Stripped the calipers, disks and de-dion tube off. The estate trailing arms are slightly different from the hatch/saloon ones so the drive shafts will need extracting which requires a bit of background reading from the haynes manual.
The brake disks were quite rusty, in particular where the pads had siezed onto them. Cleaned up 3 out of the 4 with a wire brush on the end of my drill. The worst of the corrosion is off but they will need going over with a file and then again with the wire brush before I'm properly happy with them. Also removed the brake hoses from the calipers which looked like they had rusted in place. I'm now rather more hopefull that the calipers are salvageable, will have to see how they clean up and strip down. If they're no good then getting some new ones is going to be an expensive business.
Once the diff was off the de-dion tube it was pretty obvious by turning one of the shafts that it is really a limited slip unit, there having been a little doubt about it on the estate. There looks to be some fluid leakage around the driveshaft seals which will need investigating. Fluid was coming out of the filler pipe when I up-ended the diff so the leak can't be that bad but it was a not too healthy browny colour which means I'm probably going to have to open it up to check that everything is ok.
The lower arms I got for the front to replace the dodgy ones I currently have don't have the usual screw fitment on the top of the ball joint, onto which you usually put a castelated nut. I don't know how the xr4x4 managed to fasten them on but its currently a mystery to me. Will have to ask at the breakers.
First job was to clean up the disks etc so they can be put away for later use. The disks and calipers were badly corroded so a fair amount of work was required with a file/wire brush to get the rust off. They now look reasonable but far from perfect, I'll give them another going over another time.
Stripped down the calipers and gave then a similar cleaning. In theory I should just use them as exchange units but that would be a pretty expensive business and these seem perfectly serviceable. By the time they've been painted nobody should be able to tell the difference from new ones anyway.
When you do this sort of work it really is very important to wear a mask, goggles and a hat. The alternative is ending up with shards of metal, rust and oil in your face, eyes and hair and inhaling all manner of nasty particles. Even with all that gear on I still ended up looking like a chimney sweep but looking at the mask at the end of it I can see the benefit.
Now that the brake components are out of the way its time to attack what is left of the sierra back end. With the de-dion tube out of the way and the trailing arms floating in mid air, the plan was to remove the driveshafts at the diff end. This would allow me to clean up the diff. Afterwards I could remove the driveshafts and hubs and clean them up. At least that was the plan.
First problem is that turning the torx nuts fastening the driveshafts on twists the driveshaft itself. Easily fixed with a couple of screwdrivers wedging it in place. Next try and undo the nut.... socket has sheared off. Hmm must be stiffer than I had imagined. Clean up the joint, loads of penetrating oil, wd40, more penetrating oil soaking in. Try again with new socket: whack socket into hole with a hammer to ensure a firm seating and to free up any rust, quick turn the wrong way to loosen it further, then give it some welly in the right direction. Managed to remove one driveshaft with this method, and another 2 sockets.
Realised that at this point that I need to remove the hub nut to get the driveshaft off the sierra trailing arms. I would just use them complete but the estate has a differnent shock mounting arrangement.
Be warned, hacksawing hub nuts is a tiring business, even after cutting it down to only a third of its former self it was still reluctant to budge but eventually gave in. I have a suspicion now that the blow torch was counter-productive in this case as it caused the loc-tite or whatever it was to melt and resolidify thereby giving an even tighter fit. Now armed with this knowledge the second hubnut came off pretty easily.
Seperated the hubs from the driveshaft and shoved the arms with the rest of the accumulating pile of rubbish.
Now that I'm committed to the pinto route there I could go for an engine from vulcan or use a local shop to recon/upgrade the engine or I could go the full DIY route. For the moment I a simple cam change and carbs will be sufficient, I'll plan any future work as and when I know that the engine is worth speding the money on.
