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Panko

Panko's Mk1 Escort (Round 2)

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Now hang on ,,

All it would be adjusting is the length of the outter " shell " of the lowering block ,, forward or backward ,,,

 

The center pin ,, and leaf spring bolt locating " hole "

Would still be instu ,,

 

It'll be adjusting the location of the centre pin far as i know

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Now hang on ,,

All it would be adjusting is the length of the outter " shell " of the lowering block ,, forward or backward ,,,

 

The center pin ,, and leaf spring bolt locating " hole "

Would still be instu ,,

 

 

It'll be adjusting the location of the centre pin far as i know

 

 

After a quick search, it does move the locating pin

 

Link here, 2nd comment

 

http://www.dragstuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=956

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Now hang on ,,

 

All it would be adjusting is the length of the outter " shell " of the lowering block ,, forward or backward ,,,

 

 

The center pin ,, and leaf spring bolt locating " hole "

 

Would still be instu ,,

 

Unless it slides only the centre pin, and the locating pin is seperate, if that makes sense?

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

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hahahaha ok guys. Mark you are on the money. Like i said, we "fixed" the issue when we installed the blocks, i never told you how we did it ;) mainly because i was a little weary of criticism :P 

 

what we did (and i didnt take photos :( ) was relocate the pin in the block i installed on the driver's side of the car. See the blocks for the escort where 2 piece. the block was flat, with a large set screw with tapered was that was the pin, about 10mm heigh. So we removed the pin, and drilled and tapped a new hole off set to the guide hole on the lower side of the block. bob's your uncle it fixed it. we moved exactly the 10mm we needed to. 

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Unless it slides only the centre pin, and the locating pin is seperate, if that makes sense?

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

Yeah something like that

 

hahahaha ok guys. Mark you are on the money. Like i said, we "fixed" the issue when we installed the blocks, i never told you how we did it ;) mainly because i was a little weary of criticism :P

 

what we did (and i didnt take photos :( ) was relocate the pin in the block i installed on the driver's side of the car. See the blocks for the escort where 2 piece. the block was flat, with a large set screw with tapered was that was the pin, about 10mm heigh. So we removed the pin, and drilled and tapped a new hole off set to the guide hole on the lower side of the block. bob's your uncle it fixed it. we moved exactly the 10mm we needed to. 

 

Thats alright, at least one advantage is with adjustable blocks is you can shorten the wheel base or set the lead of the diff one way or the other depending on how you want it to turn in. Pretty much its like an equivalent to "stagger" (one tyre is bigger than the other, again commen in speedway as seen with sprint cars)

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Nothing to criticise with that fix. If it works it's good imo

Well yeah it worked perfect. I think my concern with criticism was that some may see the fact we modified the blocks as dangerous. But nothing has changed in the way the block is made, just the pin is re-located.

 

The day we did this, we drove it round to a friend of Cal's (who owns a few very nice X series ESPs and a couple of nice FG turbos), and when we told him what we did with the block he said he had done that numerous times on his old XYs and XWs for the same reason, to correct the rear end alignment

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So not much has been happening lately. 

 

I got my new sway bar from K-mac suspension, very quick turn around, i was wrapped, as to was the new sway bar, in bubble wrap, over fresh paint. Yep, i was disappointed that they couldn't back up their fast turn around, with a decent paint job. They had used Enamel paint, with no primer, then wrapped it up in bubble wrap to be freighted to me. unwrapping it, revealed it looked like it still had the bubble wrap on it, because the paint was soft. 
SO, i spent yesterday sanding, prepping it and painting the bar in ACRYLIC subframe black with with a clear coat over the top :D

 

fThiyRZ.jpg

 

whilst awaiting the paint to dry between coats on the sway bar, I attacked the extractors with the wire wheel. so far they have come up pretty good for about 10 minutes of wire wheeling. 

