brumster

Pump-wise I use a Sytec one myself; a cheaper (~£70) on the 'Hood and a motorsport-spec one on another car of mine (where reliability is a bit more paramount). No issues with either. You could look out for a generic Bosch pump (off VW Golf's, I think), I've used one of these before with success.... until it got gummed up with 13-year old fuel :-S

We've just remortgaged anyway, but had the note from Santander all the same - couldn't give a stuff, we're off to a cheaper offering (tracker) with no lock-in's. Adios muchachos, Santander

We used a financial advisor/services that specialises in re-mortgaging; my other half knows the proprietor from her days as a solicitor and so we trust him impeccably. Happy to provide his details if anyone wants them (just PM me); no vested interest and I'm not on commission

Oh cool, it still runs does it? I'll pop over and say hi provided it's not peeing down (no weather gear). Any of the faces from the mid/late 90's go? I'll apologise up front if I've forgotten your names. Where did old "Throbbin' Dobbin'" get to?

I'm not sure about the spline fitment on the '75 but I had 105speed make me up my shaft, completely custom to my spec. You could try them - they can only say no, I guess . £130 notes all in and cracking service - turned it around in no time, and not much more than it was going to cost me to have my existing shaft lengthened.

Here you go; suspect it's very similar - maybe the 1900 SDi Polo didn't use the take-off....

That looks very much like the 1.9 Polo diesel rad but with what presumably is an expansion/breather take-off on the top of the rad. I'll snap some pics of mine in a sec - fitted it this evening and its working a lot better than the old one.

I'd normally be up for it, but unfortunately not a good week for me, that one

Now that's interesting. On a completely unrelated issue, I just went searching for a radiator for the Exmo at the weekend. My friendly local motor factor searched through his catalogue for a rad with suitable dimensions, and came up with a Polo 1.9 diesel rad from the mid-90's (also fitted to Seat Alhambra, apparently). I'm going to be fitting it over the coming days in an effort to up the cooling capacity a little.

Maybe it would suit the zero too?

We had an S2000 for a while. Beautiful car - one of the best cars we've owned, I think. Very solid, great driving position, beautiful gearbox, wonderful engine (tractable enough, but you can take it into the bonkers zone if you want), reliable when regularly serviced but i would look for dealer history on one. Handling OK but not the best in it's class; a bit 'vague' but maybe that was just ours... don't get me wrong, not dangerous in any way, but I wouldn't call it an out-and-out sports car.

I miss it but that's what happens when the missus puts it into a ditch the day before we were selling it!

...and like the great Willy Nelson, it passed this morning and I'm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD_pSeNelU

Hurrumph, failed on a few minor points!

1) The usual Exmo issue of the rear Sierra springs flapping around in the breeze (now sorted with some lockwire!)

2) Front brake flexi's borderline on length; at full lock they were a bit stretched. Always been like this, but this tester picked up on it, so hey-ho - picked up some braided lines this avo and all fitted.

Re-test tomorrow morning

That's unfortunate! I've got to pop into a dealer here soon, will see if I can get the details for you (part numbers) and prices. Worst case I'll get them for you and post them over.

Good luck! Enjoy the experience

You'll be well accustomed to 4 speeds then

I've only just re-joined the club myself

The 4-speed is not actually that bad - the 5 speed in most guises has an incredibly short first gear which isn't much fun in a L7-type car. So I wouldn't worry too much about the 5-speeder. Even better is to find a Type 9 from the 2.8 V6 (taller first gear) that's had the input shaft swapped or machined down to fit. Or swap the internals completely for a new gearkit from BGH, and you can pick-and-choose your ratios then (more or less) ;-)

In short, I'd try a 5-speeder first before you decide if it's a worthwhile swap from a 4... depends how you use your car really.

Assuming you stay on carbs, fairly straightforward I believe - I doubt there is much by way of external differences, except maybe a taller/larger carb arrangement, but nothing insurmountable. Injection is a different story

Looks tidy to me

1600 Pinto is, well, let's face it - it's not going to set the world on fire but it will provide enough turn of pace to start off with. Remember they're not heavy things! My Exmo started off with a rather wheezy 2.0 Pinto and it still managed 0-60 in ~7.0 seconds on a 4-speed box (if you trust the g-meter things of the time). Get the car, enjoy it a bit, drive it for a while, then you've always got the option of an engine upgrade later if you feel it necessary - even if it's a simple option of dropping a 2 litre Pinto straight in there (maybe tuned a wee tad)

Got mine tomorrow - first time since 1999 :-S fingers crossed (and a few other things as well!)....

why legally not???

Just to answer your question, I believe you car has to be rated to tow the plated trailer weight. So if the trailer is plated at 2800Kg, whatever is towing it needs to be rated to tow 2800Kg - even if the trailer is empty and only a couple of hundred kilos. I know - ridiculous. I've not tested the theory and have no desire to though

Technically, yes. Legally, probably not ;-)

Cost you that in fuel to divert via Birmingham ;-) hehe

Good luck with it. My trailer's mah-hoo-sive anyway, 2800Kg jobbie for transporting a rally car, so probably overkill for a hood (and might be some technical legality issues, depending on what you were going to tow it with)

<chuckle> No worries - no rental place near you? They're often quite reasonable for day hire, places up here put them out for £40-60 a day (and a deposit, of course)...

You're welcome to borrow mine but Birmingham might be a bit far!?

Well, turns out my old arms weren't as long as the spec says (295mm) and the cosworth ones were a bit too long to fully thread into the TRE's. However this is easily solved by chopping some off the end of them with an angle grinder, if you really need the extra length. However I've kept the old arms, and dropped the front down about 15mm on the shock platforms... I noticed the sleeves on the Exmo shocks had been tapped on a bit too far and were not fully sitting in the hub carriers. The car sits better now, the camber looks (by eye) better (ie. not positive!) and I don't seem to need quite so much track rod to achieve parallel toe now (again, just by eye at this stage, but the car needs to be MOTd on Friday and I can then concentrate on the geometry....)

I'm wondering if, like others, I'm going to need adjustable TCAs to get half-decent geometry at the front (I don't fancy chopping about the top mounts any more as I'll never get the welded-in re-enforcing plates out!)... we'll see.

Hi Guillaume,

The Exmo uses Ford P100 (the Sierra "pick up" truck) damper inserts so you should be able to source from your local ford dealer. You will need to retain the machined, threaded sleeve that fits over them to retain the coil spring but these tap out pretty easy.