechanic previously. Drives very well, mechanicaly perfect. The car is ready to drive and looks stunning. Drives great, turns great, no knocks. Brake pedal hard, clutch good. Gears change very smoothly. The only imperfections are quite minor, it would not take much to make it perfect.

Apologies for the mess and obstructions on the back seat. I always keep a cover on the rear seat and usually have the dog carrier on the seat for our little terrier. Must keep the cloth as safe as possible I always drive with covers on the front seats too.

Been to a local show today, probably about 20 miles each way (Weston Park, Shropshire). Went well which was good as I've not touched it since June last year.

Appears they only sell complete no's inner wings & don't do the leg piece. I supplied them with a floor & bulkhead in the late 90-00's to use as patterns.

Assuming that the top hat-tube/front cradle bush sleeve, is the same for face-lift Mk3s, Mk4s, Mk5s. Then the Mk3 club has them for sale. Also EX-PRESSED has front legs for Mk3s but i have no idea if they are good for other Mks. Part no C3E5/6 HERE.

No it was only ever available as part of a full inner wing. Also be aware the piece is different size shape between the mk's ( the bush is in the same relative space) but pre & post MK3 have a different size hole/bushing . Mk5 the chassis rail is thinner so panel is taller ( I'm not sure if MK4 is same as MK3 facelift or Mk5 as I've never measured a MK4) you'll have to make it by hand. I do have a template for the mk3's.

Got my new Bosch points; Much better quality compared to Intermotor points, though twice the price. Sadly did not change anything, dizzy still loses the plot at around 4K RPMs. On closer inspection what I had thought to be good bushings were not. After running in the tester whatever varnish etc. had worn out and the shaft now has noticeable radial play on it, especially at the top bushing. Previously I did not dare to thoroughly clean the bushings so had not spot the issue. I did remember to keep the shaft well lubed whilst testing it, which probably helped wash them out. Sensible thing to do would be to get a new pointless ignition unit but where's the fun in that Parts book did not have a number for the bushings but after a deep dive in the net I found the right part (bot. & top the same); A8A-12120-A 1948-56 US cars,trucks and tractors. OD .596" (19/32", 15.1384mm) ID .4695" (15/32", 11.9253mm) L 7/8" (22.225mm) So in typical Ford fashion they must have found a railcar full of these and decided to use them up. And of course some weird SAE size but luckily still widely available inexpensively... stateside Shipping will take for ever (and cost a bunch). Taking out the old bushings was fairly easy; There is a cast and machined stop in the middle of the casing for locating the bushes so a 12mm tap was wound through until it got hard to turn. And the tap & bushing combo was then pounded out from the other side after heating the casting with a blowtorch. Same was done for the bottom bushing.

Thanks mk4 savage, I had already been on your thread and saw you’d still got the retaining plates and had refitted them, that’s what made me question not having them! 🤣

Finally got to do a bit more on the old girl. I fitted the front valance a few weeks ago & have been trying to get the other panels to fit better. They all fitted,but the bonnet,grille & front panel never lined up properly. So I decided to take the inner wings back off,then fit the front panel & wings. They fit a lot better now,so my plan is to repair the front panel first,when that is all done,then go back to the inner wings.

my first thought, air in the system proved to be correct. brakes are fine now.

https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1874456 This was a great tread on here quiet a few years ago as it underwent it's transformation.

Great Ad. GLWS

You Sir have way too much time on your hands ! I'm not jealous one little bit ! Loving your home made equipment and dedication For the vacuum advance what about one of these.... Hand Held Vacuum Pressure Pump Tester Set Brake Fluid Bleeder Bleeding Kit + Box | eBay

Bend the tube over. There all same length to my knowledge.

Yesterday was spent spent with servicing my daily hack; change to summer tires, one ball joint, front caliper slide pins, oil & filter and tailgate latch adjustment. After the recent clutch job left side drive shaft seal has started leaking but I had to order the part so will have to do that next weekend, topped up the oil for now. Sure seems that any small issue needs to be promptly attended with the driving I do nowadays. Anyhow, today I had the change to play with my distributor tester and my "good" distributor. Note that the mechanical advance springs are different; Correct advance slot also needs to be used, 16L in my case. Vacuum advance pin and breaker plate had excessive play so I drilled hole on the plate to 4,5mm and turned a new pin to match. Shaft end-float approx. 1,5mm, barely a perceivable axial play on the shaft and breaker upper-lower plate clearance of 0.15mm on this one. I verified the RPM meter calibration with a scope. Being a VDO it was ok as expected. Pulses are 90 degrees apart. Resistance on the points was less than 1ohm which seems reasonable (4 wire measurement used due to low resistance). Of course the full path from lead to distributor body needs to be measured. After setting the points cap dwell angle was measured; Spot on at 1000RPM (engine). But starting at 4K RPM things do not look great, 5K RPM here; Dwell measured at 36~37 degrees. Again difficult to take a pic but you can just about see that there is something funny happening with the signal. Since everything else feels fine I think this might be points bounce? This would not surprise me at all since my new Intermotor points looked like crap to begin with. I need to try a proper set of points to be sure though. Maybe Bosch would fare better Also took a quick look at vacuum advance; Linearity of the curve seems fine but starts to advance too early. Should be adjustable with shims at the vacuum unit. Did not have the time to check and/or adjust the mechanical advance, something for the next time. Also better to adjust with a good set of points.

