Panko

Yeah its definitely the diff. We got a long straight piece of timber and compared side to side, holding it against the rear wheels and front wheels. The diff is definitely crooked

Well its funny, you'd think it would crap like a mofo like that, but apparently following, it drives straight. There are 2 vibrations going on. A light shudder taking off which isnt bothering me too much, because it will most likely be the 2 peice tailshaft, so ill swap that for a single. The other one which is annoying is vibration at speed like a bent wheel. So im thinking front wheel bearing has a tight spot.

yeah but i assume they have a bit of movement in them not sure...ill find out later in the week when i have it up in the air

wowsas lol. this isn't quite that bad, but yeah something just isn't right. it hopefully will be just the diff is not sitting right.

How did you actually pick up on the fact the diff was twisted? Yeah this is a rear loading diff, essentially the same as a falcon wagon/ute/van diff. Leaf sprung borg warner.

Yes and no. There is alot of black on chrome, or vise versa on the car. Hence i went black, but purposely ran chrome wheel nuts. FYI. It looks much better in the flesh than the photos. Not sure lol but of you compare the 2 side on pics, you will see the rear wheels are in a different location. Passenger side being further forward. When i had the front end alignment done, they suggested swapping the leaf springs left to right to try correct it. Im going to undo the U bolts and try corrct the diff first.

Today i took the Escort on its first cruise, with Vic Mini club. It finished in Sunbury, so decided to go past Michael's to fit the 15s and swap them for my 13s. We had to remove the driver's rear mudflap, because the diff is not sitting straight in the car (driver's wheel too far back) and it grabbed one of the screw heads holding the mudflap on. Drove it back to Cal's, without it touching too bad. The only spot it light brushed the tyre a few times was the driver's back wheel, on some big dips in the road. So thats again because the diff aint straight. I also need to sort out a bad wobble in the front. The steering wheel has a bad wobble to it, like having a buckled wheel, but having swapped the wheels i know thats not it.

Haha that could be interesting to line up against. Not sure what top speed mine would do. The tyres on the 13s are 175/70R13, which are 22.4mm oversized. 175/65R13 is closer to the right size, and 10mm less side wall.

Yeah its funny dex, i remember as a kid starting to get interested in Escorts i was into Mk2s. But now i dont think i could own a Mk2. I might get rid of that brake light yet. The rear speaker doesnt work, so when i get around to sorting that ill look into removing that light.

And the poor escort doesnt go around corners on these crappy tyres. The sidewall movement in the tyres is incredible (they are oversized). I thought it was bodyroll, but its mostly in the tyres haha so hanging out to get my 15" alloys back and fit them up.

Today was working bee day in the escort. It didnt go 100% to plan, but im still happy with the end result. We had set out to do a list of jobs -change water pump -change thermostat -fit plates -and if time allowed change oil in diff Well we did the water pump first, fitted the new pump, then discovered the fan and pulley wouldnt bolt up. Pulley offset was wrong, and bolt thread was wrong, yet the pump was identical. Looked at the box, it was to suit pre-flow kent engines, so early cortinas. So pulled that off and fitted the old pump again. Because we had to remove the radiator anyway, i decided to fit a better condition, spare i had. Changed the thermostat. Fitted plates Did not get the diff oil done (needs doing though) Car all back together ready for its first drive We decided to go fill bith cars up with fuel and go for a short drive. Im happy the cooling system is all good. Even in todays 35 degree heat, it stayed at 85 degrees coolant temp I had to laugh, Cal made a comment along the lines of, "i think you think the Mini is faster than it actually is" my response being, bullshit, the Mini is a rocket. Tried to keep up with him at the first set of lights, im flat out, and after about 10 seconds he had 100+ merers on me hahaha. That mini is running a 1330cc (originally 1275 cooper s engine) big cam, big carby, extractors, and weighs about 150kg less than the Escort...i have no chance in hell of keeping up lol.

nah mine is in a bad way. it has the factor optioned leather wrap over it. which is cool, but thats in a bad way. i could remove it and go back to the normal wheel underneath, but its so hard to hold onto haha. and the crash pad in the centre looks pretty average

Yeah dean the steering is great now. Its direcr like you say, but i am still running the bus steering wheel in it. Eventually ill chuck a nice sports wheel in to make it that bit more direct. However, id say the rack and pinion has a bit of slop in it, but none the less, the whole car feels pretty good suspension, steering and brakes wise.

Shes looking pretty good at the moment. I cleaned it up in and outside to get the photos to lodge with the car club.

Went shopping today, to get a few bits to make the car, hopefully reliable enough to take on its maiden cruise on boxing day. So saturday im having a working bee. The list of jobs to do: Change thermostat Change water pump Fit rego plates Change oil in diff (not urgent) Fit lowering blocks (far from urgent but we'll see)

Well the final peice of the puzzle. Its registered!!! I Went to the end of year meeting/trivia night with RS Owners Club Vic, met the president of the club, got all the appropriate forms signed. So i was able to walk into vicroads today, and half hour later walked with club plates for it

Ok guys, this is the second premium sound I've been through in my XF. they have both died. they cut out, then try to turn on again, but just can't, so whilst driving there is a frequent click from the radio and factory amp, and a pop through the speakers as the radio clicks on for a split second. Its almost like a capacitor is dead inside or something like that. does anyone know of a place that can repair these units?

