1972 Granada Mk1 coupe build - wait, what, again??… 6-9-2023

Thank you (all), that is (these are) a very humbling thing(s) to read.

I often feel I could and should do more, but for those around me I go through fire...






I'd still like to know who it was though, lol.

Thanks, I’m type 2. I’m very much aware that a good life can still be lead with this condition. It’s just currently that I have quite a few limitations to deal with. I’m not afraid to make changes, but they need to be within the realm of possibility. For instance I’m a difficult eater, so a diet with sprouts 5 times a week will never work for me. It’s probably a bad example but it illustrates what I mean.

Thanks for the offer. I’ll try and take things as they develop and keep it in mind.

Oh dear, look how much time has past…

Unfortunately the Granada is still nothing nearer completion or running right. Obviously I’ve been slowly getting to grips with the diabetes thing, but the pills are having a lot of effects on me and my energy level is at an all time low still. I’d hoped I’d be back to normal a little more than I actually am.

And also other things have been in the way of working on the Granada. With so little energy I have to be more picky about what I do or don’t.

So one thing I’d like to share, as it has realized a life long dream of my daughter is telling you about our latest horsepower related buy...











It’s a one HP, 485kg heavy, 140cm high thing of no real description other than it having a head and four legs and being a very lovely brown with black manes and dark brown/black lower legs… Yes, we bought a horse. Obviously a low budget animal, but one of a decent age in good health if not a little on the big side, that can be used for riding and jumping at a recreational level. So welcome Millow!










Millow was over a hundred kilometers away from us, so we had to plan a trip to go get him. The transit was pushed into service. Only 20 minutes before departure finding a torn CV boot as evidenced by the fact that there was something of a greyish substance that had run out on the exterior of the wheel. I checked the brake disk to see if it was contaminated but it was clean. Nothing for it then, it had to make the trip. As I was not allowed to drive the combination on my license due to weight, we had arranged for a driver. A vet would do a final pre-sale health check as well and the new location was expecting him, so we just had to make due. The combo did look good though!







We were allowed to use the trailer from the new location, which was very nice and a decent trailer at that. The CV joint held out. And the trip home was uneventful. I took it upon me to do all the backing up and turning with the trailer as well, it was my car after all and I am pretty experienced in doing so. I was well chuffed with several very nice turn arounds in one go. Funny thing though, transporting something living is much different in feeling that transporting something material in nature like a car. It was a pretty long day but thankfully having a driver meant I could at least relax a little.

Horsey is doing fine in his new spot and is loved by all who’ve met him. He’s a very friendly fellow. He’s got a bit of pep though. Can run seriously fast! As much as I am not a horse person (yet) and as much as I’ve always said we’d never buy a horse, I have to admit very much taking a liking to little big fellow!

Investigating the cv boot damage revealed it was torn all the way round and the grease was just everywhere. I cleaned it all up and tried a temporary fix, giving me time to buy a new boot. But it didn’t last very long. Had to resort to borrowing grandma’s car a few times just to keep everything from derailing.













But, this left a transit van in need of a new cv boot. So I ordered the boot. Ordered the cheapo tool to stretch it so it can go over the cv joint and thought I’d take my Saturday and fix it. I was surprised that I could get all nuts undone on the ball joint, steering joint and drive axle. Unfortunately that was where my good luck ended. The steering joint popped out with a simple bash of the hammer. But no amount of hammering could convince the lower arm from letting go of the lower ball joint. My ball joint spreader was too narrow for this larger size joint so of not much use. I heated the bit up, but still no luck. Although too much wind may have rendered the heat ineffective. The ball joint cover turned out to have two pinhole leaks as well so I need to source one of those as well. I hope to give it a try again later in the week. I hope I’ll be able to break the joint and finish the job. But I just didn’t have the energy to keep going so I buttoned it up.

