1972 Granada Mk1 coupe build - Still going... 14-10-2024

At least hes tested it and isnt happy with it, instead of testing it and sending it back anyway. Or not testing it..
When it eventually makes its way back to you, at least you know it'll be sorted.

Well that's a disappointment, but hopefully he gets it sorted soon.

I have a set of wheel dollies if that might make moving the car easier?

Unfortunately the weekend came and went but my rack never materialised. No update on it as of yet also and I hate to keep bugging the guy. But I also really want to know how it's progressing, if I can expect it back anytime soon...

The weekend was not entirely a waste though, as I did some work on a lowered ceiling for my daughters room and me and a friend put in a nice new and safe breaker box with added groups.

The drawback was that the Granada had to be put outside for this work as the breaker box is in a dedicated "room" that is directly behind the garage door to the side. Pushing it out was a small challenge. Tires needed and got some air (long lives the 50 litre compressor), but the front wheels each steering in different directions didn't help either. Anyway we got it out. So while my friend was doing his thing supported by me, I took some time to make a connecting rod between the wheels. Nothing fancy, just a 20x45mm piece of wood the right length, drilled at the ends to take the longest M8 bolts I had lying around and the corners cut at angles so the wheels could steer without hitting the wood.

As the M8 bolts are by no means a great fit to the tapers in the hubs it's all a bit sloppy, but it worked a treat anyway. Moving one wheel would at least to some extent move the other and because of added drag I think they were also less inclined to move. Keeping the wheels straight went a lot better as well. The only bother was that the two of us were just not strong enough to push the Granada up the sloping drive over the threshold at the entrance. My lovely bionic wife to the rescue as the three of us were able to quickly push the car back in.

In 1,5 weeks I have a bit of holiday time coming up so I do really hope that I can have the car mobile by then. I'm missing easter this year already. That bums me out a little as it is the start of the oldtimer season with several well arranged, well put together tours/car scavenger hunts (for lack of the proper words) that I would really really have liked to attend. And the weather apparently will be awesome to boot...





Just got updated on my rack. Time was not available yet so the rack is in pieces but not yet worked on. A funeral puts paid to it getting worked on today, although hope was expressed that he would get to it tonight so he'd have news tomorrow.

Well let's just wait and see... Although I'm not the best at this kind of waiting. I have no problem waiting 6 weeks on something/someone if one states before hand it'll be 6 weeks. But this sort of unconfirmed and ever changing wait while time keeps passing by is not my forte.

Lets keep our fingers crossed that it'll now soon be remedied and on it's way back to me.

Alex - If it makes you feel any better - I currently have 3 of my cars in bits & not on the road plus a huge amount of work on the house / garden to sort and I'm getting nowhere fast - much like myself you will get there - just not in the timescales that we promise ourselves - but at least you are further up the progress chart than you were at the start of the year (that's what I have to keep reminding myself) - any progress is better than no progress - 'Onwards'

@grumpynorthener, you are very right. I just need to be reminded some days of how far I've come and how futile some of the things that sometimes bother me are in the grand scheme of things.

And this definitely is a minor nuisance in that regard. It's just that the car in general was ready to be enjoyed end of 2016 and the whole of 2017 and 2018 have passed while sorting out little and bigger niggles. Although we all know that moving house had a lot to do with why 2018 was not the most productive Granada year.

I just love seeing my car in my garage and can't wait to be tearing up the streets again in it. Using it for what I like best: cruising on a sunny day in a new (to me) environment.

I admire what you achieve very much. You almost seem robotlike in what you get done. Just look at the NEC expo and how you did that while also carrying on the Corsair etc... Respect!

Well I guess my intuition or knowledge of human nature has developed well over the years, as no rack appeared even yesterday... The guy suddenly went very quiet as well, not responding to a gentle query if the rack had survived testing.

Today an app, admitting that he didn't answer immediately as he was enormously embarrassed as he'd not gotten to sending the rack back to me and felt bad about it. Apparently it's now packed and ready for pickup this afternoon. Looks like I know what my friday will bring: Granada time!!

Yes!

so will you be heading to the RR weekender in the coupe eurogranada?

Sure, tag along if you want!

We're probably breaking up the trip in 2 days, as its a long drive. Thursday we drive to the Dover area, Friday to Shelsley and probably Monday the other way around.

At last!

I left all of you with me hoping my rack would finally show up last friday. Well, as I got home there was nothing yet. I had luch and we deceided to walk the dogs and as we got back a delivery van came up the street. Hoping it was for me, those hopes dwindled when I found a note saying "we've missed you...." upon opening the door. But there was a comment on the note and as I was reading that the doorbel rang... I opened the door to a very friendly delivery man holding a huge box. He said he was just on the way out of the neighbourhood when he saw us heading for the house and decided to drop by again. Very friendly I must say! Also he'd left his number on the note I found saying to give him a call before 16:30 and he'd come round again. Well that turned out to not be necessary but is another testatment to his friendly nature I guess.

Anyway with the rack now in my posession I had my own two QA inspectors (who send out their greetings to Sid and Harley) check the box over and give me permission to open it up.



It was pretty well packed but I soon had it out. What came out was both a relief and a bit of a bummer. Let's be frank, all this rebuild action (it took him three tries last time and at least as many this time) has taken a toll on the powder coating and paint. It's not looking its best. But at least it was in one piece and he'd left the alignment in place by not removing any of the rod ends. And supposedly not leaking either!