There seem to be a lot of different opinions on cams but the vast majority fall into one of two camps. First there are the people who have the 32 cams, who swear by them, citing excellent torque and drivability. Secondly there are the raw power bunch who cite increased peak power from the 33 cams and who claim the 32s are far too mild.As someone said on one of the mailing lists the 33 saves up all its power for higher up the curve and needs to be pushed much more, therfore requiring upgrades to the bottom end to support the higher revs.
My opinion is that I'm after a very quick road car, not a racecar and for 95% of the time I'm going to be below 6000rpm. Therfore a 32 looks a far more sensible solution. In any case it should give 135bhp+ quite easily which is plenty for a seven. To get much more requires boring to 2.1l, head work, bigger carbs etc and starts getting very expensive for not much benefit - 160bhp perhaps. If I want to go that high I think its far better to do it with a modern alloy engine than an old fashioned 8 valve iron lump and I very much doubt anyone would disagree with me there.
Primed the arms, the rear hubs and the driveshafts. Loosened off one of the hubnuts prior to removing the old diff and wheels.
All the old hub carriers, diff, driveshafts etc are now off the cat. Need to finish painting the replacements then they can start to go back on.
Bought brake pads, handbrake cables and other bits needed to finish off the back end improvements. Hopefully all this chunk of work should be done within the next week or two so I can start on the front end and engine.
Managed to get the hub carriers on, filled the diff up with oil, started the engine, dropped into gear and the wheels went round - success. A few creaks and groans but for an initial test it seems ok. Getting the tension right on the hubnuts seems tricky as well. As I tighten them the hubs become more and more difficult to turn, to the point that I can't shift them by hand. At the moment I'll leave it at that but I have an uneasy suspicion that something is awry.
Modified the new handbrake cable - the rear disks use a different cable. The premis was to put an adjuster on both sides rather than the default one since getting the tension right in the tiger is an absolute pain. Basically you need to shorten the cable anyway and since I had the old cable to hand it was an obvious thing to do. So chopped it carefully in half and tinned the ends. Then carefully removed the connecter from the end of the sheath by clamping it in a vice as high up as possible then rotating the plastic endcap with some pliers. Cleaned up the adjuster and screwed it on, added the endcap from old cable. Job done. Looks very good to me. Tomorrow I'll put it roughly in place, won't really know if it works till the calipers dry and I can fit them.
Now that the end is in sight for this set of mods I'll have to think about getting the engine out. I'm settled on the tiger stage 2 engine, seems equivalent to the vulcan one but at half the price. Much as I would like to build the engine myself I have better things to do at the moment. Besides there are plenty of other things I want to do, such as make the engine bay pretty.
Located my carb parts from contact, sitting in the depot up the road, the delivery driver having failed to find my office after the builders took down all the signs! Spent the evening sitting on the floor in the house overhauling the carbs, mounting on the manifold and figuring out how the linkage fitted together. Luckily Catherine was visiting her parents or I would have been freezing in the garage. Managed to resist the temptation to tighten the carbs up, leaving them fairly loose as per the recommendations on the mailing list. Basically to avoid foaming of the fuel in the carb big rubber washers (thackray washers) are used between the carb and manifold, these form a good seal but allow the carb to move, absorbing some of the shocks. Some spring washers are used between the stud and the nut to further smooth the ride.
Despite all attempts failed to free up the choke lever on one the carbs, the other was very stiff but after cleaning was ok. I'm guessing that the previous owner of the carbs had once upon a time had the choke connected to one of the carbs (the freer of the two) but hadn't used it for quite some time and the other one had never been used. At the moment I don't think I'm likely to use the choke, especially not both of them but I'll have another go none the less.
Ordered my brake flexi hoses from the ford dealer, should be able to pick them up next week.
Popped up to Tiger to give Sue the now clean sump, while I was there I weakened and bought an ally rocker cover. It needs cleaning up and painting, but that will give me another thing to do for the 3 weeks till the engine is delivered. Picked up a fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator and parts for the brake balance bar that I'm going to refit.
