Engine/Alternator Mount.

The new engine mount and alternator bracket are complete. They are coated in Hammerite and drying off as I write.

I've made a new alternator bracket based on a design that's for a zetec SE. The mounting hole centres were different but the overall design is the same. I made the bracket to fit the Focus alternator I bought at the scrappy. The original one that came with the engine was slightly larger and heavier so the Focus jobbie was used instead. I used two of the M10 threaded holes in the block while sharing the back one with the new engine mount which uses 3 M10 holes in the block, AKA original Ford Crossflow design, I believe!

When I took the original mount off I held the engine at the required position using a jack under the engine. This way I made the two plates, one on the engine and one on the rubber mount on the chassis, joining the two together with a bit of tube. I spent a couple of hours making a wooden mount to get the angles right then transfered the dimensions to the metal bits. The whole lot was then welded together.

Heres the new mount cooling off after welding. I'm surprised how rough the welds look as they look a lot better in the flesh! They are done with my 20 year old stick welder thats a bugger to get going but gives a nice smooth weld once its arced. I would really love a Tig, once I win the lottery!

In order to fit the rubber mount I need a hole in the side so I can tighten the M10 nut. I drilled a couple of 10mm holes before I welded it and I made the hole big enough to accept a socket with a milling bit in the electric drill.






With the hole enlarged so I can get the nut on the thread and a socket in to tighten it up, I trial assembled the bracket and mount. balancing the welding seems to have held any distortion at bay and it all went together perfectly!

With the jack out and every thing resting in place the alternator now has a home with a decent amount of room for adjustment. There is plenty of room above for the coolant pipework as well.









This is the alternator bracket, (sorry for the blurry picture, I really do need a new camera!)
I bought a metre of 30x30x3mm angle in B&Q to make it.
The two mounts for the alternator are perfect for belt alignment and there is a captive M8 thread for the adjuster arm at the front.
I don't have an adjuster arm but a trip to the scrappy should get me one off a Ford Fiasco that should do the job perfectly. While I'm there I'll try and get some wheel nuts as I only have 3 on each wheel. The original owner of the donor must have saved the locking nuts for something else :-)

I took it all off and gave it a nice black coat of smooth Hammerite. I'll give that a couple of days to dry and then I'll be moving on to the cooling side. In the meantime a bit more wiring to get the back lights and horn working.

Alternator

I've been wanting to put my alternator under the carbs above the oil filter mounting. Most people move the thing there when installing in this kind of RWD vehicle.

However, the space is very tight with a chassis tube dissecting the area and the steering shaft that gave me so much trouble with the oil filter is in the way as well.

So, I'm going to take the nearside engine mount off and fabricate a bracket to hold the alternater just around the sump line under the water pump outlet. This is the original Ford mounting point but I cant use the original bracket as its HUGE, with a pas pump and idler roller.

There seems to be plenty of room down there and there are some more threaded holes further back on the block to move the mount back. As it is the fabricated mounts that came with the kit are not at the same position on the block with this one I intend to move a lot further forward.

Once I have the alternator bracket I will use its rear mounting as the front hole for a new engine mount that will only need to be moved back around 40mm or so.


The mount will go back onto other threaded holes in the block and give enough room for the alternator in front of it under the pump outlet.

The mount will still be a little further forward than the other side so I don't see any problems in the thinking.

On the plus side its now just a small run to the battery cable on the starter for connections.

Back end finished...

Well, it's took all weekend to do but the arches are on as in my last post and now the lights are fitted. It wouldn't have took so long had it not being for Durham picking up their first bit of silverware (cricket) and MotoGp being on this morning.
Slow but sure progress at the moment. More cash required now....

Arches Update.

After consultation from members on Locostbuilders I decided to take the arch off and put the correct ones on each side.

Not too much of a problem and the spare holes on the offside are covered by the arch anyway. A bit later I'll fill the holes with Tigerseal or something like that.

With the arches on however my standard Ford alloys don't fill the arches and look a little out of place. They are only 5.5" so I reckon some 7" wide ones will be better. Later though because I can't afford any new ones!!

Rear Arches

Had a go at fitting the rear arches last. With all 4, front and back wrapped in bubble wrap I simply distinguished the front ones from the back and unwrapped one.

Only being able to work on the offside due to the other side being against the wall I offered it up and spent ages making sure it was central on the wheel.

Drilled a few holes, cut the rubber trim to fit and bolted it up. Checked it was all square and central, more holes and bolts, around 9 in total, drilled to avoid chassis rails. Well, some of them anyway :-)

Stood back to admire it then the doubts crept in... steep angle at the rear? Consulted some owners pictures on Locostbuilders and I could see I had put it on the wrong side.......

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As you can see the steep slash is facing the rear when it should be in front of the wheel. I'm just pondering on leaving it as is only being a bit doubtful of what the lights will look like.

Wheels... and stuff....

While I'm on a roll here's me crap Ford Alloys with a coat of Satin Black. They look totally different! No need for new wheels until I've spun the tyres off these!








All I did was mask the tyres off, rub them clean with some thinners then spray... Hey Presto!







Tonight I've upgraded the MegaJolt to V3.2.1 and I'm pleased with the ability to calibrate the TPS now without moving it. Simply hit one button when fully closed and another when fully open, calibrate, job done. 0% at fully closed and 100% fully open.

Bit of brake bleeding on the horizon next then rear arches and lights. Once I've got the brakes working I'll be able to adjust the handbrake properly and get enough pressure on the back drum to tighten the hub nut!

First Start Up!

Over the last few days I've been checking torque settings and painting wheels. I looked at some nice wheels in Halfords and was severly tempted by them, however already having the original Ford aloys and resisting the temtation I bought a tin of satin black paint instead!

