Sold Stanky's Geep - fire sale

[Stanky]

The listing for the one I got said it was for a mk4/mk5 cortina rather than an escort as I suspected - I suppose thats the nature of cars like this, its designed for a load of bits that are common in scrapyards at the time but its a right bugger working out whats what 30 years later!

[barmatt]

Good work and always nice to read of progress on the Geep.

 

Gunsons eezibleed kits are ace! I've bled many brake and clutches with mine, makes a 2 man job easily doable on your own.

[Stanky]

Latest update. As it was moderately warm and a bit sunny this afternoon I went and bought myself a new high powered battery (since the old/existing one is a POS) from the local car dismantlers. Old battery was an iffy 400CCA/40Ah jobbie which could get the geep to turn over and fire if it felt like it, but generally didn't. For £20 I got a 520CCA/65Ah battery from a local car dismantlers with a 3 month warranty

 

 

I put it on trickle charge in the shed for a bit. The next job was to work out why the alternator wasn't charging the battery when it was running. Looking at the alternator, there were 3 wires coming out of it, which I understood to be the requisite number. Not sure what the scotchlok was for. Probably better to ignore it for now. So, the wire I needed to follow was green.

 

 

Pulled the connector thing out and checked it. Looks OK

 

 

So lets play follow-the-wire and see where it ends up. Rolling about in the footwells, I could see it went up into the back of the instrument cluster which was good, but next I had to extract the cluster to work out what was wrong. Step 1. Undo screws x3 holding it to the dash. Tick.

 

 

Next up, pull it out. Ah, this thing is in the way.

 

 

Popped out the little circle in the middle and undid the giant bolt with a 24mm socket. Its flipping lucky this bolt wasn't any bigger because 24mm is the biggest socket I own. I ended up putting the wheels of full lock and pushing against the stops to get it to undo. probably best that its done up tight though TBH.

 

 

bang, and the wheel is gone.

 

Now to work out what was wrong. The cluster came out easily now, and I undid the connector thing. The contacts were a bit corroded so I cleaned them with sandpaper. Next up I extracted the tiny bulb behind the charging symbol

 

 

Ah, filament has gone. This could be easier than expected. I went and raided the 'spare' cluster for all of its working bulbs. I swapped out the ones with broken filaments (all of them, other than the oil pressure light which is on, but not sure why. Pressure is fine.

 

Lets give it a go. Whacked in the semi-charged battery, connected it up and turned the key to position 1

 

 

w00p w00p thats the light we wanted! Right, that should be the charging circuit fixed I think. Next up lets have a look at getting it to turn over. Having removed, then refitted the dizzy, and timed it up (I think) using a long screwdriver down the plug hole in #1 cylinder. Hmm, the fuel level in the carb in a bit on the low side

 

 

Another welcome bonus of cleaning the instrument cluster contacts is the fuel gauge now works again. I luzzed all the pez I had into the tank

 

 

Not exactly brimming is it? Off the stay but still very low. I bridged the starter solenoid  with a screwdriver but it didn't seem to be pulling and new fuel through. This might be because the level in the tank is too low. I went out to get more fuel, as the Saab needed some petrol anyway. 2 local fuel stations were both shut for deliveries (honestly...) so by the time I'd got the fuel and got home it was dark. I lobbed the 5 litres in anyway and will get some more tomorrow morning and try to get it started, should just be a case of adjusting the dizzy until it fires up, then wiggle it until its running at peak revs. After that we can work out why it won't run off choke, and confirm that its charging the battery while running now.

 

If I can get that working then it might be time to see if the clutch is working by moving it carefully around the drive now I have brakes (which incidentally haven't leaked everywhere in the last 2 weeks which seems to be a positive.

 

Onward!

[Noel Tidybeard]

i'm goona suggest that smoll black dash bulb is an 1.2w replace with a 2.0w which will make the altenator charge at lower rpms for higher quality loom smoke

[Zelandeth]

Completely random aside: first time I saw those warning lights with the little "bars" above and below the light on a D plate Transit as a five or so year old, I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

 

Still think it's one of the best looking bits of unnecessary style on a dash.

[smellypoo]

Is the wheel and dash from a MK2 escort? Dad's first car (started driving quite late) was a 1.1 popular and the layout is triggering some recognition but I can't be certain, my family went through a few Fords in those days!

[Stanky]

Yes, dash, wheel and most of the rest of the bits that aren't fibreglass or the chassis are Mk2 escort, with a smattering of other bits - Mini headlights, R4 indicator/sidelights, caravan rear lights, cortina master cylinder identified so far.

 

I think most of the donated bits came from an 1100 from what people have said.

[Stanky]

Following the revival of the alternator yesterday, this morning I thought I'd have a go at getting it to start. I'd had the new battery on charge overnight and was showing as being full, so I plugged it in, set the choke to halfway and tried to coax it into life. I knew I needed to fix the timing by adjusting the dizzy until it fired, then with it running, adjust it more to get the idle speed up to the highest revs by ear.

