Slowsilver

Yes, it was me. At the time the only replacements that I could find were plastic, and the Maxi Owners' Club spares guy told me that he had been forced to stop selling reconditioned racks from his supplier because these bushes only lasted a few months and they were all being returned under warranty. The original bush in my rack was of a peculiar construction which appeared to be a shallow U-shaped steel outer ring with what looked like pumice stone inside it. This stuff appeared to have completely broken up and was doing nothing at all. I bought a used rack from the Maxi Club Spares supplier, stripped it down and it had exactly the same bush problem so I took the rack and the outer casing to a local engineering place that I knew of and he turned up a phosphor bronze bush for me which was a shrink fit into the casing and a nice tight sliding fit to the rack rod. I rebuilt the spare rack using this, fitted it and it was great. No play at all. I then stripped the original rack and got a bush turned for that too. So I now have a spare rebuilt rack as well. Unfortunately my local engineering man has retired and I have been unable to find anyone else locally who is prepared to take on these little custom jobs. I was not aware that someone was now producing brass bushes, but hopefully they should last longer than the plastic ones. I wonder how well they fit as the tolerances are quite tight and mine were custom turned and reamed to fit my particular rack and casing.
I did my first stretch belt change on my daughter's Hyundai i10 recently. Apparently it can be done with a screwdriver or a lever but there is a risk of damaging the new belt, so I bought these:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394179718939
Less than a fiver and made removing and refitting the belt a piece of cake. Just clip the appropriate tool between the crank pulley and the belt then rotate the crank pulley using a spanner on the bolt. You can get metal ones which are more expensive but probably better if you are going to be changing lots of belts. But these hard plastics ones are OK for occasional use and are worth the money even if you only use the once.
 

Yes, it was me. At the time the only replacements that I could find were plastic, and the Maxi Owners' Club spares guy told me that he had been forced to stop selling reconditioned racks from his supplier because these bushes only lasted a few months and they were all being returned under warranty. The original bush in my rack was of a peculiar construction which appeared to be a shallow U-shaped steel outer ring with what looked like pumice stone inside it. This stuff appeared to have completely broken up and was doing nothing at all. I bought a used rack from the Maxi Club Spares supplier, stripped it down and it had exactly the same bush problem so I took the rack and the outer casing to a local engineering place that I knew of and he turned up a phosphor bronze bush for me which was a shrink fit into the casing and a nice tight sliding fit to the rack rod. I rebuilt the spare rack using this, fitted it and it was great. No play at all. I then stripped the original rack and got a bush turned for that too. So I now have a spare rebuilt rack as well. Unfortunately my local engineering man has retired and I have been unable to find anyone else locally who is prepared to take on these little custom jobs. I was not aware that someone was now producing brass bushes, but hopefully they should last longer than the plastic ones. I wonder how well they fit as the tolerances are quite tight and mine were custom turned and reamed to fit my particular rack and casing.
I did my first stretch belt change on my daughter's Hyundai i10 recently. Apparently it can be done with a screwdriver or a lever but there is a risk of damaging the new belt, so I bought these:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394179718939
Less than a fiver and made removing and refitting the belt a piece of cake. Just clip the appropriate tool between the crank pulley and the belt then rotate the crank pulley using a spanner on the bolt. You can get metal ones which are more expensive but probably better if you are going to be changing lots of belts. But these hard plastics ones are OK for occasional use and are worth the money even if you only use the once.
 

