N19's fleet - a load of hot air!

[N19]

51 minutes ago, sierraman said:

You were lucky with the clutch on the Mondeo, as they got older the subframe bolts used to shear the captive nuts off in the box section. 

Yeah, the mechanic had a fair few choice comments. I think he managed to get access to spot weld the bolt into position. 

[garycox]

So glad the Mondeo’s still going!

Any time one of the current fleet plays up, or if we need to move something large, or if we go on a long journey, we wish it was still here...

[N19]

I didn't have any specific plans to tow anything with the Mondeo, and don't own anything to tow anyway. But when @Tim_E kindly offered a Mk3 estate towbar for gratis, I thought there was a fair chance it would fit a Mk2. 

Flanges fitted to the rear of the underside and tightened up, time to fit the assembly itself. 

I realised at this point that I'd seriously underestimated the weight of the thing, especially when manoeuvring in tight spaces. A jack or second pair of hands would have been so much easier. Nevertheless, I'd started so I'll finish. I used beefy cable ties in the inner mountings to slowly lift it up and take the weight... 

... Before swinging it up and putting a bolt in. It should have M12s in, I used some long M10s to make the job easier and give me room to adjust. Even so, that involved crawling underneath, holding the weight of the thing up with one hand/on my chest, whilst getting a nut on the end of the bolt. Hefty! 

A bit of fiddling later, and all seems fine. 

I'm going to nip to the shop in a bit and pick up some M12 fixings, and will replace them one by one. 

Not attempted wiring yet. I'm not sure if there's a connection point on these or if it's a case of manually splicing cables. If the latter, it can wait! 

[Cord Fourteener]

2 hours ago, N19 said:

I didn't have any specific plans to tow anything with the Mondeo, and don't own anything to tow anyway. But when @Tim_E kindly offered a Mk3 estate towbar for gratis, I thought there was a fair chance it would fit a Mk2. 

Flanges fitted to the rear of the underside and tightened up, time to fit the assembly itself. 

I realised at this point that I'd seriously underestimated the weight of the thing, especially when manoeuvring in tight spaces. A jack or second pair of hands would have been so much easier. Nevertheless, I'd started so I'll finish. I used beefy cable ties in the inner mountings to slowly lift it up and take the weight... 

... Before swinging it up and putting a bolt in. It should have M12s in, I used some long M10s to make the job easier and give me room to adjust. Even so, that involved crawling underneath, holding the weight of the thing up with one hand/on my chest, whilst getting a nut on the end of the bolt. Hefty! 

A bit of fiddling later, and all seems fine. 

I'm going to nip to the shop in a bit and pick up some M12 fixings, and will replace them one by one. 

Not attempted wiring yet. I'm not sure if there's a connection point on these or if it's a case of manually splicing cables. If the latter, it can wait! 

That's awesome. It's almost as if Ford used the same estate rear end on the Mk3 as the Mk2. Where have I heard that before...?

Anyway there's a you tube video of a guy simply splicing the wires in to your rear light cluster wires: from 8:00 mins

 

[mk2_craig]

When fitting a secondhand towbar to my Mk2 hatch I didn't find any obvious connections or pre installed fitting kit, so it was out with the scotchloks to tap into half a dozen wires feeding the light cluster. Fortunately a fairly straightforward task!  Though somehow I managed to wire things up mirror-image on the lighting board socket itself.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

14 hours ago, N19 said:

I didn't have any specific plans to tow anything with the Mondeo, and don't own anything to tow anyway....

Much the same as the towbar on the CX. I don't tow anything with it, but it's useful for doing a bit of damage to anyone running into the back of you....

[N19]

2 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

When fitting a secondhand towbar to my Mk2 hatch I didn't find any obvious connections or pre installed fitting kit, so it was out with the scotchloks to tap into half a dozen wires feeding the light cluster. Fortunately a fairly straightforward task!  Though somehow I managed to wire things up mirror-image on the lighting board socket itself.

Ahh fairynuff. I may break out the soldering iron, I have a fear of scotch blocks on anything critical. Maybe that's my paranoia. Sounds like a wild journey you had with the fiesta though...