 

Yeah, ummm no. At least not today. a lot of wiggling about eventually encouraged it to fire, then almost immediately die again. I went round the front with the ignition on and used a screwdriver to bridge the solenoid so I could try and catch it and get it to settle but it was no good. It'd fire, but then within seconds die again. There was what I think is a good spark at the king lead and ends of the HT leads and fuel was getting through but it wasn't catching properly. Any adjustment of the dizzy was no good, it only fired in one very specific place. When it did fire, it ran for a couple of seconds then farted back through the carb so I think the timing is all wrong and I'm an idiot. It seems the new battery is a big improvement on the old one though.

 

Anyway, since I wasn't having much luck with this, I decided to check over the elecrics. Buoyed by the resurrection of the fuel guage, I checked the sidelights. One front one and both rear ones worked on the switch, the other front one had just blown a bulb so that was easily fixed

 

 

hard to tell, but they do both work.

 

Next up was dipped beam. Now, here I ran into some difficulty. The column stalk that controls the lights can't move like it should because of the underside of the dash. Observe:

 

 

This needs to go up another click.

 

So, undo the robust securing mechanism and move the dash out a bit to get at it.

 

 

Out with the tinsnips. This turned out to be overkill as its not metal but more fibreglass. I chopped a bit out of it (like you do) to allow movement.

 

 

Job done. Its not elegant, but it works. So, first up is to put the dipped beam on

 

 

Success! The dipped beam goes on and the sidelights go out. Next up, full beam]

 

 

My eyes! My eyes! ummm yeah not exactly dazzing, but it all works other than the indicators. Not sure whats up with them, the stalk moves and the lights on the instrument cluster dim slightly but none of the bulbs illuminate. Maybe relay? Or just terrible wiring?

 

No more progress really until I can get the engine running really, I need to make sure the charging circuit actually works with the engine idling and sort out getting it running off-choke. its not too happy about this currently. Maybe idle jet in the carb gummed up? The only other thing to do is to screw the dibond 'floor' down to the chassis rails, and work out whats up with the indicators.

 

Thanks for tuning in.

 

 

 

 

[Guest Hooli]

Years ago when I had a MG Midget the indicators didn't flash without the engine running, it needed the extra voltage to warm the bi-metallic strip in the flasher unit enough. It might be something equally as daft?

[Jim Bell]

And then there was correctly operating lights!

[vulgalour]

Idle thought here, but if the car has a Jago chassis number and antiquated parts, is that not proof enough of a build date to preclude needing an IVA?  I have no doubt there's needless bureaucracy to prevent this as it is a common sense solution.

 

For the indicators, remove the bulbs, clean up all the connectors and try again.  Sounds like it's either a bad earth, bad relay, or that weird thing Hooli describes.  Could even be all three, that's the part of the fun* with these problems.  Great work so far on this.

[Noel Tidybeard]

erm the sidelights shouldn't go out with dipped beam

[Stanky]

the ones within the sealed beams (?) stay on, its the ones in the front wings which go out. its a feature*

[PhilA]

Maybe they're meant to be fog lights, those are meant to go off with high beam...

 

 

Also, as much as I love the TIK-PLOINK of a bimetallic strip indicator flasher unit, modern electronic ones avoid all the "doesn't blink unless revs held at high idle" nonsense.

The one I fitted to the Renault also allowed for the fitment of one LED bulb (minimum load 1x 21W) which meant I could put a cool running 21/5 in the front so the side light doesn't overheat the connector.

 

Phil

[Noel Tidybeard]

the ones within the sealed beams (?) stay on, its the ones in the front wings which go out. its a feature*

 

no thats a fault not a feature!

i would swap them round- shirley it looks betterer with the renner lights on than the others or even get them all working together!

[Stanky]

Since it wasn't raining today, I decided I'd have a crack at properly attaching the replacement floors I expertly* made several weeks ago. these are roughly cut sections of aluminium dibond sheet which I'm laying over the top of the rotten plywood in the time honoured fashion of 'If I can't see it, its not there'.

 

So, to begin.

 

Rotten, and a little bit mouldy... hmmm. As you can see there are bolts all the way along which hold the floor to the chassis.

 

 

The chassis rail is sold as can be, but if you put your foot anywhere else you go straight through. Not good. I decided that for the time being, 2 bolts would be adequate for holding the dibond down, as I'm not 100% sure i won't have to take the sections back up again in due course. I removed the rearmost chassis rail bolt, and the front outside bolt which holds the floor, front of the body tub and trailing edge of the front wing together. There were really simple to remove and not at all rusty which was nice

 

 

Drivers side floor in, and front bolt tightened down. Excellent. Except I'm an idiot and hadn't measured where to drill the hole for the rearmost bolt. It came back out. I then measured and drilled the hole in the trailing edge for the other bolt and managed to get it close enough that I could screw the bolt and washer back in. Excellent.

 

 

Professional eh?

