Panko

Beautiful car. Well done, sir.

Well, here we go again. 
 
A week ago, i had no intention of buying another Mk1 Escort any time soon. However, a mate of mine from when I had my last escort couldn't resist contacting me, and putting me onto this beautiful little 4 door Mk1 for sale way up in Kerang, about 3 hours north of Melbourne. 

I took a look at the photos, and promptly called the owner. I was pretty much sold there and then. 
 
So yesterday, Michael (my Escort informant), my good mate Callin and I set off from Sunbury at around 9am in Michael's VW Amarok (I'm glad we did...ill explain soon) to go look at this car, with cash in hand ready to drive this beauty home to Melbourne. 
 
The owner was a retired old guy, who collects some interesting and beautiful cars. He was very honest with his asking price, and very genuine. I somewhat feel like i might have ripped him off a little with the price, but it was well within his price range, and he was happy to accept. Even left his club plates for me to drive it home. 
 
now for the good (and bad) photos of our adventure. 
 
These next few pics are the photos the owner sent me. the car is totally original. 1975 (october) factory 4 speed 1300XL. Has 139,000km on the odometer, but the engine in it apparently has about half that. The original engine came with the car, which has been rebuilt as some stage, with non standard pistons...so some investigation needs to go into that, as it may end up being a stronger engine than the one thats in it...very weird. 
 

 
interior is MINT.
 

 

 
the previous owner had it for about 3.5 years, and only drove it a handful of times. 
 

 
 
 
SO i bought the car, and set off on the long journey home. during the test drove she drove like a dream. smooth, plenty of power and comfy...
 

 
we got 30 minutes from Kerang then this happened....
 
obviously the guy i bought it from never had a problem with the car because it only ever got driven around town, never on the HWY. so me attempting to drive it home, sitting on 90km/h was enough to sort out the bugs...like the distributor which was inevitably going to die..and leave me standard  

 
SO, we flat towed the car as far has Harcourt, where Michael's dad was nice enough to borrow a friends trailer, and meet us. we trailered it back to Michael's house, arriving back to Sunbury about 8pm last night. and thats where i left the car, on the trailer in Michael's driveway, along with 1 of his Mk1 4 door Escorts. 
 

 
A big thanks to Michael and Callin for the support and help yesterday, i would've been fucked if i had taken the xf or my daily to go collect it. thank fuck for Michael and his Rok. 
 
anyway, Michael is a legend, he is going to get it going for me (just needs a dizzy) at his house. 
 
Can not wait to start enjoying this beast  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Well, here we go again. 
 
A week ago, i had no intention of buying another Mk1 Escort any time soon. However, a mate of mine from when I had my last escort couldn't resist contacting me, and putting me onto this beautiful little 4 door Mk1 for sale way up in Kerang, about 3 hours north of Melbourne. 

I took a look at the photos, and promptly called the owner. I was pretty much sold there and then. 
 
So yesterday, Michael (my Escort informant), my good mate Callin and I set off from Sunbury at around 9am in Michael's VW Amarok (I'm glad we did...ill explain soon) to go look at this car, with cash in hand ready to drive this beauty home to Melbourne. 
 
The owner was a retired old guy, who collects some interesting and beautiful cars. He was very honest with his asking price, and very genuine. I somewhat feel like i might have ripped him off a little with the price, but it was well within his price range, and he was happy to accept. Even left his club plates for me to drive it home. 
 
now for the good (and bad) photos of our adventure. 
 
These next few pics are the photos the owner sent me. the car is totally original. 1975 (october) factory 4 speed 1300XL. Has 139,000km on the odometer, but the engine in it apparently has about half that. The original engine came with the car, which has been rebuilt as some stage, with non standard pistons...so some investigation needs to go into that, as it may end up being a stronger engine than the one thats in it...very weird. 
 

 
interior is MINT.
 

 

 
the previous owner had it for about 3.5 years, and only drove it a handful of times. 
 

 
 
 
SO i bought the car, and set off on the long journey home. during the test drove she drove like a dream. smooth, plenty of power and comfy...
 

 
we got 30 minutes from Kerang then this happened....
 
obviously the guy i bought it from never had a problem with the car because it only ever got driven around town, never on the HWY. so me attempting to drive it home, sitting on 90km/h was enough to sort out the bugs...like the distributor which was inevitably going to die..and leave me standard  

 
SO, we flat towed the car as far has Harcourt, where Michael's dad was nice enough to borrow a friends trailer, and meet us. we trailered it back to Michael's house, arriving back to Sunbury about 8pm last night. and thats where i left the car, on the trailer in Michael's driveway, along with 1 of his Mk1 4 door Escorts. 
 

 
A big thanks to Michael and Callin for the support and help yesterday, i would've been fucked if i had taken the xf or my daily to go collect it. thank fuck for Michael and his Rok. 
 
anyway, Michael is a legend, he is going to get it going for me (just needs a dizzy) at his house. 
 
Can not wait to start enjoying this beast  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

My grand father made a good one up. its a piece of running tube thread, with a bolt out each end. sit it between the two ball joints, and load it up by turning it, works as a spreader, then whack the ball joint housing your trying to crack with 2 hammers, 1 each side of the ball joint. it doesn't often crack the first time, so once you've got it to move a bit, load the spreader up again, and hit it again. usually cracks after 3 hits. i got all my original balls joints in the xf to crack in 1 or 2 hits. if it was in my garage id go grab a photo of the tool, but i think its in my grandfather's garage. 