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Much the same as the towbar on the CX. I don't tow anything with it, but it's useful for doing a bit of damage to anyone running into the back of you....

This is a fair point! Guarantees they won't forget it...

[N19]

Bluebird exhaust manifold off. Need to drill out the fixings for the heat shield, and figured it'd be much easier on the bench. 

New gaskets also ordered up. And a reminder left on the steering wheel lest I should forget... 

[N19]

A not-so-productive few hours on the Bluebird today. Heat shield and manifold back on, all good. Took the fuel filter off to get the numbers to replace it, also will do the fuel lines when this comes. 

 

Then had another look at the reverse light switch which was leaking a little (I've had a replacement waiting to go on for ages). Managed to get it to budge, hurrah, progress. Oh damn that means the whole thing is draining, fudge. Hurriedly mop up lake of gearbox oil on communal car park. Fit new one, add gearbox oil, test... Not a sausage. So must be some issue with whatever activates the switch - hopefully be resolved when the box comes off. Oh and I managed to snap the outer rim off the new switch when "encouraging" it into position. 

(for the benefit of anyone who may come across this thread in future years the 1.8 takes a different reverse light switch to the 1.6, the latter is the part that usually comes up but the correct one is XRLS30) 

[N19]

New fuel filter came for the Bluebird on Friday, so I fitted that and new lines/clips today. 

Slight brown pants moment when I realised one of the connections I'd made was slightly loose and weeping fuel, now nipped up. Phew.There's the remains of a 90s alarm system under the bonnet, but it no longer does anything. 

In the garage, I bought this water holder complete with tap online for a tenner, delivered today and fixed into position. It can be topped up from bottles into the top, but will make hand washing and cleaning things easier. Impromptu sink from an old adblue carton. 

[N19]

Quick look over the Capri earlier. Found the car mounting nuts slightly loose and nipped up - they once came loose enough that the carb was rocking back and forth, causing difficult to trace air leaks. 

It hasn't done a proper long distance trip since June 2019, but all being well will be going to visit various bits of The North and Scotland in a few weeks. This should also include a photo on the forecourt of the supplying dealership... I'm not sure whether it's better to email in advance and ask, or just rock up on the day and hope you can get a decent shot. 

[Cord Fourteener]

4 hours ago, N19 said:

Quick look over the Capri earlier. Found the car mounting nuts slightly loose and nipped up - they once came loose enough that the carb was rocking back and forth, causing difficult to trace air leaks. 

It hasn't done a proper long distance trip since June 2019, but all being well will be going to visit various bits of The North and Scotland in a few weeks. This should also include a photo on the forecourt of the supplying dealership... I'm not sure whether it's better to email in advance and ask, or just rock up on the day and hope you can get a decent shot. 

Nice! 

Its a hard one to call, this question of the dealer! Which will win you more tea and biscuits, emailing or rocking up? That's the real question. 

[puddlethumper]

I think an Email with the story and a pic might be good. They might want to make a bit of publicity which could mean more  tea and bikkies. Could even be a local paper jobby. How long ago did it come from them ?

[N19]

15 hours ago, puddlethumper said:

I think an Email with the story and a pic might be good. They might want to make a bit of publicity which could mean more  tea and bikkies. Could even be a local paper jobby. How long ago did it come from them ?

I'll give that a try. It was sold by them in 1980 and went to them for every bit of work until around 1997ish. 

The ungrateful sod started making a scraping noise from the osf when out this morning. Wheel off, I think it was the mud shield from the back of the discs which seemed to be slightly bent. It's been persuaded back a little. Pads cleaned up and everything given a clean. Fingers crossed that'll be it. 

[N19]

I was wrong. Noise started up again. Wheel off, pads out, brake pedal pumped... one caliper sticking. Great (!).

Seemed to be intermittent as it worked fine when inspected yesterday. 

Anyways, caliper fixing bolts soaked in WD, one will loosen now, left the other to soak overnight. 

Do factors do repair kits or is it easiest to send it off to a specialist? Probably best doing both at the same time. 

