1994 - Ford Escort Cosworth - power steering fluid tank

I got some suitable headlights off ebay and tried them out

P1030747 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

These were on for cheap, so I was suspicious but they look like they will do the job, and I cant see rust in them.

need a really good polish though

P1030748 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

P1030749 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

theres still some bonnet / wing adjustment needed

P1030750 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

P1030751 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

then started on the bonnet pins

cut out the standard spiral for the bonnet adjuster

P1030752 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

P1030753 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

cut some steel

P1030754 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

put in position

P1030755 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

set up a reference bar

P1030757 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

marked a line

P1030756 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

drilled some slightly odd shapped slots

P1030758 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

tacked the plates in, and tried out the bonnet pins, adjusted a bit more

P1030759 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

P1030760 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

I had to extend the slots, so there is a load of fwd/aft adjustment on them

P1030761 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

P1030762 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

hold the phone... they arent the same distance fwd/aft both side.

Has the front been pushed back in a crash.... well yes... but not that much

Is the bonnet badly adjusted... well yes...... but not that much

Whats the problem then?

the bonnet I have is off a rally car, so already has holes in it for bonnet pins. the passenger side has been drilled in teh wrong place..

P1030763 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

As shown by the previous butchery to the bonnet in the name of getting it in. I could weld it up and re-set it. But as the bonnet is already damamged and I have a brand new one there to convert I think i'll leave for the moment.

As i'm now happy I've not fitted the plates in the wrong place i'll weld them on next time.

also. After so long on the spit / sill stands I forgot how low the car is.

Even when sitting up in the air on gravel springs on the rear and dodgy front legs with no engine it seems quite low and mean.

When on tarmac suspension its going to be quite low.

Having been researching I've determined the wheels and tyres i'm going to go for. Just got to wait for the credit card to recover from funding some house work!

Nice one - it is good to have them sitting on wheels and tyres even if it is just a temporary thing between works.

This afternoons workshop time was mainly spent tidying up.

started getting metal sheets into the sheet metal storage area / handy gap

P1030775 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

Cut the big Ali sheet in twain. I measured the floor length on the morris first, then measured agains, added a bit on, added bit more on, and cut. Then rammed in the gap...

P1030776 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

just fits

this was the main reason for moving it. There is a lovelly dirt trap down the back and i'm starting the regular clean of the wrokshop to try and get the dust levels down for later in the year when I come to paint the car.

P1030777 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

I stripped all the stock off, cleaned the floor down, then re-packed the racks.

Looking at some more pics on the web I noticed there are a lot of escorts with stiffener ribs between the master cylinders here. I may as well fit these now rather than get cracks post paint and have to clean back and weld.

P1030778 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

cut some steel strips

P1030779 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

change the shapes of the steel strips

P1030780 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

and weld in

P1030781 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

I'll have to have a re-visit next time in the workshop as I wasnt well lit and I missed my marks so the welds arent alligned.

P1030782 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

I took care alternating sides on the welds to ensure the fences stayed vertical. I also clamped them to the backplate to prevent it pulling out of shape too much. Which was all relatively successful.

today was the start of trying to work things out with the wiring. Which would be fairly straight forward if I had one of two things.

1) A wiring diagram for the right car
2) all the end devices that things plug into

anyway, without either I carried on regardless

the rats nest that is the engine bay / fuse/relay panel main wiring(which instantly looks like its been mucked about with)

P1030809 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

Identifying bits. What is quite nice is it already has wiring adaptors for Morretti twin round headlights, which I have a pair of (albeit needing some repairs and new lenses, but they are available)

P1030810 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

some bits near the turbo have got very very hot, burned insulation, and damaged wires

P1030811 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

Dug out the wiper and found the connection.

P1030811 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

the behind dash loom

P1030813 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

At this point I went for lunch, found images of the connectors for a few parts and sketched them out, and also downloaded a engine wirring diagram for 4 pot cosworth engines.

P1030814 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

then started trawling through the interior loom

This bit is interesting. Its the feed for the fuel pump. Its been extended twice with some random black wire, then blue wire.

P1030815 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

and this is where its been cut from

P1030816 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

fitted the back lights

P1030817 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

and ran in the car loom. The fuel pump, fuel sender, and fuel sender will need stripped back through the loom and re-routed to where the tank is now.

P1030818 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

fuse box connector for the car loom

P1030819 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

then I put the engine back loom back in roughtly the right position to see if it'd help me determine any more of the connectors

P1030821 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

the huge black coil is the main ABS loom which runs to the passenger rear corner of the car. All of that will be getting removed as I wont have ABS.

Much bodgery to the loom. My favourite bit so far are the cut off engine fan connectors that have been re attached with electricians connector block.

P1030822 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

there is a lot of wirring

P1030823 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

then I decided i'd not had enough wires today, so dug out the 24v granada loom

P1030824 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

and started puzzling my way through whats needed for the ECU etc.

P1030825 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

This is only the engine bay loom. there is a lot of it.

Overall my 6hrs of wires today has lead me to consider the car wirring.

The standard loom contains a lot of things I do not need. I don't need ABS, interior lights, stereo wiring (which I think it still in my loom but has just had connectors cut off), optional extra bits, etc. I've also got end devices that have either moved or the wirring will not suit what I have (front fog lights etc.), and the fuse / relay panel needs relocated.

With this in mind I'm going to make a custom loom. I can use the existing loom for a template on lengths etc. and then customise it where I need. At the same time I'm going to attempt to simplify and split the loom. One for general car functions (lights, fuel pumps, etc.) and one for the engine. The intent being they are as Independent as possible with very clear cross connectors.

What I really don't want to do is what ford do where things jump in and out of the various looms parts to get to a location with the minimum amount of wire and quickness of factory installation.

This all needs thought out propperly though, so will need to dig back to my old electrical control system engineer days and design some layout and wirring diagrams. this may take some time.....

There's not enough space for swaged holes so my enthusiasm for drilling it is low.

However I've noticed I could sneak a few small ones in on the pedals though 😁

I'm getting near to needing to put paint on the car so I want to ensure any hot work is complete first. Hence the build up.

I've identified a few bits that need welding already (transit points for fuel and cables).

Not just chocolate block, but domestic / industrial 240v wire as well. Proper bodgery. Oh and bad soldering too.

I think its quite likelyy my wirring will still run across the enginebay side of the bulkhead, for ease of access if nothing else.

However I'm going to attempt to run the wirring at the back of the bulkhead recess rather than at the front. Which keeps it out the way as much as possible. I'm also going to run it up in the inner wing to turret gap, again to keep wires away from the the engine heat source.

Thats the main thinking with splitting the looms. At the moment its getting this engine / ECU, however in the future its likely to have something different and I want to make it as easy as possible to swap out things. The chassis wirring should stay pretty constant.

It should be a consistent set of signals both way really, irrespectice of engine/ECU.


Instruments are going to be pretty basic. I found a nice TFT display set that has all lights / alarms / warnings / Revs / speed, so i think I will go for that. I was tempted to just go for a large rev counter and minimal everything else. But will see how will and funds progress.

www.aimtechnologies.com/mxg-strada-1-2/

Good work, and while it may seem like a non-sequitor, I'd ask that you keep showing us as much of this electrical stuff as I've asked GN to show us his trim/upholstery tactics; both are areas many of us could use some schooling, me especially.

Also, forgive me if shown earlier in the thread, but do you use a dedicated dimple-punch-press, or just cut the hole and form the dimples with other random tools?

Thanks, John