Yeah we also thought it was that and the shop changed it but its still leaking. Which that was definitely leaking too because previously i saw water coming from that area but some other place is still leaking

Yes still got the Huntsman. I work for a couple that run a garden nursery business open to the public. I do the deliveries and much of the physical stuff behind the scenes.

Thanks Dean. I’m really pleased how paint etc has stood up. A good wax will quickly bring it back to where I want it.

Cheers

Pretty simple loosen the big locknut on the track rod first ( no more than 1/2 turn) then undo the nut holding the track rod end to the stub axle, either use a ball joint splitter, pickle fork or hit the side of the upright to shock the track rod end out. Spin the track rod end of the track rod. Undo the clips ,tie wraps or whatever is holding the gaiters on, slit/cut them off. To fit new ones squirt a bit of lube on the nut & case of steering rack. Slide gaiter on stretch over nut the secure in place. Screw new trod end on upto nut, put pin back into upright, fit/tighten nut, then lastly retigthen lock nut, repeat for opposite side. It's same as UK models.

It might have been messing the adjustment up.

The complicated thing about fixing distributors is that for checking their function one really needs a distributor tester... So I made this; Took entirely way, way too much time to make.. Made from junk I had squirreled away (as usual). Thing has a AC motor that is controlled by a variable frequency drive (VFD) which rotates a flywheel that has a LED attached and a mount for distributor pinion. On the top there is an adjustable degree wheel and a standard automotive RPM meter (divide by 2 for distributor RPM). Brushes for the LED. Copper from water pipe, brushes from a drill motor. Good practice for getting used to my lathe. Back is bit of a mess, ehh works so good enough. BNC connector for scope etc. if needed. LED has three main modes; Points open (surely has some use cases, mainly here because it was easy to implement) Points closed Dot mode for easier alignment Points closed mode is the inverse of points open, made with one transistor logic inverter. Dot mode was a bit trickier, I used a 4538 monostable multivibrator to pulse the LED when input goes high and resets after it goes low. By changing the motor RPM with VFD advance curves from the centrifugal weighs can be deduced. For vacuum advance I thought about using a syringe and a suitable vacuum gauge, does not need to be high tech. Max RPM is about 6k (engine) which is plenty enough. It is nigh impossible to take good pics when operating, just trust me that in person the LED is sharp and easy to read. DOT mode. Points open. In addition to advance it is easy to spot points bounce or dirty contacts and cam wear. Dwell angle can be calculated from RPM and degrees but for that I have a Fluke 78 automotive multimeter that has the dwell angle measurement built in. Resistance is also easy to check with a suitable meter. With this tester I can test my distributor as much and more than needed Certainly better than just hoping that it works.

Love it !!

What a great looking Mk4 If you change the auto fluid and filters for new that should sort the snatching problem. Pete

They've had that ages probably want mega bucks for it/stuff off it. Probably the usual dodgy Weber carb fuel pipe to carb.

I'm sure the OP has..just putting it out there that the new gearbox mounts are .s.hite in the hope it might save someone the hassle I've had .I was only aware of issues with the engine mounts being too firm and causing vibration I bought mine from B'tons so there must be a few Fords out there with vibrations as they are as hard as bell metal. The Cortina mount is marginal anyway as Ford made the Sierra mount bigger and softer to reduce NVH...so why the aftermarket made the mounts harder is beyond me unless it's for the Caterham crowd who don't mind having their fillings shaken out

Hello Onslow Thank you, but have adapted my Peugeot seat now thanks

I don't believe in Experts...How Qualified was the man who invented Qualifications? I would like to see everyone try everything without fear of failure...A problem is only a problem if you let it become one..You can shout and despair at something not going right but, it will still be a piece of deaf metal when you are done with shouting at it. Try again...

Breaking at Gadbury breakers