Yes, it was me. At the time the only replacements that I could find were plastic, and the Maxi Owners' Club spares guy told me that he had been forced to stop selling reconditioned racks from his supplier because these bushes only lasted a few months and they were all being returned under warranty. The original bush in my rack was of a peculiar construction which appeared to be a shallow U-shaped steel outer ring with what looked like pumice stone inside it. This stuff appeared to have completely broken up and was doing nothing at all. I bought a used rack from the Maxi Club Spares supplier, stripped it down and it had exactly the same bush problem so I took the rack and the outer casing to a local engineering place that I knew of and he turned up a phosphor bronze bush for me which was a shrink fit into the casing and a nice tight sliding fit to the rack rod. I rebuilt the spare rack using this, fitted it and it was great. No play at all. I then stripped the original rack and got a bush turned for that too. So I now have a spare rebuilt rack as well. Unfortunately my local engineering man has retired and I have been unable to find anyone else locally who is prepared to take on these little custom jobs. I was not aware that someone was now producing brass bushes, but hopefully they should last longer than the plastic ones. I wonder how well they fit as the tolerances are quite tight and mine were custom turned and reamed to fit my particular rack and casing.
I did my first stretch belt change on my daughter's Hyundai i10 recently. Apparently it can be done with a screwdriver or a lever but there is a risk of damaging the new belt, so I bought these:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394179718939
Less than a fiver and made removing and refitting the belt a piece of cake. Just clip the appropriate tool between the crank pulley and the belt then rotate the crank pulley using a spanner on the bolt. You can get metal ones which are more expensive but probably better if you are going to be changing lots of belts. But these hard plastics ones are OK for occasional use and are worth the money even if you only use the once.
 

Yes, it was me. At the time the only replacements that I could find were plastic, and the Maxi Owners' Club spares guy told me that he had been forced to stop selling reconditioned racks from his supplier because these bushes only lasted a few months and they were all being returned under warranty. The original bush in my rack was of a peculiar construction which appeared to be a shallow U-shaped steel outer ring with what looked like pumice stone inside it. This stuff appeared to have completely broken up and was doing nothing at all. I bought a used rack from the Maxi Club Spares supplier, stripped it down and it had exactly the same bush problem so I took the rack and the outer casing to a local engineering place that I knew of and he turned up a phosphor bronze bush for me which was a shrink fit into the casing and a nice tight sliding fit to the rack rod. I rebuilt the spare rack using this, fitted it and it was great. No play at all. I then stripped the original rack and got a bush turned for that too. So I now have a spare rebuilt rack as well. Unfortunately my local engineering man has retired and I have been unable to find anyone else locally who is prepared to take on these little custom jobs. I was not aware that someone was now producing brass bushes, but hopefully they should last longer than the plastic ones. I wonder how well they fit as the tolerances are quite tight and mine were custom turned and reamed to fit my particular rack and casing.
I did my first stretch belt change on my daughter's Hyundai i10 recently. Apparently it can be done with a screwdriver or a lever but there is a risk of damaging the new belt, so I bought these:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394179718939
Less than a fiver and made removing and refitting the belt a piece of cake. Just clip the appropriate tool between the crank pulley and the belt then rotate the crank pulley using a spanner on the bolt. You can get metal ones which are more expensive but probably better if you are going to be changing lots of belts. But these hard plastics ones are OK for occasional use and are worth the money even if you only use the once.
 

Yes, it was me. At the time the only replacements that I could find were plastic, and the Maxi Owners' Club spares guy told me that he had been forced to stop selling reconditioned racks from his supplier because these bushes only lasted a few months and they were all being returned under warranty. The original bush in my rack was of a peculiar construction which appeared to be a shallow U-shaped steel outer ring with what looked like pumice stone inside it. This stuff appeared to have completely broken up and was doing nothing at all. I bought a used rack from the Maxi Club Spares supplier, stripped it down and it had exactly the same bush problem so I took the rack and the outer casing to a local engineering place that I knew of and he turned up a phosphor bronze bush for me which was a shrink fit into the casing and a nice tight sliding fit to the rack rod. I rebuilt the spare rack using this, fitted it and it was great. No play at all. I then stripped the original rack and got a bush turned for that too. So I now have a spare rebuilt rack as well. Unfortunately my local engineering man has retired and I have been unable to find anyone else locally who is prepared to take on these little custom jobs. I was not aware that someone was now producing brass bushes, but hopefully they should last longer than the plastic ones. I wonder how well they fit as the tolerances are quite tight and mine were custom turned and reamed to fit my particular rack and casing.
I did my first stretch belt change on my daughter's Hyundai i10 recently. Apparently it can be done with a screwdriver or a lever but there is a risk of damaging the new belt, so I bought these:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394179718939
Less than a fiver and made removing and refitting the belt a piece of cake. Just clip the appropriate tool between the crank pulley and the belt then rotate the crank pulley using a spanner on the bolt. You can get metal ones which are more expensive but probably better if you are going to be changing lots of belts. But these hard plastics ones are OK for occasional use and are worth the money even if you only use the once.
 

