djim

After I fired up the engine via the battery charger on Monday evening, I left the battery to charge overnight. In the morning, the charger battery level light was still only on amber, which I assumed meant that the battery was refusing to receive / hold charge. Time for a new battery. 
Getting hold of the correct replacement battery should have been easy but Euro Car Parts, specifically their website, made the process very complicated and it took me two days to source the correct battery.
I have been advised that the battery that was in the Sierra was not right for the car. Apparently, the battery was more suited to a diesel engine or a much larger capacity pez motor.

I measured the battery.

I also measured the battery tray, which has three holes for the clamp bolt, which means that the battery tray can accommodate different sized batteries. Clever.

Replacement battery purchased and fitted.

The weather forecast for today was dry and sunny so I decided to take the Sierra to work.
I got my surveying kit in the boot.

I drove from home along the M40 and M25 to Old Windsor, then into Windsor, then along the M4 and A404 to Marlow, then to High Wycombe, then back home, approx 65 miles, I think.




The exhaust fumes smell has been fixed. Evidently, exhaust fumes have been getting past the old gaskets / loose manifold and downpipe fixings and replacing the lot has fixed the problem.
On route home I popped into Wickes to buy a fence post.

Which fitted easily inside the cabin.

I have a few more jobs in mind for the Sierra but you will hear about them next week as I have non car related plans for this weekend.

Ah, so this is currency and not octane rating? 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1088775955532382/?ref=browse_tab&referral_code=marketplace_top_picks&referral_story_type=top_picks

Misspelt Xsara wagon, £750... actually looks like a decent workhorse for the money.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/7593658884010541

1978 Red Morris Marina 1.3 L Saloon 4dr Petrol Manual (69 bhp) for sale for £4,075 in HOUNSLOW, BOROUGH OF HOUNSLOW (autotrader.co.uk)

£4,075

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before (and CBA to check) but if you set your browser to incognito mode compare the market or whoever you’re getting quotes from think you’re a brand new customer rather than someone trying to get a cheaper quote multiple times a day. They tend to load the quotes if they think you’re getting desperate. 
 
“of course I wasn’t looking at porn dear, I was trying to get car insurance, honest”
 
Best time to get a quote is 28 days before renewal apparently. The closer you are to renewal the more desperate they assume you must be. 

Sorted. A folded up bit of paper on top of the battery to press it down more has worked 😂

D701 SWL

I know Mannol is a perfectly fine oil, but because the chains are at the back of this engine and replacement is not really a viable option on a car of this value, I wanted to be super careful with my choice of oil.

VW spec 507 is low ash so only really important over a longer term if the car had a DPF, which this one does not. So I picked a (slightly cheaper) fully synthetic 5w30 quality oil from Fuchs which I know is a 'known' brand althought not 507 spec. So out came the Mannol and in went 8 litres of Fuchs plus a new filter. I guess the engine has had a flush with clean cheap oil for a few hundred miles. Anyway it's given me peace of mind.
After my holiday I am still running a lot of errands for my mum in connection with stuff to do with my dad and tonight I tried the dynamic setting on the suspension which only comes with Sport models. Not expecting much, the difference is incredible. It really stiffens the car up and transforms the driving experience, giving confidence in the corners (it feels like it's going to fall over in comfort mode on twisty roads). I then used lift mode to go over the 327 speed humps on the road up to my mum's house.
I made a short video of the car and its suspension moving up and down. In the clip it's not that noticeable but in person the car goes from an almost Allroad ride height into something quite sporty!
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxKV6q-Ta341qbH_OxNtW_rHpCPs2mL4G2?si=MiQLcC9fxbm7I7Bl

Making good progress and half way.
Heater fan stopped working below half at Stratford area. Now at Birmingham Frankley services to get my glasses out of the boot. Heater fan coming in and out randomly when set to full now. Iirc these are based on E46 and I remember they have a hedgehog something that causes issues? Just some old car fun.
Anyway roof is staying down for now as 18C. Pushing on. 
 

