Ti Motorsport

The End Product

Our final preparations followed a fairly familiar trend, if it could go wrong, it would. We decided to work our way back on the car, so front suspension first. 

Considering that we had only changed the front struts & inner spherical bearings on the track control arms, the geometry was all over the place. Having set our ride height, we had major changes to make to get our required settings. We can only surmise that the struts are set differently. We eventually had settings that we were happy with.

Our remaining jobs were less problematic, mainly revolving around the various safety items required, triangles, first aid kits, sealed bulkheads & towing eyes. The final job, the breather on the fuel tank.   

With the car finished, it was time for a quick look at the new service/chase vehicle, before it disappeared, with a load of spares, to the shippers. Space will be at a premium, that's for sure. So time to see the back of the Escort, at least for a while

Finishing Touches

With the rolling road out of the way, we were on the run to the finish,
preparation wise. First job though was to dry the car off before taking it into the workshop.

The throttle cable trouble was easily resolved, off with the pivot part of the mechanism. The problem was in both the bracket, which houses the operating arm & the arm itself. The answer was to weld up & re drill the bracket and fit a sleeve in the arm. With that done, we refitted the assembly & checked again for full throttle travel. After a little bit of messing about, we finally managed to get everything sorted.

With Andy Tearle also back with us, the electrics were down to him & a quick check on the alternator output [ the warning light needed a few revs on before going out]removed doubts about charging, no problem there, so on to the re organising the coil / amplifier layout. We have made our twin coil/ amplifier totally independent. Previously both systems had been powered up all the time which seemed a little pointless.

Having had a good run & with the suspension settled, we have now been able to set our ride height prior to doing our final geometry adjustments.

The remaining job list has been decreasing steadily and we are on target to have everything finished tomorrow, at which point we can turn our attention to the spares & the crew cab pick up that will be our service vehicle.

The spares have already gone to the shippers & the car & pick up are due there at 9 o'clock on Thursday morning.

On The Road Again

With the right adaptor, the clutch slave cylinder was connected & bled. I must admit, it was a whole lot easier to bleed than the similar arrangement on the Peugeot 504.

With the last few bits of tidying done on the inside, the drivers seat was fitted before the drivers door got hung. At this point all the body shop work was completed & it was just down to us to finish the mechanical bits & pieces. 

 

Jonathan, meanwhile seemed to be thinking things through, before assembling the drivers side hub. All of which meant that by 4 o'clock, we were ready for the trip to the MOT shop.

When the car came back, the body shop had a new job to do. The drivers side wheel had caught the rear of the wheel arch. The exact reason for this is still unresolved but with our session at the rolling road getting ever closer, we raised the car & pulled the wheels forward in the arch, which got us out of trouble.

While Gogi went out and put a few miles on the engine, Jonathan & I went up to the 2 Steve's at Track'N'Road. They had just finished mapping a 260bhp Caterham when Gogi turned up.

After checking that we had full throttle, [which we did not & we have a bearing to replace on the throttle linkage before the car goes] & the ignition timing  

they started doing runs. Somewhat surprisingly the fueling had changed dramatically since the last time we were there, although we had changed nothing on that side of things, except our fuel hoses. The main jets were deemed too large, so a change to a smaller size was necessary.
With the fueling sorted, a final power run produced 137bhp & 113lb/ft of torque at 5715 rpm

 

A quick blast up the road & Gogi came back with a big grin on his face. Now all we need to do is sort the front suspension & get the body boys to fix the damage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All The Little Extras

While a day back at the workshop was necessary to source some parts, work still continued in Barking. The newly created recess for the clutch slave cylinder had been painted.   Inside the car, there was hardly anything to show for all the hammer work. The doors were being assembled ready for hanging & finishing touches done to the paintwork.

 

Amongst the items collected from the workshop had been an M8 recoil kit, one of the gear lever retaining bolt threads feeling a little suspect, it seemed that prevention would be better than cure, so a new thread was installed, closely followed by the gear lever.

We had decided to fit -6 fuel hose to replace the original -4 between the filter & pump. You can see the old pipe on the floor pan.

The slave cylinder now fits & just needs to be connected up. We just need to get the necessary adaptor to connect to the -3 hose.

We have fitted brand new Proflex to the front & needed to drill & tap them to take the brackets for the trip sensor. The strut bracing also needed  a bit of grinder treatment for the Gp 4 brake calipers to fit.

 It has been all the extra little jobs that have put us behind schedule. We can now begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

BTW

In case you hadn't noticed, the shipping date has been put back a couple of days.

