IanS

Just been looking at the ford wiring diagram for 1982/3 sierras. The Italian variation only lets the rear fog lamps work with the dip headlights. The Swedish version lets it work with either dipped or main headlights. All other variations of loom let it work with the side lights on.

With no leaks I would suspect the master cylinder is passing a bit each time and not returning properly on release. 20psi resets the pistons in the MC. Has the MC been assembled without internal return springs?

See the post in the engine section

The trailing arms are mounted on a subframe with a spindle that is angled. Raising the suspension at the back will reduce camber and toe. Depending on which kit and options you have you might have height adjustable coil over dampers at the back. Or you could have standard sierra springs and seperate dampers where chngeing ride height requires spacers fitted at one end of each spring.

Whilst i do not know the details of your ECU I worked in electronics for nearly 50 years. Normally this type of load is switched with an open collector driver pulling down to the negative connection. This will normally drop around 0.5V so you should be seeing 12.5V accross the coil with a battery charged to 13V. Convention is that the electronics reference everything to the negative connection so if this is bouncing around 3 volts everytime the solonoids in the injectors fire the ecu could easily get confused.

I would say that 3 ohms to battery negative is a bad connection, at 1A return current there is your 3V drop. Other sensors for the ECU that earth through the engine will give false readings with this sort of resistance.

At 11.7 I would suspect a dead cell in the battery. Time for a new battery?

Early sierras (first 18 months production) switched to earth. 2 brown wires into a 2 way plug just behind the stearing wheel. Later sierras with switch on end of indicator stalk switched the live. Both had a relay to actually switch the horn current.

If alternator is tested good then charging circuit will be at fault. Check resistance from alternator body to battery negative it should be 0ohms. As car starts there is a good earth connection to the starter but the alternator mount might have paint / rust preventing a good earth connection to the engine. 12V 55A alternator should be good for the simple electrics our cars have

Yes that is the wire I used, standard ford colour would be white/black. Comes from S54 on the headlight switch to 56 on the dip switch.

Oil splatter also could be over full sump so that windage or even contact from the crank is misting the oil. There is a pined article giving the correct dimensions for the dip stick.

Take the feed from before the dip switch. That is the wire that runs from the light switch to the dip switch, my 1983 switch does not need relays but the feed to the rear fog light switch has a 5A fuse in it.

The fun of finding a needle in a haystack. Well done.

Yes empty tank makes removing it easier. Take care about any sparking with the tank open, disconnect battery before starting.

103 is OK in a zetec but would be high in a pinto.

I also have sierra sender and smiths guage which shows full untill the first gallon has been used and then about 15 miles after it hits empty the car stops. I had to bend the sender float arm to achieve this. I built the car and made sure that the float would touch the bottom of the tank which caused the float being limited to not reach the top of the tank as my tank is deeper than the sierra doner tank. I wanted empty to mean empty and was not bothered that ful reading means more than 3/4 full. It sounds like your builder did not consider this.

If you fit an adjustable valve it must be locked for the test in such a way that tools are required to adjust.

Anti freeze actually has a lower thermal capacity than water. This means that it needs a bigger temperature range to carry away the same amount of heat, so adding anti freeze can actually raise temperatures if the cooling system is overloaded. Production cars cooling systems are designed to work at full power in the hottest places in the world with something in hand. Air in the system can seriously compromise the cooling capacity so is the first thing I would check. Water pump is the next as I understand that there are both colckwise and anti clockwise pumps fitted to zetecs depending on fitment of air con. Have you got the correct pump? Just some thoughts.

If you have the normal 40A alternator 50A should be good. 63 is what ford had on early sierras, I have not checked what they fitted later. I would be checking for any problems with the wires rubbing causing shorts, the original fuse went for a reason, the reason is normally a short. If replaceing the fuse and it holds up then it is checking all other circuits to find anything not working to try narrowing down where there could be problems. Good luck

Mine is rated 63A. Could go a bit lower as I have no high power loads. One thing to remember is that the batttery charge current goes through this and I have a 50A alternator so with a new battery (takes a larger charge current than a clapped out one) I have a bit of headroom for when the alternator gets enthusiastic.

I am fairly certain that the extender is a robin hood part made out of surplus bits. I always thought that this was to adapt a rover metro rack that richard stewart got a bulk surplus buy on.

I think that the MT75 box had an integral bell housing and ford did not fit it to the pinto.

If a change of diff cuts out a gear change this might help getting to 60. My setup requires 2 changes to get to 60, I would be quicker if I only needed a single change. As 1st is a sierra stump puller gear probably your best bet is a modified box with a higher first.

Wish I had seen this when my tiptop alternator died.

On my car the intermittent relay is red