project Early Mondeo Saloon Saved From The Scrapman.

[sierraman]

First off, you have timed it up correctly? Made sure the crank web is hard against the pin and the plate set against the camshafts correctly? 

The idle issue is very likely to be the vacuum hoses that sit inside the inlet manifold. Pull the plenum off and the throttle body, take the big screws out, then the captive screws holding the inlet manifold out then you should be able to see the breather hoses, either swap the ISCV out or check the rubber T piece that’s prone to splitting. 

The pump probably wanted a bead of RTV or some blue Hylomar running round it but if it’s not leaking leave it alone.

[Slowsilver]

18 hours ago, sierraman said:

First off, you have timed it up correctly? Made sure the crank web is hard against the pin and the plate set against the camshafts correctly? 

The idle issue is very likely to be the vacuum hoses that sit inside the inlet manifold. Pull the plenum off and the throttle body, take the big screws out, then the captive screws holding the inlet manifold out then you should be able to see the breather hoses, either swap the ISCV out or check the rubber T piece that’s prone to splitting. 

The pump probably wanted a bead of RTV or some blue Hylomar running round it but if it’s not leaking leave it alone.

I am pretty certain that the timing is correct. I checked it multiple times before attempting to start it and it runs perfectly at higher revs, it just won't tick over slowly. I did think about using some sealant on the gasket but don't like to use the stuff if I can avoid it and it doesn't appear to be leaking (so far). The throttle body and breather hoses are next for inspection, although nothing in this area has been disturbed since it was running OK before. Maybe standing outside for a year hasn't helped.
 

[sierraman]

The T piece on the vacuum pipes used to be a common issue. I have a spare throttle body as well somewhere. 

[Slowsilver]

On 4/2/2021 at 4:57 PM, egg said:

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/79509-mk1-16-silvertop-surginghanging-revs/
 

Problem solved thanks to egg's link above. From this link:

Quote

 

Been out in the garage tinkering with it. Stripped off the Plenum pipe (large diameter hose from air box to throttle body), and inspected the butterfly valve again. Seemed to be fully closed.

Played around with the throttle cable linkage at the throttle body end and found it was leaving the butterfly valve open by around 1mm to 2mm max. Negligible to the eye. Sprayed with spring/linkage with penetrating fluid, gave the linkage a good work in and out, started the car and back to normal! - Idling at 750-800 as it should, revs fine up and down.

 

Checked the butterfly flap and, as above, it looked fully closed, but when I pushed it against the tension of the cable I could see it move slightly. Released the cable and now I could actually feel and hear it hitting the throttle body when released. So I set out to adjust the cable. I followed the route of the cable towards the bulkhead and realised that it was jammed down the back of the engine. Pulled it out and I could see that it should come straight out of the bulkhead, right over the cam cover to the front of the engine, then straight back into the throttle body. Rerouted it and, hey presto, problem solved. It now ticks over beautifully at about 900rpm. Routed this way it hinders access to the engine mounting and the cambelt covers, so I had shoved it out of the way to get to these and forgotten about it. So the problem was ME (again!). I can't believe that a tiny opening of the butterfly, barely visible to the naked eye, would hold the revs as high as about 4,500rpm, but it did. I don't know why I still attempt these jobs as I am obviously a forgetful idiot. If it had been anything more difficult to diagnose or cure I was ready to sack it off, but this has now given me the incentive to persevere (for the time being at least).
 

[adw1977]

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this, but I can't find the list of K reg survivors and I saw this one today.

K28UBJ - 1.8 LX - 125,978 miles at last MOT, currently taxed, last keeper change May 2015.

[egg]

@adw1977, thanks, yes I know UBJ, my Rimini blue twin with a boot.

Edit, looks desperate for new weatherstrips.

[Eyersey1234]

On 5/4/2021 at 12:11 PM, adw1977 said:

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this, but I can't find the list of K reg survivors and I saw this one today.

K28UBJ - 1.8 LX - 125,978 miles at last MOT, currently taxed, last keeper change May 2015.