 

JwPRAW8.jpg

 

Last week I installed a little SpeedHut 2" tacho that I purchased 2nd hand (never used) from a guy on FB in SA. its fully programmable, can do any number of cylinder engine, has a in built programmable shift light, which is obviously programmable. It works a treat, however I'm just awaiting the guy to send the 12v LED inverter he forgot to put in so i can actually get the back lights working. 
As a result of having the tacho, i have found out it revs higher than it sounds like it is, and higher than i thought. The shft light by default is set to 4000rpm, so i left it there... normal driving I'm shifting at 3500rpm, and at 80km/h its sitting on about 3800rpm...so I'm going to need to up that shift light haha. 

 

a7Qmy0P.jpg

 

for reference, thats where I have installed it. bolted to the under side of the crummy Mk2 centre dash panel (dont care about drilling holes in this one :P) so fairly discrete, and perfect spot i can see it from the driver's seat. 

 

IjIsl4T.jpg

 

and just a cool little photo of the car because I can...again sitting waiting paint to dry i got camera happy :P

 

bvWp09B.jpg

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well some good news, if you look at it that way. 

 

I fitted the sway bar up, and went and got the front end aligned. First drive post alignment, it felt like it had achieved nothing, in regards to the wobble in the steering. It does however feel better in the way it drives. steering is direct and good feel, and it handles a bit better in the bends. 

 

anyway, after mucking about trying to work out what else it could be, we discovered its wheel related now. The wheels I'm running (Citroen 15" alloys) have an internal diameter of .5mm larger than the lip of the hubs the wheels sit on, only locating on the wheel nuts. So ill now have to run hub rings to centralise them. 

we managed to bolt the wheels on as best we could by eye, and using a feeler gauge, and sure enough the majority of the wobble is gone. 

 

however, the next thing ill need to do to the front suspension is adjustable strut tops. By added +3mm of caster, I've brought the front wheels a long way forward in the guards, and it looks a little silly. So, the plan is to fit some adjustable strut tops, move the control arms back a bit on the adjustable sway bar, then wind the caster into the struts using the adjustable tops. 

 

I took it down to Williamstown to Small Ford Sunday today. First time I've had it on display, and I have to say it got a way bigger interest than i ever thought it would. there was plenty of Mk1s, and Im happy to say, that I think of all the Mk1s there today, mine was by far the best un-restored Mk1. plenty of them had been resprayed, and every little dent pulled, so they were perfect, and of all the un-restored Mk1s, mine appeared the cleanest. I'm pretty happy with that :D 

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anyway, after mucking about trying to work out what else it could be, we discovered its wheel related now. The wheels I'm running (Citroen 15" alloys) have an internal diameter of .5mm larger than the lip of the hubs the wheels sit on, only locating on the wheel nuts. So ill now have to run hub rings to centralise them. 

we managed to bolt the wheels on as best we could by eye, and using a feeler gauge, and sure enough the majority of the wobble is gone. 

 

Been there done that - never used to have an issue with my ute, got new rotors and new wheel bearings, then got major vibrations from the front, turns out my rims were bigger than the hub centre.

 

Had to have some rings machined up to suit, but definitely fixed the problem.

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

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Seen this beast for myself today. Little ripper of a car and one of the better examples at small fords. I was gonna say hello but didnt know who to speak too as there where always people around it

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Chris yeah ill try get the rings sorted for AFD.

 

 

Haha yeah i was walking around for a bit, but then was sitting down behind the car with my mate Cal, and Michael.

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haha that was me. getting pissed off at the stupid traffic lol. 

I was bringing down to my house to do the next round of work/upgrades on it. Good timing on your part, i was just about to update the thread haha. 

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ok, so as i just mentioned above, i have the car home again to do the next round of work and upgrades on the car. 

 

Last week i ordered and received a heap of part from Burton Power in the UK. so so so much cheaper than getting the parts here in AUS. 

