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Early Mondeo Saloon Saved From The Scrapman.


Slowsilver

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13 hours ago, egg said:

I can't quite remember how you solved the ABS issue in the end, and reading the thread I can't see it either. Someone please remind me! Cheers.

The original problem was no braking on the nearside rear wheel, which turned out to be caused by one of the channels on the ABS unit being permanently closed off for reasons unknown. This was remedied by replacement with the finest* of second-hand units (£30 including postage from Latvia of all places). All the connections to it were checked and cleaned and all the wheel sensors were tested with a low-voltage AC voltmeter.
 

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On 4/21/2020 at 2:42 PM, Slowsilver said:

For as long as I can remember I have been aware of a dead K-prefix Mondeo saloon languishing on the drive of a house about two streets away from here. It had obviously been sat there for many years without moving. I kept meaning to drop a note through the door enquiring about it, but as always I never got round to it.
Until now.
With Bob the Renault 6 currently on hold pending a possible sale after lockdown and the Maxi mothballed due to lack of places to take it to I was getting bored, so last Friday I did just that. Things moved on very rapidly from there.

Timeline: Saturday morning.

I received a phone call  from the owner's daughter, who informed me that her father had owned the car since it was 18 months old and cherished it for years, doing about 2 or 3 thousand miles a year in it until 2013, when it failed the MoT:

Date tested 17 September 2013

Fail

Mileage 70,926 miles

Reason(s) for failure

  • Service brake: efficiency below requirements (3.7.B.7)
  • Brakes imbalanced across an axle (3.7.B.5b)

He was told by the local garage he used that it would cost about £1000 to fix even if they could get the parts, which they said was doubtful. How can inefficient and unbalanced rear brakes cost that much to fix? And can Mondeo parts be unobtainium already? Maybe I will find out in due course.
Anyway, he decided that was more than the car was worth but, being very attached to it, he simply parked it on the drive and left it there.
Apparently he died about 3 years ago but his wife couldn't bear to see it go, so there it stayed until now.
Coincidentally his wife died a few weeks ago, so I hope my approach didn't seem like grave robbing. Their daughter was planning to have the car taken away for scrap, so I was intending to offer her scrap value for it and see if it could be saved. However, she was so pleased at the prospect of her dad's beloved motor being revived that, without me making an offer, she immediately offered it to me for the princely sum of zero pounds. She also agreed that quicksilver and myself could work on it where it sat until such time as we could move it. She said that she would endeavour to find the V5 and the keys.

Timeline: Saturday afternoon.

Checking the registration online showed it to be a 2.0i Ghia, built in Belgium in May 1993 and registered in the UK on 15th June 1993. K prefix registrations ran from August 1992 to July 1993 but the Mondeo was not launched in the UK until 22nd March 1993, so had been in production less than three months, making this a very early Mark 1. Has been on SORN since September 2013.

Let's go and see what we have.
It's walking distance so that counts as exercise doesn't it ?.

Didn't even know if it was a manual or an automatic. Turns out it's a 5-speed manual.
Apart from flat tyres it doesn't look to bad from a distance.

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But what about the blind side next to the fence. Fortunately it had been parked far enough away to see it.

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Urgh! It's green instead of blue.

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Back of the roof has bloomed badly, but laquer doesn't appear to have peeled.

We took a cordless tyre inflator so the first job was to attempt to pump the tyres up. We weren't very hopeful as it had been sitting here for 7 years. The two nearside tyres had 0psi in them, the offside front had about 7psi in it and the offside rear had about 12psi in it.
They were all pumped up to a nominal 30psi and appeared to stay up.

Timeline: Sunday afternoon.

Let's take a bucket of soapy water round and give it a quick swill.
Three tyres still up. Nearside rear flat again. 75% success rate. Not bad. Pumped the flat one back up again.
Throw bucket of water over car and apply sponge and nylon brush.
While washing it we noticed bubbles issuing from from a tiny pinhole in the bottom of the sidewall of the nearside rear tyre.
That will be why it went flat again then. It looks like there may have been a thorn or a sharp piece of stone on the drive next to the bottom of the tyre and when it went completely flat the weight of the car pushed it through the sidewall. 