This is still going well and just being "an car". Starts immediately even in sub-zero temperatures, is quiet, comfortable and (for me) pretty quick. However there seems to be a peculiar problem with the heater temperature control, which appears to have gone binary instead of analogue. Instead of going from cold through warm to hot it appears to go from fully cold to fully hot in just one click at around the one o'clock position, which is about where the blue marks change to red. There is a photo in the HBoL of the back of the rotary knob showing a cable attached to it but I cannot find any information about where the other end goes or what it controls. I assume that it must operate a water valve somewhere but can't understand how it still works but is not progressive. How can a cable-operated valve go from fully open to fully closed within one click of the control. The cable movement for one click must be tiny. Do any of the Mondeo cognoscenti have any ideas. Maybe @sierraman or @egg would be kind enough to advise if they can help. TIA.
 

This is still going well and just being "an car". Starts immediately even in sub-zero temperatures, is quiet, comfortable and (for me) pretty quick. However there seems to be a peculiar problem with the heater temperature control, which appears to have gone binary instead of analogue. Instead of going from cold through warm to hot it appears to go from fully cold to fully hot in just one click at around the one o'clock position, which is about where the blue marks change to red. There is a photo in the HBoL of the back of the rotary knob showing a cable attached to it but I cannot find any information about where the other end goes or what it controls. I assume that it must operate a water valve somewhere but can't understand how it still works but is not progressive. How can a cable-operated valve go from fully open to fully closed within one click of the control. The cable movement for one click must be tiny. Do any of the Mondeo cognoscenti have any ideas. Maybe @sierraman or @egg would be kind enough to advise if they can help. TIA.
 

This is still going well and just being "an car". Starts immediately even in sub-zero temperatures, is quiet, comfortable and (for me) pretty quick. However there seems to be a peculiar problem with the heater temperature control, which appears to have gone binary instead of analogue. Instead of going from cold through warm to hot it appears to go from fully cold to fully hot in just one click at around the one o'clock position, which is about where the blue marks change to red. There is a photo in the HBoL of the back of the rotary knob showing a cable attached to it but I cannot find any information about where the other end goes or what it controls. I assume that it must operate a water valve somewhere but can't understand how it still works but is not progressive. How can a cable-operated valve go from fully open to fully closed within one click of the control. The cable movement for one click must be tiny. Do any of the Mondeo cognoscenti have any ideas. Maybe @sierraman or @egg would be kind enough to advise if they can help. TIA.
 

The grease dries up as well, Focus Mk1 seem prone to that then the cables or the funny shaped selector gear mechanism breaks. 

I think Number 16 is the lever on the heating system as shown here (but not in situ!)

 

Hi - yes it's a cable controlled thing on early cars like ours, and the cable gets stretched leading to all sorts of problems. it connects in the driver's footwell to the side of heater box containing the heater matrix. You could try manipulating the connection on the side of the heater box (removing footwell trim to access) to see what's happening, but it may also be time to change the cable (if you can find one).

