LagoonBlue

Still waiting on the distributor bushings... In the meantime I scored these for the sweet, sweet sum of naught; Series 2 so not much use for me apart from few small odds and ends but for free I am not complaining. Steering linkage had some "interesting" repairs on it but even that has couple good spare bits. Not free but really close were these 8" NK 25 25 33 rear brake drums that I got on clearance; Listed to fit Courier Pickup and Fiesta MK4 Compared to original; Retainer screw hole in a different spot and the "top hat" portion where the lug nuts are sticks out a little less (fits the rim just fine). However all the dimensions that matter match. Nothing but to try them on. First I had to scrape off the paint that some idiot had sprayed on the hubs Brake bits thrown in. New retaining screw hole drilled on the opposite side of the original with using old drum as a template. One might as well skip this as hardly anybody in their right mind uses those. Contact patch on the new drum. Nothing scrapes and everything works as it should so I will call this a success, especially considering these cost abot one tenth compared to EBC;s offerings. I painted outside of the drums with caliper paint (couple thin coats) and assembled both sides on the axle; Might not seem much but finding suitable 8" drums at a sensible price was not easy. Not that I can't afford EBC;s but being a skinflint that just does not sit right with me

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.

Thank you! I did though about using one of those hand vacuum pumps but local ones were too expensive and it can take close to month for one to arrive from the far east. One reason why I have so much jun.. I mean useful stuff, I hate waiting on things to ship We did use syringes for pulling vacuum at the hospital I previously worked and provided that the system is properly sealed they do work surprisingly well. Might add one to my buy list though and also a proper flaring tool.

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.

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.

Checked my other front cover; Later 681F part so a little bit different, might work but is in a sorry state so let's continue with my original cover. Seal on the rear main seal carrier was also removed, for this I machined couple tools. Without these the carrier might easily get bent. And after sodablasting. Both came up looking really good, front cover has minor marks near the seal but those should not be too visible with the pulley installed. However this lead me to another issue for when it's time to reassemble. Workshop manual calls for centering tools to be used when installing the covers but these are no longer available (at least I could not find any) and pictures in the book are not very good. I am sure installation could be done without the tools but if (whit my luck..) the seal is not properly centered it will not last too long. Will have to do some figuring how those centering tools are supposed to work. In preparation I cast some aluminium stock (have you seen the price of ally lately); Do not mind the kitty, tried some lost foam casting while I had the pot going. Machines like butter, and about as messy too Some voids here and there but will not matter for my use. And lastly I finally found enough time to send my head for machining. Let's hope that will go as planned.

Straightening the carburettor flange was far easier than I had thought; I made a notch in a sturdy piece of angle iron which was then clamped to a table. Corner could then be carefully massaged back in to line with a plastic/rubber mallet. I did slightly heat the part, though do not know if that helped any. After that corner (and only the corner) was filed and stoned flat. Because the gasket is so thick this does not need to be absolutely bang on but I did get fairly straight. Next I soda blasted and cleaned the carb body again; Not too bad! On the side I took a better look at my front timing cover. There are some nasty looking dings around the seal but luckily bore seemed fine. I might have a better one at storage, will have to remember to check next time I'm over there. Knocking the old seal out was easy with the cover uninstalled, I only needed a large enough pipe to receive the seal and a big socket that happened to be just the right size.

A small interlude as I prepare another pot of carburettor soup in the ultrasonic cleaner; A long time ago a idiot that looked just like me but much younger decided to cut the nylon fuel line at the pump end.. Otherwise these lines would last forever. Naturally imperial sized so was not easy to find a replacement. I found the correct sized PA12 line from Advanced Fluid Solutions Ltd, Product code INT-04N 1/4 Inch O.D x 0.170 I.D Imperial Nylon Tube Black Flexible Tubing. Original length is about 10ft but better to have some extra. Double taper ferrules I found from aliExpress; A proper tubing cutter is nice to have but a Stanley knife will also work, ferrule is a tight fit to the line so any deformation to the end is best to be avoided. Ferrule will bite on to the line as the nut is tightened. If memory serves me the tank end has a small bit of hose and clamp between sender and pipe. So, the carb body cleaned ok; I will soda blast it when the weather permits, also one corner needs to be carefully straightened; Over torqued After ultrasonic cleaning and especially after soda blasting the carb needs to be thoroughly washed and blown clean with compressed air, otherwise the small passages and brass bits might go all fuzzy. I use boiling water and brake cleaner and as a last step a small spritz of WD40 for added protection.