I mean performance as in grip(i did mean to write that didn't have coffee this morning) i do an average of 25-30k a year between business and personal driving so will get the use but i figure if i can atleast get 40-50km and have Superior grip I would be happy with that to but would be nice to get longer if its possible. 

Check where the lpg wiring used to be you might have a bad joint

gees 255kw with no cooler and standard ecu
 
i want that tune in mine plz

Not too sure about the bit about it having factory dry ice set up though Jack....
 
Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

Ok so good and bad news.
 
Today i put the wagon up on stands, put the car in gear, handbrake off and rocked the wheels back and forth, while someone held the trailshaft still. The slop in the diff was way more than we expected. It appears to be mostly in the crown and pinion wheel meshing.
 
I decided to doing a service on it. Dropped the oil, new gasket, oil, and a Penrite LSD specific additive. The result, it has cut the shuddering down by i reckon about 75%. So to me this proves the diff is the issue. Still has a slight shudder because the diff needs rebuilding. But it is smooth now. The axle does not knock when doing tight turns in my court, and i can reverse up my driveway now.

Ok so good and bad news.
 
Today i put the wagon up on stands, put the car in gear, handbrake off and rocked the wheels back and forth, while someone held the trailshaft still. The slop in the diff was way more than we expected. It appears to be mostly in the crown and pinion wheel meshing.
 
I decided to doing a service on it. Dropped the oil, new gasket, oil, and a Penrite LSD specific additive. The result, it has cut the shuddering down by i reckon about 75%. So to me this proves the diff is the issue. Still has a slight shudder because the diff needs rebuilding. But it is smooth now. The axle does not knock when doing tight turns in my court, and i can reverse up my driveway now.

1675mm from flat flange to tip of input. Thats from a E series wagon with flat flange but there the same anyway as it replaced a XF ute shaft and now has a XH ute steel shaft in there.  

Stuck on a speed hump somewhere!

So judging by your pics, your shock and spring package is irrelevant becasue your not using them anyways?

Try this additive :-D

I dont want to have a shot at anyone here, it annoys when people are (sometimes) narrow minded, and have a biased opinion about a manufacturer, just because of something they have been told or read. 
 
I rebuilt the front end in my XF wagon roughly 4 years ago, using Nolathane rebuild kit. At the time, the car was a daily driver, and since has done about 100,000km, and the suspension is still nice. its a little hard, but none of it is split. only 1 bush has split and that is a 1 of the 8 sway bar link bushes. 
as for tie rod ends and ball joints, i went through R&E Auto Parts, who sell Road Safe brand. again, not 1 issue with them. even the rubbers are still in good condition, and have no signs of splits, after all this time. Now i know, a few people i have spoken to say Road Safe is shit, and they fall apart etc etc. but i think from my experience, it proves otherwise. I personally would not go to places like Rare Spares for suspension components, but rather stick to what I know have been good, places like Burson's and R&E. 

 

I dont want to have a shot at anyone here, it annoys when people are (sometimes) narrow minded, and have a biased opinion about a manufacturer, just because of something they have been told or read. 
 
I rebuilt the front end in my XF wagon roughly 4 years ago, using Nolathane rebuild kit. At the time, the car was a daily driver, and since has done about 100,000km, and the suspension is still nice. its a little hard, but none of it is split. only 1 bush has split and that is a 1 of the 8 sway bar link bushes. 
as for tie rod ends and ball joints, i went through R&E Auto Parts, who sell Road Safe brand. again, not 1 issue with them. even the rubbers are still in good condition, and have no signs of splits, after all this time. Now i know, a few people i have spoken to say Road Safe is shit, and they fall apart etc etc. but i think from my experience, it proves otherwise. I personally would not go to places like Rare Spares for suspension components, but rather stick to what I know have been good, places like Burson's and R&E. 

 

I dont want to have a shot at anyone here, it annoys when people are (sometimes) narrow minded, and have a biased opinion about a manufacturer, just because of something they have been told or read. 
 
I rebuilt the front end in my XF wagon roughly 4 years ago, using Nolathane rebuild kit. At the time, the car was a daily driver, and since has done about 100,000km, and the suspension is still nice. its a little hard, but none of it is split. only 1 bush has split and that is a 1 of the 8 sway bar link bushes. 
as for tie rod ends and ball joints, i went through R&E Auto Parts, who sell Road Safe brand. again, not 1 issue with them. even the rubbers are still in good condition, and have no signs of splits, after all this time. Now i know, a few people i have spoken to say Road Safe is shit, and they fall apart etc etc. but i think from my experience, it proves otherwise. I personally would not go to places like Rare Spares for suspension components, but rather stick to what I know have been good, places like Burson's and R&E. 

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/ulk/itm/262236445912

I would love a crossy, in a XF Ghia. I still remember sitting in a brand new XF Ghia and being amazed by electric Windows and cigarette lighters on each door, then the dash........dam bet I go dreaming on eBay now.

and my xf. (old pic with LPG, now removed) 
 

Damn a thread i cant post in - ive only got clevos and a spare clevo! 

Well consider it the ozfalcon shelby drop template. I will pull my finger out ( clean my finger before touching template) and get the job done so I can pass it on. Have to thank Crazy for his accurate drawing that I made my template from. Will take a pic of template when I get home and put a couple of pics.

Drive a x series ute or wagon if you want to know how they go with no rear sway bar and leaf sprung rear.

Hey ando, have you got aby pics of the DIY coil-overs?