Longboarder

Fitting an anti-roll bar reduces the ultimate adhesion at the end you put it on. In other words stick one on the back and you will get more oversteer and less roll. My car certainly doesn't need any more oversteer! Nigel

It is perfectly legitimate to assemble to a more 'friendly' spec to make a pass more easily obtainable. The car can only be tested at SVA in the configuration you present it. If you go on at some later date to fit a Zetec engine in place of the 1600 pinto your MOT garage may check its date of manufacture and apply different emissions criteria. Nigel

Don't panic. You can get a better view of castor if you want to. Measure the ground to lower arm distance, jack it up on the arm, whip off the wheel and disc, jack it back down to the original height and you can visualise the line going through the centers of the top and bottom ball joints. 5 degrees is a good starting point but its the feel when driving which counts and you may just have to be patient for a bit. Nigel Mine self-centres in reverse and forwards.

Graeme, don't worry about minor variations in distributor design just so long as it has bob weights inside and a module like the one shown. Check it all out, 'service the car' as it were, then get it on a rolling road. It will be transformed. Nigel

Check that you have a distributor with mechanical advance. Don't use the vacuum advance. The units you should have are the ones in the pic below. Its probably worth going over the ignition leads checking their resistance, check you have the right plugs and they are clean and gapped. Then you are on for a rolling road session to get it all set-up properly, particularily the carbs. You don't say what cam or head mods you have as they will make a difference. Nigel

Compare the thread on the 'blanking' bolt to the thread on the end of the servo pipe nut. Bet they're the same and you just drill a 4mm hole through into the intake if you want to run a servo. Nigel

Sorry Boggie but I havn't got capri dials but I did have a New Capri 2L S way back which I loved, but thats another story. Sometimes the best way to check wiring is to disconnect all wires and run direct temporary wires to give the rev counter its three wires and see if it works. And does it register 1000 at say 3000rpm and 2000 at 4000rpm then its move the needle time. If its all over the place with just the three wires connected then its probably bust I guess. Nigel

There was a tapping for servo take-off from number three intake and a feed for the heater pipe from the cylinder head water jacket on the manifold I bought. You must have this for water circulation before the thermostat opens. The manifold should have provision for both. Nigel

Assuming you have wired from coil neg to rev counter have you got the supressor that caused Joel problems still fitted. See his post Whats this? of 21 April. I'm assuming the rev counter has a stabilised supply and an earth as well as the lead from the coil. Nigel

Having one wheel stationary and one going at 70 mph must have given the diff a bit of a wake up call!!!! Congrats to you and the car for surviving the test! Nigel

Sean, You said it started with oil light coming on when at hot tickover and has progressed to on all the time. I think you're oil light is doing its job fine and may even get a bit huffy if you continue to ignore it and don't trust it. You could double check with a known good sensor or gauge and you can check the circuit by removing the wire from the sensor and the light should be off. Ground it and the light comes on. I think you should drop the sump and inspect oil pump, mains and big ends. Nigel Ah! Still building. Check the pressure relief valve isn't sticking open.

Go to Dave Andrews website and you will find loads of excellent downloads including one for modding pinto heads. here Nigel

Short term single or multiple exposure to two pack may do no harm at all or for the unlucky few sensitise you to isocyanates. Yes you can get a bit light headed from the VOC's and to much may kill your liver but thats not realy the main issue. Once sensitised you get a hayfever sort of reaction with runny nose and eyes and if you are realy unlucky you are left with a severe asthma, chronic emphysema (lung damage) and it is possible to have an anaphylactic type reaction leading to death in about four minutes on subsequent exposures to any isocyanates, even superglue. Always use an air fed mask. Nigel

I did this change a year ago on my series three. 40 Dellorto's, 285 cam, DA type mods to head and electronic ign to give 120bhp at the wheels and it trickles along at 30 in 5th gear no problem. The simplest ign to use is off an early sierra with bosch distributor and the six lead module as below in the pic. Don't use a vacuum advance. Manifold choice is limited by space and I had to use a one inch thick alloy plate manifold. Trumpets as long as will fit for low down power. About 70mm with filters, 100mm without. Jetting,don't know? Mine runs happily on the mechanical fuel pump. The main problem that arises is crankcase ventilation and you will need an oil catch tank and to remove the sprung valve in the crankcase vent pipe. Changing the cam will change the jetting. Do get a vernier cam pulley. Car should be drivable gently to the rolling road setup session where the cam timing, ign advance curve and jetting can be properly sorted. Nigel

One way of going about finding a demon local head modifier is to contact the local Ford rally boys perhaps through your local rolling road. They will know who is the top local pinto man and he will recommend which cam goes with his tuned heads best. Nigel

Just how much stress is the mounting for the boot floor going to have to take? I can understand this fuss if Phil was talking about welding some suspension mounts on for a wishboned rear end but a boot floor. Surely? Nigel

I still have an EECIV box from my original 2L pinto injected Hood which was working fine when I took it out to put in the twin 40's. Cost you the P + P if you want it. Nigel

I still have an EECIV box from my original 2L pinto injected Hood which was working fine when I took it out to put in the twin 40's. Cost you the P + P if you want it. Nigel

Pic of the top of an old box in the shed. Its dark outside and the camera is playing up. Didn't show the hole so I've put a black dot there on the dome, just to the right of centre. Hope this helps. Nigel

Another possibility is it could be running a bit rich on overun which carb models tend to do. Mine certainly does the same but as it appeals to the boy racer in me I havn't tried to do anything about it. Nigel

This one goes in the 'teaching granny to suck eggs' bin but everyone knows the splined shaft has a sort of master spline and the U J only fits in one position, rotationaly speaking. It shouldn't need to be drifted on! Nigel

Lindsay, try down the bottom of the page Steering Rack Sounds like you have a variation on an old problem and wedges would help. Nigel

As this is a safety issue its important to get it right not just get it passed. SVA used to take the view that if an inertia compensator was fitted a roller test would be done followed by a practical test outside to see if the examiner could lock the rear wheels before the fronts. Check with your centre to see if this is still the case. Problem with fitting is the difficulty in bleeding, so decide where to put it, then plumb it in with enough slack copper pipe to place it vertical to bleed. After bleeding rotate to about 20 deg off the horizontal and fix with one hole and one slot. Then you can go out somewhere quiet and safe do a few emergency stops, adjust the angle till the bias suits you and bolt up tight. Of course all this falls if SVA won't accept the system and you then have to make or buy an alternative. (Dave Andrews site here ) Nigel

You could mount an old sierra wheel on the back and make it a nice cover. Nigel

Just received this little brute as an attachment to a mail from gardener at telepath dot com. Updating my Norton software yesterday was worth it. Thanks Mat. Nigel