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That's looking better.
Not much more we can do without the keys as it's all locked up.

Timeline: Monday morning.

Another phone call from the daughter. She is at the house and has found the V5 and one key. Also handbook and service record. Thinks there may be another key somewhere. We wander round there and do the necessary paper work. It is now offically ours!

Timeline: Monday afternoon.

Send off new keeper slip and SORN declaration.
This time we have to take the Zafira full of tools in an attempt to get it moving.
It has been left with the handbrake on and the front discs look well rusty, so I  bet the brakes have seized on.
Takes 2 hands to lift the handbrake lever, then 2 hands to press the button and release the ratchet.
Rock the car gently and, wonder of wonders, all four wheels appear to rotate. First hurdle overcome.
Don't want to bore you guys but some of you might like to know our technique for attempting to revive a long-dead engine, honed at various Field of Dreams chod-tinkerings.
Check oil and water levels. Oil  looks pretty clean so probably serviced not long before it was laid up.
Remove spark plugs. These all look in good condition.
Pour a spoonful of engine oil into each cylinder just to give some extra bore lubrication on initial turn over.
Engine compartment is so cramped that can't see an easy way to try and turn the engine with a spanner, so drop a long screwdriver into one of the spark plug holes so that it rests on top the piston, engage fourth gear and attempt to push the car down the drive, which fortunately has a reasonable downward slope. Watch the screwdriver and, sure enough, we see it rising. The engine isn't seized, thank goodness we don't have another Bob on our hands.
Because the owner's other car was parked alongside we could not get the Zafira in to jump the battery so we connected up one of the two knackered old batteries we had brought round. Didn't want to risk connecting across a totally dead battery and shorting out the other one, so left the positive terminal connected to the original battery but disconnected the earth wires from the original battery and connected the negative jump lead to the isolated leads, thus removing the original battery from the system. Doing it this way ensures that the positive connections are still kept clear of any metalwork that could cause a short and the negative connection is earthed anyway, so doesn't matter if that touches any other metal. Turned on the ignition and, lo and behold, we have assorted dashboard warning lights.
Hit the starter. Click. We were right, this battery is knackered.
Try the other one. Whirr, whirr, the engine spins over. Let it spin until the oil pressure light goes out.
Clean the plugs with a wire brush (not that they appeared to need it) and replace them. Reconnect the HT leads, making sure they are in the right order. Chug, chug, chug. Engine reluctantly turns over but not fast enough to fire.
Remember we have a the tiny but powerful Chinese jump pack in the glove box of the Zafira, so this is deployed. Chug, chug, cough, splutter, BLOODY HELL IT'S ONLY RUNNING!
Remove jump pack and it is still running on the alternator output.

Leave it running while we check the condition of the spare wheel. Full size alloy, not one of these horrible space-saver things. Appears to have some air in it. Pump it up and fit it to the nearside rear. Try driving it up and down the drive to test the brakes. As we expected they were not great, but worked well enough to stop it eventually. Unfortunately the handbrake would also stop the car but the ratchet would not re-engage so having freed off the brakes it now insisted on rolling down the drive. So we took a deep breath and, leaving everything behind, we set off for home.
No collection thread as the distance involved was about 500 yards, but target achieved with no problems, except for the power-assisted steering, which apparently now isn't. Have a cup of tea then walk back round to pile all the detritus back into the Zafira and drive it home.

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Gone. Mossy piece of tarmac blinking in the sunlight for the first time in 7 years.

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In its new home. Bob is not impressed by this non-French interloper and turns his back on it.

Let's see what we have.

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Nicely mouldy steering wheel. Oh look, footwell lights. I say, how posh, did I mention it's a Ghia.

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Illuminated vanity mirrors. Can this get any posher?

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Optional giffer pack included.

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Lots of damp and mouldy boot trim now basking in the sunshine.

