deankxf

yup i had same problem,listen to obi wan you must,undo the striker wd40 the shit out of it,manualy use a screwdriver to strike it back and forwards a few times then spray more wd40 ,it wont be the door handle,but like dean said its the 15cm metal rod that needs flattening out or bending to take up the slack ,common problem is handle is pulled up and door wont open cause the rod needs that little bit extra pull to enguage the hook in the striker ,make sure child safety lock is off too,mine now works 100% from not working at all,15min job,once you have done it ,its easy and can fix all of them if needed.

I've had to bend the rods, and reposition the pivot before to take up some slack on rear doors. i suspect due to non genuine handle ? 
 
 

Well some good news. 
 
I do have oil pressure. 
 

 
i went to my dad’s place today and he helped plumb in a mechanical oil pressure gauge. 
Not very fine increments, but that is reading around 30-35psi. 
at the same time the VDO inside was reading 20psi. So my VDO sender appears to be playing up. 
 
Ill just leave the below pic there for you to all enjoy. 
 
first time the Escort has been at my parent’s house since it was off the road. 
 
A quick snap with my father’s S2 Land Rover, affectionately known as George, 1 of 2 specially built, fire service vehicles for Sydney Showgrounds. Unfortunately George’s brother is nowhere to be found. While George has had a full tear down, nut and bolt restoration done by the previous owner. 
 

I've had to bend the rods, and reposition the pivot before to take up some slack on rear doors. i suspect due to non genuine handle ? 
 
 

How old are the points? A lot of new points the spring is too soft letting the points float exactly the same way sometimes valve springs let the valves float, easiest way to check is if you have an old set that are usable throw them in and see if the problem disappears

So small update. 
 
i checked the points, gapped them and cleaned them up. Can’t say it made a difference, maybe marginal improvement to idle and smoothness on the road. 
As a whole im pretty happy with the way its driving. Effortless power across the board, but doesn’t like high RPM, or maybe i just don’t like the noise it makes. 
 
I checked the invoice from the head work, and I did not get the valve springs replaced, so maybe i need to run some heavier valve springs. 
 
The oil pressure hasn’t improved with thicker oil, so im hoping that it is a stuck relief valve. In fact today being 30 degrees, when the oil was hot the pressure dropped off to just under 20psi at idle. 
 
I adjusted valve clearance again, because i found the spec sheet for my cam this morning, and it requires tighter clearances than factory spec. So it should now be correct. 
 
The car goes back in the shed today. I now some work ahead of me to sort out this oil pressure issue, and i need to put the rest of the car back together. 
 
 

could also be POINT BOUNCE, i recall it being an issue on something i had, gap too wide possibly but mine was caused by worn dizzy bushings 

I dropped the oil this afternoon, which is was still the thing racing “run in” and put in 20w60 mineral oil. 
After that at highway speed it did come up to nearly 30psi. So the gauge does move. 
 
that is a good question about the valve springs. I had the head done up. Ill have to find the invoice and see if the springs were replaced. 
It could well be valve bounce  

Well I did it. 
 
I had an aim to get the Escort out and driving by NYE, during my week off work. 
 
It is not without its teething issues, but all i can say is, wow. 
 
The 1660 with 5 speed drives incredible. the power and torque delivery is really nice and mostly linear. Obviously im comparing to a tired 1300 that was in there. 
 
Giving the car a run onto the freeway, it gets there to 100km/h quicker than it ever has, and with still 2 more gears to go. 
 
The engine has good torque right throughout the rev range, so much so that at 60km/h it will still pull in 5th gear, which is about 2000rpm. at 70km/h, 2100rpm, it will pull up hill in 5th comfortably. At 100km/h, its sitting on 3100rpm in 5th, and cruises just nicely. 
 
Steering 
The new 2.9 ratio steering rack is fantastic. im super happy i did it. the little extra weight at low speeds is so worth it for how much better the car drives now. going round corners, going round roundabouts, it is better in every way. 
 
Brakes
They still need time to bed in properly, but they pull up really good. can't wait to have them bedded in properly. 
 
Radiator is doing a dam good job. i haven't seen it climb to half (normal) temp at all. its keeping the temp perfect. even on the freeway at prolonged higher revs, no problem. 
 
 
 
Now for the BAD
As you will see in a photo of the dash below, the oil pressure is leading low, way too low. 20psi. and it does not move. 
I managed to find a record i took from when I started the engine for the first time about 18 months ago, where I had hooked up my oil pressure gauge. at the time it was holding a solid 38psi. so now why does it only hold 20psi? 
Potentially one of two things;
1 - the relief valve on the oil pump is stuck open and is not allowing it to build oil pressure, or 
2 - the oil pressure is fine, and the sender for the gauge is faulty. 
 