Up & Running

Silly me. The way things had been going, I had been very naive to think that putting the gearbox in would be straight forward. The sandwich plate was the first obstacle, it was obviously wrong, so a little bit of work necessary there. At least we could now fit the gearbox.The next snag came when we tried to fit the new slave cylinder. The new clutch cylinder fouled the transmission tunnel. It was just one thing after another. With a lot of liberal use of a fairly heavy hammer, Gogi was able to create enough of a space for the new slave cylinder to fit & be changed in case it was necessary. With that all that sorted, it was the turn of the starter motor.

While I had been grovelling around underneath the car, Jonathan, who had come over to assist, as Andy was back on shift at his 'proper job' was looking after some of the wiring. When we had initially built the Escort, the clearance between the exhaust & starter motor had been minimal, with the new clutch housing it was even worse. More relief with the hammer. They say that everything comes to him that waits & so it was with us. With all the little jobs sorted we were able to turn the engine over, minus plugs to prime the oil circuit prior to start up.

With the plugs back in & a splash of fuel in the new tank, we were ready for the big moment. With the fuel system primed & a couple of pumps on the throttle we fired it up. It took a couple of goes before it picked up properly but sounds very sweet. A quick check with the timing light just to make sure the advance was about right & it's ready for a few miles before Monday nights session on the rollers.

 

The Trouble with Escorts.

The Escort is fighting us all the way & with Fridays shipping deadline, there is a touch of anxiety in the camp. The main problem still being the gearbox conversion. The new parts turned up but were the same as the ones we already had, so no joy there. Our other option was to use a different bell housing & bolt on a mounting for the slave cylinder, which is, I believe, the way most people do it. So back to the machine shop with the next clutch housing for modification. Luckily for us, Mick was able to do the job while I waited, so there was not too much of a delay. With the clutch housing inserts fitted, next job was the mounting bracket for the external slave cylinder, which enabled us to fit the release arm & bearing, which in turn meant that we were ready to fit the gear box. Finally. Luckily, I had a look at the threads for the starter motor.One was very dubious, so out came the 'Recoil Kit' & the errant thread was restored.

Much Haste

Suddenly, we have a big panic on our hands, we were told today that the Escort will now be shipped at the end of the month, just 10 days before it needs to be at the port for loading.

Although we are fairly well on the way with the preparation, I foresee quite a few late nights ahead.

Engine Fitting

Time to get on with the Escort, this time it's fitting the engine. Andy Tearle was on hand to guide the engine into place. There are a few changes to be made this time, largely caused by the change of bell housing.

The starter motor for a start, sits on the other side of the engine, which means the leads will need to be re routed to suit. The exhaust manifold needed to have the old wrap taken off & new fitted. An itchy  job, best left to others. There were extra bodies around today to lend a hand. The engine is dry sumped, so a few pipes to fit, it also has a remote oil filter, just need to find a filter to fit. The gearbox will go in next time, when the correct clutch release arm & bearing arrive.

Quick Release Gearbox

One of our rebuild jobs has been to modify the clutch operation from concentric [internal] slave cylinder to an external one together with a clutch release arm.The bell housing is also being modified to enable a quick change facility.

Conventionally the bell housing bolts onto the gear box with the 4 bolts going in through the bell housing & screwing into the gear box. The picture also shows the special adaptor to take the internal hydraulic slave cylinder.

 

We have drilled out the threads in the gearbox so that using socket cap bolts we can screw into the modified clutch housing.  It does require some grinding to get enough clearance for the head of the bolts.

With that done it's time to look at the bell housing. We are using on original Ford one with the boss for the slave cylinder as an integral part. There is an RS2000 housing that we could use but it would requires a little more modification for the external slave.

The plain holes, through which the original bolts went, need to have inserts fitted. I had originally specified top hat type inserts & was a little peeved when I picked it up to find that it just had straightforward inserts. 'No problem' I was assured. We all know what that means, don't we.

Sure enough, when I started fitting the housing, one of the inserts moved. You will see from the picture that they are now pinned in place. I have to ask myself why they didn't do that in the first place. 

Gripe over.

The new clutch release mechanism requires  reverting to the original nose cone & using a release arm & separate release bearing.

Trial fitting of the newly modified clutch housing, revealed the need for a little more clearance between the gearbox casing & the socket cap screws. So, out with the die grinder again. As we may have to revert to the 4 speed box on some occasions, that box was modified as well. For those of you not into Ford gearboxes, the 5 speed one is the one with the bellhousing bolted on & you can see the intermediate section between main box & tail shaft which enables the extra gear to be fitted.  The overall length of both boxes is the same, so no problems with prop shaft dimensions. The difference in the fitting is obvious from these 2 pictures.

When we ran the same system on our Sunbeams, a box change used to take about 10 minutes.