 

the list of parts:

GAZ rear shocks, adjustable

Steering rack mount rubbers 

gearbox mount

engine mounts (converting to Mk2/2L style which are stronger)

new brackets to run Mk2 engine mounts with 1300 engine. 

steering wheel boss kit 

 

i decided tonight to start on the rear shocks. took only about half hr to do both sides, and far out i am absolutely stoked with the improvement to how the car drives. :D 

 

Mi8yiGd.jpg

 

old vs. new 
even on their softest setting, the new shocks are significantly stiffer than the old ones 

 

SBypAhR.jpg

 

fair to say the old ones were well and truely stuffed. 

 

VSCp2qa.jpg

 

 

9pGNCfz.jpg

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Those GAZ shocks are cool. We have them in coil over form on the vtec mini. U.K. Sourced like yours. Love the escort mate.

they are AMAZING. Sure the fixed rate Bilsteins might be the bees knees for the escorts, but the adjustability, can't be beat. 

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got to love it when shit just works, and goes to plan, dont you? :D 

 

so today i continued on the car, new gearbox mount and changed the diff oil. 

 

I'm pretty sure the diff oil has never been changed. it was thicker than anything I've ever seen before. it was like tar, and lumpy. not metal flakes, just the oil itself had lumps through it :o 

 

NMlyM8Y.jpg

 

original gearbox mount. it was so so soft. and the crossmember, as you can see was caked with dirt 

 

vqwkDKH.jpg

 

old vs new 

 

i56N9Ws.jpg

 

 

as a result, the driveline vibration i had under load, its pretty much gone. it is so much smoother in every regard. 

 

the last part of the driveline is the gearbox oil and driveshaft swap, which will need to be done together for obvious reasons, so i dont lose oil out the back while the driveshaft is removed. plus it looks like ill need to swap my current yoke onto the new drive shaft 

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so today i attacked the control arm bolts. I swear if i ever have to do them again, or pull the sway bar out again, I'm going to pay someone to do it :( 

 

it looks dangerous, but i promise I've done this before :P 
In case you weren't aware, Escorts dont have radius rods like x series falcons do. The sway bar on an Escort, IS the radius rod. So as soon as any work has to be done on the front end, the sway bar ends need to be pulled closer together (hence the 1600kg ratchet strap), because the ends are designed to be further apart than the holes in the control arms, which is how it manages to do such a good job of being both a sway bar and radius rod. It makes it harder that my sway bar is an aftermarket, 22mm Kmac sway bar. 

 

fOiTgHv.jpg

 

had to pull out the heavy artillery to undo the ends of the sway bar, so i could move the control arms around 

 

bpcIJpR.jpg

 

wMuyWam.jpg

 

 

it seems that replacing the control arms has gotten rid of the steering wobble i had. they were definitely worn a little, but id never of thought they'd be whats causing the issue. i haven't driven it properly yet, but i have had it up to the speed where it would normally have the problem, and it didnt. so hopefully thats sorted. 

 

Tomorrow, is engine mount day. i have a fair bit of prep before i can put them in, so that will be a couple of days work to have it driving again from tomorrow. 

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Love the ratchet strap, I often find that when I don't have an apprentice with me at work that a ratchet strap is a more than adequate replacement.

I should probably get around to servicing my diff too but i just keep finding reasons not to.

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Today i decided to have a crack at fitting the twin barrel carby and manifold. :o 

 

jh4D4VT.jpg

 

all fitted, but haven't plumbed anything up. no choke, cooling system not hooked up, and throttle setup isn't hooked up yet (needs to be changed) 

 

Ym7bOtL.jpg

 

it doesn't quite line up. so this all needs to be changed. 

 

EQJsJA6.jpg

 

it does run though which i was surprised about to be honest. the carby is way way over sized, but it idles, and revs up without coughing and spluttering. and sounds wicked :D 

 

i do have a video I've uploaded to photobucket but its being gay, and i dont know whats happened to it 

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