RichardJ

Won't this be quite a complicated mod to do in terms of setting up speed/wheel sensors etc? Most EPS uses a road speed signal to increase the assist at slow speeds and trim it back as speed increases. Having full power assistance on, even at 60+ mph, would be an "interesting" drive.

I was just wondering if it was Canadian as it looked like it had the indicators on the rear quarter panel.

That's a nice example, and worth the effort restoring. Is it a Canadian spec one?

Taping up one of the pipe ends and filling the pipe as full as you can with with table salt (then taping up the other end) before bending it was a trick I learned from some American car builders. It works a treat as the salt stops the pipe from collapsing/kinking even on pretty tight bends. It's a bit fiddly getting the salt into the small bore of a brake line, though. You can then just flush it through with water after you've finished to remove the salt, then wait for it to dry and it's good to use.

Just remember to rubber mount with some anti-vibration mounts or similar it if you go for an alloy rad, as you can have problems with the alloy cracking if you bolt it directly to the steel mounting points due to a combination of vibrations, galvanic corrosion and the different expansion rates of the metals.

I've polybushed the subframe mounts and it seemed to work quite well without much of an increase in noise or vibrations. In general I found the front tolerated polybushing quite well. The back end was a different story entirely. When I polybushed the rear arms it made the car rumbling and growly and you could hear a lot of mechanical noise. Over 50 mph it was uncomfortably loud.

These are the kind of things that would be a doddle to 3D print if someone had the time to map out the part in CAD.

The speedo should be mechanically the same between KM/H and MPH, it just has a different dial face (e.g. 0-180 KM/H versus 0-110 MPH or 0-220 KM/H versus 0-130 MPH). You just need to get a replacement dial face, or get yourself a sticker to change the numbering on the dials, like this one for an Escort: Escort speedo dial sticker On the R34 Skylines, they have backlit dials so you can't just put a sticker over the dial face. Instead people use black marker pen to cover over the "K" in the KM/H symbol, leaving it saying M/H, and use an converter to change the electronic signal reaching the speedo by a factor of 1.6.

Sorry, I completely missed your reply. I actually ended up doing what you suggested, and used a piece of sheet metal to make up a replacement. It turned out pretty well all things considered, and looked convincing, it just didn't have the strengthening rib pressing on it. I tried to make it look similar by putting it on the gas hob until it glowed red, and then dropping it into a bowl of oil. That then gave it the blue/grey spring steel look like the original.

I don't suppose anyone has a spare spring for a mk3 PFL glove box available do they? It's the metal clip at the top of the dashboard opening behind the latch that stops the glovebox falling open too wide, and has two u/spire clips built in to allow the latch to fasten to.

I've done a Duratec conversion, which I believe is very similar in terms of the plumbing. I'm not 100% certain, though, so someone on here might be a bit wiser on Zetec specifics. The Duratec cooling system is a bit "backwards" in terms of how it is fitted together on the engine block - The thermostat is actually connected to the cold (lower) outlet of the radiator rather than the hot (upper) inlet from the water rail. The only reason a mechanical thermostat operates at all in this position is because there is a hot water bypass connected to it directly from the water rail (this bypass is basically what I am using for my heater feed), which keeps the thermostat at close to the same temperature as the water rail. If this is also the case on the Zetec, then you should probably connect the bottom hose of the heater matrix to the water rail rather than the top hose, as the water rail is the hot/pushing side of the system. Otherwise, you might find your system is pumping in such a way that it is creating airlocks in the matrix rather than helping move them to the top for bleeding out - you'll also lose the top hose as a reliable bleed point. A few other causes I could think of for your problems: - There's an air lock or other block in the Matrix (Neo) - as above, but once you've plumbed it in, the top hose of the matrix is normally a reliable bleed point and a place you can check that the system is pumping correctly. - broken coolant pump - also unlikely, as these tend to leak rather than just stop pumping. Unless it's jammed and the belt is slipping over the pulley (would probably squeal horribly though). - Connecting return side of the matrix to the wrong port of the thermostat or tee-ing it into the wrong radiator hose.

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