Today has been a mix of joy and frustration, which, naturally comes with old cars, especially English cars.
Anyone who has been following this thread, knows the entire time ive owned the Escort, ive had a bad steering shudder or wobble at certain speeds.
Well, today, after so so long of hunting for it, I have finally got rid of the wobble. It is gone, i can now drive the car at any speed without it teying to shake itself to bits. I can now sit on 100km/h comfortably, and i can push it out to 120+km/h and its smooth
It was the wheels as i suspected after i lost some of the stick on wheel weights. I had all four wheels put on the balancer today, and only two of them were out, funnily enough the two of them that were ok were the ones where i had found the weights on the ground and restuck them back on.
I had to take the wheels off anyway to check something on the front brakes. Turns out i had the anti rattle shims in upside down, which i had marked last time i had them out, which means they were always in the wrong way and i just put them back wrong. So flipped them around, and the brake rattle and squeal is gone.
It was then that i noticed the LHR wheel cylinder has spat the dummy. Fix 2 things break something else right?
This weekend coming, the RSOCV are doing the Alpine Tour. 3 days, 950-1000km round trip, on some of the best roads and landscapes victoria has to offer.
Up the entrie Great Alpine Way, Omeo, Mt Hotham, Bright etc. so obviously I am trying to get the car ready to survive the trip.
I decided to change the spark plugs because i dont think ive done them since fitting the weber carby, and its done a few kms since then.
I went to Yesterford to get wheel cylinders and plugs, and they sell Autolite plugs.
Got home, gapped and fitted the Autolite plugs, fitted the wheels after sorting the front brakes, started the car up and took it for a drive. It was idling like shit, but figured it maybe due to it being on coldstart. Took it for a drive, made good power, started easier, pulling nicely, BUT, the rough idle only got worse. doing some reading online, apparently Autolite plugs arent great. A lot of people have issues with them, so ill be fitting my old NGKs back in for arguments sake to see if it is just the plugs, and if so, ill buy some new NGKs, for the weekend, amd take my old ones for spares.
So again, pressure is on. Essentially only have a day and a half to get it sorted, or ill have to bail on the weekend, which will be shattering given the brakes and steering are smooth as now