fiestaturbo.com

[krestudon]

Many years have passed learning so much from this forum (and PF), now i think i can return some of this help to others with a bit of information i havent seen already explained on any forum.

I have a pretty typical track RS1800 fiesta (not so typical here in spain) with more or less the common mods to make it as fast as possible. Last trackdays i started to feel the S2 viscous diff was not up to the job i was asking it to do, and buyed a quaife from a member here.



Always had problems with the starter heating and also being in the way if i want to use any good exhaust manifold.
And the worst, the gear ratios being very long (183 km/h in 4th at ~7000 rpm), that nearly turned the 5th gear useless.

Decided it was time for a "new" gearbox so started studying the options and took some decisions:
- iB5 over BC, as seems to be a bit more tough
- 1.7 puma gear ratios as they were the closest ones, also puma gear linkage seem to be the better/shorter shifter
- 1.25 16v final drive (4.27:1) or any similar as the 1.4 zetec-s (4.25:1). This will make 195-200 Km/h at 7000 rpm in 5th with std 15" slicks, not the very hard to find small dunlops.
- 1.3 KA gearbox casing wich will allow me to fit a rear starter, freeing space at the front and keeping it cooler.
- Already using a pedal box so i'll also use the neater hydraulic clutch over the custom cable i was using until now.
- All this will allow me to retain the standard mk3 lower craddle that supports the gearbox and keep the vibratechnics that i like so much. Also i didnt have the soldering skills neither the machine to fabricate a upper hang gearbox mount.

Reading over forums i got some unaccurate information about small engined focus using a cable gear shifting iB5.
It seems that 1.8 petrol box has rear starter, cable change, hidro clutch and will bolt to a zetec-E. Not much information, so i buyed one (from UK, adding ~60 pounds of shipping was still cheaper than buying the box from a local scrap. The market in spain is a real stinky s**t).

This box will allow me to place the gear lever nearer to the seat (i hardly reach it now) and much higher, near the steering wheel. Also its supposed to have a very good shifting feel. And isolated from engine vibrations.



Made some tests, and the box fitted the engine, but the bellhousing was tilted, so it will foul the lower craddle, also making me having to fabricate some new mounts, or turning the engine, as i understand it does not sit vertical on the focus:

KA bellhousing nearly horizontal:


Focus bellhousing gearbox body tilted:


Hadnt seen any picture of a cable shifter iB5 before online so i opened it to see how much it differs from the standard linkage ones.
Happy to see the internals were nearly the same and the gear selector being much more simple than the rod selector made some tests to see if i can attach the KA bellhousing to the focus gearbox case and keep it working. I concluded that if i manage to made the focus selector a bit longer, it will fit on the ka housing and be able to engage the gears without taking it out of its place thats higher on the focus one.

Focus selector:


Focus box gets rid of all the complicated rod mechanism on all the other boxes, also i suppose it needs less oil on it:


KA bellhousing:


Cutted the selector from other box to solder it to the focus one so i can get it longer. It was very important to keep it straight so a friend of mine made this tool and soldered it as well as i can imagine:





Test rebuild the box with a couple of bolts and checked the gears engaging. (video proof attached below).

Still waiting to have time to get the 4.27:1 final from the scrap before refitting to the car and real testing it works, its now using the 4.05:1 focus final.
I'm also rebuilding some other parts of the car so hope i will keep the thread alive for some time:






Hope all this could be of interest for someone.

[FRSJON]

looks very interesting

[el_nieto]

Hi

Go go go!!!

[krestudon]

Been so busy, so slowly working on the car.

Managed to clean and paint the inside so i can start to put everything on it again.



At first i'll have to decide where to locate the focus cable gear lever, so mounted the seat and steering wheel to do some test fits.



Also have finished the hybrid box with the following ratios. Out of the car and without oil it works and every gear can be engaged easily, what its a real surprise for me:



Wasnt really sure about using the 4.05 or 4.27 final drives, decided to use the shorter as i will not need to go over 200 Km/h, calculated with 195/50R15 wheels that are still smaller than 180-190/570-580R15 slicks.
Also the ignition cut that was now at 7100 rpm, will be rised a bit, to have some headroom.