 

Next, onto the passenger side, this was just as easy and I managed to measure and drill the holes before tightening it all up this time. All went well, except the rearmost bolt wasn't long enough to bite the threaded section in the chassis box section, so i used the longer bolt from the leading edge and then drilled out the hole for the leading edge and used a bigger bolt. Since all this does is hold three sections together it didn't matter very much.

 

Next, onto the rear load area. This has a vast hole in it, and is covered over by the dibond. Again, it was a case of taking out 4 of the body to chassis bolts, drilling the dibond blind (this is a shit job btw) and hoping you are as close as you can be to the hole then screw the bolt and washer into place

 

 

This is now held down with 4 bolts, one in each corner. It could have been more secure, but I'm not entirely sure it won't need to come out again at some point.

 

Then I decided that since it still wasn't raining I'd have a go at fixing the timing again to try ang get it to start. First of all I left the dizzy in position and moved the plugs round one place, then tried to get ti going. No dice. I wiggled the dizzy about a bit more but still no good. So i moved the plaugs back to where they started.

 

Next, I used a screwdriver to bridge the solenoid terminals and held my hand over the carb to force it to suck harder, the bugger only went and fired up didn't it? w00p w00p. It was running on the choke, so I gently turned the dizzy around until the revs were at their highest, and then slowly backed the choke off. It didn't want to run off choke completely, but would chug away happily on about 1/3rd choke. While it was warming through I went and grabbed the drivers seat from the garage and slung it in, and bolted it down. I was going to make the most of this!

 

 

With the engine still running I hopped in, clutch down and tried to select a gear. Lets try reverse. KERRRRRRUNCH. No, Ok, what about first? Nope, won;t engage at all. Maybe 3rd? Nope. OK, back to reverse. Maybe a bit less mechanical sympathy. SHOVE. CLUNK. gotcha.

 

Right, ease off the clutch. I'd moved the toyota which usually boxes the Geep in, but if it cannoned backwards I'd reverse t-bone the neighbours Picasso. eeeeeeasyyyyy does it

 

MOVEMENT! CLUTCH ACTION! ERRRRMAAAAGERD.

 

I gently reversed it around the corner of the house and down the drive to the garage. Then selected first and drove back to where I began. stopping was fun because there was no resistance on the pedal. I need to look at that, but the handbrake worked well enough. Lets try that again. down the drive backwards, then drive back up to where we started. yep, this is working now people.

 

Then I jumped out and took a video to prove that the engine runs with the seat installed.

 

 

If you were in the vicinty of my house, you might have thought you saw a blue geep being driven extremely slowly, in 1st and occasionally second gear on a public road by a man who bore a passing resemblance to me. You would have been completely wrong, and this illusion would have been likely caused by either drunkenness, or the sun reflecting off a passing aeroplane.

 

If you had taken too much of your medication you might have also noticed two people giving thumbs up, and another person stopping, winding down the window and congratulating the person who bore a passing resemblance to me on getting the vehicle up and running, though to be completely clear this was neither me, nor my geep that were involved. I was at home, drinking tea at the time, and you should definitely go and see your GP about hallucinications as I've heard they can be treated these days.

 

What I need to do next is work out whats up with the brakes and why the engine won't run off choke. Also the temperature gauge doesn't work, and the speedo drive isn't connected.

 

Oh, one last thing - I checked the battery with the engine running using my multimeter and saw 13.6v across the terminals, so which that could be better, it does show that the charging circuit and alternator do work, and all that was wrong was the dashboard bulb filament had blown.

 

We're definitely getting somewhere now. thanks for tuning in for today's update. Over and Out.

[mitsisigma01]

Emojis not working so imagine a big thumbs up for the progress

[timolloyd]

Amazing progress well done.

[mercrocker]

Good work!    From push-propulsion to self-propulsion in a few easy* weeks!   Soon be hooning down the front at Lee!

[eddyramrod]

Never mind that, I'm expecting to see it at the burger van!

 

 

Excellent work sir.

[vulgalour]

Awesome news!  I bet it feels like a proper car now.

[junkyarddog]

These shonky little cars are quite appealing!

 

Well done on getting this far.

Top effort.

[chodweaver]

I weekend of win! Well done, sir! You have good cause to be very pleased with yourself

[PhilA]

Huzzah! Well done!

[Stanky]

I'm really happy with how well its gone, there are several things still on the 'to do' list but they are a lot easier to deal with now the weather has finally perked up a bit. I hope to be able to have a go at the brakes this weekend and possibly move it about a bit more as well.

 

More updates to follow.

[Guest Hooli]

Hurrah for progress!

[spartacus]

Good job Stanky. This is going to be an ace little run around in the warmer* weather, top work!

[SiC]

Parts, reg or just some inspiration.

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F222901798244

[Stanky]

Jesus, 2.1 pinto from a Formula Ford? I bet thats a handful on a damp roundabout!

[Mally]

Looking for £1500, which maybe £500 too much.

Depends if the engine is any good. Definitely worth the starting price though.