Longboarder

The Black/Violet going to 54 on the column switch should be live with ignition on and everything else off. Your column switch should be marked with numbers and the odd letter. Incredibly in my opinion the lead to the old sierra wiper has five wires and the way the column switch is designed makes it a straight connect job and you can even keep intermittent wipe by retaining relay 153 and the intermittent speed control switch 154. The five terminals are numbered 1 2 3 4 5. When 'on the park cam' the little white switch links 1 & 2 and when 'off the cam' it links 2 & 4. For the park to work you need a constant ignition positive to 4 and to be able to link 2 & 5 externaly in the column switch. Mat put a pic and legend as number 1 on the old site in build bits! Connect as below for 87-89 loom. 1. (Earth) Brown. 2. (Linked B1 to 53) Brown/White. 3. (Power from 53, fast) Green. 4. (Ign on constant park supply) Black/Violet. 5. (Power from 53B, slow) Green. If you dont want intermittent wipe just don't use the intermittent speed control switch and insulate all its ends. For the washers its all there as per Haynes, but relay 83 is not being used. Identify it and leave it in as a spare even though its doing nothing. This switch has ever been missunderstood. Not for nothing is Lucas known as the 'Prince of Darkness' over the pond! Nigel

Just had some further thoughts on this subject. A single Hookes type U.J. with a constant rotational speed input through an angle does not have a constant rotational speed output. They are fitted in pairs with the second joint mirroring the first to give constant speed output. In practice this means that if you can't arrange the engine/gearbox axis in exact alignment with the differential axis then you should try as far as possible to make these two axes parallel. (see pic) Otherwise you introduce a torsional vibration in the prop and diff as they literaly speed up and slow down a little bit twice each full revolution. You would feel this as a buzz and possibly a noise, proportional to road speed. Try to do as below in both vertical and horizontal planes. (note shortened sump has been fitted backwards by some idiot ) Sorry to take so long to post this. Nigel

Check that you have the circuit right for the ign light. One contact on the light has an ignition live supply and the other contact connects to terminal 61 on the alternator. No earth! All model years have direct connections and no diode except 87-89 and even then it is shown with or without. I think if you have the circuit right it should work unless 61 on the alternator is not kicking out 12 volts. Nigel

Hi Simon. Been away. Nice to see your post. Tried 8deg but it still pinks. Fine at 6deg and all nasty noises gone but not happy with the loss of power. Thats why I wanted to get the leaded 98. Its 99.7 in practice and does still exist. Honest! Leaded Petrol Unleaded 98 seems hard to find in Plymouth. Will check the carbs for rattly bits. Nigel

Agree with Joel that it should be a capacitor but I thought they normaly ran coil neg to earth and were part of radio supression. No damage will come of removing it. If it is a capacitor I cant see what its doing between coil and rev counter. Nigel

Not clear what you have set so far but these are safe starting point figures for castor and camber with hopefully clear pictures of what they are. Note for castor the direction of travel/ front of car is important to see which way this axis leans. Can't help with toe guage. Nigel

34 DGAS was a Ford fitment on 1973 2.6 Consul and Granada engines. Has a 24mm main choke as opposed to the 27mm main in a 38DGAS. I don't think you would get much benefit from it. The 38 is the way to go unless you are thinking big valves, ported head, hotter than fast road cam and maybe 2.1 conversion for the future and then you're thinking 45's. They just bolt on. Very similar piping. No oil catch tank to make/buy. If your present manifold doesn't fit a scrappy will provide a suitable one for peanuts and you will probably need an old cortina/crapi distributor. £60ish total on bits but another £50ish for a rolling road session.(but its more to setup twin 40's). Nigel

Vehicle wiring products at horns.... offer an 11" pull electric fan that shifts 4.8 cubic metres per sec for £56.70. Its only 60mm deep Nigel

Just read in Classic Ford referring to hot pinto engines, 'only use genuine Ford thermostat, DON'T use pattern part'. Of course no explanation given but it was in reference to an RS2000. They usualy suggest cheaper or better alternatives so this implied that there were possible problems with other makes! Maybe the Ford one flows better? So an additional tip for hot pintos should be fit a genuine Ford stat. Nigel

Tachos usualy have three wires. Pos 12v supply, earth and sensing feed from the negative side of the coil. This should work even without an ECU. I use a crapi distributor albeit now with a magnetronic sensor inside to replace the points and no ECU and mine works fine. Worked fine with just points also. There was an answer on the loom site that there is a white/black wire labelled not used in the VG loom which you connect with. Don't know if that is correct. Nigel

