well. sunday morning it is (22 march). i get up early. 'your up early' says my mum. 'yes i know' says i, 'im going to do some work on the car'
did i regret it.....
first. the dimmer for the dash display lamps was faulty, and it kept flashing as i was driving, a nice novelty, but very annoying when you wanted to find out what speed you were doing at night.
so, i unscrewed the panel, i removed the screws above the display, the ones below the heating control and the one above the vent. it wouldn't come off. i took the cover off the steering column... nothing there...... finally i remove the in-car thermometer.. another screw. huh. removes that.. ok, off comes the panel.
however it only revealed the nut holding the dimmer in place. it wasn't like a normal nut, it was one with three holes in it. finally manages to get it off, and the dimmer fell back into the void behind the steering wheel. by this time i've got the drivers door open, and i'm kneeling on the ground with my hands twisted up behind the front panel. needless to say my feet were getting slightly wet as it was raining. i disconnected the pipe to the drivers window air conditioning, and pulled down the covering from underneath the dash.
i managed to rescue the dimmer, disconnected it and took it inside to examine it. the resistance coil was a bit squashed, so i unsquashed it. i did the reverse of the above, fitted it, and... IT DIDN'T WORK... NOT AT ALL boo hoo... so i just joined the two ends together bypassing the dimmer.
then i pushed all the stuff back.
next i decided to check out the ignition side of things under the bonnet. what a mistake. first i started cleaning the top of the distributor cap and coil, then i pulled off each lead. 1 ok... nice and clean (copper colour). next no 2 was a little tarnished. soon clean that up i thought. pulled no 3, nice and shiny again. pulled off no 4 OH GOOD GRIEF!!! IT WAS GREEN... copper carbonate of course.. wonder the car went at all... checked the coil lead.. it seemed ok. took off distributor cap, rotor arm completely biffed, black and charred. inside of cap not much better.
decided to replace all HT leads and new dis. cap, and new rotor arm. sets off for local shop about 10 mins walk away (can't drive obviously). gets back (cost #9.50 all the bits.. not bad) fits them all...... cleans up the coil and spark plug tops.
gets in.. tries to start it RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. 'oh' says i. RRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR said the car. i've got a knackered bit. so i replaces all the bits in turn with the old ones... finally...... RRRRRRRRRRcoughRRRRcough. seems like a suspect rotor arm. the old one is a bit mucky, i search for a brillo pad, but i can't find one... eventually i get some sandpaper and polishes it up a bit. puts it back in again and turns the key... RRRRRRRRR coughRRRRGGRRRRGRGRRRRcouchVrooooooooooooooommmmmmm at last it started. battery nearly flat by this time of course. suspect rotor arm, puts a meter across the new one, it's open circuit!!!!!! a splendid piece of immobilizing mechanics, but no good at all to make the car go. puts battery on charge and sets off for shop again. of course it's raining like mad now, and i resemble a sponge just drawn out of a bucket of water. engine a bit damp as well.
gets to shop... ITS SHUT aggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg so i traipse off back home... decides to take the car out for a spin... starts ok... drives off everything seems ok, but speedo is wavering +/- 10 mph. oh good grief... i notice that my window is getting awfully steamed up.... and then the dash starts to get very hot. gets back home... takes dash back off
OH NO!!!!!! i left the air pipe off feeding the side blower!!!!!! undoes it all again and puts it back. phew. today i sets off to halfords to get me another rotor arm... gets here.. tests it.... SAME it's almost open circuit.. funny but the old one i took off was a complete copper strip..
this morning tho, sets off... speedo reads ZILCH... gives it a tap. BOP it goes up to 30 and won't move. by the time i arrive here it reads 45... (ah hem) stops engine, lays on ground, undoes paneling behind dash and gives the cable a quick tap. bop.. back down to zero. what it'll read tonight i don't know. a few things emerge from all this...
1. what may turn out to look like a little job may well turn out to be almost a complete overhaul
2. why are rotor arms now built in with a resistance and will this affect the performance (of the car)?
3. why is it always raining when you do important work on the car?
4. why are there so many screws bugs beetles worms and mogies underneath the dash?
please send your answers to CITSNIC
well did i have some fun with the car or what?
Thursday 26th oct, i had the water pump changed, as it was leaking (leaking water actually, cos there was no antifreeze in it) and while the engine was in bits i asked two very important questions, but the depth and implications were not fully understood.
1/ whats the little hole for on the end of the water pump?
2/ does the timing belt look ok?
the answer to the first was "well, then the pump leaks it's to let the water out", and the second reply was "well, it's hard to tell"
Friday 27th, i'd left aintree, and was in the outside lane at some lights, i'd noticed a certain lack of power from the engine, but thought a good tune would fix it (raindrops keep falling on my head, is a good one).
I'd travelled about 6 miles when.... i lost power... the oil light came on, and i managed to pull into the side of the road. this was at about 25 to 4. a quick feel under the bonnet confirmed my suspicions, and when i checked the car out, the timing belt had snapped as well!!!!!!
i was but 50 yards from a garage so i went in and asked for assistants. One turned up, and i asked if they could help. well it was a renault garage, so no way, but he gave me the number of the ford 24h recovery, but all they could do was recover me, and not fix it till monday. too late i thought, it was now about 4 in the afternoon. I rang THE AA!!! i described my position as left hand on hip, the other holding the phone, and the car some 500 yards heading east on the A580, just after the junction with the A570. i was told help would probably arrive before 6 pm, but they were rather busy that night.
i went back to the car and sat on a water hydrant post. a copper stopped, and said "what a place to break down", he helped me shove it off the carriageway onto the grassy verge, it saved him having to cone off the road...
i listened to the radio... after a couple of hours of hazard warning flashers the battery was getting under 10 volts, so said my multicoloured indicator, it's green for ok was no more, it's yellow for under 12 volts was a memory, it was red for, "this battery is knackered!"