On the Granada front I contacted friend Sam to have a chat and see if together we can find a way forward from this impasse I’m in. I hate that the car has been idle for 9 months now. I hate that I am again going to lose the start of the season and easter trips etc. And I just hate that the engine won’t run right. This just keeps feeding my doubts. Did I make some error(s) in my wiring? Is it the green engine bit? Well at least I have a new bit for that to try, but doing so will again be a massive job!

Well, let’s just see what me and Sam can come up with for a game plan…


PS. I've never been so far behind on my bookmarks as right now in the past ten years. I'm going to try and read up again.

So I left you with the update that we’d bought a horse, had a broken transit van and an untouched Granada and the plan to speak to SamJ to see how to get some progress on at least the latter.

So I contacted Sam and we chatted for an hour. Turned out to be a good conversation on multiple counts. First off Sam said he had a tool set of ball joint forks that may contain something more suited to the transit van. Second we determined that on the Granada action one would be to determine if the lambda is really broken and messing up fueling. Just switching it over to the other bank, an easy connector swap, should tell us something more. As the engine can run well with revs, maybe this issue isn’t helping the idle. From there we could then plan further action.

Sam was kind enough to drop of the tools at a convenient time for us both so I could also just dive in right after receiving them. With all the nuts undone previously it all came back apart quickly. As the ball joint cover was already damaged I didn’t have to be too careful with it. I did still slip the fork under the cover instead of ramming it trough it. Off course now it took only one or two jolts of the hammer to get it to pop loose. There’s something to say for having the right tools for the job… which is why I had previously bought a very cheap cv boot spreader cone, steel band cutter and a steel belt tightener and a steel belt crimping tool just to do the job right.

Well with it all off and open, it was immediately clear that the new boot I had bought would not work with the cone. There was literally no give in it at all. So how the parts store can claim guaranteed fit yet it not being able to be put on as instructed I don’t really know. Size wise it would have fit is all I can say, but even the hydraulic or air version of the spreader tool would probably have ruptured this boot, not stretched it. I was just in time to make a quick visit to a local parts store and was dreading the extra cost when I was surprised with a 15 euro bill for a stretch universal cv boot and a universal ball joint boot. I’d seen that ball joint boot alone for almost 7 euro’s online so I was quite surprised when even grease and steel belt fittings turned out to be included.

Back home I fitted the ball joint boot with no issues other than it being a bit of a hassle to put on the retainer (is there a secret to that?). Then came the dreaded cv boot stretching. I lubed up the cone (which my wife was very glad to hear was a car tool) and slid the boot on. It worked quite well. And I got it all the way down relatively easy. What I hadn’t expected was the other part of the job being such an ache. With the boot now on the cone, the cone could be slipped over the cv joint. But getting the boot slid off the cone was difficult. I probably should have used more lube. Anyway with a bit of hassle it slid off and was in place. I cleaned it all up a bit, added the new grease and tried slipping the new cover over the cv. This went fine, but it kept sliding back off before I could get the strap on. In the end I got it to stay seated and was able to put on the metal bands and clamp those. Putting it back together was relatively simple but the weight of components and having to guide the hub bit back in place while pushing down heavily on the suspension arm was a bit tricky. But I got it done. Got it all buttoned up and the wheel back on and that was job done. Drove the van a bit to see if it all stayed in place, but fortunately that was the case.

Just in time for it to be put to serious use as Friday was a day of driving. First had to take a dog to the trimmer and later on I had to go pick up a saddle 200km’s from home. So it’s since done about 500 km’s and all is still well. Great relief to have it back up and running and at a cost of about 30 euro’s including the tools. I call that a win!

Spurred on by that result I thought I’d put the Granada outside for a bit to do the lambda swap test. That bit was easy. Swapping the plugs as well. Just a quick jack and a stand for added safety. And that is when things went a bit pear shaped for me. I tried starting the car and it wouldn’t run anymore. Even though 5 minutes before it drove out of the garage just fine (ish as the idle was a bit hunting). I unplugged the power to the ecu thinking maybe the swap had thrown it off a bit too far. But after half an hour still same result. Unhooking the power again and swapping back the leads, waiting for a bit and still, no joy. It kept turning over but not starting at all.