I went to look for some black paint but found I'd gotten rid of all my almost empty cans during the move. At that point I decided it was probably best anyway to see if the rack even worked, before prettying it all up. Access isn't great, which also means visibility of the part is equally great. If need be a small brush will go a long way if it all proves ok.

Having made the decision to press on I was on full blast! I had the car pushed back, jacked up, supported and the engine lifted in no time.



But then it all turned on me. I don't know if I was just too eager to get the thing mounted, but it fought me ALL the way... I just couldn't get it in as easy as it had come out. And knowing it had come out easily enough meant I also knew it should be able to slide back in easily enough! Besides I had done this same drill at least three times now with an engine on top. Cue a substantial amount of frustration.

After much too long a time trying I gave in and hoisted the engine up some more. Low and behold suddenly the rack went in quite simple. I still feel like I didn't hoist the engine up so much upon removal, but maybe I'm just wrong...

Anyway with the rack now in place, I could do up the hardware. One u-bolt was a bit wide and hard to get in, then I forgot to add the retaining plate so had to redo the bolts again. On the other side my wood support extended just a little too far to get to the bolts at all. I thought next would be a good idea to attach the feed and return lines to the rack. First one wouldn't come close to the line at all, which is strange as it is a pretty solidly mounted hardline. Oh right, I forgot that I had to screw in a convertor for the hard line! I had taken this out as not to provide an extra clue to the not factory application in my Granada. This of course now being hard as the pretty solidly mounted hardline was now in the way. Thankfully there was enough flex in the line to get it just far enough out of the way for just long enough to get that thing screwed in. After that the line connected easily. On to the return to the reservoir. For some reason the barb around the line didn't turn freely by hand. Even after WD40. This made threading it in a real pain. I was just about to give up when suddenly it gripped. After that it was soon tightened up. I pressed on with the stabiliser bar links, the tie rod ends to the spindles and then finally the steering shaft from wheel to rack. Of course the bolt had to fall from my hands when my wife came in to ask if I was now proceeding a little better as I had managed to get the rack in. Well, I WAS....up until that moment. A search for the bolt ensued. Thankfully I found it. I'd hate to just replace but not know if the lost one will cause a problem at some stage. Upon mounting the shaft I was happy to see the steering wheel dead straight with the wheels also straight. That at least meant alignment was still fine.

In the end I think it was all more to do with having jacked the car up one notch lower then before on the axle stands and not raising the engine as much as I needed to that made me suffer this time around. Anyway, once done it was soon forgotten. I filled the reservoir and bled the system. No leaks so far.

I rolled the car out and on the sloped drive I had some dripping of red fluid going on.... I couldn't see anything coming from the hoses or connections and there was no fluid being lost from the gaiters either so I assumed it was fluid that had leaked into the subframe from the hose and hardline being unconnected. I cleaned it up and had a quick 2 minute drive. At least it all worked again.

We had a visitor that evening so no more work untill Sunday. I parked it in the garage under power and put cardboard underneath as a visual indicator as well as floor protection.

Sunday MOT checks were on the books. I pushed the car out as I wanted the engine cold so I could check everything without fear of hot exhaust. Again jacked the front up, put the stands under and had a good look around, cleaning where needed. No new traces of red fluid... I started the car and had another look after some steering action. I had to add a little fluid but I assume that will have been air being expelled. Squeezing the gaiters there was no sound of fluid in there. I shut the engine off and started the mot checks.





First up wheel bearings. Left had a little play, right was ok. But I felt something a bit weird when turning the wheels. Turns out that the disks were working loose from the hubs. All ten bolts needed tightening. Despite having been torqued up with a torque wrench originally. I tightened them again and went on to the wheel bearing. The split pin was so tight it broke upon removal. The bearing itself needed a little adjustment. Again, typical as I'd followed the Ford procedure to the letter, but doing so again the play was now gone. Right hand side, there was no play, just the same issue with the disk versus hub.



I adjusted the handbrake as it's throw was extremely short, though it did release the wheels when off. Now there's just a click more throw that feels more normal. I checked its operation and it seems to work very well. There's a slight bit of sound coming from the rear wheels turning so the shoes are adjusted pretty close to the drums. But as they have a self adjusting mechanism when the handbrake is pulled I think that is just as it should be. The wheels seem to turn freely but with the added drag of the diff I found it hard to determine if their is anything really amiss. The car brakes fine when driving, always in a straight line, not pulling to one side or the other.

I did find some play on the rear wheels. This I need opinions on. I could move wheel and drum a little when grabbing the wheel at 9 and 3 o'clock. Still, the bearing carrier and the backplate that is attached to that are solidly mounted. As the hub the wheels and therefore disks bolt to, is contained by the large centre nut on the rear axle stubs, I think I need to tighten those up a little. It's the only thing I can think of given the assembly. Agreed?

Apart from the above rear wheel issue, for MOT purposes I think I only need to put on new exhaust clamps at the down pipe to centre pipe joints and put some exhaust paste on.

I'll try and get the MOT stuff done this week and hopefully MOT it Friday afternoon. Here's to hoping the rack will perform well from now on. I must say though, I didn't find a bill to go with the rack so as far as I know now he rebuilt it for free...

To do in general:
- fuel gauge/tank sender calibration
- temp gauge
- oil pressure gauge (actual mechanically oil fed type that needs a t-off from the block and a better secured end connector
- oil and filter change
- add cubbies to the rear seat area
- find decent floor mats to protect the (in hindsight) too cheap carpet

And as a winter project either regasket this engine or build a replacement... It stinks from oils being all over the place.