1985 Ford Escort mk3 Popular - welding time again!

[cjhillman]

Dec 1, 2021 14:04:15 GMT consul315 said:

Jul 29, 2021 18:23:40 GMT cjhillman said:

3rd time lucky!! What a horrible job. I filmed it all so hopefully it will help others in the same situation. I'll compile that later. Recived a call from Midnight Motors in Watford today who found me an old copy part that they used to sell back in the day... high tailed it up there to get some great advice and a great part! once home i swapped over all the bushes and parts over to the pedal to find a working ratchet, success!!

......

I might sound like I want a medal for this job but it was pretty claustrophobic and twinged my back etc so, thought a good write up and video to follow would help others.

it is a horrible job and when i last time did it on my everyday MK II Orion, i had this 16mm bolt made on the lathe (a rod or bolt with 16mm will do as well of course).so can fix all together and slip the pedal in situ, while the bolöd comes out again. makes the job a lot easier, as you don t have to remove the pedal cluster, though i used a cheap aftermarket quadrant, i didn t have any problems since 5 years.

once you have done it you could do a few again very quickly, but since it happens not that often i will have forgotten all the tricks and have to start from beginning.

sorry for my poor english, hope i could halfway express what i mean??

Yeah i'm sure I could do it again if I had too but it was a horrible job haha. Sounds like a good idea with the 16mm bolt. I have some sideways movement in my brake pedal since I've done this job. Really need to try and pack it out a bit better but don't want to take the pedals apart if I can help it.

[cjhillman]

Seen as we're moving house and the backside of the Escort sits a bit low with stuff in the boot. I thought I might go back to the old suspension to get me back up North. Looking at the old stuff in the shed, its a bit past its best (looks like its been under water!) so I decided to leave it as is and change one of the other rear dampers as I only did one last time. This drivers side was clucking quite a lot so it either was damaged when the Track Rod snapped or its been going for a bit. This Tyre always tends to go bald so maybe this was my problem.

Much easier on this side being the non kerb side. Less rusted up but the brake pipe was slightly too big for the KYB slot! I had to take a hacksaw to the damper and just take a few mm off it.



Also I took the measurement of the rear Track Rod. When the garage fitted them they spaced out the wheel in the middle of the rod (there is about this much of thread the other side too). The thread does go up further but if you go all the way with it I think the wheel would sit right at the front of the arch!? Not sure what thats about so need to check the other side is the same as this. Then I'll take it to the tracking place.



Also took this side off to try and get the ride hight down a bit at the front. I don't have spring compressors but i was able to turn the top plate nut down a couple of turns until it wouldnt go now more. I got it all back together but I don't think its changed anything. I'll probably swap the rear springs at some point just as I usually carry music equipment in this car. Its probably a bit low for that these days

[westbay]

You could try these on the back :-

link

[cjhillman]

I've been out and about in the Escort a bit more recently. The Capri went off to the garage for a bit of a helth check and i've missed rocking around in this. Went to a Runnymeed car meet which made some youtube vids (full use of the dixie horn) and headed down to Speedshack in west London (where I cant wait to get back too) to pick up some Capri bits.
Speedshack Steve thought the springs were too compressed at the top. I've had them in and out a few times and also have 0 experience with springs haha so not sure if this is normal or not. Long term plan is to replace the back for something else or do xr3i spring all round (not sure if these are different that the standard stuff). I'm loving the new shocks and front springs!!! Its drives so much better and the rear was knocking as i'd left the old shock on the drivers side. 

[mk2cossie]

Thats pretty normal for progressive springs on the rear of stuff

Certainly wouldn't cause me any concerns if its driving as well as expected

[cjhillman]

Fair enough haha! Still learning here and didnt think anything of it still someone else said. Yeah it drives fine just a little heavy in the rear . Going to get it tracked up soon for the move up north.

[cjhillman]

So we moved up north! Had the Escort delivered along with my Capri. I was going to drive it up but my girlfriend wasnt feeling well on the day she was supposed to drive her car up... so I drove hers and had these delivered (thanks Ryan!!!). The next day I took it to my welding guy as i knew it would need a bit for the MOT. He booked it in for me (he doesnt do the MOTs) and it failed pretty badly. Its going to need some work on the passenger cill, passenger inner wing and front chassis leg by the valence at least. Awaiting to hear back on how much its going to cost but now i'm back up north, i'm probably going to need to get a decent run around Car for work. Might have to make a hard decision soon.

