fiestaturbo.com

[heeman10]

Update from 13.5.06

I eventually got the wheel nut off by using a big chisel and a lump hammer for about half an hour or so, being very careful not to hit the wheel itself. The nut was being destroyed bit by bit until once or twice the chisel made contact with the inner face of the wheel centre, but no real damage was caused. I made a mark on the nut rim and a mark on the wheel so I could tell if it turned at all (misaligning the two marks) and after twenty minutes or so I noticed it had moved just under one degree. So I carried on, and it shunted round tiny bit by tiny bit until it was worth hammering a 12mm socket onto the central part of the nut and using the socket to undo it.

The nut before I started..damaged beyond repair and unremoveable using the original Ford wheel nut key:



Chiselled away, and the 12mm socket hammered on. The wheel looks damaged outside of the wheel centre in this pic, but none of those marks are on the wheel, they must be loose metal



And what remains of the nut!



All this happened at about 5pm the day before FITP. So I left for my B&B in Bruntingthorpe at about 8:30pm, arrived at midnight..went to bed, and got up at 5:30 to get to the show! At least I had all four coilovers on and adjusted

[heeman10]

Update from today

Every member on this forum will have heard me complaining about the gearshift in my car for a long time, and even moreso since the Bruntingthorpe test day and magazine feature in Fast Ford (in the shops now). I've tried a new CTS gearbox, a manually adjustable clutch pedal, and replacing every single component of the gear linkage bar the two rods; the stabilise rod and the gear selector rod.

I bought a FRST selector rod when I rebuilt it, but it was too long for my car (originally a diesel), so I reassembled the linkage with the original selector rod. As a last ditch attempt before removing and inspecting the gearbox and clutch/cover assembely, I bought a gear selector rod from Ford for the diesel Fiesta (£49 + VAT), and went over to the car to fit it today.

The main culprit it seems, when it comes to poor gear selection feel, is the selector rod and its plastic bushes. With wear, the knuckle joints (please see pic below) get loose, wobbly and/or can stick. All this means the operation of the gear lever isn't translated accurately into movement of the gear selector shaft on the gearbox:



Below is a photo of the old and new selector rods (I think you can work out which is which) and the lower half of the gear linkage assembly, new last summer:



Here is the linkage built up again just before it was bolted back onto the car:



All I had time to do was feel the operation of the gears with the engine off and the car at a standstill, but I must say it felt more accurate and quite smooth. I'm really hoping this cures a problem which I've had with the car since I got it 5 years and two months ago! Three gearboxes, three engines and the same problem with all of them..the gear selector rod is the only factor remaining in the equation that could cause the problem really. If not, there must be a problem with the gearbox, but we'll see when I can take it out for a test.

I'll mention at this point that grahamb, a once-frequent user of this forum, dismantled the gear selector rod knuckle joints and replaced the bushes with small bearings, held in place by home-made bolts rather than rivets. I've brought my old selector rod back to uni with me to do the same conversion to give a very tight and precise feel to the gearshift that shouldn't free up with time.

FRST rack on its way from ianFRST as the one I was originally sold turned out to be a base model rack So with my coilovers, new top rubbers on the front suspension towers, quick steering rack, lowered ride height and improved (hopefully) gearshift, my car should be a hell of a lot more fun to drive than it has been for a while!

[mike_wall15]

Very good very good, how come you still need the diesel selector rod when everything else on the car is for another model? What's the difference between the different ones? Length?

Shame you didn't have chance to drive it.... were you drinking on the job?

[heeman10]

Because weird and mysterious things happen with my car, being a diesel, and all the petrol running gear. When the Deflex gearbox mounts snapped into bits, I had a frantic dash to get a gearbox cradle in time to get me down to Ford Fair, which you may or may not remember. The night before I went south for it, the gearbox was hanging out the car, with the radiator, intercooler and bumper tucked down the side of it!

The gearbox cradle I sourced at short notice was off a petrol Mk3, and this is what I found when I tried to bolt the gearbox back in (diesel on the left):





They are subtly different, as are the selector rods. When I bolted the FRST gear selector rod in, it was about 15mm too long (or short, can't remember)! Nuisance things!

Just remembered I haven't replied to your PM just yet..

[XRMike]

Hope its sorted the problem out for you with the gearchange
In theory does that mean that the diesel engine and box sit backward a few mm more?

[heeman10]

I really hope it sorts it too. It's always been a slow gear change with resistance, I just assumed it was "the diesel way". No the diesel gearbox would sit further back if anything, though I suspect the brackets that bolt to the gearbox mounts must be different on the diesel, thus positioning the gearbox in the same place as the petrol models. Weird that they made things different though...I'm not sure why just yet!

[Mikee_RS]

let me know the outcome of this cos i think i mite change mine too

[heeman10]

After laughing at Mandyhardy's stupid comments in my thread in General? Not likely! Find out for yourself you minimoto terrorist

[Mikee_RS]

After laughing at Mandyhardy's stupid comments in my thread in General? Not likely! Find out for yourself you minimoto terrorist

i broke it


needs a new ht lead but u buy the whole unit and its £15

[heeman10]

Snag the HT lead on a bird table whizzing through Homebase?