Prepared a new handbrake balance bar from a rod rather than the flatiron I use currently. Hopefully this will keep the cables a lot straighter.
Stripped some of the paraphenalia off the current engine. Carb+Manifold, drained the fluids. Next step will be to fit the new accelerator cables. Trial fitted the carbs. The K&Ns definately won't fit, its either going to have to be sock filters or no filters at all. Apparently lots of people haven't had a problem running without filters but I'm not too keen. I may just put some gauze over the bonnet cutout. Even without the filters the carbs won't go on as they foul the chassis rail, more investigation required.
Removed the boot box and planned where to fit the fuel pump.
Rear brake hoses connected up.
Marked up position for the fuel pressure regulator and re-routed the fuel hoses. Cleaned up the engine bay, removing all the accumulated crud. Neatened up the hole for the exhaust with a flapwheel - something I didn't have when I did the job originally and much better it looks for doing it. I could really do with a smaller flapwheel to get in the corners though.
Filled some of the panel gaps with more silicon sealant. I had done this originally but there has been some element of settling with some panels pulling away and some places I couldn't get to before. With the engine and bellhousing out and now knowing the crucial areas I could get at those areas easily.
The more things I do, the more I see that I want to do! Strucurally the car is just fine, but all the things around that can be done so much better. When I built the car I didn't know the right or wrong route for the fuel line and all that sort of stuff. With the benefit of having completed the car I'm in a position now that I'm stripping large parts of it down to redo things properly. With the engine out theres plenty of space and with the new engine not arriving for a week or two theres plenty of time to sort everything out.
Have taken the old bits to the tip, only to be told that they're not allowed to take any old car bits, where else are you supposed to take them? The guy seemed pretty apologetic and let me leave that one load though which luckily was the last of it.
Picked up the engine from Tiger, managed to resist buying a set
of their wheels but failed to avoid buying a new tacho. Lay the
engine down in the back of the van to ensure it didn't do some
damage if it fell over. Realised soon after that they had
shipped it full of oil. Once home I also realised that it had
the standard flywheel rather than the lightened one it should
have had.
Moved the battery cut-off under the dash and out of the engine bay will need an extended battery line though.
Discovered that one of the gearbox mounting bolts had come loose and refixed that.
Fitted the second TCA, boy is it easier the second or third time round, I'm not sure if its quicker/easier but it certainly seems it.
Ordered the alloys, apparently the yoko A038s are only sold by lotus, even though they're a standard part, as such they're £160 a pop, compared to the near identical A032s at £50. Ordered the TSW furys as expected but with yoko A539s instead, the Yoko/TSW pairing works out very cost effective, the set of 5 looks like coming to about £580 from a local company - Ely Tyres 01353 669990, next best quote I had was £630 from wheel-base.
Made up and fitted a longer battery cable to accomodate the new, under-dash position.
Ripped out most of the engine-bay wiring, rerouted and put it all in nice spiral-wrap. Took out the old tacho, had a ponder and decided to leave fitting the new one for a while as it requires making up some wiring extensions and at the moment there isn't really the space. Had to enlarge the dash-hole, oh how I remember the time it took to get a good fitting - this time I had a flapwheel and a decent drill and it made the job so much easier - 5 minutes compared to about an hour in the first case.
Fitted the new tyres on 3 corners, had to move the mouting holes on the wing supports to cope with the wider tyres and the different offset, it all fits though. Also had to move and re-mount the bike speedo sensor, not sure if to try re-routing and calibrating the main speedo, to get a right-angle drive or just not to bother.
Noticed that the clutch pedal was hitting the alloy and making a big dent. Fitted a plate in the footwell to stop it without damage.
Fitted a few more bits and bobs to the engine - alternator, dipstick etc. It would help lots to get the engine in but given the access in the engine bay I'm getting everything in that area done first. Jobs still to do include moving the coil and ignition to give more space for the carbs and manifold.