 
Fuelling - 
The car obviously needs a tune. it drives great, but does have a bit of hesitation at certain RPM and part throttle positions. at WOT, its fine just pulls. 
 
I also feel like im missing the last 1000-1500rpm in the engine. winding it up onto the freeway, going through the gears, as soon as it hits 5000rpm, the sound changes, the engine gets louder and more "rattly"? This adds to the concern of the low oil pressure, that perhaps that i can't use the top end of the RPM due to low oil pressure. at the moment this is not too much of a concern because it will be rarely driven up there. 
 
Ignition - 
Obviously as you saw in a previous post, I blew my electronic distributor up, so I went back to running the Lucas points ignition setup. it works, but I will be replacing it with something more substantial to keep up with the demands of the larger capacity engine and cam. 
 
 
Enjoy the few pics below. 
I still have a bit of work ahead of me, but I am loving having it driving, and to be honest, it is dangerous how quickly it gets up to speed. i could definitely get myself into trouble 😬
 
 

 

 

 

 

Well the car is running again. 
Why was it not running?….
 
I did a whoopsie. I blew up my electronic distributor 🤦‍♂️ 
 
So in the process of making the bracket for the washer bottle, subsequently removing the coil to make way for the washer bottle, then when reinstalling it, I mounted it rotated differently to clear the brake booster, and when I wired the distributor up, I wired it backwards, flicked the key to start the car, no spark 
 
After doing some testing, sure enough I worked out I killed it 💥 
 
So I’ve reinstalled the original Lucas points distributor, and original Bosch coil from the XF to make it work. 
 
I didn’t set the points gap, fluked the timing, and I believe the last time the points were replaced was when I replaced them on the side of the road when it broke down the day i bought it. 
 
I turned the key, and it started instantly! Like barely cranked, and it came to life. Keep in mind it doesn’t have the choke hooked up either. I’m now thinking the electronic distributor was dying or not doing so well for a while, because it started better than it ever has with the points ignition back in. 
 
 
 
 
 
On an unrelated topic, but bloody funny. 
Ever since ive had the car, the high beam flash feature has never worked, even though the stalk has the movement. Someone told me years ago, that at the time it was some ADR thing that meant the flash didn’t operate in Aus cars, because the wire was disconnected in the stalk. 
well that is a load of shit, because tonight I randomly tried the flash tonight, and it bloody worked 🤣 

Hey mate,
Thanks, I have seen some of his videos on YouTube.
I will reach out to him.
 
Cheers

somehow missed last weeks update, 
radiator looks much better in black, you've been doing very well to get all the little things sorted and back on the car, well done indeed!
 
good luck on the first drive, make sure the simple things are done prior (i've driven off with radiator hoses loose, and loose wheel nuts etc before after a long time project. )
 
 

I got the driver's side doors finished
 

 

 
 
I needed to make a bracket for the overflow bottle. 
the engine bay is getting pretty tight, so trying to find a spot for it is a bit of a challenge. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. Below is what I came up with. 
 
It has a "U" shape in the bottom for the bottle to sit in, and it bolts to an existing Horn bolt. Neither the bracket or bottle touch the body of the car anywhere, except for where the bracket is bolted in at the top. 
 

 

 

 
And to hold the bottle still, i used a velcro strap. simple. 
 

 
Painted the radiator black and reinstalled. Im much happier with it being painted black, really suits the car. 
 

 

 
I got the chance to paint the battery clamp today, so for the first time since its been off the road, the battery is clamped back in the car properly. 
 
I've come to the realisation that, the car is very close to being able to be driven on its proper maiden drive. So, while I have this week off work, I am actually planning to have the car out for its maiden drive by New Years Eve on Sunday. 
 
To make it legal to drive, i have to do the following;
 
- rear rego plate
- rear view mirror 
- wiper arms
- driver's seat belt. 
 
the things i WANT to get done before i drive it, to stop double handling; 
- dash wiring tidy up
- install centre dash panel, which includes my gauges and choke cable and wiper switch
 
I will be over the moon if I can take it for a drive beyond the end of my street, by the end of this weekend 
 
Watch this space. 

I got the extractors back from the ceramic coaters. 
 
They come up awesome. 
 

 

 
I ordered a new radiator from eBay. 2  core alloy, equivalent size to the Cortina copper one that i got that leaked. Fitted perfect other than 1 little mod. 
 

 

 

 
Its actually a little tighter fit than the Cortina radiator. 
 