If you are just changing the tranny balljoint the only thing to be affected will be camber. Mark the rotational position of the top hat in the hub carrier strut pinch thingie so it is not rotated when put back. You can then just jack up the body high till the shocks are bottomed out plus a bit. Use axle stands for safety. If you separate the bottom hub carrier joint, the one with a 22mm (I think) nut on it the hub carrier will swing out easily to aid the change. If you have wishbones you don't need to do that. Measure from centre of ball joint to rocking arm end so you can reset this dimension. Check camber after with vertical spirit level. Nigel

Mat, don't know what you think of this idea but is it practical to have a second 'car signature ' box on posts. It would be a help when thinking about solutions to see car type, stage, donor details, automaticaly entered. Like below. Or just suggest we all put it in if we wish. Nigel

Now set to 6 BTDC. Two weeks of worsening pinking gone. Yesterdays new tinkling noise also gone. Noticably down on power with the ignition retarded from its previous 12 BTDC. Gonna find me some better petrol and stop going to my local garage. Nearest proper leaded petrol is 30 miles away but its 98+ and if I'm passing I will fill up. Pity those distributors you used to get on moggies with a little knurled nut on the vacuum advance don't fit. They made dialing in advance or retard so easy. Pinking? Few clicks back. Done. Why doesn't 'progress' always go forward? Thanks Mat. Nigel

Doh! Lets play spot the brain cell. Nigel

If you have a stick-on numberplate on top of the nose cone it may be necessary to temporarily fit a proper plate for MOT's if your testing station is tough. Don't know about SVA. Is it tested or is there a catch all statement something like, 'any fitment which is not permitted under current RTA and/or is in the opinion of the inspecting officer considered to be a hazard and is not covered by specific exemptions, blah blah...' Anyone know? Nigel

My engine has been a little off tune recently and with my local garage no longer selling LRP I've been running on unleaded 95. Been meaning to take it to have the Dellorto's retuned as they have been on for about nine months and I was going to get them to do the timing at the same time but.... Noticed a light tinkly tapping yesterday but audible at light throttle as the pinking drowns the noise at other times. No new loss of power. What does a broken ring sound like? Does it make a sound? Nigel

To test for over weak mixture part choke the carb inlet with your hand. If the engine picks up its got too much air for the amount of fuel. I have seen WD40 sprayed on the suspect leaking area and an improvement in running as it slowed a leak or a puff of smoke in the exhaust as it was sucked in and burnt. On a hot engine this is a fire risk(saw that on another site) but have to admit I have squirted WD around a hot engine bay in the past and got away with it. Maybe I won't do it again! Nigel

I think you are probably right on fuel starvation but perhaps from a bit of gunge getting into the carb jets. Strip out the jets and blow through them, poke with a nylon tooth brush but not wire. Look in the float chamber and see if there's any cr*p in it and clean out. Nigel

Do you now have to go through any other alarm unit connections which removing the alarm may have disabled. Nigel

A hopefully simple solution. When you stripped your donor you should have found the fuel pump inertia switch in the spare wheel well connected to the pump by a short fat run of black/red wire. Button on this needs to be depressed. Its there to switch off the fuel pump in case of a crash. Pump is fed via fuse 23 which is fed from a timed five blade relay numbered 81 in Haynes. I don't know what the pins are numbered but if you can see under it to identify the fat black/red wire this should be in continuity with the fuel pump wire in the boot. You have got an earth to the fuel pump? Nigel

By clutch actuating arm I meant the lever sticking out of the side of the bellhousing. If its absolutely rigid as if welded in place its engine out to see how its jammed unless you want to try Richards little helper and belt it one to see what happens. If its a little bit wriggly its engine out to reverse the clutch plate. Nigel

Can't find a decent pic but look for the throttle spindle gears. I think its also labeled on the manifold flange. Nigel

You might be able to cut a vee from the car side about three quarters of the way through the pipe just behind the weld of the connector into the single back pipe, bend to the desired angle and get it welded up again. Sorry just noticed yours is a DOHC so you should look at this picture in a mirror! Nigel

Take off the cable. Can you move the pedal, is the cable free running by hand and does the clutch actuator arm waggle loosley but not free the clutch. If all these bits don't seem to be jammed take a stiff drink and wonder if you have fitted the clutch plate the wrong way round on the flywheel. I hope not! Nigel

The link between the blower switch and fuse 7 is probably the illumination bulb in the switch and it must have been shorting to earth. The blower motor gets its power feed from fuse 18. You could have dislodged the wires when you were making the changes. I still don't get why that would blow fuse 7 only when the headlights were switched on except they both earth through common earth point S1021 to G1005 as does dim/dip relay 34. Perhaps if you check and clean up all the earth points to ensure good contacts all will be well. Very useful, not!. Can't help you fix it but tell you how you might have done it when you've sorted it under your own steam!! Nigel