Ahhhhh Sunday night. The time of the week that for me, is reserved for my perfect combination. Retro Rides, Milky coffee and Heart FM's Late show. Bliss!
So, the mk3 Escort. What we been upto?
. Have wheels balanced.
. Change oil and filter.
. Get the dam sunroof working!
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Investigate why when turning, theres a massive clunk. . Lubricate clutch cable
. Repair the remaining rust in OSR wheel arch
. Replace the amazing sound system
First up this week, is some tune news. Now, I love the original Mono Radio complete with pure nostalgic MW/LW but bar Absolute Radio, its just weird french stuff that it picks up. I also have this horrible fear that 10 miles into the jouney to Cornwall it will lose Absolute Radio and then no tunes at all
A back up plan is required!
Not wanting to remove the original set up, after a bit of help from you guys and girls on here, I went looking for a speaker for my MP3 player. A trip to Asda's later and £5 exchanged I had this little devil secured!
After having dealings with cheap MP3 speakers before I wasn't expecting much to be honest but to be fair, its great! Even has plenty of non distorting bass! ;D So I can listen to FM radio or my favourite Old Skool dance if I so wish. Mounts lovely with the little bracket
Not wanting the original radio to feel left out though, I treated it to a quick bit of love. When you turn it on and start turning the volume up, its crackles
like hell. So popped it out, took the top cover off and treated the volume pot to a squirt of WD40 to clear the dust out.
Boshed her back in to the gap and switched her on.
Smooooooth as silk!
So thats the tunes taken care of, on to the next job!
When I recomissioned her after the long lay up she had experienced, I always thought it would be wise to pop some cheap oil and a cheap filter on for the first 1000 miles to flush the cobwebs out. So seeing as that land mark had been reached, I thought it was time for some flesh blood, but what to use?
Well, on the door shut I noticed the remains of an old decal. After some close examination, it turns out to be the remains of an old Castrol GTX "next service" decal so thought I had best re-instate the history ;D A bit of ebay searching later and we were in luck!
Thats better!
So, whilst at Asdas looking at the pre-mentioned MP3 speaker, I noticed the Castrol GTX 1 litre bottles were on offer at £4 each where as the standard 4 litre tubs were £20. A quick bit of maths later and a quick call in at the Ford dealer on the way home resulted in....
The little 1.3 CVH probably thinks all of it's Christmas have come at once! ;D
Thats a couple more crossed off!
. Have wheels balanced.
.
Change oil and filter.. Get the dam sunroof working!
.
Investigate why when turning, theres a massive clunk. . Lubricate clutch cable
. Repair the remaining rust in OSR wheel arch
.
Replace the amazing sound system Some other jobs though have been undertaken!
Theres quite a bit of wind noise when traveling at 60mph and looking at the scraper seals, it's not really hard to pin point the problem.....
Luckily whilst mooching around the local breakers I happened upon some nice replacements for £10.
Check out the difference!
Tidies the car up so much and is alot quieter now as well. Though a trip back to the breakers is definatly on the cars to rob some more of the window seals and also the sunroof! Took my sunroof out to examine it and found that quite abit of the mechanism is broken so only thing for it is to fit a complete replacement
Final bit of waffling for this update as I can sense the boredom!
The car has a 40 litre fuel tank and is achieveing 200 miles before hitting empty. Now, for a a 1.3 driven gentle and a manual choke that gets pushed in as soon as possible,I cant help thinking thats quite poor.
I know that she is running correct with her new Weber carb, so either I have a leaking fuel line somehwere or the fuel gauge is lieing!
Only one thing for it!
Ran her completely dry and dropped the tank..
Fuel gauge was telling porkies as it had a gallon left in it! Though I maybe think that manufacturers do this on purpose to stop
silly girlfreinds people running out of petrol.
Fuel lines look knackered after 30 years though so got them replaced asap!
Tank looks in ok condition for its age and doesnt appear to be leaking which is well recieved news. ;D Filler pipe was replaced due to MOT failure when I first put her on the road. Thought it was quite good walking into the main dealer and being able to purchase a part for a 30 year old car!
So anyway, put it all back together with new flexi fuel hoses, put the 5 litres back in and ran her down the road to put another 15 litres in and amazingly, it registered the correct half a tank on the gauge! ;D Time will tell if all this faffing helps with the fuel economy though
To celebrate, I went to see my mate at the local soap box racing ;D
More boring waffleing on my behalf soon I'm sure ;D
I have however managed to get the roof straightened out and a good few coats of etch applied. I'm currently on with doing the rear quarters but no pics till thats done!
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