Washed and now time to go!
 

Pez shot. Going to give it a quick pressure wash at the petrol station as dust from a building work on a nearby house is all over the windscreen.
Need to get going as chin wagging too long and won't be 9pm till I'm back. 

Yeah sorry. You have met me enough times to know about my verbal diarrhoea problem 🤣 
@purplebargeken van is mega nice.

#breakfastofchampions
 

Loaded and turned round now. 
 

Sorry, but these people @wuvvum and @sierraman 's brother are surely winning at life?
Escort to Allegro VDP = win. You'd be beating the girls off with a shitty stick. "Can I try out the picnic tables, oh PLEEAAASE" 
Escort to Lada = win. You've gone from decadent Western frippery to robust Eastern common sense. You're advertising your socialist credentials and again, the knicker elastic should be snapping on every street corner. 

I turned it round on the trailer for weight distribution but it caused another issue that I thought might happen.
The wind got under the pop up roof and lifted the rear end of it. I had to stop on the hard shoulder and lower it again and even though I thought I’d locked it down it came up again within a couple of miles.
I managed to get a couple of small camloc straps tied round the inside roof mechanism and through seatbelt buckle which kept it in place the rest of the way back. 
Will have a good look round it next week and decide on my next move. 
if I keep it then I’ve some better seats to replace what I think are Rover SD1 ones. 
There are many more jobs that need doing first but it’s always nice to change something to make you feel a bit better, 

I had a day off work today so made use of some tinkering time.
First job was replacing the rear inner light lens. One of the previous owners has reversed into something I think, there is some scuffing on the bumper, a very small ding in the metal quarter panel, and a crack in the rear light lens which is hard to see, harder to photograph but easy to replace.

Its not too bad, but water has got in and its going green in the cracks, and is only a matter of time before it mists up and makes the car look tatty and uncared for. I bagged a replacement unit for £16 on ebay which arrived earlier in the week. Easy enough to do, open the boot and remove the sound deadening felt

undo 3x 10mm nuts through the access holes and gently lift it out

I took the opportunity to clean the muck out of the stamped recess in the panel before reassembling it all with the new unit. 

Much better.
Then onto some other jobs. The Laser 4880 oil filter tool had arrived earlier in the week too so I lifted the front end up and had another go at getting the oil filter housing to release. I followed @RoverFolkUs advice and used a 24mm socket on it, rather than fitting the cup tool direct to the 12" breaker bar. I used the Power of Grayskull and amazingly it undid - I was sure I'd trashed the cup wrench again, but astonishingly it survived. I drained the oil out of the filter housing (maybe 1/2" litre?) into a washing up bowl and then replaced the filter and o-ring, making sure I cleaned up all the threads and mating surfaces with a rag, put a tiny bit of copper grease on the mating surfaces on the not-threads side of the o-ring, then refitted it. I did it up hand tight, then a tiny bit more on the ratchet. Hopefully next time I need to undo it it will come off without a fuss. 
I got given a BIN offer on a caliper and carrier so I took the lazy route and just bought it, and swapped the whole shebang. It was £150 which I could have done without, but the old one was basically fucked - I could have spent a significant amount of time heating it up, hammering it and getting it to free off, then replacing the slider and reassembling it all, but I'd probably have broken something in the process and immobilised the car so just took the easy route and assembled the whole caliper and carrier on the workbench, removed the old one and swapped the brake flexi over, refitted the pads, pins and wire retainers and then enlisted my eldest daughter to do the pedals end while I did the caliper end and bled it through.
All sorted out and working fine - so thats another issue off the list.
I think the next thing is to get some tyres, it has 4 mismatched budgets on currently, and they're all at, or close to the 3mm wear markers. it looks like I can get a full matching set of Kumho Ecsta tyres for £300, or Uniroyal Rainexperts for £340. I know and trust the uniroyals, the Kumho's are supposed to be just as good in the rain as the Uniroyals, so might be worth taking a punt on, thats something for next month though I think.
I had to go up to Manchester for work last week and the Lexus handled it all beautifully. 550 miles there and back via Telford, it behaved impeccably and delivered 38mpg, and 35mpg over a combined 20 gallons of 70% motorways and 30% crawling round local roads.
 