Interesting. Yes mine does turn on with the ignition (when it works). that is normal i believe. you know you can program the unit to turn on, and tune to a preset, at a any time of the day (providing the ignition is on). i can't try mine, or investigate, because my car is now sitting in a panel shop, very very out of shape i got run into last weekend. so it will be a while before i see my car again

Hey, ive taken it to Glossworks (run by Thanos from old xfalcon days SIKXE8) he was devastated to see it. Hes going to try sweet talk the Shannons assessor, then pending the result, i might bargain with them to pay extra to have it fixed.

Hi Guys, Today I had the unfortunate luck of having my pride and joy, my XF run into from behind. Its drivable, so I got it home. There is a bit of hope its repairable, but i need to get it assessed. Its insured with Shannons so i have choice of repairer. I'm looking for a panel beater around melbourne who will work on older stuff, and deal with insurance companies, in this case Shannons. recommendations please

Well i need to do some ringing around to find someone. Its insured for $6500 (agreed value). If i get the pay out and take it back, they take the value of it as a damaged car, out of the agreed value. But ill see. So anyone else have someone they can reccomend. If i take a pay out then it doesnt matter if the repairer deals with insurance companies or not. But id rather it not be written off, otherwise i have to start all over with rego.

Ive akready spoken with Rod. He think its repairable, needs to be stretched. So needs to go somewhere with floor rack. It will be going through insurance, so i need someone who deals with insurance jobs. Rod doesnt, which is fair. Yeah im heartbroken, im sore and is going through hell at the moment, and when i thought things couldnt get any worse, this really just topped it

Hi guys, so any of you who have followed my thread on my wagon, will know for some time now I've been chasing a bad driveline shudder when taking, when taking off in the car (5 speed manual). so as the clutch is taking up. The first thing that seemed to be the culprit was the T5. And sure enough, the extension housing bush was buggered, allowing too much movement in the yoke. I had it checked out by a transmission place, in which they agreed. So I've had another T5 rebuilt, better synchros fitted, and an extension housing bush from a AU V8 T5 (better life span apparently). I knew the diff original 2.77 diff (i converted it from auto to manual) wasnt great either, having serviced it before having the T5 replaced, and finding the LSD had been grabbing, or locking, causing some interesting noises. Being the wrong ratio i had planned on replacing it anyway. Again, confirmed by a diff place that the centre needed to be machined, and shimmed. i figured i might as well do the same to a correct ratio diff. So i have done that as well. I had a 2.92 LSD built up, and has made a world of difference. This also eliminated about 75% of the shudder, just by building up a new diff. Now to my question, that this topic is related to.. Someone suggested to me, that if the crank has too much end float, this could be the cause of the shudder. And considering I have rebuilt and replaced the gearbox and diff, and had the unis done on the tail shaft, its starting to look like a good candidate. So the engine has clocked over 330,000km, never been built. It was out of the car once at 180,000km to have all the gaskets replaced etc etc. but never had a rebuild. Ive also replaced the rear main a few times, and it has never stopped leaking, could this be a result of the fact the crank has too much end float? I have another engine in the pipelines ready to be built up. I would just like to seek people's opinions on whether it is the crank end float causing issues, considering the engine runs near perfect, and still has plenty of torque (considering how low on compression it is ). any advice or info would be great. cheers guys.

Well when i had the gearbox done it had a new clutch and thrust bearing put in. Then again when for whatever reason the thrust bearing flogged out. So its only about 7000-10000km old. I did the unis a few years back, when i just started to have an issue. Maybe need doing again. The rear suspension has never been re-bushed as far as im aware. I had footage that i took on my GoPro, setup on the driveway under the car, holding my foot on the brake whilst slowly letting the clutch out, essentially inducing the shudder. On the footage i could see the driveline front to back, vibrating. Tailshaft and gearbox. So it seems to come from either end of that. Ie crank or diff. On a side note, i remember when i had the new diff built, i originally put in the oil the diff place recommended, a fully synthetic 90w120(?). Drove it, and immediately wasnt happy with it. The following day dropped it, put a mineral oil with the correct factory spec (thinner) oil. Plus a Penrite LSD additive, and immediately better. The shudder was near gone and it didnt feel like it was dragging like it did with the thicker oil. Sadly it did an axle seal and had to back to them to be sorted, in which i know they will have put the thicker oil back in. I havent bothered to change it back yet, would the thicker oil be causing issues? Considering the reason i had a new built is because apparently what was happening was the LSD centre needed machining, and it was locking and unlocking and getting sticky, which would cause a bit of shudder as it released. Hard to explain without a cone set to demonstrate.

Ok, well this is the second unit i have been through. The first one did the same, they slowly get worse until they dont want to turn on at all. If i stick a cassette in, the amp and speakers all work fine. Its literally just the radio section thats dead. Ive replaced the cigarette socket when i made my gauge panel for the console. So both units have died with different cigarette sockets.