AndyW

On my Superspec the fuel filter is a big metal canister mounted on the front of the pedal box. Not sure of its origins in the kit. And yes the pump is part of the level sensor in the Escort fuel tank

Try going for a short drive with MEMS logger running and make a note of the approx times into the journey when the misfire/hiccups occur. Then view the logfile in MEMSAnalyser to see if you can spot any anomalies on any sensors or graphs. When I want to mark events while driving, I'll dip the clutch and do a high rev throttle blip so I can later find the point in time on the rpm graph. Have you tried clearing the TPS fault code since you changed the TPS? Or does the error keep coming back after being cleared? If so try unplugging the TPS, spraying the terminals with contact cleaner, and replugging it a few times to clean the joints. One other thing, when the engine is switched off, MEMS needs to hold the voltage supply open for up to 30 seconds in order to reset the stepper motor to closed position and save learned values to memory. You say that when you turn off the key everything is dead - do you hear the stepper motor reset a few seconds after the engine stops? If not I suspect your battery isolation switch might be interfering with normal MEMS shutdown.

Check the cable and linkage on the throttle body, especially if you've been cleaning and playing around in that area. I had a similar high rpm problem that turned out to be the throttle cable not seated properly in the groove on the underside of the quadrant. My cable had a very small brass ferrule on the end, which had got lodged in the quadrant and was holding the cable off so the butterfly wouldn't shut properly. Also check that the butterfly is completely closed at idle and adjust the cable so there's just a touch of slack before the linkage moves. I found you only need a tiny amount of over-adjustment of the cable to slightly open the butterfly and increase the rpm.

My Superspec has got Gaz coilovers on the rear although they were already fitted when I got the car. So not sure if the previous owner modified the mounting. The bolt on the U bracket that goes through the dish of the trailing arm does sit at a very slight angle but this doesn’t seem to cause any problem. There’s a large 30mm washer under the Nyloc nut.

And as promised, this is the instrument panel wiring on my car. The wires in the Ford connectors were spliced to the Superspec loom as follows. White connector: 1 orange/blue to red - 12v from lights for panel illumination 2 purple/white to blue/white - main beam 3 black to black - earth for illumination 4 empty 5 black/yellow to black/yellow - brake warning 6 white/green to blue/green - temp sender 7 white to green/black - fuel sender 8 black to black - earth for fuel & temp gauges 9 empty 10 empty 11 empty 12 purple to green - 12v switched power for gauges Black or Blue connector: 1 black/red to black - earth for indicator warning 2 blue/yellow joined to green/red & green/white - indicator warning 3 empty 4 empty 5 empty 6 empty 7 blue to brown/yellow - alternator warning 8 black/green joined to both black - coil -ve and also white/black - ECU pin 25 9 white/green to black - earth for tacho 10 black/yellow to white/brown - oil pressure sender 11 empty 12 white/black to green - coil +ve Your wiring colours may be entirely different of course, but hope this helps track down your issue

One more thing - check if you have an in-line fuse somewhere around the coil. The original wiring on my car had two wires on the coil + terminal. One came out of the loom which I traced back to the white power cable from the ignition switch. The other had an in-line fuse and went to the instrument panel, joining to the white/black wire on terminal 12 of the black panel connector to feed the rev counter. I don’t see how this would stop the ECU working though.

There should be three relays - ECU, fuel pump and Lambda sensor heater, all fuse powered.

No there isn’t a fuse in the ECU but the ECU is powered by a relay with a fused supply. You can check if the ECU is working as it also turns on the fuel pump via another relay. When you turn on the ignition can you hear the fuel pump prime for a couple of seconds? If not, then there must be a blown fuse somewhere. I’ve got a wiring diagram for the two plugs into the back of the Escort instrument panel, but I’m not at home atm. Have to sort them later for you.

Looking at the photo of your engine bay, is that the clutch cable in a silver sleeve going across the top of the engine? If so, it's too short and will make the entry points to the pedal box and the engine plate ahead of the clutch lever, very sharp. That can't be helping your heavy clutch. You need to make the cable run into the entry and exit points as straight as possible, which means looping it around the front of the engine. And as Al says, make sure you have a linkage that allows a straight run onto the clutch pedal as that's where they normally fray and snap. Also I see you have the original RH coolant plumbing with the small loop return pipe (or heater loop if you have one) going across the top of the engine into the centre of the radiator. We found this leads to slow engine warmup so I did a redesign as per the attached diagram which is more like the original Rover system. I now get a 7-10 minute warm up and no problems with overheating.

Yes, it’s a Quinton Hazel no. QCC1303 for a Fiat Ducato diesel 1982-86. Think it’s about 1700mm long with eye for pedal end and threaded rod for clutch lever. I lubricated mine with ptfe spray before fitting to try to ease the heavy clutch.

Ford Sierra. Usually 7 inch with tripod pushin shafts and drum brakes. Superspecs seem to have different final drive ratios.

Filling and bleeding these systems is always difficult as there are several high points that trap air, particularly the top hose. On mine I separate a join in the hoses and alloy pipes between thermostat and top radiator, and use a funnel to slowly fill the system there. Then run the engine with the cap off the expansion bottle to burp any air out. The mod we’ve found for quicker warm up and better operation of the thermostat, is to remove the 20mm hose into the top centre of the rad, and route the hose from bottom of the coolant bottle into the bottom hose before the water pump. One other thing that looks odd in your diagram is that the turbo has a 20mm hose in from the thermostat but only a 6mm air bleed hose out back to the coolant bottle. I can’t see how that would circulate enough water through the turbo for cooling, so might be adding to your under bonnet temps. I’m away at the moment, but when back at the weekend I’ll look at my manuals and see how Rover plumbed the turbo. Andy

Hi Dean, where did your cable break? When mine went a couple of years ago it was where the inner cable enters the pedal box, as it’s at an angle to the outer cable where it exits the box and frays. I made an approx 30 deg angled spacer to hold the ferrule of the outer cable at the right angle to the pedal box wall. The clutch cable now goes downward toward the steering column rather than straight out. Sorry I haven’t got a picture of the spacer itself but this photo shows the straight line path it makes the cable go. I lubricated the inner cable with bike chain ptfe spray when I reassembled it, and also put some exhaust wrap around the cable where it goes under the exhaust headers to prevent it overheating and drying out. I’ve not had any problems with the clutch cable since then. But like yours my clutch is still very heavy. I’ve not found a solution to that although I’m told a longer clutch fork can help. Cheers Andy

On my Superspec I reinforced the seat mounting bolts through the floor pan with 40x40 4mm square steel washers from B&Q.