RichardJ

Dropping a nice modern quartz one in would be a perfect solution. Shame there aren't modern ones that fit.

Mine seems to tick reliably, but that is the only positive thing I can say about it. It's about as accurate as my darts playing ability if I was playing blindfolded on a windy day on a 200 yard long oche. I think there is a recessed adjustment screw on the back which adds some resistance to the mechanism and can speed it up or slow it down. Maybe yours has been set over tightened, which might explain why it runs slow and keeps stopping?

Cool - look forward to seeing the pictures. The only other thing I can think of that might be useful to know is that because the bends are near the end of the pipe, it's much easier to bend the pipe to shape before you cut it to size - if that makes sense. Basically, use an overlong piece of pipe, get the bends in the right place to line the pipe up where it needs to go, and then trim the ends down to the right size. The bends are all nice and gentle on the piece that you are replacing, so you shouldn't have any trouble with the pipe collapsing. If you decide to replace any of the other metal lines at a later date, specifically the ones with really tight bends/corners on them, a good trick I picked up from a US car builder was to completely fill the pipe with table salt first, and tape both ends to keep the salt in. The salt then stops the pipe collapsing even when you put really aggressive bends into it. You can then just flush the pipes through with water to dissolve the salt and clean them out, dry them, and they're good to go.

Yep, they'll do it. That cutter goes down to 3mm, so should easily manage with a 8mm pipe. Just go nice and slow, and don't tighten the cutting blade down too quickly. You may be able to get a better deal on the fuel line. I found if I searched for 5/16" rather than 8mm I got more hits, even though the sizes are actually identical. 1.5m is plenty for what you need, though, so even if you get that one you should have enough. 90/10 is also a good mix to use. I quite liked the job when I did it myself, as compared to some of the other Cortina jobs I've done it was exactly as I expected it to be with no surprises. And if you have been able to replace the rubber hoses on the car, then I doubt you'll have much trouble making up the metal fuel line.

Someone has swapped part of your metal pipe run for a piece of random sized pipe they had lying around, and questionably squeezed it into the 8mm mounting points Probably due to corrosion, as the original pipes were steel, and you get a lot of sal.er spray in the wheel wells. You can see in the picture below the piece that is missing (ignore the upper pipe, I had to plumb in an extra fuel return). It's a short 8mm metal run that then joins up with a nylon pipe (by way of a short rubber hose piece) pretty much on the bottom of the sill near where the front door hinge is. It looks like your nylon pipe is in the right place, it is just that weird 10mm flexi pipe that is the issue. The good news is that that missing run of metal fuel pipe is probably the easiest one to make up on the whole car, as it just has two bends in it, and has a really obvious loose s-shape. And unless you're going for fuel injection, then you don't even need to flare the ends either. So I'd definitely consider making up a replacement yourself as it's a pretty easy job. You can pick up a around 7-8 metres of 5/16" (8mm) kunifer/cupronickel fuel line for about £10 (more than enough to make up the missing fuel line, and even let you have a few practice goes first) - never ever under any circumstances try to save a couple of quid and use plain copper pipe. never, ever, ever, ever, ever. Ever. A simple £5 plumbers pipe cutter from B&Q or similar can then be used to cut it square, and the pipe is soft enough to be shaped by hand into the s-shape needed, although it does work harden very quickly, so measure carefully and only bend it once. Also, in case I didn't mention earlier never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever use plain copper pipe for fuel (and especially brake) lines - only kunifer/cupronickel, or coated steel if you are keen to keep things 100% original.

Just another bit of food for thought, but also worth considering the effect of wheel change on the scrub radius, as this will change the handling of the car. Most of us tend to buy wheels for how they the look (guilty), but they're not a purely cosmetic change. If you imagine a straight line between the top and bottom wishbone ball joints and then extend the line downwards until it hits the road, that is the kingpin offset and if the centre of the tyre's contact patch is at this point, then you have zero scrub radius. If the contact patch centre sits inwards of this point, you have negative scrub; and outwards gives you positive scrub. If the new wheels have a lower offset than the factory ones, then they will increase your scrub radius (by 22mm in this case). With a higher positive scrub radius, anything that causes drag on one of the front wheels will create greater feedback through the steering wheel. Some positive scrub is good as it gives road feel, but too much and you might find that the car starts to badly tramline (especially if you also go for wider tyres too) and react to even minor imperfections in the road. The steering will also push back with more force during hard cornering, and uneven braking force between front wheels can result in a hefty kick back in the steering. Always worth checking with others what their experiences are with a given wheel change.

I think the normal offset for the 5.5j Sports steel wheels is ET38. So the outside edge of those rims will stick out about 28mm further than the stock Sports wheel. If you fit the same size tyres (say 185/70), then the outside wall of the tyre will stick out about 22mm further. As said above, lot's of people have fitted those wheels with no problem, but when you're spending that kind of money I'd always recommend getting a straight piece of wood putting it flat against the front of the current wheels/tyre, and measuring how much further out the new wheels will stick and seeing whether this will cause problems. The (lack of) engineering tolerances on the Cortina's arches and axles seems to give quite a range of differences from car to car in terms of what you can and can't get away with fitting. Also worth remembering that the camber on the front axle increases as the suspension is compressed, so the tops of the tyres do tend to tuck in nicely on cornering and give you quite a few extra mm of arch clearance. A similar thing also happens to the rear axle on cornering (but not over bumps).

As well as the points Craig makes, I also found ground clearance an issue. I really wouldn't want to go lower than 25mm as the subframe and exhaust manifold get a bit to close to the road for my liking below that.

Hi, I don't suppose anyone has a spare wheel brace/jack handle for a PFL mk3 that they would be willing to sell me, do they? I'm looking for the wheel brace that has the longer thin bit that inserts into the early ratchet jack and acts like a pump handle. I think it is part number 71BB-17035 Happy to take it as a set with a jack if you are only willing to part with them as a set. Many thanks Rich

Cheers Craig PM Sent

^whs I did the same, but used a number of drill bits of increasing size until the rivet was only held together by sliver of metal and could then just be punched through the arm. If you have taken the whole arm off the car it's quite easy to do. Make sure you give it a nice sharp whack with a centre punch first to keep the drill from wondering, though.

Yep, that's the one - a diagram is worth a thousand words

It's the bit that's sort of an L-shaped bracket and bolts to the front of the cross-member on the floor. It also has a captive nut welded on the top face of it that the front of the inner seat rail bolts into.

Hi, Does anyone have the corner shaped brackets for the inside front part of the seat rails (for a mk3/4/5)? It's the bit that bolts to the floor pan and creates a "shelf" for the rail to lie across and bolt to. It's the passenger (left) side one I desperately need, but could do with both. Cheers Rich

I redid my bulkhead divider out of 4mm plywood, and used a strip of piano hinges with springs threaded on them to allow the bendy bits to work. I then painted in black to match the original and stuck some foam on it in the usual places. Mine was a different style to yours through. There's a picture of it on page 10 of my (woefully neglected) My Cortina page.