1985 Ford Escort mk3 Popular - welding time again!

[cjhillman]

Apr 29, 2022 22:52:10 GMT spacekadett said:

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!

Nice one mate! I'll try and find a part number too. I guess the only thing that can fail on these are the ignition module on the side?


The carb seems a bit better now i've sealed up the choke unit and left it to dry overnight. Like my mate said I think its blowing air at that point and pushing a hole through the sealant. Will fit the new unit when it comes BUT the idle seems much nicer now. Had to use it last night as my misses Car had a flat tyre (modern cars ey! ) Also, without going on a rant... just had to spring for £180 to get that fixed. He wanted me to buy two which would have come to the same as all my 205's on the Capri!... rant over.

After we had been messing with it the other day it was really hard to start. Both of us looked a bit worried but it kicked up and I got home. Went to it yesterday and no chance of it firing. I tried to use logic on it rather than we must have broken it!! turns out I'd tested the limits of the fuel gauge when I looked at the fuel filter!!!! havn't done that since 2013 in this car. Took the Capri to the garage and popped some in a can. Havent driven the Capri for 2 weeks and its funny how different that Car is in some ways.

[cjhillman]

Back to the water pump...

Over the last couple of days I've been spraying WD40s Penetrating oil on the pump 10mm bolts. I've been pretty worried about snapping the heads of these but today I managed to get all 3 to shift slightly. I was going to have a go at pulling them out more but as i'm unsure if I need my Car later this week and I'm busy with work I left it.

One thing I did notice on my new pump and all the ones that are not Ford Motorcraft. The 3rd lower rear bolt doesnt have a hole, just a cut out? Maybe this will become obvious when I take it off but I'm unsure if the two bolts are enough to hold it down. Seems a bit odd as Ford decided 3 bolts are whats needed but all the aftermarket parts only use two of the bolts. What do we think??



Also the postman bought me a new choke today. The Car is running so much better since we sealed up the existing choke. The temp gauge isnt as crazy (which maybe didnt help the existing pump).

[cjhillman]

Scratch that, just found an ended listing on ebay for a motorcraft pump. Looks the same!

Secondly. I didnt realised there was a small hold for oil to enter the bearing (so I'm told). Should I pre oil this so it has some in there for the initial start up?

[kevins]

The hole is a weep hole to let water oit if the seal leaks, it leads to a cavity between the primary seal and the bearing the idea being a small leak doesen't destroy the bearing it should be left alone.

The bolt you referred to is shared with the front cover hence why you only get half a hole.

[cjhillman]

May 4, 2022 5:57:27 GMT kevins said:

The hole is a weep hole to let water oit if the seal leaks, it leads to a cavity between the primary seal and the bearing the idea being a small leak doesen't destroy the bearing it should be left alone.

The bolt you referred to is shared with the front cover hence why you only get half a hole.

Great thanks for that! I will just fit it as is. I noticed the pump is a bit stiffer than I expected so wondered if it need any lubrication. I thought It would be more like when you spin an alternator pulley.

I might see If I can pick up some new 10mm bolts for this job before I start. Thinking if they've been in there for all this time having heat cycles they wont like being tightened back up even if its not that tight (havent looked at the torque spec yet)

[kevins]

If the originals are in OK condition (no rounded heads deep corrosion or signs of stretching) I would clean and re-use them, most of the oem bolts are better quality than the aftermarket stuff.

[cjhillman]

Cheers mate! I might just do that then. I don't think they are up to a high torque setting. Will double check. Wouldnt be so concerned if the thing wasnt so hard to get to.

[cjhillman]

I was putting off the Water Pump job until I could get to my folks place as its just a bit easier to work. We were also heading off to Edinburgh as a family this week until my fiancee caught Covid... so thats off and I thought lets sort this water pump out .

I started off by getting down to a local Car meet to warm the engine up a bit, thought It might make any bolts easier to shift. Met a bloke with a lovely Sierra GT ? that had been in the family since new. show'd mine up a little bit haha.



Cracked on with the job which went really well. All my concerns of bolts snapping quickly were left behind as they came away nice and easier from trying them earlier in the week.




Cleaned up the face and flushed it through as best as I could. 


Old and New. 



Of course I lost a water pump bolt behind the grill... frantic dash to get it out as I had 2 bolts in it. 



Had the Car running for about 10 mins after with the cap off to try and bleed any air out. Also stuck the new header tank cap on. It said it was the right Cap on ebay (which we all know can be wrong). I'll try and do more research here. The old one doesnt seem to have a rubber gasket anymore which I think is letting air in.

I have a video to go up later as I like to film all my jobs these days. I'll post it here. Just happy so far it went well. I need to go for a drive later to properly test it. 

[cjhillman]

Latest video for the Water Pump.

[oto67]

Cor, dodgy move there mate, kerbside mechanics....over a drain cover, your lucky that bolt stayed behind the grill me thinks

[cjhillman]

May 15, 2022 9:25:34 GMT oto67 said:

Cor, dodgy move there mate, kerbside mechanics....over a drain cover, your lucky that bolt stayed behind the grill me thinks

haha yeah I know, I started and didnt really think about the drain, only parking space on the road at the time. All worked out though.

I noticed over the last couple of days a small drip of water on the floor but on inspection doesn't seem to be coming from underneath the pump like last time. Maybe its just from the weep hole of the pump or something. I was a bit down on coolant the other day so topped it up so its still going somewhere keeping my eye on that but not gonna worry.