Phoooar

[Slowsilver]

Having got this thing running properly I intended to move on to replacing the front wishbone bushes. Dived under the front to jack it up and found a large pool of oil on my newly-cleaned drive. I hate this bloody car! It looked like oil but was not under the engine or the gearbox, it was towards the nearside rear of the engine compartment, under the ABS unit, so my first thought was brake fluid, since I have already pratted about with this. But no. Turns out that the nearside steering rack gaiter had decided to split spectacularly and dump all the (new) power steering fluid. Another job I didn't expect, want or need. Should be straightforward enough though, right? Wrong! Bought a new pair of rack gaiters and set about replacing them. You can supposedly do this without removing the track rod ends by stretching the small end of the gaiter over them, but I didn't fancy risking splitting the new boots so I removed the track rod ends. Not too difficult, although once again I tried the "hitting with two hammers" technique to break the tapers and failed miserably. I have never succeeded when trying this, but fortunately I have a proper tool which did the job with no problems. Eventually managed to lever off the inner boot clips but access is very restricted because the rack is within the subframe, so surrounded on three sides by solid metal with various pipes above it. Removed the split nearside gaiter and attempted to fit the new one but no way I could get the inner end over the rack tube, not helped by the fact that the new gaiters were both distorted and nowhere near round.

Generous* working area:

High-quality* replacement parts (and almost circular):

No matter how I tried the boot either went inside the rack tube or turned inside out and it was impossible to get fingers in past the end of the rack tube to stretch it over. After much cursing and swearing I finally decided that the only way it would go on was if I could I slide it over without touching the rack tube, but the boot diameter was too small. The rack was about 60mm diameter and so was the boot, but, as per the photograph above, it wasn't round. After several nights sleep and some lateral thinking I found a round glass jam jar that was about 75mm diameter, dunked the boot end into boiling water to soften it, then stretched it over the jar and left it for a couple of days. When removed it shrank back fairly quickly but by being as fast as I could I eventually managed to get it on after 3 or 4 attempts. Now being an expert* I repeated the process on the offside boot, which wasn't actually split but was looking pretty manky and I didn't intend to lose another lot of power steering fluid at a later date. Since I had removed the track rod ends and they appeared to be the originals I decided to fit new ones, so it now has two new rack gaiters and two new track rod ends and I can move on to tackling the job I had intended to do in the first place.
If I am not learning anything else from this recalcitrant pig I am at least learning patience, perseverance and lots of new swear words.
 

[sierraman]

You don’t replace the wishbone bushes, well you can but there is no point, new old stock Unipart arms are only about £15. Easy job which is fortune as they go constantly. Bear in mind on the gearbox side if they are the original then the bolts under the gearbox will want cutting. The ‘proper’ way to do these was to drop the subframe a bit so the bolt went in from the top. I always fitted them bolt facing up, never had any problems with them, then cut the end of the bolt flush to avoid bollocksing the gearbox housing up. 

[Rusty_Rocket]

The steering rack gaiters shouldn't have any oil in them at all, all they do is protect the track rod balljoints etc.  If there's lots of fluid in there, the oil seals in the 'rack have failed surely? 😕 

[egg]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

I always fitted them bolt facing up, never had any problems with them, then cut the end of the bolt flush to avoid bollocksing the gearbox housing up. 

Yup, mine were original when I bought the car, and my mechanic did the bolt facing up trick. Been fine.

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Yup, mine were original when I bought the car, and my mechanic did the bolt facing up trick. Been fine.

You get some fuss pots sometimes that think the bolts will fall out. I’d avoid disturbing the subframe bolts on those if possible, quite common for them to spin the captive nut in the box section. Cue cutting and welding the box section.

Sounds to me like the seals have gone on the rack, sometimes especially on a car that’s sat the ram surface might have pitted through corrosion allowing the seals to piss out. That said could well be the seals, I’ve had success with the Slick 50 stuff to swell the seals a bit. 

[Slowsilver]

Have refilled the power steering with the Slick 50 stuff as recommended, so fingers crossed for no more leaks.
Done the wishbone bushes. All four bushes were shot and the rubber boots on both bottom ball joints and three of the four drop link joints were split, so I decided to buy a kit of both wishbones complete with bushes and ball joints, two new drop links and all new bolts for these.
Sawed the head off the front nearside wishbone bolt (the one directly under the gearbox) as recommended and fitted the new one from the bottom upwards. As @sierraman says, there are an awful lot of dire warnings all over t'internet about you, your family, nuns and kittens getting horrifically injured or killed if the nut comes undone and the bolt falls out, which they assure us will definitely happen. So:

Brand new bolt and Nyloc nut, threadlock, saw off excess thread to prevent it fouling on the gearbox, then peen the top of the nut over. That should do it.