So, what is the overall assessment.
On cursory inspection it appears to have zero rot on the bodywork or the underside.
Haven't tried everything yet. A few of the lights don't work (hopefully just bulbs or mouldy connections). Nor do the screenwashers.
The two main problems seem to be the non-working power steering and the ABS warning light being on. But haven't had time for in-depth investigations yet, so here's hoping an MoT can be passed eventually. No rush, it is a lockdown project after all.

By now I am sure you are all bored to death so I will stop rambling.
Bloody hell these threads take a long time to compile.
Stay tuned for more developments. Or not.
 

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Crikey this is just like my dads first Mondy, except it was a 1.8 LX N reg. Same colour though. I’d love one.

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Now Taxed, insured and fully road legal. @quicksilver and I have just shared the driving on its first proper road test. Covered about 40 miles and nothing broke or fell off. It actually drives really well and as a lifetime non-ford man I was well impressed. We took it round to where the daughter of the previous owner lives as it only on the next estate from us. She was at home with the rest of her family, including her two daughters, son-in-law and grandchild. When we pulled up outside the house one of her daughters was sitting looking out of the window. I went to the door and she answered it by saying that she had nearly had a heart attack seeing her grandad's car on the road again. Apparently I look quite a lot like him (bald old git). The whole family came out and were all delighted to see it again. They looked it over, sat in it, took photographs of it to send to other family members with the good news and complimented me on the work that I had done and the condition of the car. One of them even said that the interior still smelt of her grandad, but I suggested that was more likely to be me 😀. This has now encouraged me to do some more odd jobs on it. Nothing else major hopefully but there are still various things that would benefit from some attention. After all the grief that I have had with this, as documented ad nauseum in this thread, it is a great feeling to be able to report that finally, after 18 months, I have succeeded in my quest to restore it, on my own, outside on the drive, with only DIY tools. Many thanks for all the help, advice and encouragement from everyone who has posted on this thread. I genuinely believe that without this I would have given up long ago. Autoshite rocks!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I asked the family about it being a Cat. C write off. Apparently it happened in around 2010, when one of his neighbours backed out of her drive into the nearside rear door and dented it. The damage was confined to this door but since the car was only judged to be worth about £500 the insurance company wrote it off. However, the owner was so attached to it that he added £500 of his own money to the £500 from the insurance and paid his pet local garage £1000 to repair it. It was obviously a proper repair as I can see no trace of it being repaired, not even mismatched paint. He must have really loved this car.
 

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On 8/8/2021 at 5:39 PM, Slowsilver said:

 

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Now Taxed, insured and fully road legal. @quicksilver and I have just shared the driving on its first proper road test. Covered about 40 miles and nothing broke or fell off. It actually drives really well and as a lifetime non-ford man I was well impressed. We took it round to where the daughter of the previous owner lives as it only on the next estate from us. She was at home with the rest of her family, including her two daughters, son-in-law and grandchild. When we pulled up outside the house one of her daughters was sitting looking out of the window. I went to the door and she answered it by saying that she had nearly had a heart attack seeing her grandad's car on the road again. Apparently I look quite a lot like him (bald old git). The whole family came out and were all delighted to see it again. They looked it over, sat in it, took photographs of it to send to other family members with the good news and complimented me on the work that I had done and the condition of the car. One of them even said that the interior still smelt of her grandad, but I suggested that was more likely to be me 😀. This has now encouraged me to do some more odd jobs on it. Nothing else major hopefully but there are still various things that would benefit from some attention. After all the grief that I have had with this, as documented ad nauseum in this thread, it is a great feeling to be able to report that finally, after 18 months, I have succeeded in my quest to restore it, on my own, outside on the drive, with only DIY tools. Many thanks for all the help, advice and encouragement from everyone who has posted on this thread. I genuinely believe that without this I would have given up long ago. Autoshite rocks!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I asked the family about it being a Cat. C write off. Apparently it happened in around 2010, when one of his neighbours backed out of her drive into the nearside rear door and dented it. The damage was confined to this door but since the car was only judged to be worth about £500 the insurance company wrote it off. However, the owner was so attached to it that he added £500 of his own money to the £500 from the insurance and paid his pet local garage £1000 to repair it. It was obviously a proper repair as I can see no trace of it being repaired, not even mismatched paint. He must have really loved this car.
 