Finally found enough time to continue refurbing the carb. I bought a lifetime supply of bearing bronze, one of the few upsides on working at the big city is that it's easier to get supplies. I had some sintered bushings in stock but the resulting wall thickness would of been too thin. Reaming to 1/4". As the shafts are ever so slightly worn I heated the bronze before reaming, maybe got me a tiny bit smaller hole For turning the OD I made a small mandrel. For the carb end I modified a 8mm long reach reamer by turning the shaft to 1/4", luckily it was close to the right dimension. Since the end was naturally hardened this was not easy but got there eventually. Flutes at the far end were modified with a Dremel to make them able to cut, maybe would not work for steel but the carb body is fairly soft so had no issues. 8mm is about the max that the existing bores can be reamed to. I left about 1~1,5mm of material at the inner edges. Oopsie, maybe not make the bushings fit so tight I can and will fix this later but for now I continued with a just as good spare carb.. New bushings fitted with Loctite, this time with a slip fit.. Installing was done using a spare carb shaft as a driver to get the bushings in parallel. Ends were then filed and ground to length, except the one in the right here which can be left over sized. Would of been better to clean the spare carb before installing the bushes but I wanted to get this done so will do that later. No excessive play anymore and the shafts move butter smooth so I will call this operation a success

Still waiting for supplies for overhauling the carb to arrive from overseas but in the meantime I did found a set of new old stock intake valves. Good find for 46€ inc. P&P Apart from finding the time to do so I should now be able to have the cylinder head inspected and machined. Machine shop I like to use is a bit ways off from me but they have a good reputation and this should be no challenge for them. Cost on the other hand... well, it only hurts once

As expected my carb needs some work. FoMoCo C7BH-B, simple unit as far as carburettors go. In preparation I bought a carb kit. S31G or FoMoCo 1250, a "one size fits all" deal. Contents of the kit; Extra gaskets and automatic choke related bits were filed away for safekeeping; And the rest were compared against the originals; Close enough, needle valve could be a little longer but adjusting the float should take care of that. That's the simple stuff, Achilles heel for these carbs seems to be oblong wear on the far side bore for choke lever as there is very little bearing surface there and no bushings, steel against zinc; In all my carbs there was excessive wiggle here that will result in a vacuum leak. I could not find a spec for the shaft or bore diameter but measuring the shaft as ~6.258mm..; and a good bore as ~6.35mm would make the nominal size 1/4" (0,250"). That would be 6.35 - 6.26 = 0,09 clearance on the tight side as design (I think). What this means is that I will be making and installing bushings for the bores, I have necessary tools and materials on order but those will take some time to arrive. Straightforward job but care must be taken to make everything straight and true.

I know No regrets, have learned a lot. But about time to get this bugger done, biggest hurdle seems to be finding a decent painter. I would do it myself but have not got the time, facilities nor skills. Apart from the paint, engine and gearbox (and even those are slowly coming together) this thing is almost ready to bolt back in to one piece and enjoyed as it was meant to be. Let's all hope that won't take another eternity.