[N19]

Spoke to Burtons today, they do recon units on an exchange basis. They're closed at the moment sadly and only doing main order, but luckily, they will dispatch ASAP and charge you the surcharge and then refund it when your units arrive back posted. That saves a bit of time at least. One ordered up for each side.

I managed to get the bolts both off today. Steering lock helps... as did a large quantity of WD and a blowtorch. 

[Cord Fourteener]

Sounds like progression happening 👍

[Angrydicky]

Bit late now, but those calipers are Girling type 16PB. Piece of piss to rebuild. You will need new pistons but they're dirt cheap. Kits readily available and cheap.

[N19]

Ordered the parts from Burtons on Monday, 1-2 day delivery. Nothing came. Rang up today and they said that the payment had bounced because of a problem with my billing address, and I was "on the list to be emailed". Paid them, all gone through ok, but they're now saying it'll be dispatched today and "may" be here in time for the weekend - which is the only time I have to do the job. It's incredibly frustrating because I thought I'd buy recon calipers for speed and guarantee, they'd be here in time to do the job on Sunday. And I could actually pick them up in about half an hour, but they're closed because covid and only doing mail order, and their courier won't do a next day delivery. How difficult can it be?!

[Angrydicky]

That is very unfortunate. Waiting for parts is the joy of owning something that isn’t an MGB...

[Tadhg Tiogar]

21 hours ago, N19 said:

.... How difficult can it be?!

How long's a piece of string?

[N19]

6 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

That is very unfortunate. Waiting for parts is the joy of owning something that isn’t an MGB...

Normally, Capri parts are OK. There are a couple of specialist breakers, and the likes of Burtons are usually OK. Service parts still available from motor factors. Anyway, got a notification that the calipers should be delivered today, so that'll be the weekends project. 

Bluebird on the other hand - there you're entirely in the hands of odds and sod's off ebay and Facebook groups for anything other than service parts. 

[N19]

What a perfect day to be bleeding brakes... Can only get to the furthest nipple (NSR) by going outside! 

[N19]

Thoroughly frustrating. New calipers on, everything reassembled, all good. Brakes bled, despite rain, good. 

Went for a test drive on a loop around some roads I often use for testing post repair. Brakes could do with further bleeding at the front - not to worry we'll do that tomorrow - go to turn around and what do you know, the scraping noise is still there. Only on turning left with brakes released. Frustrating, since I could have sworn it was the caliper which was definitely sticking. 

The only sensible course of action is to pack away and come back tomorrow, I know I'll end up getting more frustrated and totally screwing something up otherwise. 

[N19]

Capri scraping noise continued to elude me, so I popped to the garage and got it up on the ramp. Much fiddling, prodding and theorising happened. Eventually, we reckoned the dirt shield was the problem, so figured removing that would help. So off came the hub. 

And what do we know, there's something been scraping the face of these bolts. 

That something being a loose bolt from inside the hub, presumably from when the garage changed the bearings pre-MoT in September. 

All reassembled and... Beautiful. 

So that's a new set of calipers for nothing - well they were sticking when inspected I guess so would have needed them anyway. 

Just bleeding the front lines again as I think there's a bit of air still in there, then I think I'll celebrate with a sensible* drive up the A1 for testing* purposes. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

4 minutes ago, N19 said:

.....I think I'll celebrate with a sensible* drive up the A1 for testing* purposes. 

 

 

[N19]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

 

 

I do have that on cassette somewhere.. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

15 minutes ago, N19 said:

I do have that on cassette somewhere.. 

Why am I not surprised?

[N19]

2 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Why am I not surprised?

It's almost as if I have a habit of buying up collections of cassettes advertised on Facebook for a tenner (even when the pickup involves having to go to Graeme Park). 

[N19]

 

A friend sent me this flickr link - someone snapped a photo of the Bluebird when it was parked up at home recently.

 

Capri had a blast up to Stevenage and back on the A1 at 70, constable. Topped up DOT4 slightly as the brake fluid light was coming on when going down severe hills, but to be expected having just re-bled them. Brakes now rock solid (for a capri) although calipers smelling of paint getting hot for the first time!