I bought a new car.


It's nice but also broken, because Jaguar.
 
New engine required. 
 
Phil

Thanks! You never know if people are interested or if you are just shouting into the void! 
So this Easter trip was back to Spain - ferry to Bilbao, then Zaragoza, Valencia, Toledo and back to get the ferry home from Santander. 2200 miles, 64 hours on a ferry. 
Photos are a bit patchy, as due to my charging skills* my phone was often flat, because I’d plug one end into the phone, but forget to put the other end in a usb socket. Winner. 
Firstly churros. 

crispy hot loveliness dipped in molten chocolate. What’s not to love. For bonus points I saved some down my T-shirt for later.  
 
Lots of old shite around the place - loads of old French luxury saloons still doing sterling service. Car of the trip for me was this one though, what a beauty:


 
for bonus points still apparently in everyday use.
Zaragoza saw me having a squint at this, which was similar to mine but more dieselly:

Weather here was a bit mixed - warm but quite wet from time to time. 
Next stop Valencia, which was endless orange trees that I have lots of photos of but they just look like fields of trees, and you don’t get the lovely smell. It was much warmer and more desert like - this was the campsite:

whilst there I also tried pleb-shite (or cycling as the masses insist on calling it) for the first time in years. 
and I shit you not, found the actual holy grail - I’ve no idea what Monty Python or Indiania Jones were up to, it’s just in a side chapel in Valencia cathedral. if you believe the story it’s apparently the real deal. If you don’t it’s still a pretty impressive cup
 
 
bit more camp action:

Saw another nice caravelle which was for sale - lot less rusty than mine living as it had in the sun:

now I’m not religious in the slightest, but the Spanish catholics know how to build a top notch  place of worship

next was a trip over to Toledo and Aranjuez through the most horrific weather I’d ever driven in - driving rain and sleet. 
Toledo was spectacular, but a bit busy for me, full of other tourists and tat shops (never had so many opportunities to buy a sword).

the royals summer palace was a thing of extravagance - first some carriage shite

their smoking room - not sure what they were smoking though!

and the most comprehensive selection of coffee in machine id ever seen

did enjoy it all, and loved the geckos in the wash block 

started the long trip home and had the first issue. Gears have a dog leg first, with reverse above. Couldn’t select first or reverse. Two options - shagged gear bag (there is a delicate ‘hockey stick’ that controls these gears) or linkage issues.  

popped the selector box off, and found that without the lock out gate in place everything worked as it should, which was a relief. There is a spring loaded ball bearing that slots into an indent that prevents this bellows collapsing, and thus locking out 1st and reverse:



the ball under some pressure released at speed into the car park:

but I finally found it under the white one! Next it needed some cleaning and lube, but I had to improvise 

worked a treat and off we went again. Made it back to the ferry 
where I did spot this 

come on - own up which one of it was you?!
got home 11:30 last night and back at work today. 
Some minor work to do over the next couple of months then off to Finland and Northern Norway…..
can highly recommend Spain, lovely people, cracking cars and some great driving. The long ferry is also worth it I think, although it was just a shade rough on the return leg - I found myself at one point in the air falling, as my bunk was swiftly coming back up to meet me! Will book it agin for next year, give us something to look forward to! 

Sharing my exploits with you scallywags is half the fun of owning a 37 year old Ford.    

The lovely Stowe.

Test drive completed.
No wobble whatsoever, the Sierra was only giving me good vibrations.
Looking good with a squirt of tyre shine.

Thread of the year so far? I mean lots of ongoing threads have been great, but as for guiding us through the Winter with this recommissioning project with a happy ending - bravo.