[cjhillman]

About time I updated this thread. To reiterate the last post. We moved back "up North" and I knew the Escort was going to fail on welding. The past 5 years living outside and my MOT garage saying it was fine and the Capri taking my attention away meant big big MOT fails on the way.


MOT day & Northern weather. I walked from my house, it was sunny got a street away to the car and this happened!


Heres the fail sheet... pretty grim. All welding and two inner bushes from the wishbones


At this point I drove it to my welding guy and left it there under the agreement he would look at it when he could, give me a quote and then do it when he could... all good with me as we were still moving in and I had the Capri to run around in.


Two weeks later and he sent me some pretty grim photos... what to see?

don't say i didnt warn ya!



















Anyway this was about 1 month and 2 weeks ago. Today I got it back! We agreed to also go for a really good job over things like the inner wing looking like a factory panel. I'm fine with that as I like to use it and its not a A1 condition car anyway. Also the paint colour is fairly off. He said he struggled to match it to the old paint as its faded. With this Car If I keep her (probably will) and sell the Capri/down the line I'll probably go for a respray or flash over. I always wanted a Sunburst Red mk3 so Might just go for that eventually. The new paint isnt too far off that either.

I also bought 2 new wishbones as it was cheaper to buy that them with rubber bushes than poly bushes for the old ones. I know it only needed the inner but I thought if it need the small outer ones when he took them off... i'm spending more then.

Anyway... Clean MOT sheet now














So now I need to find some storage for it. I don't want it going to the dogs again. Also, cant remember if I mentioned but it needs a new clutch and funny enough I picked a clutch up for £25. I'd love to do it myself but only If I can get a garage. If I can get a good quote to fit it I might just get it done over the summer. It struggled to pull off a fairly steep hill before and thats not much use to me

Also I think I could do with a set of XR3 or standard springs, get brave swap them over. Its still not sitting quite right. Could be the standard rubber top mounts at the front too.

Oh yeah... on the way to the MOT centre (when it failed) I went over a hard bump and the cassette flew out of the deck and now it wont stay in or play anything... It was like the car was saying look, its time, just forget it... so need to figure that out. Quite like the idea of a single din DAB so I can get alllll the stations but, I'm spending more money than i'm making right now so thats down the line. Glad to have the old girl back though.

Love to hear your thoughts on the old Escort. Can't belive its 8-9 years of ownership now and I've had it restored twice and flashed over once I'm never going to buy a house with this car addiction! Anyway... back to my Capri as that has a leaking half shaft now.

[cjhillman]

I was thinking about how easy it would be to do the clutch myself on this Car. At the moment I don't have anywhere to really work but I thought I would have a look in the Haynes and online for some ideas. On reading the Haynes it seems to say something along the lines of...

-put the car in 4th gear.
-undo the gear linkage
-drain the gearbox oil
-remove anti roll bar
-take out the drive shafts
-put a wooden dowl in the gearbox I guess to keep it in line.
-then remove the box.

I was watching the only video I can find of someone doing something similar but on a mk1 Fiesta with the earlier engine.

instead of doing all the above he seemed to undo the gearbox/linkage and drop it down and round to get to the clutch. I asked if this would be possible on my Escort on axle stands (hes working on a lift). He thinks it would be ok but what does everyone think of doing it this way in general? It looks like a lot of strain on the drive shafts? It was a lot quicker that the Haynes way though but I had the idea of messing a driveshaft or the gearbox up.

I took a screenshot of the video for you to see. Really interested in peoples opinions.





After using the car a lot over the last two weeks I thought it would be great to get the little issues sorted that make it an annoying car to live with sometimes.

The clutch
Air leak on VV carb
Sort temp out (i'm thinking new water pump, bleed system and probably connected to Carb air leak)
re bleed brakes

I think thats it and I already own the clutch (picked it up for £25). I think with a new water pump and I could sort this out for quite cheap. I'd like to do a weber conversion as I don't fully trust doing a rebuild on a VV carb but maybe it would be ok.... just need to fix the Capri as a back up car haha.

[homersimpson]

With the gearbox I would try and avoid doing anything that puts a lot of strain on components, it always seems a good idea to do this to save time but in the end it just creates more work.

