Jiimmy

See attached. The seatbelt is anchored at 3 points, behind the seat on the floor to the left, and right of the seat below and behind the door, and at the roof above and behind the seat. I can see why the stalks would need to be quite long coming from the back behind the seats and through the seats, it's quite some distance.

Thanks all for replying , I guess I need to start looking for some seatbelts. I've found these which don't seem terribly expensive, but import cost might double the price. Stalks seem pretty long? https://www.burtonpower.com/securon-retractable-front-seatbelt-black-sec500-45bk.html I'm open to good second-hand belts as well. Can do! Will take some pics.

Hi all. I'm considering installing modern tension seatbelts in my 1976 Mk.3 pickup. I drive it about once a week, which is enough for me to consider safety. So I came here to be talked out of it if it's a bad idea. With the original static seatbelts if I fasten it fully it's very uncomfortable and I can't even come close to reaching the dash handbrake without having to loosen it, and therein comes the safety concern. These things will be near useless in a collision unless I've by chance properly tensioned it pre-collision. I know some may want to keep it in original condition. This Mk.3 - while in very good condition - isn't such that it's fully original to the last detail and I don't consider it a "classic" to that extent that it needs to be kept 100% original. So yay or nay? Did you all keep it original, or have some installed modern seatbelts? Best option I thought would be if modern seatbelts could be installed into the current setup so that it could be changed back to the static belts in the future. And then if it's not considered profanity to do so, where would I have such a retrofit done? Since it's about safety I'm not considering doing it myself.

For what it's worth we set the timing advance to 14deg BTDC some weeks ago, and in the thick winter air it seems to be running very good.

Thanks, I'll try that and see where I end-up.

Hi all. We serviced the Cortina about 3 weeks ago (my first time doing anything more than change spark plugs on this specific engine), but my father forgot the timing advance value he always set it at, which left us having to do a quick "Google" for an answer. We got a lot of contradicting answers, anything between 10 to 30 deg BTDC, leaving us with 10 deg BTDC as a "safe" advance, but it did seem low to us so we set it about 11.5 deg to see if it runs well. Btw. it's a 2.5L V6 in a 1976 Cortina Mk. 3 pickup. It runs perfectly just fine after the timing adjust (and very similar and slightly better to before we set the timing) but felt to me like the advance is not enough (purely going on "feel"), so when I had more time to research, it seemed like 14deg BTDC is closer to desired ignition advance. So question 1, is 14 deg BTDC correct? The method used was to set it at idle (engine warmed up a few minutes) with the vacuum advance disconnected, checked with a timing light. Second question is the impact of elevation on timing advance. We live at 5,000ft above sea level, which makes me think advance could be even more since knock/detonation is less likely with thinner air due to reduced air density. Is 14 deg BTDC still correct at 5,000feet or should we go more? Third question is if this method of setting the timing we did is the best method?