The weather was looking ok, it was time to take the Sierra out for a test drive.
Even with the battery disconnected, the fuel gauge was showing that the tank was nearly full. Bearing in mind that I only put about 5 litres in when I first bought the Sierra, the gauge reading looked very wrong.

With the battery reconnected, the Pinto fired up first time and the exhaust spat out a mouthful of moisture. More on this later. 
Whilst walking out of the workshop, to move the E46 out of the way, I noticed that the brake lights were permanently on.

I quickly got changed, removed the bottom of the dashboard again to gain access to the brake pedal switch.

I removed the switch to check and clean it. It looked ok.

I refitted the switch and adjusted it to the correct position. Evidently, I must have disturbed the switch whilst fiddling with the pedal box yesterday.
All pre-flight checks done, it was time to set off. I got as far as my local Esso fuel station.

I managed to squeeze 5 litres of petrol into the tank before the filler neck was full. It looks like the gauge was showing an almost full tank because the tank was almost full. On the basis that the tank holds 60 litres and I've added about 10 litres since buying the Sierra, there must have been about 50 litres of fuel in the tank. At approx £1.50 per litre, that's a £75 gift. Thank you previous owner.
Before leaving the fuel station, I was approached by three people, who commented on how immaculate the Sierra is and who asked how old it is and how many miles it has done. How nice that the posh folk of Beaconsfield appreciate old Fords.
Approx 5 miles into my trip, I stopped off at a garden centre to check vital fluids and to give everything a once over. No problems to report. The pretty setting provided an opportunity for a couple of photos.



Back on the road, I headed for the A404. If you've ever watched Wheeler Dealers (the GB episodes), you will have seen Mike B towing or driving something along this famous* dual carriageway. 
Without any struggling, the Sierra got up to 60MPH.

I came off the A404 at the A4 junction and drove through Maidenhead, Cookham, Wooburn Green and towards home. I stopped off at Glory Park for a couple more photos.


I arrived back home almost exactly 20 miles later, as confirmed by the trip meter. This is good news, it means the trip meter and odometer are both reading just fine.

Ok, I've only driven the Sierra for 20 miles along local traffic free roads but my first thoughts are very positive.
Engine - I adjusted the idle speed at the garden centre, once the engine reached full operating temperature. Throughout the trip, the engine ran fine, quickly reached operating temperature and the needle didn't budge from the mid point. It pulled well from low revs, with no missing or spluttering. Nothing has leaked out, however there is still a whiff of paraffin / old engine oil / mucky residue from where I've been tinkering, which will need time to burn off. 
Gearbox - All gears go in and out just fine, synchros are strong. The gearbox is silent and I love the mechanical feel of the gear change.
Clutch - Biting point spot on. No dragging, no slipping, no juddering. Perfect.
Prop & Diff - Silent, no vibrations.
Steering - Noticeably heavy at parking speeds, otherwise works well and feels adequately light at speed. Steering wheel is on straight, no pulling, no issues.
Suspension - Smooth! No knocks, no bangs. Ride comfort is superb, on par with my W123. Handling is roly-poly, as expected. 
Brakes - Needed a bit of time to bed in, however once the pedal firmed up, they worked just fine. I tried a couple of emergency stops, no pulling, no issues.
Exhaust - Drill holes failed to allow any moisture to escape overnight and I could hear a significant blow from both silencers. Bollocks. Evidently, drilling holes in silencers is not a good idea. I will plug both holes with chemical metal and self-tapping screws this afternoon.
Radio - Played Greatest Hits Radio (105.8FM), including Popmaster at 10:30am. All six speakers work ok and the FM reception is better than expected, bearing in mind I live and drove the Sierra through The Chilterns.
Summary - I love it!
@N19 I am sure that I will find something to write about soon. There are a few more bodywork related issues that I want to attend to and I expect the forthcoming MoT test will reveal something wrong with the old Ford.