Moved the coil and ignition from their position on the crossbase to the other side of the brace and the footwell panel respectively. This necessitated moving a couple of earthing points and some more cable juggling but hopefully should get it all out of the way of the manifold and also make it a little neater and more accessible. Most other people seem to have done it this way but when I originally built the car I didn't see a compelling reason and the way I did it looked easier at the time.
Finished prepping the engine and fitted my nice new rocker cover, wheeled the car out onto the driveway ready to fit the engine. Transfered it to the hoist and started trying to position it and then thought better of trying it on my own. Rather than risk having a mini domestic with Catherine I decided to give William a call, 10 minutes later he was claiming that it would never go. Off came the alternator and the nosecone, up went the front on stands and an extra strap went on the engine to change the angle. The only way to get the engine in once the pulleys etc are on is to raise the bellhousing with a jack, angle the engine into a 45° nosedive and get the flywheel into the bellhousing. Then there is just enough room to manouever the front down and the input shaft onto the clutch-plate. It sounds relatively easy but it took us a good couple of hours to get it right.
It looks like the carbs are still going to foul the top rail so
I need to angle it up a little more and add an extra spacer in.
At the moment it has about 12mm on the inlet side and 10 on the
exhaust side.
You can just about see the moved coil in the photo and the new
wheels. I've still got to fit the locknuts and lock-pins to
them but that can wait until I'm totally happy with the fit.
After a bit of a saga the engine fired up, well coughed and spluttered if I'm being honest. Problems were: Dodgy HT leads, lack of fuel in tank, wrong firing order. After sorting all that out it spluttered and after setting the timing to a reasonable 8° it is backfiring slightly less. The question now is if the local garage that will be doing the MOT can sort it or whether it will require a trip for some of Pete Baldwins magic before it runs ok.
Made up a new alloy tunnel cover to replace the scrappy old bits
of ply I was using. Fitted the new mirrors (10mm fine metric
pitch nuts) and the improvement is amazing, not only to rear
visibility but also they don't bang on the sidescreens when they
open and are rock solid. Fitted the new tiger tacho after
making a mini-loom, I think a new dash will be a project for
next winter, I'm itching to get on the road again now the
weather is nice again. You can also see the new tax disc holder
that I've finally got round to fitting, fitted to the screen
support. It was a £10 item from a motorbike shop.
Filled the hole in the bonnet left by the old downdraft, the
technique, which does seem to have worked after a fashion was to
use some wire mesh as a former under the bonnet taped into
place. Applied a couple of layers onto that which then sagged
down somewhat, allowed that to dry and applied some more to
bring the level up. Turned the bonnet over and used an angle
grinder to remove the sagged material and take it back to a
reasonable level. Applied a layer to the underside of the
bonnet to smooth it off and give it some decent support. Sanded
down the top till it was roughly level, filled, sanded etc till
it was resonable. Then applied some filler-primer to show the
bumps, worked on those with wet and dry, damped down to stop it
building up into lumps that then scratch the surface. Onto 600
grade paper and lots of primer and its a pretty good finish.
The big problem now is working out how to cover it so it looks
ok, a good colour match is out so a yellow patch is the only
way, how to arrange the strip or whatever is going to be the
tricky bit. The end result can be seen below.
Cut a new bonnet hole, covering the garage and myself in dust
again, have decided to leave the old hole unpainted for now, its
not something I need to do for MOT and it needs some carefull
thought. In the images below you can see the new manifold cutout
as well as the nice new tsw wheels.
Bled the brakes, fronts seem ok but back ones don't work, at
least not under the handbrake. Will have to let the garage sort
that one at the MOT. Noticed a blown bulb in one of the
indicators, another thing to get to pass the MOT. Adjusted the
bonnet dzus for a slightly better fit. Resecured the nose,
bonnet, carpets and gave the car a bit of a clean.
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