I can't imagine taking the box out on an Escort would be a particuarlly hard job, not compared to a Mondeo MK3 TDCI anyway :-)

[cjhillman]

I've been trying to figure out if its the air leak making it run rough or an electrical thing. The symptoms are rough idle occasionally and jumpyness on acceleration. Sometimes its fine though or not as bad. I might be wrong but once its warmed up it seems a bit better if you give it a bit of gas.

I'm thinking maybe I should try and use some sealer on the bottom of the carb near the leak to try and block it off. I think its the choke piston base. On this one it feels a bit rubbery and you can move the area around/change the sound slightly.

Next I thought I should look at the points as they havent been changed since 2018/19. Not sure if anything can can be told from this but here they are...




Looks like there could be a tiny black spot on the contacts maybe.




Also looking at the condenser something I forgot about was this odd box at the side of it. I remember seeing this before and thinking I wont bother with this.



As you can see the one I have and all the other ive ever seen don't have that so I'm guessing need to be cut and spliced?




This has to be one of the worst dizzy caps to get on and off ever. My Capri is so much better than this.


I have changed the plugs last year and the leads are not too old. I get the feeling its one of these things. Will have another mess tomorrow.

[vulgalour]

What you're describing is like the issue I've had with condensers but in reverse, whenever I've had that the issue got worse as the car got warmer to the point that the car basically became undriveable. That said, if you replace the condenser and the problem goes away you've found your culprit, good luck finding a decent one these days. If there's a Hall effect electronic ignition, fit that, does away with the points and condenser issue completely and gives you one less thing to worry about. I did it on the Princess after much nagging and I wish I'd done it sooner than I did, car is a lot easier to live with (when it's not being melodramatic about other things) and it was a sensible investment.

It does sound a lot like a bad automatic choke too, but you're on a manual choke with this one (unless I missed an update post when I did a quick skim) so maybe not?

[cjhillman]

Apr 26, 2022 21:49:48 GMT vulgalour said:

What you're describing is like the issue I've had with condensers but in reverse, whenever I've had that the issue got worse as the car got warmer to the point that the car basically became undriveable. That said, if you replace the condenser and the problem goes away you've found your culprit, good luck finding a decent one these days. If there's a Hall effect electronic ignition, fit that, does away with the points and condenser issue completely and gives you one less thing to worry about. I did it on the Princess after much nagging and I wish I'd done it sooner than I did, car is a lot easier to live with (when it's not being melodramatic about other things) and it was a sensible investment.

It does sound a lot like a bad automatic choke too, but you're on a manual choke with this one (unless I missed an update post when I did a quick skim) so maybe not?

Yeah I am wondering if It is the condenser too. It might be worth me just replacing them both I guess. I'm just wondering If I should worry about the dwell (I mean buying a Dwell meter) or just Gap it and hope thats enough. Just trying to figure out a time to work on it when I don't need it or possibly need it soon.

I do think theres a problem with the manual choke base (still the same one). It has a piston similar to the auto chokes looking at the manual. This is where the leak seems to be. I might try sort this tomorrow with a bit of black sealant before I go the points etc. Just as it has an obvious problem.

[kevins]

Setting the points with the correct gap will be fine. As said above keep your eye out for one of the later electronic distributors for the kent/valencia engine which would be a fit and forget option.

Unfortunately if your VV is playing up the only real option is a conversion to something else, parts for the VV are nigh on impossible to find.

[cjhillman]

Apr 27, 2022 5:40:18 GMT kevins said:

Setting the points with the correct gap will be fine. As said above keep your eye out for one of the later electronic distributors for the kent/valencia engine which would be a fit and forget option.

Unfortunately if your VV is playing up the only real option is a conversion to something else, parts for the VV are nigh on impossible to find.

I'll keep my eyes out for one of the later ones. I guess I'd probably have to wire a 12v feed and maybe need a new coil too due to it being ballasted ?

I've found a VV choke online i'm just trying to figure out if there are many different types of VV or just different jetting sizes. Doesnt look like it from the haynes.

[kevins]

Yes you will need the matching coil, from memory most of them had a harness which took the 12V coil feed to power the distributor.

[tofufi]

On a side note, that distributor doesn't look like the felt pad under the rotor arm has seen oil in a long time... It should be oiled and helps lube the advance mech.