On the other front, I've been tiding up the wiring and getting everything ready for the big day. Time to start it up! First go produced nothing but I soon discovered I hadn't connected the Edis so with that verified and the camera rolling it ws time for her first performance. 5 litres of gas in teh tank, check. No leaks, check. Fuel pump working, NO!. No fuse, fuse inserted, fuel pump working, check. Fuel at the filter just under the carbs, yes. Ignition, GO. It started straight away and made one hell of a racket with only the manifold connected. The dog did one sharpish and it brought her indoors outside to see what the racket was!

Nearly there...

Well, nearly got to the point of starting it! Filled the engine with oil tonight and pulled the plugs. It has been standing for over a year, (carbon offsetting?) and I put a little oil down the bores and turned it over with a socket.

Last evening saw the battery and cables connected and as I was able to spin the motor over on the starter I thought I'd give it ago!

I put 4L of oil in to get to the middle of the dipstick. Prior to this I connected an oil pressure gauge up. I wanted to see what was happening as the light doesn't work yet but doesn't tell you much anyway!

I intended to use the oil pressure gauge anyway but when I removed the oil switch from the side of the block it was a big thread, not having the necessary T piece, mine was way to small, I turned to the net to find the correct adapter. A quick Google search came up with a number of spots around the engine that are tapped 1/8npt and blanked off. There are two behind the coil pack but inaccessible because of it and I spotted another at the front of the head behind the inlet manifold. They have a little torx head tapered grub screw in them I had to remove a little metal from the inlet to clear but once that was done the 1/8 oil taper screwed straight in no dramas.

I think this location is better as the pressure will be 'in head' as opposed to half way up the block

With the oil in and plugs out I ran the starter for a couple of seconds, with not much happening on the gauge. I checked the oil again and it hadn't moved, suggesting to me it hadn't filled the filter or remote hoses yet. I ran the starter again and after another couple seconds the gauge shot up to 65 Ib\ft. Checked the oil and it had disappeared off the dipstick. Another half liter saw it up the marks and with the book recommending 4.3L with a filter that's about right.

I'm nearly finished with the electrics but will be leaving some till later. At the moment there is no dash, apart from an oil pressure gauge!. Also I've not got an alternator to fit yet so that requires attention soon.


At the moment the battery is in place and just needs securing. I'm thinking of a plastic or fibreglass shield to cover the whole lot in.

The plug you can see there is teh wire that goes to the ignition switch.

Getting Closer....

Over the last week I'm getting closer to starting the engine. I've wired up the Megajolt and all the sensors, sorted out where I want to put the battery and sorted out all the engine harness.

I've mounted the remote oil filter and bolted it to the engine mount. This keeps the hoses quite short and its dead easy to get at the filter. I had to take the engine mount off as the hole for the M10 nut that goes on the rubber mounting thread wasn't big enough even for the nut never mind the socket. I took it off and ground the slot round enough to get a socket in so I could tighten it up.

I've done a far bit of work on the car and it doesn't look much better as its been mainly wiring with most of the lights confirmed now as working and it's getting me closer to starting it up. I've got a positive location for the battery down in the passenger footwell and have all the connections thought out. I predict its going to be very neat!! Fingers crossed!!

Ill be looking for some bulkhead gaskets from B&Q to run all the wires through the bulkhead soon. In the meantime I'll be drilling the holes to get them through so I can have a go at starting the engine. I'll be setting me old camcorder up to record the first start up.

I've had the car outside again today while I shifted two IBC's to the back of the garage and took some photos. The number plate is off the donor and I fitted it to get a decent place for the number plate light. I would like to keep it but doubt DLVA will let me keep it!
As you can see I'm sticking with the donor wheels. I've seen some nice spangly bling alloys in Halfords this morning on the offer but I am resisting!
Wasn't much fun pushing it up my steep drive, had to give it two goes when I ran out of steam the first time.... must get some kebab off me gut!


I'm up for working on the car and getting it started but I do want to keep it neat, so I'm not rushing it. So I'm thinking of the finishing touches as I make decisions on the configuration. (if that make sense!). I still want me best chance of passing SVA first time. FAT CHANCE!!!

Progress at last!

Yesterday I paid a visit to MNR and picked up a fuel cap and hose along with a set of rear lights. I set too as soon as I got home finally getting round to fitting the tunnel cover. Starting with a piece of cardboard I mapped the chassis tubes to cut round and the correct length on both sides. They do differ slightly by about 5mm so it was measure, measure, measure CUT! No dramas and with the holes cut for the handbrake and gearstick its in place now.

With lights in hand its time to suss out my home made loom. Firstly its quite a while since I last looked at the wiring so it took a while to get my head round everything because I didn't label it up when I pulled it all together. Doh!

First thing to come on was the side lights which worked OK of the switch. Trying to get the headlights on was different all together. No main or high, and with the multimeter I can see voltage on both sides of the switch. I studied the Sierra diagrams over a couple cans of lager, (not a good idea by the way). Turns out in the Sierra the circuit is live and the switch earths it out to turn the lights on. Now, not being in possession of the Sierra stalk switch is a little difficult but for now just earthing the 'switch' wire gets the lights on. I've fitted and wired in the number plate lamp and also fitted the fuel cap and tank hose while round the back.

I've also fitted the new ZX9R carbs, finishing the manifold with a coat of Hammerite. All mounted on the engine now looking rather splendid.

There is plenty of room around the carbs and I wanted them on because I need to mount the alternator underneath. Now I know how much room I have to play with.

I'll be cracking on now getting electrical items online and working so I can move toward starting the thing up!