[wpj1968]

Weird about the cradles, ive got a diesel box on my zetec, using the original zetec stabiliser and selector rods and the petrol zetec cradle, all bolts together okay

[ScottP]

Look at:

http://www.zetecinside.com/xr2/gearbox.htm#linkage

we all should chip in and get the bearings in a group buy from RSWWW. I dont know why he did not use just an 8mm bolt and a nut instead of cutting threads on a bar?? it would save a few quid.

hope it helps.

Scott

[heeman10]

wpj1968 - Yeah that's weird..no idea!

ScottP - I looked at Graham's site, spent about 45 mins trying to order the bearings from RSwww, including two phone calls, and gave up. I'll get them from somewhere else. But as I said, I brought my old gear linkage back with me to carry out those modifications. It saves money making your own stuff rather than buying in. I'd be happy making my own bolts like that, though I see no need actually.

[ScottP]

James, If you get some chep enough i will buy some bearings from you, It would be stupid not to while the engines out.

Why did you not buy a short shift kit instead of going to ford??


Scott

[heeman10]

Because they're extortionately-priced. I could've made one up for myself, but prefer the standard throw with a shorter lever. I don't want it so close that gears are hard to find, which I've heard is what happens to an extent with the Quickshift kits. I want a precise, fast shift, and the Ford components are capable of that when in tip top condition and fettled a bit

[MAD_Adamski]

homo i'm home things looking up then?

[heeman10]

Looking up from what? My life was fine till you got back

[Shannon]

Wouldnt one of those B&M quickshift's of solved the problem?

[heeman10]

That doesn't include the gear selector rod, it just adjusts the lever ratio of the gear lever.

[BUTRE]

I've bought all the gear that is specified on the graham site from RSWWW a couple of months ago. No problems whatsoever but I bought from Spain since I'm from Portugal

You can't use a bolt because the thread would be killing the bearing latter on. Graham thinking was spot on!

I hope to sort another FRST std problem. My car is already 50% custom made

[heeman10]

Update

My FRST rack turned up yesterday, thanks to ianFRST. The Fiesta RS Turbo rack was 3.75 turns lock-to-lock rather than the 4.2 turns required of the base model racks.

First off, I noted that the FRST rack was 10mm longer at each end, i.e. 20mm longer over all..something I was expecting, and not too sure about in terms of fitting it to a base model which has a 20mm narrower track. I removed the RS rack's track rod ends (the split pins had been cut off and remained in the holes) and locking nuts (which had been rounded off in a few places) and fitted the corresponding items from my old rack, after wire brushing and copper greasing the threads, and applying WD40 at the gaitors for easy adjustment.

I loosely fitted the RS rack, with the track rod ends screwed fully in, hoping to find that in the central position I would have both front wheels toeing out. My fear was that I wouldn't have enough adjustment inward to track the car up properly, but all seemed well, with approx 5mm toe out on each wheel. So I centred the steering wheel, centred the rack and fitted the steering column UJ. Since the Fiesta has a hex-sided steering column as opposed to a splined column, a 60 degree adjustment would be too much to cater for the limited adjustment the FRST rack gives in terms of tracking when fitted to a base model.

Here are the two racks side by side; FRST rack on the left. The cast numbers are the same, bar the "S1" and "S2" towards the top of the photo:



Random photo of the car jacked up while I took a break to WD40 my hands!



Rack fitted, and tracking it up...a job that gets quicker with each go. Took about 20 minutes this time!



And here is a random photo of where I mounted my oil cooler a while ago, as I haven't posted any photo's of it yet:



And the thermoblock/sandwich plate that screws onto the oil filter face. It was a real fiddle positioning this, and I found it could only fit one way, with the oil in/out hoses and fittings attached. Very tight job indeed!



The surrounding oil is from the fine mist sprayed from my oil breather - an issue I will be addressing next week at long last. The breather tank that came with the engine had a tiny little 8mm outlet on it that was meant to breather to atmosphere. All other ports on the breather tank are 16mm, and so this 8mm increases the pressure and makes it blow a fine mist out into my engine bay at high revs/load! Nothing wrong with a bit of lubrication I say!

Also, one of my spot light bulbs had gone, meaning I was too embarassed to flash people for fear of having my car branded as "another Ford that doesn't work properly". So I fitted some new "Laser Blue" bulbs bought from Halfords this morning. Not so much blue, but certainly brighter than the last bulbs:



I had a really fun time in the car this evening testing out my handywork, including much playing with motorbikes and some surprised faces Love the thing

Off to the North Yorks RS Regional day at Lightwater Valley tomorrow, then taking the car back up home as it's taking up valuable space in my mate's garage down here now

[ianFRST]

nice rack

interesting tracking system you got there. care to explain a bit more what ya do, how you made it etc. mine is shocking, had to guess where to put my track rod ends back on

[heeman10]

nice rack :Q

Cheers babe

Mm guessing tends not to work too well! Will write a guide to tracking later on matey

[ianFRST]

yeah guessing was a bit sw@nk to say the least but i took the track rod ends off, and also removed the nuts. and forgot to mark where they were originally

nice one the guides mr

[BUTRE]

heeman, I tracking guide would be ace!
I can track mine to have the same toe each side, but can never properly tell by how much

[heeman10]

Sorry, I forgot to write that guide! Will try to remember to write it tonight when I'm back at uni or tomorrow some time

[Sphinx]

Where do you do all this work? looks like you've got plenty of space! i'm jelous.