Just the front brakes to do now and it should be ready for another MoT. But no. Was running perfectly about a month ago but hadn't been started since so I thought I would give it a short run. Started straight away but was running as sick as a pig. Barely ticking over at below 500rpm, lumpy as hell and ticking noise that sounded like a tappet. It sounded like it was only running on three cylinders, despite it being fine before and not having touched anything engine related. In desperation I removed the plugs and attempted to do a compression check but the plug holes are so far down that my tester wouldn't reach them. Checked the gaps and three were at the correct 40 thou but number 1 was only about 20 thou. Reset it, cleaned them up, reconnected them to the HT leads and earthed them, then cranked it over and got a spark on all four. Put them back in and it started and ran fine again. Great, but now the low coolant light is on. Why? It had been OK up until now. Checked the level and, sure enough, it was low. Hoping it was just an airlock that had burped out I refilled it but it took about four litres of water. Where the hell is it going? No obvious signs of a leak but a damp patch on the drive, directly under the power steering pump. Left it overnight and the level went down again, but now I could see water dripping off the back of the power steering pump. The only place in this area that water could be leaking from, as far as I can work out, is where the bottom hose joins on to the water pump (the thing I had all the trouble removing previously). But this is the joint that is inaccessible and actually invisible from all angles unless the power steering pump is removed. Seriously cheesed off by this point, I abandoned it yet again. This thing is just as determined not to survive as I am to get it back on the road. Every time I fix one thing that I know about something else that I didn't goes wrong. After once again fighting the urge to scrap it, I set about removing all the necessary bits to get the power steering pump off again (of which there are a lot). The pump is now off again for the second time and, surprise, surprise, no sign of a water leak from the hose connection. In despair and disgust I have filled it up with water again, stuffed some paper wipes around the join and left it in the hope that I will return in the morning to find them soaking wet to confirm my theory. A new bottom hose is about £30 and I don't want to spend that amount until I am sure it will fix the leak. It also means I have lost a second lot of new antifreeze, so more expense. The sorry saga continues interminably. Sigh!
 

[sierraman]

There’s a steel pipe on the Silver Tops that rusts out and lets all the coolant piss out. Runs round the back and side of the engine. That’s assuming it’s not leaking round the underside of the stat housing. Let me check, I think I’ve got a near full set of coolant hoses you can have. I’ll check in the workshop.

[egg]

9 minutes ago, sierraman said:

There’s a steel pipe on the Silver Tops that rusts out and lets all the coolant piss out. That’s assuming it’s not leaking round the underside of the stat housing.

Does sound likely if it hasn't been previously replaced.

Think it's this one

[sierraman]

2 minutes ago, egg said:

Does sound likely if it hasn't been previously replaced.

Think it's this one

Yes it bolts to the bottom of the block I think. These are the hoses I have if you want them, think the bottom hose is in there.

[egg]

If it is that metal pipe part number is 1063221

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Slowsilver said:

Have refilled the power steering with the Slick 50 stuff as recommended, so fingers crossed for no more leaks.
Done the wishbone bushes. All four bushes were shot and the rubber boots on both bottom ball joints and three of the four drop link joints were split, so I decided to buy a kit of both wishbones complete with bushes and ball joints, two new drop links and all new bolts for these.
Sawed the head off the front nearside wishbone bolt (the one directly under the gearbox) as recommended and fitted the new one from the bottom upwards. As @sierraman says, there are an awful lot of dire warnings all over t'internet about you, your family, nuns and kittens getting horrifically injured or killed if the nut comes undone and the bolt falls out, which they assure us will definitely happen. So:

Brand new bolt and Nyloc nut, threadlock, saw off excess thread to prevent it fouling on the gearbox, then peen the top of the nut over. That should do it.

Just the front brakes to do now and it should be ready for another MoT. But no. Was running perfectly about a month ago but hadn't been started since so I thought I would give it a short run. Started straight away but was running as sick as a pig. Barely ticking over at below 500rpm, lumpy as hell and ticking noise that sounded like a tappet. It sounded like it was only running on three cylinders, despite it being fine before and not having touched anything engine related. In desperation I removed the plugs and attempted to do a compression check but the plug holes are so far down that my tester wouldn't reach them. Checked the gaps and three were at the correct 40 thou but number 1 was only about 20 thou. Reset it, cleaned them up, reconnected them to the HT leads and earthed them, then cranked it over and got a spark on all four. Put them back in and it started and ran fine again. Great, but now the low coolant light is on. Why? It had been OK up until now. Checked the level and, sure enough, it was low. Hoping it was just an airlock that had burped out I refilled it but it took about four litres of water. Where the hell is it going? No obvious signs of a leak but a damp patch on the drive, directly under the power steering pump. Left it overnight and the level went down again, but now I could see water dripping off the back of the power steering pump. The only place in this area that water could be leaking from, as far as I can work out, is where the bottom hose joins on to the water pump (the thing I had all the trouble removing previously). But this is the joint that is inaccessible and actually invisible from all angles unless the power steering pump is removed. Seriously cheesed off by this point, I abandoned it yet again. This thing is just as determined not to survive as I am to get it back on the road. Every time I fix one thing that I know about something else that I didn't goes wrong. After once again fighting the urge to scrap it, I set about removing all the necessary bits to get the power steering pump off again (of which there are a lot). The pump is now off again for the second time and, surprise, surprise, no sign of a water leak from the hose connection. In despair and disgust I have filled it up with water again, stuffed some paper wipes around the join and left it in the hope that I will return in the morning to find them soaking wet to confirm my theory. A new bottom hose is about £30 and I don't want to spend that amount until I am sure it will fix the leak. It also means I have lost a second lot of new antifreeze, so more expense. The sorry saga continues interminably. Sigh!
 