Frustrated with yet a bigger problem then I started with I winched it back inside. I thought I was done doing that!
I reported back to Sam. We decided to meet up on Sunday for a bit. Awaiting Sam’s arrival I tried all my boxes of spare parts again, but really couldn’t find the spare lambda’s. So depending on the diagnosis I’ll have to buy a new one. But I’m getting ahead of the story here.

With Sam present we talked it over a bit and our first test was seeing if I have spark. We had spark. Although we would have expected a bit fatter of a spark. Then we checked fuel. The valve in the fuel line showed pressurized fuel present. So we were sort off baffled… Why would it not run. We checked the injectors were firing or at least getting a signal at the number 6 injector connector and that checked out fine as well. As we felt the spark could be fatter, I thought maybe the plugs have fouled from the non starting starting attempts. So I suggested pulling a plug. The one I pulled was black, but with a nice bright bare tip. But what was more, it was dry as a bone. I had expected it to be wet with non burned fuel. Sam agreed so this made us question the fuel system again. So we opted to see if the car would run out of a spare fuel tank. We undid the feed line and replaced it with a temporary one into the can. I felt there was too little fuel loss from the line at disconnection, but didn’t think too much of it. It was quickly proven we needed to block off the line we took off as it was spilling fuel. With that plugged we noticed the fuel level in the can drop. Upon starting, the engine spluttered some more but on the third try or so it roared into life. Proving that, anticlimactically, the tank was just empty. That it happened just as I had changed over the lambda’s was a pure coincidence, but obviously this drew the brain immediately to conclusions regarding having touched the wiring.

Well it’s mostly good news. The engine ran again and it ran reasonably well. At first a bit of sputtering and a backfire but afterwards it ran nice enough. So there may still be the original bad idle to investigate, but it also all may have been caused by lack of fuel flow. Also the earlier Lambda code that was thrown pretty consistently has so far not returned. That may have something to do with having touched the wiring for them at the bottom of the “new” all green engine and box loom I had as a spare.

Plan for now is to fuel it up and just run it a bit. See if this improves the starting situation. I’ll carefully try and move the lambda plugs out of the way so they are not at risk from the exhaust.

Being back to this level of the car working I’m now a bit more confident to get on with wiring up all other systems and hopefully closing up the dash and putting back together the interior.

So with fuel prices going back up to over 2 euro's for a litre, I felt it prudent to not waste time and fill all three 5 liter jerrycans I have with esso's finest. I got 18 liters to fit in them and when I got home I put 12 of them in the tank. I also added the fuel system/injector cleaner for good measure. Can't hurt right?

I primed the system by turning it on/off three times and then tried to start the car....





It roared straight to life! First try!

It even idled pretty nicely. As it was around 9 in the evening I ran it for a minute or two and during that time it only showed very slight hunting. Nothing like before. So this is promising. And means I'll stick to the plan and drive the car for a bit to see if the lambda code comes back or not and to see if the idle clears up some more.

I'm happy it's back to running but it's also frustrating to think how much time I've lost, mojo I've lost from the car seeming to have issues that probably have been a lack of enough fuel pretty much from the start of having it back alive.

I'm expecting there to still be something to investigate, but I'm a bit more confident with regards to the works I've done.

And this also motivates me to get on with the remainder of the wiring. Getting the car ready by end of april would be great. And that should be doable, even if there's some more investigating to do.

I couldn’t resist a test drive tonight…

And I couldn’t wait to share the preliminary results either…




So without further adooooooo

It seems to run great now!!
Fires right up on the first try!
Idles well, no hunting and at first a little shake. But after driving some more it settled to an even steadier idle.
It shifts better now as well, back to my known pattern.
The lambda/hego code is back though, so that is one thing to investigate. I’m now confident to do the swap and see what that tells me. Worst case I’ll need to order a new one.