This is still going well and just being "an car". Starts immediately even in sub-zero temperatures, is quiet, comfortable and (for me) pretty quick. However there seems to be a peculiar problem with the heater temperature control, which appears to have gone binary instead of analogue. Instead of going from cold through warm to hot it appears to go from fully cold to fully hot in just one click at around the one o'clock position, which is about where the blue marks change to red. There is a photo in the HBoL of the back of the rotary knob showing a cable attached to it but I cannot find any information about where the other end goes or what it controls. I assume that it must operate a water valve somewhere but can't understand how it still works but is not progressive. How can a cable-operated valve go from fully open to fully closed within one click of the control. The cable movement for one click must be tiny. Do any of the Mondeo cognoscenti have any ideas. Maybe @sierraman or @egg would be kind enough to advise if they can help. TIA.
 

This is still going well and just being "an car". Starts immediately even in sub-zero temperatures, is quiet, comfortable and (for me) pretty quick. However there seems to be a peculiar problem with the heater temperature control, which appears to have gone binary instead of analogue. Instead of going from cold through warm to hot it appears to go from fully cold to fully hot in just one click at around the one o'clock position, which is about where the blue marks change to red. There is a photo in the HBoL of the back of the rotary knob showing a cable attached to it but I cannot find any information about where the other end goes or what it controls. I assume that it must operate a water valve somewhere but can't understand how it still works but is not progressive. How can a cable-operated valve go from fully open to fully closed within one click of the control. The cable movement for one click must be tiny. Do any of the Mondeo cognoscenti have any ideas. Maybe @sierraman or @egg would be kind enough to advise if they can help. TIA.
 

Watching a recording of a TV programme about Carla Lane comedies when I spotted this:


Dreadful pictures courtesy of mobile phone camera direct from paused TV.
Was a scene from an episode of "Bread", supposedly outside a DHSS office in Liverpool.
No idea which episode or what date. I think the car passing by is a Hillman Hunter GT.
 

Watching a recording of a TV programme about Carla Lane comedies when I spotted this:


Dreadful pictures courtesy of mobile phone camera direct from paused TV.
Was a scene from an episode of "Bread", supposedly outside a DHSS office in Liverpool.
No idea which episode or what date. I think the car passing by is a Hillman Hunter GT.
 

Almost identical to the one I owned in the mid-seventies. 1969 Austin 1300 2-door. The roof was painted gloss black, not vinyl. These were apparently also sold in the USA as the Austin America. Bought from my brother-in-law's father who worked at Longbridge and bought it new via the employee discount scheme. Ran it for a few years until I started doing road rallies and decided that it was too nice to use for that so I sold it and bought a tatty Mark 1 Escort instead. Big mistake! A really good car, the only minor downside I found was that the boot was quite awkward to load as it was very low and the lid was more vertical than horizontal and opened upwards, meaning quite a lot of bending and stretching. Sadly No record of ROC490G on the DVLA website.
Potatocam pictures, probably taken on a Kodak Instamatic then scanned in.

Watching a recording of a TV programme about Carla Lane comedies when I spotted this:


Dreadful pictures courtesy of mobile phone camera direct from paused TV.
Was a scene from an episode of "Bread", supposedly outside a DHSS office in Liverpool.
No idea which episode or what date. I think the car passing by is a Hillman Hunter GT.
 

Watching a recording of a TV programme about Carla Lane comedies when I spotted this:


Dreadful pictures courtesy of mobile phone camera direct from paused TV.
Was a scene from an episode of "Bread", supposedly outside a DHSS office in Liverpool.
No idea which episode or what date. I think the car passing by is a Hillman Hunter GT.
 

Almost identical to the one I owned in the mid-seventies. 1969 Austin 1300 2-door. The roof was painted gloss black, not vinyl. These were apparently also sold in the USA as the Austin America. Bought from my brother-in-law's father who worked at Longbridge and bought it new via the employee discount scheme. Ran it for a few years until I started doing road rallies and decided that it was too nice to use for that so I sold it and bought a tatty Mark 1 Escort instead. Big mistake! A really good car, the only minor downside I found was that the boot was quite awkward to load as it was very low and the lid was more vertical than horizontal and opened upwards, meaning quite a lot of bending and stretching. Sadly No record of ROC490G on the DVLA website.
Potatocam pictures, probably taken on a Kodak Instamatic then scanned in.