Has it been oiled?

[spacekadett]

Apr 27, 2022 8:31:07 GMT cjhillman said:

Apr 27, 2022 5:40:18 GMT kevins said:

Setting the points with the correct gap will be fine. As said above keep your eye out for one of the later electronic distributors for the kent/valencia engine which would be a fit and forget option.

Unfortunately if your VV is playing up the only real option is a conversion to something else, parts for the VV are nigh on impossible to find.

I'll keep my eyes out for one of the later ones. I guess I'd probably have to wire a 12v feed and maybe need a new coil too due to it being ballasted ?

I've found a VV choke online i'm just trying to figure out if there are many different types of VV or just different jetting sizes. Doesnt look like it from the haynes.

If it’s of interest I’ve got one of the later electronic distributors kicking around in my workshop. As stated you’d want the higher output electronic ignition coil to go with it and it looks straight forward to wire as I think it picks it up from the coil, and there is some loom attached to it from memory. Happy to dig it out next time I’m up there if you’re interested as I just got it with some other parts and it’s just collecting dust cos it doesn’t fit a Pinto

[cjhillman]

Apr 27, 2022 14:10:24 GMT tofufi said:

On a side note, that distributor doesn't look like the felt pad under the rotor arm has seen oil in a long time... It should be oiled and helps lube the advance mech.

Has it been oiled?

Not for a few miles. I just realised going thorough old receipts and the MOT history its been somewhere about 20K since the points/condenser has been changed and yeah that rotor arm pad hasnt seen oil in a while haha. I will do that this week.

If it’s of interest I’ve got one of the later electronic distributors kicking around in my workshop. As stated you’d want the higher output electronic ignition coil to go with it and it looks straight forward to wire as I think it picks it up from the coil, and there is some loom attached to it from memory. Happy to dig it out next time I’m up there if you’re interested as I just got it with some other parts and it’s just collecting dust cos it doesn’t fit a Pinto

Oh nice! that could be cool! Do you know what it came off? Just not sure how you cross reference them to make sure they fit etc? Let me know if you come across it. It would be interesting to see it. I'm not in any rush to swap out the distributor as i'm using the car most days and just trying to do things cheap at the moment to see if theres any change. I need to get my Capri fixed too and getting ear ache about spending money on my Cars as it is haha.

I just bought a new Choke system for the VV Carb from ebay to fix this air leak. Its new in the box so waiting for this to arrive.



Me and a mate have a look at air leak on the existing choke today. The bit i'm pointing to with the screwdriver had a tone of sealant that looked like chewing gum on it. We pecked it off and tried to clean it up/replace it with some gasket sealer. It didnt go too well as the sealer wasnt heavy duty enough. I think it will be good enough until the new part comes though. Its definitely that and looking at the manual it wont be too hard to fit. Looks so overly complicated though compared to any Weber choke I've seen. This made me think a new unit could sort a lot of problems out. Seems like theres a piston in a vacuum that is always in operation.




Also next and very soon on the list will be the water pump. Bough this Velo one off ebay for £11 with postage Its really starting to pee out now and you can hear a bit of bearing noise.

My only concern here is the 3 10mm bolts that hold the pump to the head could snap and i'd be in a world of pain. Probably will head to my folks where my Dad has more tools for this. I tried the 3 10mm bolts that hold the pulley on and they came away easy. Shame as I'd love to crack on and do this in the street but the idea of broken bolts keeps me up at night. I watched a video of that guy Marcus Hayes doing one on a CVH and ended up taking the head off to get it re drilled.

I'm thinking i'll probably do this on a warm engine and start with the penetrating oil soon




                                                                                        'Zen & The Art of Ford Escort Maintenance'

[spacekadett]

Popped up to grab something else so picked this up as well. Haven’t got as far as cleaning it or looking for part numbers, although I did check the vac advance works.
I think they’re a fairly universal fit in Valencia’s and cross flows and I’d guess it originally called a mk2 Fiesta home though it came to me in the back of a 100E rolling shell I bought that had had a cross flow fitted at some point, so it’s already been transplanted at least once
I’ll give it a clean and see if I can test it as, like I said I’ve never used it. Certainly I’d get your carburettor sorted first before adding untested electronics into the mix!