I've been doing more miles (or kilometers rather) on my commute than a 90's sales rep My poor old Avensis needed it's first clutch job at 441000 km's, double mass flywheel gave up the ghost. Was not cheap to get sorted but I really was not in a car buying mood. I had it converted to a normal flywheel setup and have not regretted as I can hardly feel any difference. Should last the remaining life of the car. With the holidays I finally had some time to work in the garage. First order of business was to install my new heater. I made an additional heat exchanger for better efficiency, designed to add as little back pressure as possible. Seems to work fine so far. Better fan and enclosure still to be added but usable as is. And the first part turned on my lathe for the car is: After doing a file test on the original pin I chose a 10.9 hardness bolt as the material. Thread was made with a normal die since I had one and it was easier than muck about with the lathes gearing. For making the flats on the hex head portion I used this contraption I made last summer. Certainly not a surface grinder but sorta kinda the same idea. Cobbled together from junk as usual. Manually operated and has linear bearings for X,Z and Y. Axle nut attached to an old drill chuck allowed for accurate clocking of the flats. New pin pressed in place. I made my interference fit as 15.16mm but I did also preheat the arm. Force felt about on par as when the old pin was pushed out. Looks like factory, which is a good thing as according to our MOT rules one is not supposed to monkey with these sorts of parts (some exceptions do apply for really old stuff). Still 100% better than what it was and should last a good long while. Also sorted out my camshaft troubles; Bought a new one. From Small Ford Spares their 109E-6250-kit, the only stock Kent cam I could find. Updated part with the wider lobes, quality seems decent. Maybe this will last longer than the originals did. Possibly made by Kameks Eksantrik Milleri in Turkey as the CoO on the customs declaration was TR. I had previously asked Kameks directly on their KMS 10204 cam but they only do wholesales. Not that it matters as the folks at Small Ford Spares (Vintage Supplies Ltd.) were very helpful and nice to work whit and the price was about as good as it can be nowadays.

Took it's time but got the lathe more or less dialed in. On a test bar I got about 0.03mm difference at a distance of 150mm and I am sure some of that is due to the bar not being supported on the tail end (which is the correct way for doing leveling). Adjusting the tailstock. Added a way cover. Old feeler gauge is used for setting the tool height. Not the fastest machine to use but with light enough feeds surface finish on a mystery steel from a 10.9 Caterpillar bolt was perfectly acceptable. Still waiting for some tooling but getting really close on making my first parts! Not much use having a lathe if it's too cold to use it so I bought one of those cheap diesel heaters for the garage. Hopefully I have time to install it and make an additional heat exchanger for the exhaust during the holidays.

I had a hard time figuring out how to remove oil pickup tube from my engine as it is pressed in quite tightly (as it should be). Turns out that the right answer was here all along; So I rummaged my stash of round bars, found a suitable piece that fitted inside the tube and with a pair of vice grips the pipe came off undamaged without too much of a fight Same was also done for the smaller pipe. New tool day! After following the used lathe market for nearly two decades I came to conclusion that no decent second hand benchtop lathes can be had for a reasonable price. So I bought a new 220mm by 600mm minilathe from Aliexpress. Still a fairly big investment and certainly no Myford but better than drill and a file. I cut a sheet of 4mm steel to go between the lathe and table as these things need all the help they can get rigidity wise. Needs to be bolted in place, storage grease cleaned and an over all going through and alignment. That will take a good while plus I need to buy a bunch of tooling before I can really use the thing. So far seems to be of better quality than I had expected.

Thank you for the kind words. Won't be missing the stress Been a while since I last messed with the engine.. Ah yes, freeze plug and block heater need to go. There was no easy way to lever off the block heater so after having a think about it I removed the mounting screw at the center and threaded the hole for M8. I welded a M8 bolt to my DIY Big Bertha™ slide puller and the heater element popped off with ease. Even remembered to collect all the bits from inside the block. Should I really want to I could re-install it but that is not likely. Tried the same for the freeze plug but as expected it was too thin and the bolt just pulled the threads off. I made hole big enough to fit a bolt head and with a couple good whacks the plug came off with no damage to block. With those taken care I removed the timing cover, chain etc. to remove the camshaft. Tappets were a "bit" worn. No matter, I have new ones (narrow stem on 2737E blocks). Now here is what I was really after. Camshaft lobes are also worn but that I already knew so had a replacement at hand. Lobes are wider on the newer one but that should not matter. What might matter is that the exhaust(?) timing on the new cam is slightly different. I am fairly sure that the old cam is original to my car, part number is 109E MC24136 Part number for the new cam is 771M6250DA which comes back as Fiesta MK1, obviously still a Kent but whether it would work for me I can not say, need to do some more investigating.