[Raymondo]

Did you have any problems with changing the rack. Ive got to do mine soon. Its a powersteering one (£200 odd ) but the fitment should be pretty similar i would have thought. It looks like it could be a bit akward because its quite tight up there.

Have you thought about using the RST lower arms etc. to get the 20mm wider track?

[alti]

hi!

looks really good!
i changed last year my stock rack to frst,
i hoped it will handle better,but the only difference i noticed is
a bad turning circle.
i think the 0,5 turn difference is only the lock,
since i have the frst rack my wheels dont rub anymore,

someone know where i can buy a 2,5turn rack?

thanks alti

[heeman10]

sphinx - The pics on this page were taken at my mate's where I've been storing the car in Lancashire for the last 4 months or so. TBH (and possibly sound big-headed) I have much more room at home. There were four cars in that place for the last couple of weeks, as they have a few cars of their own (let alone mine) to play with, so I've taken mine back up home to give them the space they need. 4 post ramp would be very nice at home though!

Raymondo - I think I highlighted the minor "issues" with fitting the FRST rack...namely the 20mm wider track it gives, and the vast reduction in adjustment where tracking's concerned. In terms of actually changing racks on the Mk3...they're a little bit of a fiddle, specially with an engine bay full of Zetec Turbo, but it's not such a bad job

On the FRST lower arms note..I have camber adjustable ones anyway, so can shift the ball joints in and out to where I want

alti - Yes, the FRST rack requires half a turn less than the 4.2 rack of the base models. I noticed it on the twisty roads, that 0.5 turns is about a 12% increase in rack speed...which is noticeable. There has been talk of faster racks on here quite a lot, but no-one seems to have done it on non-assisted racks.


Update

As those at Brunters would've seen, I had a problem with my breather system, in that all that inlet ports were 12mm in diameter, but the outlet port (that breathes to the atmosphere or to a catch tank) was only 6.5mm ID!! That meant that rather than being a free-flowing escape for excess cam cover/crankcase pressure, it pressurised the breather system. I don't know who made the breather pot, but it came with the engine when I bought it from Mikee. Anyway...the result was that at higher revs/load, it would spray a fine mist of oil out of this breather hose, and undoubtedly elevate the crankcase and cam cover pressures unnecessarily.

The small breather outlet can be seen top right in this photo:



I sawed off the crappy little 6.5mm pipe, drilled out the hole to 1/2", and found some 19mm aluminium bar to turn down to size:



Outer diameter turned down to 15mm or so (just needed to be the right size to fit over the hole I'd drilled, so nothing too accurate required provided it was wide enough for me to drill it out to 1/2" later):



Drilled out to 1/2", and I machined three grooves in for the hose to bite onto a bit when I clamp it on:



Parted it off the bar, faced it off, and this is the new pipe sitting next to the crappy little old one:



Offered up to the breather pot, much better!



One of the uni technicians welded it on for me while I carried on with Formula Student work, and I polished it back up to "8LING" finish when it was cool Didn't take any pics of the finished article, but it should end my annoying oily off-side engine bay problem - plus I can ditch the Sprite can now!

[MarkRS2K]

cool stuff dude, no more oil mess then

[andyhardy]

Cool stuff James!

[paradox]

oh the joys of having access to a lathe and someone to weld ally for you lucky git
Glad your sorting all those little niggles mate should be spot on very soon the rate your sorting everything.

[Andi]

Nice work! Looks really well made, proper craftsman job that! Wish I had the sense to be able to do that, I can just about change a wheel

[heeman10]

m4frd - That's the hope, yeah! Makes people think my car is ailing in some way when it has oil in the engine bay! (Plus I don't know HOW many photo's and questions arose about the Sprite can at FITP, left in there from Brunters )

andy - Cheers When are we going to shoot the pilot episodes of our shows?

paradox - If the truth be known I've hardly seen the car at all since September last year..maybe once every three weeks or so I'd dearly love to be able to work on it every single day. I want to sort every imperfection in the bodywork and spray it at home. If I could work on it every day I'd have the chance to do that...test my spraying skills..and get it wrong and do it again without a problem. As it is, I can't risk that in case I leave it in a bad state (worse than its current state) when I want to take it to a show. I'll get there though...dearly wanting to clear the 300bhp mark too, but my turbo, management, pistons, rods, injectors, inlet and exhaust manifolds, gearbox and other things would be changing for that milestone.

Andi - Cheers matey If the truth be known that only took about 10 minutes to knock up, it's no big deal at all, and I'll sorely miss the university workshops when I go home in a few weeks for good!