 

 
It looks alright, but I have decided to spray it black, so it takes less attention away from the engine. 
 

 
Passenger doors are finished. 
New bailey channels, rust protected. 
 
I just mucked up the positioning of the rear door handle. It should be at roughly 2 o'clock, not 6 o'clock like i put it 🤦‍♂️ 
 

 

 
 
Next thing to do will be the driver's side doors. they are rust protected, just need to fit the new bailey channel, then fit the door cards. 
 
 

ghias had a longer bolt

ghias had a longer bolt

A j3 chip in the stock ecu would be your best bet, although if you look up bill hooten on bookface he does stand alone looms, one of his options is to retro fit a barra loom and ecu to the sohc 4.0

Don't skimp on the cost, buy the Loctite product called literally "Rear view mirror glue" or whatever, It works every time.... Scrape the glass clean, use the primer in the pack, and clean the Ford plate thingy, put your sunvisors down and make sure they don't hit (make it central in other words).  Place the metal plate on the inside of the windscreen, get a mate/wife/girlfriend to mark the outside of the windscreen with a texta or marker. Prime both surfaces, dab on the glue, stick on, Robert's ya Fathers brother. 
 
Don't heaps of these over the years, never fall off.

@SPArKy_Dave has a preferred one,
 
i think the glass could do with a bit of sandpaper in that spot, like get a piece of 240 grit over your thumb and twist a couple of times after scraping the old glue off. same for the metal part..
i've had some take a chunk of glass out when being removed, they'd been stuck on so well. 

Hello again folks. I haven't been able to get much done on the XC for the last few years, but I noticed that the rear view mirror has come off the windscreen. 
 
This also happened a few times when my grandfather owned it. 
 
Does anyone have a recommendation for the best adhesive to reattach it to the windscreen again please? 
 
Also, any tips on preparation to minimise the risk of it falling off again. 
 
Thank you for any assistance. 

That sort of coil should be fine, just needs to be a GT40R coil - to suit a resistor wire/points system
GT40R is a 9v coil - to suit points
GT40 is a 12v coil, for electronic style ignition

I’m not actually sure who the supplier has lined up to do it. 
 
Taking a wild stab, being only small bumperettes, id imagine $100-$150 a piece. 
 
I’m sure they could ship the bare bumpers here to be chromed, however it has to be a cost of thing. All about making as much profit as possible, over making a quality product. Sad world we live in, but its reality  

Oh yeah ill definitely put photos up. 
Apparently it cuts easy and is easy to work with. And being underlay, it doesn’t matter if a small mistake is made because its hidden. 
 
Yep the bumpers are manufactured in china. Been on the car 6-8 months, prior to that they were in their sealed boxes. And yeah already rusted. 

Well Today marks 3 years since the Escort was written off. 
 
So where is the car at? 
 
I’ve actually gone backwards a bit. 
The front bumpers are off again, because of rust that was coming up from under the terrible chinese chrome plating. The supplier is looking at getting them done again locally for me at his expense. 
 
The extractors are off getting ceramic coated, I should have them back in a week or so. So at present the car is not running and on stands with the exhaust also on a stand so the car isn’t going far any time soon. 
 
On the flip side, I went and spent a good chunk of money on it during the week, picking up new underlay come sound deadener. 
I went to Car Builders, with the intention of grabbing the adhesive stuff, but having a good chat with someone I know who runs Car Builders, what I wanted is a new product they have released only in the last 12 months, which is a carpet underlay which is hard backed on one side, and then the other side is about 20mm thick acoustic/deadening foam. It just has to be cut to shape, and lay it in. The underlay weighs about 4kg, so won’t need to be stuck down, its own weight is enough to stay in place, plus the carpet on top. 
Its nice having contacts within a company such as Car Builders. Andrew is a hell of a nice guy. Rod and I helped him with a gearbox for his Mk1 Escort, and in return gave me a mad discount on the underlay, and threw the templating sheet in for nothing. 
 
I also got a full set of bailey channel for the door glass. 
 
So with today being a bad omen for me, I refuse to go anywhere on this day every year. I’m not kidding, I have previously even taken a day off work if its during the week so I don’t need to leave the house. 
 
Today I intend to set myself up in the shed, finish the rust protection in the bottoms of the doors, hopefully get the bailey channels in, and come up with a plan to mark out the floor pan onto the template sheet supplied by Car Builders, to then transfer over to the underlay and cut it out to be installed in the car. 

i also had issues since i had a dart block, alloy heads, alloy intake etc, the weight was off was added issue - coil overs fixed it in an afternoon