Like for the determination to keep fighting on to save this fine piece of autoshite, despite the fact its fighting you back hard

I look forward to day you win and are holding that MOT pass certificate in your hand  

Keep up the awesome work!  

[Slowsilver]

Thanks for all the info. Found the metal pipe you mentioned and it seems to be OK. Looked again this morning and the water level does not appear to have gone down much, if at all, but the paper towel under the water pump hose connection is definitely soaking wet now, so I'm pretty sure the bottom hose is the culprit. Looking at the photo of your hoses @sierraman I can't see a bottom hose. They are weird multi-arm things thus:

But thanks for the kind offer. I managed to get a deal on a new one for £25, so have ordered one and it is due on Tuesday.
 

[sierraman]

29 minutes ago, Slowsilver said:

Thanks for all the info. Found the metal pipe you mentioned and it seems to be OK. Looked again this morning and the water level does not appear to have gone down much, if at all, but the paper towel under the water pump hose connection is definitely soaking wet now, so I'm pretty sure the bottom hose is the culprit. Looking at the photo of your hoses @sierraman I can't see a bottom hose. They are weird multi-arm things thus:

But thanks for the kind offer. I managed to get a deal on a new one for £25, so have ordered one and it is due on Tuesday.
 

If it’s leaking at the stub have you tried a proper jubilee clip? 

[egg]

that bottom hose was replaced on mine 5 years ago when I got it, given the number of ways it can leak I think £25 for peace of mind with it sounds a good idea.

[Slowsilver]

3 hours ago, sierraman said:

If it’s leaking at the stub have you tried a proper jubilee clip? 

All the original clips were the horrible sprung things, which I hate with a passion. I replaced them all with the proper jubilee clips shown on the hose in the photo. Because I had so much trouble getting the old clip off I may have damaged the hose internally. It still looked OK but I really should have replaced it then. Serves me right for being a skinflint. Has still cost me £25 but I have now had to do the job twice

.

 

[Zelandeth]

9 hours ago, Slowsilver said:

Thanks for all the info. Found the metal pipe you mentioned and it seems to be OK. Looked again this morning and the water level does not appear to have gone down much, if at all, but the paper towel under the water pump hose connection is definitely soaking wet now, so I'm pretty sure the bottom hose is the culprit. Looking at the photo of your hoses @sierraman I can't see a bottom hose. They are weird multi-arm things thus:

But thanks for the kind offer. I managed to get a deal on a new one for £25, so have ordered one and it is due on Tuesday.
 

Lordy, that looks like something I'd expect to find buried down the back of a 90s Jag engine...

Have to admit that I've completely gone off work drive hose clips these days as it seems to be getting progressively harder to get decent ones, even buying from supposedly reputable brands.  I had three strip out on me when changing a few hoses on the Jag.

Where I have the choice now I use bolt grip clamps (first discovered when working on buses) which are more like fuel line hose clamps but bigger and beefier.  They seem to be used on commercial vehicles for everything from radiator hoses to turbo to downpipe slip joints quite happily.  Downside is that they're bloody expensive...but you get what you pay for.

Have never had one strip out, seize up or cut into a hose so far.

Edit: Like these things.

[egg]

I expect it's been discussed before but the supposed advantage of the horrible Ford spring clips is they can flex on heating and cooling. No idea of whether is true or not in practice.

[sierraman]

I don’t get the hysteria about the clamps, if you’ve the correct tools they are plenty easy to get off. You do need a set of cable operated ones though on a lot of cars though for access.

[Slowsilver]

[Eyersey1234]

3 minutes ago, Slowsilver said:

Chodtastic news

[worldofceri]

Wahay!

[Floatylight]

Fantastic! Well done @Slowsilver!

[greengartside]

Yeah!! It lives again! Well done!