Anyway i can always open it and use the 4.05

Will update as soon as i can get the gear lever/cables fitted. Any comments appreciated.

[krestudon]

After much time being unable to find time to work on the car, i managed to get the box in.



It was very difficult to get a ford ka intermediate plate, so the place in front of the engine where the starter motor used to be was covered and no debris can get inside the flywheel/clutch.
Also it has to be cut in some places so it fits the zetec block, otherwise bolts were on the same places and mounted with no issues.

Also find some problems to attach the front gearbox bracket, because the same bolts were used to hold the gear shift cables. Finally i find the easyer to use a gearbox bracket from a non zetec fiesta, that seems weaker and lighter but its shape can be adapted with less problems to the focus half of the box.



Now i have to make a line for the hydraulic clutch and rewire the starter motor cables, among a hundred small things.




At least its in the car.

[FRSJON]

looks great

[krestudon]

Thank you!

Also been trying to strengthen the OBP pedal box, mostly known for its flexibility.

Contacted OBP to try to source the new design pedals, but i thought they were really overpriced, so a friend soldered some reinforcements both to the pedals and the frame itself, so hope it'll be better now:

[krestudon]

Done a couple of track days after test fitting the 'new' box.

One of them ended with a crankshaft bearing failure due to a clogged oil pickup pipe, a bit of enthusiastic driving trying to pass a Hyundai Coupe Cup, and a disconnected oil pressure switch:




Anyway, both pretty funny days:




But i'm suffering a problem i dont understand with the box.
In every lap, after the straight and just about to enter the first corner, and after runing in fifth gear at 6k+ rpm, i can engage fourth gear, but then not third neither second, sometimes not even fourth again after trying.
So i've to continue in fourth for a while (3k rpm) and usually on the next braking i can engage third and second, sometimes with much effort, but works.

I can run in fourth until 7k+ rpm, then i'm able to reduce to third and second. If engaging fifth (~160kmh and up) then i can only reduce to fourth. Maybe something related to the car speed and the diff/final ratio?
Maybe the synchros? but why sometimes working smoothly and others not working at all?

After the first track day i rebuilt the gearbox again, changing some bearings (i was unable to remove someones), and changed the gearbox oil from silkolene silktran 5 75w90 to Motul Gear 300, also 75w90. As read somewhere that the silkolene was thinner and less recommended although quaife uses it on their boxes (or at least they sell it).

Any advise/opinion on what can be happening?

[Excursion]

Nice project. The standard of work seems high

Synchros where changed a lot during the BC > iB5 lifecycle. Are you using the Puma Synchros?

[krestudon]

Thank you sir, nice words coming from who defined the reference standard of work in this forums...

Synchros were from the puma gearset, thas was moved "as is" to the 4.27:1 shaft from the 1.4 16v

Looked at them and seemed ok to me, but never seen a synchro before, neither sheared nor new, so not much to say.

Trying to source another set now, to build another box, and see if it behaves different... Not an easy task here in spain, sourcing 4 different gearboxes to get one made. Will try the focus 4.05:1 ratio, to reduce to three donor boxes.

[jhot80]

Thank you sir, nice words coming from who defined the reference standard of work in this forums...

Synchros were from the puma gearset, thas was moved "as is" to the 4.27:1 shaft from the 1.4 16v

Looked at them and seemed ok to me, but never seen a synchro before, neither sheared nor new, so not much to say.

Trying to source another set now, to build another box, and see if it behaves different... Not an easy task here in spain, sourcing 4 different gearboxes to get one made. Will try the focus 4.05:1 ratio, to reduce to three donor boxes.

If you are using slicks? It is possible that under hard braking the fluid is all going to the front of the box away from the Diff. In the IB5 box the diff is used to flick the gearbox fluid up onto the other gears and the fluid is required to get the synchos to engage.

[- Danny Boy -]

Looks like an awesome project