[cjhillman]

This video came out on Saturday. My Escort started in Aitch's new music video -1989. Fun day of filming. Definitely finished off the water pump driving up and down this street 20 times. Enjoy even if its just for the Car.

[cjhillman]

Headed over to GS Escorts in Runcorn today for their annual open day. Always wanted to make this and missed the first two years. I went in the Escort (obviously) but there was a few nice Fiestas and Capris their too. Heres a few photos and a video I made.













A detailer called Skidmark Detailing used a little bit of this and a small polisher on the scuttle panel of my Car. I thought the paint was toast on this car but it bought it back around. Looks like I need to get a tub of this and a little DA polisher.

[cjhillman]

I was talking to someone on autoshite the other day who owns a similar 1.3 Escort to me. Apparently their gearbox had a whine and eventually threw a driveshaft which cant have been fun (had that happen in a Saxo once). It made my ears prick up a bit as mine has a whine in 1st & 2nd, even my Dad asked what it was the other week and he wears two hearing aids . I know mine is in need of a new clutch as its high and you could set off in 3rd if it had the balls to do it. but let me know your thoughts. I'm not going to lie its sounded like this for as long as i remember. I'm only concerned as this lad said it was pretty dangerous when his failed as the shaft came out completely .

[kevins]

Whine usually comes from the gearteeth, either thy are beginning to wear or the gearbox has been re-built with mismatched or misaligned parts, worn bearings which cause the gears to be misaligned can also do it. The only reason I can see it would throw a driveshaft is if the diff bearings were completely shot and allowed the diff to move around enough to pop the driveshaft out, you could see if the inboard joint moves around or drain the oil and see what comes out.

It is a good idea to treat things like a new whine as warning to get things looked at generally it's a lot cheaper to fix things at this stage rather than when something eventually catastrophically lets go.

That said if it's been like it for a long time and nothing is changing it may well be just the way it is, many cars compromise strength for noise in the lower gears by design. I would drain the oil check for anything metallic and if it's OK just re-fill it with fresh oil. (it probably originally had EP80 but you can use a modern 75w90 GL4 as an alternative which in it's self might make it quieter when hot))

[PhilA]

Sounds like my friend's old mk3, that went on like that for about 45,000 miles.

Slightly worn bearings leading to slightly rough teeth; whine is OK, clackclackclack is not

Phil

[cjhillman]

Aug 16, 2022 12:33:44 GMT kevins said:

Whine usually comes from the gearteeth, either thy are beginning to wear or the gearbox has been re-built with mismatched or misaligned parts, worn bearings which cause the gears to be misaligned can also do it. The only reason I can see it would throw a driveshaft is if the diff bearings were completely shot and allowed the diff to move around enough to pop the driveshaft out, you could see if the inboard joint moves around or drain the oil and see what comes out.

It is a good idea to treat things like a new whine as warning to get things looked at generally it's a lot cheaper to fix things at this stage rather than when something eventually catastrophically lets go.

That said if it's been like it for a long time and nothing is changing it may well be just the way it is, many cars compromise strength for noise in the lower gears by design. I would drain the oil check for anything metallic and if it's OK just re-fill it with fresh oil. (it probably originally had EP80 but you can use a modern 75w90 GL4 as an alternative which in it's self might make it quieter when hot))

Cheers for this. Yeah I don't think its changed in a long time. I've had this car so long its hard to remember. I know about 4 years ago in London I let someone drive it and they commented on it sounding like an old Morris Minor due to the gears. I'd thought that before so guessing its probably been like that for the last 30k that ive done in it haha. There is an oil leak on one of the drive shafts but i'm pretty sure its coming from above rather than the shaft. I'll double check all this though.

[cjhillman]

Today I gave myself the task of replacing the fuel lines. Meaning to do this for a while as I've only every done half of the feed from the tank (post filter). Alarmingly this new piece was in terrible condition compared to the rest of the old stuff.
At a guess I put this on last summer and its supposed to be R9 stuff. Looks like I'll be redoing all this in the future again.  



Of course this hasnt gone as smoothly as I'd have hoped. Now its all back together the Car fires up and works just fine. I havent driven it yet thought just revved it a bit because I'm only getting a trickle of fuel in the filter. I expected it to fill up as usual but it just trickling through ? I'm guessing this is something to do with not priming the fuel pump? or an air leak? i'm going to replace the jubilee clip on the other side of the filter as its not great and is leaking slightly. Any ideas though? I found it interesting that fuel didnt spurt out when I started dismantling the tank feed side (with the filter) only when I took the T piece return off the fuel pump which i'll post below. 



This is the return that goes to the pump, carb and tank


Lastly I found these metal fuel lines a bit worrying. The seem close the the exhaust! I tried to cable tie them up as the plastic clip they're held in is barley alive these days. The seem to run alone side the exhaust under the drivers side to the tank... is this normal . Seems very close.



A sorry for its self Escort and a reminder that simple jobs take your whole day up sometimes... I had so much planned.

[kevins]

A lot of the guel line out there is rubbish, I had a piece that went exactly the same after a few months on my Range rover, it's expensive but something like cohline is pretty much fit and forget.

[cjhillman]

Aug 16, 2022 16:12:20 GMT kevins said:

A lot of the guel line out there is rubbish, I had a piece that went exactly the same after a few months on my Range rover, it's expensive but something like cohline is pretty much fit and forget.

Thats good to know. I'll be doing it all again i'm sure so need to buy some decent stuff, this was Halfords stuff :/ Its all too close to hot things to leave without checking.

What do you think about the filter problem? Wondering if i'll end up getting stuck just trickling like that.