All this has me in duality lol. On the one hand I may have been chasing a ghost for months now and that makes me feel quite silly, on the other hand I never had any reason to doubt my process. I just followed diagnostic steps one by one….

Anyway, it seems promising so far. I want to verify the workings of the cooling fans once more and obviously fix the code but I’m now much more motivated to get on with the last bits of wiring and finishing the job. I do now feel pretty confident in my wiring, although the hego thing might trace to wiring still.

I’ve yet to upload the video’s, but just wanted to share this with my online friends!

And for some imagery:

First video after having run about the block for a bit. It now idles without really hunting. It's just a little more shaky than I'm used to from this engine.



Second video after not only running around the block for a while longer, but really seeing how it performed. Going from eco to sports setting and back and revving the hell out of it. Here you see it is already a lot smoother than after the first short run. This engien with 300k+ km's experience has always had a very little shake, most often visible in the air cleaner.
I'm currently running fresh fuel with a fuel system/injector cleaner additive just for peace of mind.



I'll probably drive it some more this weekend to verify the above. But this means I can steam ahead on the other wiring and finish it off (strikken as that sounded a little dubious and could be taken the wrong way, lol).

I must also admit that this has done wonders for my mojo regarding the car!!

I still find it hard to believe that all troubleshooting including verifying fuel still had to come to this. But for future reference I now know what not enough fuel will do to the engine.

So the Granada is still running and driving. Idles is still not perfect, but then I haven't yet fixed or looked into the Lambda issue any further.

As opposed to other weeks, this week though I did find the will to actually do something to the car again. I had big plans before the weekend, but lack of energy and lousy weather ment I got less done than I had wanted.

What I did do was attack the last of the wiring. In preparation for buttoning it all up once and for all. So when I had a spell of sunny warm weather on Saturday, I set myself to doing something. I drove the car outside and decided on the first system to attack. I choose the electric seats. These are not too difficult but as I want them to be energised both when the doors are open (to help people wanting to get into the back) and when the ignition is on, there were two relays in this system. It took a little bit of figuring out as the identification I had put on some wires had come off and in the pictures I had they weren't all readable. So I put the system back with the old components for testing purposes. It worked right the first time so then I recreated it all with the relays under the bonnet with the others. This was time consuming and carefull work, but it all went fine and when all was hooked up, my seats worked as desired. With this playtime was over for Saturday, but at least I had accomplished something.

Sunday was Easter Sunday so nothing got done and despite Monday being Easter Monday, I decided to have a go at the next circuit to build. I had had thoughts of starting early and making a day of it, but that didn't materialise. It was early afternoon after I had taken wife and daughter to our Millow that I set to work. I looke dup my notes and tried to see which circuit I would attack next. The Mirrors also involve the central locking and I wanted to change that system a bit so I decided the front windows and audio power source were a good start. It's basically 7 wires to do. I worked my way through that system and got it working well. I got rid of any bullet type connectors and replaced them with decent connectors. A 6 block for most "signals" and a single one for the ground/earth. Easy to hook up, no need to remember which wire should go where etc. And obviously also much more reliable.

Next up will be those mirrors and cv systems. But I'm going to have to mock those up first just to see if I can get them to work the way I want them. Currently they used to work as follows: when I locked the doors the mirrors would fold. When unlocked as well. But to fold the mirrors manually all I could do was lock the doors. And Which also means that I can't just lock the doors when I would feel unsafe as it also immediately folds the mirrors. So I now have two push button switches to add to my console, but I need to make sure they do their isolated task. And I don't know how easy that is as the trigger in both cases comes from the same one module. So I'm thinking diodes, but unsure.

I may need some advice on that.

eurogranada could you use the rear door lock actuator wiring for the mirrors?
And if so, utilise some form of switch/relay wired in parallel to operate them sperately when required, or via switch without locking the car?