At about 6, the AA patrol arrived, confirmed the belt had snapped, and rigged up a solid tow bar, and pulled me home, tail between legs, and to hoots of laughter from the cohabitants of my residence.
we had a disco the same night, but fellow dj had got the message and piled off to manchester with the gear, minus me.
saturday, a towrope and hope, off to me mates to replace the belt. after some hours, he announced that he couldn't manage it, and one of the pulleys had seized, so bang went getting the car fixed that day, or the next day. it needed a GARAGE!
monday morning, a call into work for explanation of my absence, and car to the garage. by the evening it was fixed, and timed to a reasonable degree. well it went at least.
so thats the story of this little episode, after 62,265 miles on one timing belt, next time i'm gonna change it a little more often!
(this is one of many parts from "nic clews's 1.6 GL cortina, a service history" available at all good bookshops, and some seedy ones as well.)
(further adventures can be VAXMAILED by request!!)
30-MAY-1990 15:27:24.18 Subj: foot power for fred
well here is more from the continuing saga of Fred, the 1.6GL cortina estate.
things have moved on since last time, the drivers door is rather loose and wobbles and is knocking the door post. water leaks in the passenger door, drivers door and 'somewhere below the drivers windscreen', when you drive off, a squadge of water runs into your shoe.
it's had a battery change, and the charging light is hesitant on going out some mornings. It cut out once for no apparent reason after a bit of chuffing at a set of lights one evening. and i asked my mate to find me a twin choke weber carburetor to replace one fitted, a MOTORCRAFT 'crappy' VV.
The old faithful carb started to give up, petrol consumption went from 30 mpg to 20 - 25 mpg, the engine 'ran on' after it was switched off (backwards would you believe, stick the thing in first gear and it went backwards!!!), and the accelerator stuck at high revs, and a deft flick with the toe was required.
after 23 years and 9 months, one was found. it wasn't too bad, it was stripped down and rebuilt, and the hunt was on for a manifold. don't believe what people say, of you fit a twin choke weber, it needs a 2.0 litre manifold designed for it. they have BIG (and i mean B.I.G.) throttle flaps. The first one is smaller than the one on the old VV, the second is BIG, if there was no fuel filter, a golf ball could get through.
An air filter was also required. the standard Ford air filter for the carb was a ridiculous price, so a 'foam technology' high air flow filter was purchased for a princely sum of £11.50.
bright and early one sunday morning i arrived. Tom took off the old air filter and did a bit of checking. "it's a bit different" he says. first problem is the throttle cable, a bracket that it clips into is missing. Then, there are two fuel inlets, or more accurately, one is an outlet, back to the tank. A new sender unit is needed for the tank, with a return, and a bit of pipe back to the tank. he puts the air filter back on, and says "well at least we can fix your door"
we battled for a bit trying to get the old door pin out. after a bit of hammering and splitting the pin inside, the door was removed to get at the hinge. after another 10 minutes, and some decent bashing with a good knocking stick, it came out. the new hinge went in and the door was bolted back on. but! it was just as bad! closer examination revealed the door hinge had worn a big hole... we gave up...
meanwhile the door seals were peeled off and stuck back on again. they were now more waterproof, but kept falling off. the water still got you in the shoe when you set off after a particularly heavy shower...
one morning the car was dipping a bit low at the front. i would have thought that some 'pleasant person' had had a go at the tyre, but it was so close to the wall I had to drive it out to see exactly how flat it was. jacked up the car, and took off the old type. nail in it, and by the looks it had been in a while, as it had worn down. always thought it couldn't hold air as well as the other types {remember that happened last time?] well i got a new tyre (on the spare) and alls well.
back to the carb. one of toms mates has a good idea. block off the fuel return pipe. a carefully placed bolt, and a bit of petrol pipe does the trick. the old carb is removed, the manifold removed (and the water with the antifreeze in runs away) (did i ever tell you about flushing out the block with the hose pipe and filling it up with distilled water?) and work begins...
within 2 hours the gasket was fitted, the manifold bolted on, the carburetor in place (with a bit of instant gasket), the air filter on, and, it was cranked over. it started on the second try. some petrol was put in the tank (i'd been driving it around under the orange line thinking the sender had to be replaced) and off it went. Veroooom was the basic sound, very throaty. Took it for a little test drive, i was heard 1/2 a mile away... and a comment to the effect i changed from 1st to 2nd very quickly!!! A little more tuning and then thats it.
it can get from 0 to 70 on the first choke in a respectable time, and quite fuel efficiently. but boot it , and VEROOOOM... off it goes. cassette tapes will be shortly available at a reasonably price!
April 26th 1991. Producer! Not sure what for though...
June 13th 1991. A pair of new tyres.
July 15th 1991. Wheel alignment
MOT ran out on car........
took it in.......
defects.... all bushes want replacing... new steering rack, corrosion on sill 2 tyres illegal....
mate is welding it up, inner wings giving way, inner and outer sills guffed...
it's not good.... ive been down fixing it with my mate...
also met a mate of my mates called alistar, god, he is HUGE built like a brick shithouse... like arnie swartsnegger, no joke, he lifted down a bike from a rack with one hand.. he lives in a junkyard.... amazing bloke.....
For those still with Cortinas, or wanting to know more, try http://www.cortinaworld.co.uk/
Feel free to drop an 'I told you so' to email nic