Still recovering from a mild to moderate burnout courtesy of my previous employer plus settling in at my job, that luckily seems much more humane. On the downside is the small pay cut I had to take and the commute which does eat into my free time.. Yet small price to pay for keeping my sanity. Anyhow I did manage to pop into the garage to do at least something. This is part of my drivers side under dash wiring harness. Goal for today was to clean the two small on/off switches. One was the panel light switch but other (connected to black and a long Green/pink wire) was not to be found in any of the wiring diagrams. Referring to old pics I managed to sort out that this was the test switch for dual line brakes. Circled in red here. Silly place to put a switch, mine came with a broken rocker but naturally I had a spare. That mystery solved I could begin sprucing up the switches. Rockers were a bit faded but a quick polish with sponge and compound from a headlight restoring kit brought back the colour. Nuts got a similar treatment. Last step was to check that switches still worked, which they did. Not much but still better than nothing, let's hope I can really get back into saddle sooner than later.

Going to be light on content this time around.. But first, after taking apart multiple Motorcraft distributors I feel confident in saying that the only difference in these is the points cam. Well, and the markings on the distributor case of course. On the left is my original and right is another one from possibly an 1300. Quite bit of difference in the phasing. Generally it's a bad idea to mess with the governor weights and springs on these but I took great care to keep all the bits in order. Also might throw together a tester for making the necessary adjustments. Now then, the reason for the lackluster updates recently (and I fear, for a little into the future) is that I had enough of my current job. I put in my two weeks notice and will start on another career at the beginning of next month. Unfortunately the new job will involve two hours worth of commute each day which will in turn eat on how much time I have to spend in the garage. I do not know how universal this is but at least in my country I would advise against working in the NHS, especially when it's in restructuring phase. My job was to fix and maintain medical equipment (EKG,defibs,NIBP's and the likes) but when it's 80% of unnecessary and inefficient bureaucracy it ain't no fun anymore. Plus recently mostly due to my inability to say no I was voluntold to be a coordinator on a network changeover project, a field in which I have null interest in. So it's back to private sector high tech for me

Mark my vote as yay, if you feel that you need good belts then you need them. No one should give you hard time for such a mod. Also remember that seat belts technically have a limited service life and if your's are original they would have degraded quite a bit by now, especially in your climate. Also MK3 seem like a stout design of which overall occupant safety would surely benefit from a set of good belts, unlike my MK2 which is in all honesty a rolling coffin.. Sorry, I am not familiar with anything beyond MK2's but I would think that aftermarket inertial belt kits should be available? Perhaps later models will bolt straight in. Someone with better knowledge please chime in.

One more badge.. New old stock, also all the way from Australia. Insert might need some fresh glue. Think I am now set badge wise. Cleaned and greased my speedo cable. Does not need much, light coat will suffice. And the washers at the clock end go in like this. More recent purchases; Also bought another distributor not pictured here. Exhaust manifold is for S2 but should fit, I already have one but nice to have another as spare (and was cheap). Same goes with the steering wheel, spare is nice to have. And the big ticket item; Yes, yet another transmission But this has the missing piece of the puzzle, a decent main shaft. Overall in surprisingly good shape and not monkeyed around with. I will likely use most of this when rebuilding mine. Just not the tail extension; Must of been QC;s day off, that's some porosity Honestly should not matter here but looks nasty. Note the original dark green colour preserved under all the grime; Nigh impossible to take a good photo, seems darker in person. Perhaps a shade darker than British racing green Another matter is when I have time to sort through all the bits, work has keeping me busy lately.

This time it was my brothers POS Peugeot 308.. Failed it's MOT with a broken spring. Not too bad of a job to change (even with my widow maker spring compressors and had to do both sides of course) but seems a bit weird that the first step to change springs is to remove windshield wipers. Strange lot those French While cleaning I came upon these leftover bits; Top one is the early type indicator canceller but with the lower one I had to really rack my brain to remember where it came from. It's home is here, clips on a groove about midway of the steering shaft. In my defence this is not mentioned in any of the literature. What it does is anyone's guess, mine is that it quiets down resonances. Easy thing to sort out at this stage, only had to take out four bolts. If there is anything I have learned over the years is that if you find a somewhat reasonable priced part that you want, buy it! Might not be available forever. So I went and bought these reproduction badges, compared here to originals; Straight from Australia. Key chain I added to get combined shipping which ended up being overall cheaper than just the badges alone. Quality of the reproductions is very good, not absolutely spot on perfect but very good. Grille badge dimensions are ever so slightly smaller and boot badge is made of cast zinc instead of aluminium but that's splitting hairs and I am very happy with these. And certainly in better nick than my any of my originals.