Hi Andy.
Glad to hear from you again. Sorry to hear you lost the plot and your mojo for a while. I am sure the new toy will give you plenty of jobs to do but enjoy it, don't overdo it. Just play with it when you feel like it and don't fret about timescales. Hope you continue to improve and that the break from work has helped.
 
 

Almost identical to the one I owned in the mid-seventies. 1969 Austin 1300 2-door. The roof was painted gloss black, not vinyl. These were apparently also sold in the USA as the Austin America. Bought from my brother-in-law's father who worked at Longbridge and bought it new via the employee discount scheme. Ran it for a few years until I started doing road rallies and decided that it was too nice to use for that so I sold it and bought a tatty Mark 1 Escort instead. Big mistake! A really good car, the only minor downside I found was that the boot was quite awkward to load as it was very low and the lid was more vertical than horizontal and opened upwards, meaning quite a lot of bending and stretching. Sadly No record of ROC490G on the DVLA website.
Potatocam pictures, probably taken on a Kodak Instamatic then scanned in.

Almost identical to the one I owned in the mid-seventies. 1969 Austin 1300 2-door. The roof was painted gloss black, not vinyl. These were apparently also sold in the USA as the Austin America. Bought from my brother-in-law's father who worked at Longbridge and bought it new via the employee discount scheme. Ran it for a few years until I started doing road rallies and decided that it was too nice to use for that so I sold it and bought a tatty Mark 1 Escort instead. Big mistake! A really good car, the only minor downside I found was that the boot was quite awkward to load as it was very low and the lid was more vertical than horizontal and opened upwards, meaning quite a lot of bending and stretching. Sadly No record of ROC490G on the DVLA website.
Potatocam pictures, probably taken on a Kodak Instamatic then scanned in.

Almost identical to the one I owned in the mid-seventies. 1969 Austin 1300 2-door. The roof was painted gloss black, not vinyl. These were apparently also sold in the USA as the Austin America. Bought from my brother-in-law's father who worked at Longbridge and bought it new via the employee discount scheme. Ran it for a few years until I started doing road rallies and decided that it was too nice to use for that so I sold it and bought a tatty Mark 1 Escort instead. Big mistake! A really good car, the only minor downside I found was that the boot was quite awkward to load as it was very low and the lid was more vertical than horizontal and opened upwards, meaning quite a lot of bending and stretching. Sadly No record of ROC490G on the DVLA website.
Potatocam pictures, probably taken on a Kodak Instamatic then scanned in.

Almost identical to the one I owned in the mid-seventies. 1969 Austin 1300 2-door. The roof was painted gloss black, not vinyl. These were apparently also sold in the USA as the Austin America. Bought from my brother-in-law's father who worked at Longbridge and bought it new via the employee discount scheme. Ran it for a few years until I started doing road rallies and decided that it was too nice to use for that so I sold it and bought a tatty Mark 1 Escort instead. Big mistake! A really good car, the only minor downside I found was that the boot was quite awkward to load as it was very low and the lid was more vertical than horizontal and opened upwards, meaning quite a lot of bending and stretching. Sadly No record of ROC490G on the DVLA website.
Potatocam pictures, probably taken on a Kodak Instamatic then scanned in.

Almost identical to the one I owned in the mid-seventies. 1969 Austin 1300 2-door. The roof was painted gloss black, not vinyl. These were apparently also sold in the USA as the Austin America. Bought from my brother-in-law's father who worked at Longbridge and bought it new via the employee discount scheme. Ran it for a few years until I started doing road rallies and decided that it was too nice to use for that so I sold it and bought a tatty Mark 1 Escort instead. Big mistake! A really good car, the only minor downside I found was that the boot was quite awkward to load as it was very low and the lid was more vertical than horizontal and opened upwards, meaning quite a lot of bending and stretching. Sadly No record of ROC490G on the DVLA website.
Potatocam pictures, probably taken on a Kodak Instamatic then scanned in.