Jaffa's Return

[Dave1800BDA]

this is great news andrew, all that hard work well done, feel good factor

[RS2000CUSTOM]

Does the head rework add so much???

Yep !

ALL the power in a Pinto is hidden in the head

[dasadrew]

Well, after about 3 years of basically being sat in the garage whilst life took different other turns, Jaffa is back on the road.

Between changing daily drivers I decided to have a month's interruption and use Jaffa daily. In about 500 miles over the last 4 weeks it hasn't missed a beat (except for the usual speck of dirt in an idle jet on one of the 44IDF's.)!!

This daily use has pointed me to a couple of areas which needed attention:

- rear window seal leak traced to the fold in the vinyl roof where the seal leaves a very small gap. Now fixed with screen sealant. Similar area on front screen still leaking and needing doing

- front shocks seem to have a rdige or whatever from the long time without moving. At any rate, small undulations in the road seem to make a slight clonk which travels through to the steering wheel. When the car stands and you slightly push down on the front wing, there is some definite slight stiction before the shock moves smoothly. Are there any easy sources for Capri 2.8i inserts around today? If not, I'll see if Bilstein can overhaul them.

- the diff seems to get very hot. How hot do these diffs get? It's not rubber-melting heat but certainly burn-your-fingers heat after a run. Anyone doing diff recons nowadays? I actually have a NOS 3.54 CWP set in a box somewhere.

- when at motorway speeds everything is smooth when accelerating or decelerating and any play is taken up but inbetween when just cruising with the right foot just hovering over the loud pedal there is a hell of a vibration which seems to come from the centre underside. Propshaft centre bearing? Propshaft UJ's?

I'm going to have to start thinning out my stable sometime in the near future and it looks like I might hang on to the Escort if I can get these niggling bits and pieces sorted. Probably will have to put a 5-speed box in though or where ear defenders on motorway trips!

Cheers for any tips!

Drew

[lee bishop]

Welcome back stranger ! Glad you still have the car

[mike77cos]

Pictures!

[escort new boy]

Blast from the past this, looking at dates of previous posts doesn't time fly

[dasadrew]

Well, I must admit it's been a while since I was active here! Seems like all sorts of things got in the way, including a full resto of a Triumph Stag.

Jaffa's come out of storage now and I'm taking up the challenge again to sort out a few of the niggles and start using it more than just to go to the MoT and back!

Today's niggle is a bl00dy annoying "clonk" which comes from the front suspension when the cars accelerating, braking and cornering. I'd resigned myself to it being a corrosion lip in the dampers or something like that, but seem to have identified it now as having a completely different source.

Very simply, the brake pads have a very small amount of play in the rotation sense. I can turn the hub with my hand and you hear that the brake pad shifts just a tadge up and down when you move the disc back and forth. Amazingly, this little movement gets amplified through the strut and front wing and makes a VERY audible clonk!

I've got standard calipers, but with vented discs and spacers (all Ford original stuff). I've been running green stuff but have just ordered some standard pads from Burtons in the vain hope that they might be a bit taller, which they aren't.

Anyone got a solution to this or has encountered it themselves? Could I put a smear of hi-temp silicon beading on the top and bottom edges of the pads before fitting? On all other cars I've had the pads are a damned tight fit but these ones I can remove with thumb and forefinger.

Cheers for any pointers lads!

Drew

[Frosticles]

Hello stranger

[mk2del]

Kyb do some gas inserts for Capri 2.8 struts, used them in my last two cars

[dasadrew]

Kyb do some gas inserts for Capri 2.8 struts, used them in my last two cars

Do you have a number? The current KYB catalogue explicitly excludes the 2.8i

ta

Drew

[dasadrew]

Hello stranger

Likewise!

[bigjohnie]

Any recent pictures Andrew loved your resto thread years ago and some very nice bits went on the car