I had to take a small break from Cortina. My daily ride developed a nasty rattle as the fuel tank heat shield mounting bracket had failed, not a huge deal but when fixing that I found both sills to be rotten under the plastic covers MOT will be in next moth so I needed to sort this out now. Originally made of 2mm steel but even that will not help if there is moist muck trapped between the sill and cover. As these will be hidden there was no need to make 'em pretty. Might be time to start looking for something more modern.. Also did some much needed cleaning, sorting and other chores around the property. However I did get at least something for the Cortina; No restoration is complete without these (And the dashboard hula girl!). Though admittedly might be a little early still.

A new high (or low?) in pedantry.. I dislike using U-clamps in exhaust connections but apparently so did Ford, in series 1 at least; Part number105E-5270, and I will need two as aftermarket front section comes in two pieces. I did not have anything at hand to copy but luckily one was offered for sale on Evil Bay, let's just say at somewhat optimistic Lotus prices (and I believe the correct Lotus Part would be 118E-5270)... But knowing that the required diameter is 42mm and bolt is UNC 3/8" -16 I could deduce all the needed dimensions from pics in the listing. I started with 3x20mm mild steel strap; Next a quick bending jig was cobbled together; Radius is slightly smaller, about~39mm to allow for springback. Pressing the "wings"; Temporarily splayed open to press the stopper tab; Next a hole was drilled to both ends and the other side was made square with needle files. Then the clamp was fitted on a 42mm diameter socket for final tweaks; Painting together with the steering box; And one of the finished parts; I have my doubts on how long the paint will last but that is how they came from the factory. Sure I could of bought something similar (though 42mm is a hard size to find) but where's the fun in that

Back to the steering box. I needed new bearing races so bought the overhaul kit from the chap that sells them in Ebay, on the pricey side but the quality was top notch. Bearing races are made to order and not available from anywhere else to my knowledge. Assembly was mostly done as described in the workshop manual. Since mine has a steering lock I first had to weld the reinforcement back in it's place AFTER sliding in the upper bearing race. Eh, not my best work but will do. I wanted to keep the current as low as possible. Piece of angle iron with hose clamp keeps the bearing balls from escaping during assembly. Decent vise is a must for this job. Did not lose a single ball! Though I did practice beforehand..At this point it is important to keep the shaft pressed down when installing and removing the steering column tube or there will be a right mess. Also remember to mount the column in the right orientation. I needed a thicker spacer over the upper bearing since I had to machine quite bit of material off both bearing races on the shaft. Luckily I had "couple" hard disk drive spacers on hand, very accurately machined. Made of aluminium instead of steel but so is the column flange so should be fine. New spacer. Little over 0,5mm thicker if memory serves. Shimming was a real pain. I tried the official method but the result was always too tight (bolts were correctly torqued); In the end I shimmed by feel, decent preload, no slop and moves smoothly. Also note the felt upper bearing, I had a new one but that was way too tight. Since the original felt was in good order I re-used it. There is a small washer under the felt that acts as a stop. No idea why Ford went back to felt for (most of) series 1 cars, probably cost related.. Also series 1 shaft is of different length and has a finer thread compared to series 2. Setting the rocker shaft drag. Series 2 wheel since the original is being worked on. Measured in the center position as that is the tightest. Back together and epoxy primed. Bare aluminium would of looked nifty but black is how these were. Top coat will be done after a fortnight or so. Not a hard job to do but certainly a fiddly one. Takes lots of time and must be done as cleanly as possible. I did consider putting this back together in a kiddie pool or something but in the actual assembly all the gubbins did stay where they were supposed to.

I've been parts hunting again. These 8" shoes are getting hard to find reasonable priced; QH brake shoes sold on Ebay for MK2's do not seem to be the correct type if going by the picture. Shape is all wrong and position of the lining does not match these. Might still work but I will not be the one to try.. These set me back 48€ +postage. I already had an NOS Quinton Hazell QRS1266 idler arm; But this one popped up for sale at an fair price of 30€ +postage and it had the rubber dust boot that was missing on mine. These are the dimensions for the dust boot if any one needs them; Some universal ball joint boot rubber might be made to fit in a pinch.