Chodtastic news it's on the road again, glad the family liked seeing it again 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 10 months later...

Can't believe that I haven't posted anything on this thread since August but the car has just been being exactly that, "an car". Have done a few minor jobs on it but has been 100% reliable. Amazed to discover that it has been on the road for nearly a year and was due for its next MoT at the beginning of August. Put in for test today and it passed with just a couple of advisories, one of which was for the rear brake hoses. These were mentioned last year and I bought new ones then, thinking I had plenty of time to get around to fitting them but, guess what, they are still on the shelf in the garage. Must replace them this year. We have covered about 900 miles in it in the last year, which is more than either of the other cars, and @quicksilver loves to drive it. He says it is the first car he has driven with a decent amount of power.
I was intending to get an MoT on it then put it up for sale but it is comfortable, quiet and quick and we both like it a lot so have decided to tax and insure it for another year and keep it for a bit longer. Fingers crossed for continued trouble-free fun with it.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I attempted to reverse the Mondeo off the drive today and when I lifted the collar on the gear lever to allow me to select reverse it disintegrated so I was unable to engage reverse gear. The workshop manual gives details of how to remove the entire linkage but nothing about removing just the lever. Lifting the gaiter and the rubber boot underneath it revealed a circlip which I eventually managed to remove and the gear lever pulled out. I was then able to bash the knob off with a rubber hammer to reveal the broken piece.

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The sleeve with the finger groove and the insert which fits inside the gear knob should be one piece of plastic, held onto the metal gear lever by the roll pin visible in the picture which also goes through a ferrule on the end of a cable. Lifting the whole thing pulls up the cable, lifting a bush on the bottom of the lever and allowing reverse to be engaged. It may be repairable but it certainly won't be easy, so I wondered if any Mondeo lickers on here have either the plastic insert or even an entire gear lever with the knob still on it in their parts stash. I have looked on line and there are gear knobs, but without the insert and gear levers, but without the knob. If what I have read on line is correct this arrangement with a pressed-on knob was only used on very early Mondeos and later mark ones had a screw-on knob with a different arrangement. Any help or advice would be gratefully received.
 

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Absolutely true that only early cars have the push on knob, I have only one NOS spare, and it needs to stay with mine I'm afraid because mine is also disintegrating.

My knob, matron, has separated from the plastic insert - but insert itself is still firmly on the shift lever. 

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AS-worthy bodge applied and we can now select reverse again. Removed the roll pin and slid the collar off then cut the top of it straight and drilled a suitably-sized hole in the thickest part of the bulge above the finger groove. Pressed the roll pin through this hole and into the cable ferrule. This means that the collar now sits higher up on the lever so I had to ditch the (broken) plastic bit that fits inside the knob to allow the collar to move up inside it. It also means that I now have to put my fingers underneath the collar to lift it, rather than in the finger groove. But it works. I don't know how long it will last as the 30-year-old plastic has gone horribly brittle but I deliberately drilled the hole at the thickest point for (hopefully) maximum strength. I forgot to take a picture before I bashed the knob back on but it now looks like this:

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Not a brilliant job but doesn't look too bad and will hopefully last a while until the remaining plastic disintegrates. In the meantime if anyone finds a replacement collar, knob with collar, or complete lever in their spares stash or sees one for sale please let me know. Also, does anyone know if the later gear lever is the same at the bottom end and would fit into the early linkage?

 

 

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1 hour ago, Slowsilver said:

Also, does anyone know if the later gear lever is the same at the bottom end and would fit into the early linkage?

I reckon, it's the same. and just the knob was changed as part of year 2 improvements (away from cable clutch etc). If you look here, the lever has the same part number from 93-96 - suggesting it was the same, so can be supplemented for the more common knob. Further down, you'll see the original knob was discontinued on 31/1/94....

 

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  • 1 month later...

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