fiestaturbo.com

[heeman10]

disc - The pictures/measurements you requested:





Hope they help a bit

[disc]

heeman,
Thanks! Top man!!!

[heeman10]

disc - No problemo! Measurements were taken in-line with the hose of course, not measured across in a straight line while the hose was bent


Update

I didn't get yesterday's pics up and am getting a good amount done today, so I'll post these up now and post some more later probably.

Scort kindly made some spacer plates for me very quickly at very short notice (huge thanks, even though we had our problems..coming up!). I needed to space the hub away from the beam by 8mm to give clearance at two collision points (handbrake cable lever and handbrake cable bracket, as shown earlier), so these spacer plates were made up to fit a Ka beam, the bolt pattern for which Steve and I thought was the same as the Fiesta. We were wrong! Here is a photo of one spacer plate sitting on the RS2000 hub:



So it had to be filed to allow the bolts to pass through:



A trial fit showed that the corners of the spacer were stopping it from sitting inside the circular recess on the back of the brake assembly (overlaps arrowed):



The photo below shows it back on the bench, and I've noted with red dots where the corners needed filing:



Here's my modified spacer next to the other original. Not miles out, and the fact that they're not spot on doesn't matter one bit, they still do their job and it's all weight loss



Stupid me hadn't thought to buy longer bolts by this stage, so you can see the four little stubs poking through,,,not quite enough to hold a hub on!!



So, as shops are not handy for me, I got on making some brake pipes, starting with the pipe that travels from the Fiesta rear arch fixed point up and round to the caliper. My pipe cutting/flaring kit arrived yesterday, and I'd bought brake pipe and fittings in the morning. Cutting the pipe:



Flaring the end:



The finished article:



To save the pipe being a complex shape and hard to fit, I sent it round the underside rather than winding it through the various obstacles over the top. It's not particularly pretty, but it'll do its job:



Today's work

I hunted all round town for high tensile (10.9) bolts in the same size as the Fiesta hub bolts (M10), but 10mm longer than the standard 30mm bolts. No-one had anything, apart from one place with allen head bolts, which I thought were of no use as access is restricted at the back of the beam for a socket. A quick call to Scort had him making ANOTHER trip for me, but he could only find the same as me (plus some other bolts with no tensile strength marked one them). So I cut my losses and asked my mum to pick up the bolts I'd seen yesterday. V high tensile (12.9) cap head bolts next to the originals:



Access at the back isn't too bad - three bolts can be tightened using the socket set, the fourth will be tightened using the hex bit and a spanner. Not ideal, but..again, it'll do the job. Spacer on (with a smear of copper slip as the spacers are spangly ally) and bolts in place:



And a couple of minutes later, the brake assembly in:





I think it looks very good All bolts need a final nipping up, and I left off the retaining clip that secures the handbrake cable to its bracket, but the rear left corner is essentially finished. Once the right hand side is on I'll see how the handbrake feels, but it seems by all accounts it'll adjust up enough to operate as it is....that will have to be seen later on..

All four front brake pipes (at the master cylinder) are complete; two originals needed cutting, flaring with new fittings on and bending to fit the Escort master cylinder, and two new pipes needed making up (painted and drying at the moment). So just the rear driver's side pipe to make up now.

Question 1: Does anyone know if the Escort master cylinder modulates its pressures at all? (i.e. does it send more pressure to the front than the rear, or do all lines see equal pressure and braking force differs only as a function of disc/pad size?) As far as I know there's no regulation and pressure is distributed equally to all four brake pipes, but I thought I'd better check.

Question 2: I took the pressure regulators of a Mk6 Escort at the scrap yard and fitted them to my cylinder, but I believe all they do is cut off the supply to those two pipes if a leak reduces line pressure. Is that right?

[PUMARST]

very nice car
Your Fiesta is some kind of inspiration for me.

[MAD_Adamski]

dunno about the questions james but do as i did brake fooking hard and if you snake you need adjustment ....

i needed to reduce my braking to the rear but i have a bias valve and the Zs setup

[Jay]

Looks good!

You need the bias valves that bolt onto the side of the master cylinder. for the rears. You should have some on your fiesta master cylinder...

Had any thoughts on the handbrake cable?

[heeman10]

PUMARST - Thanks

adamski - I'll be testing the bias by checking the braking forces front and rear at a local garage. If they're roughly proportioned as they should be I'll try some road testing.

Jay - I have screwed some valves into the cylinder from an Escort master cylinder, I'm not sure if/how they differ from the Fiesta items. Do you know exactly what they do? Are they definitely biasing valves??

I typed a big reply to this thread last night, including a lengthy reply to your question about the handbrake cable. Suffice to say I'm leaving it as is for now, and will see how the handbrake feels when I bolt the driver's side on today and go from there.

[Jay]

yes.. definately the bias valves.. reduce the line pressure to the rear

[Jay]

oh, and I have got my mate to make up some spacers for the hand brake cable.. I've asked him to make 4 of them so they should be done for ford fair

[heeman10]

I didn't realise they were proper bias valves - I'll have to screw them onto the bottom of the Escort master cylinder then - that'll look odd! Shame I've already made the brake pipes, guess I'll just have to bend them a bit to accommodate the length of the valves.

What spacers has he made? Read below for today's findings

Update

I fitted the driver's side rear brakes today, which I'd left overnight while the paint dried. One small issue - the handbrake lever arm on the back of the brake assembly was fouling on the top front corner of the rear beam face (same place as shown on the passanger side) so that needed grinding back just a smidge to give clearance. I could then test the handbrake travel. One pull and it went sky high! I adjusted the cable to its shortest and it was still coming up too high to be fully effective, so I turned to the Fiesta's handbrake cable (rather than removing the RS2000 cable) to think of a solution.

Here is the Fiesta cable, showing the adjustors. Drawn in red is a rough idea of the spacer needed, and bottom left is a quick model I made of the sort of shape needed. It would shorten the cable by 50mm or so, and provide both a platform for the adjustors to press against and a nose to locate it in the cable bracket underneath the car:



For now, I've improvised using a clamp I found in the workshop. It's not big and it's not clever, but it ought to work for the meantime. Handbrake travel is now acceptable:



A shot of the driver's side all bolted on:



I made up the final brake line for the gap between the Fiesta flexi hose and that caliper today, and all lines, hub bolts and caliper bolts are now tight, the wheels are back on (for now - I needed to raise the front of the car) and they're ready for bleeding.

The front brake pads have worn down to replacement levels in 4,000 miles or so, so I finally got round to fitting the new pads Mike Rainbird kindly sourced for me at an ever so slightly cheaper price than the original Wilwood Polymatrix pads I was going to import. Still £70! Old pads bottom and right, new pad on the left:



The wear indicator (vertical channel running down the pad) wasn't visible on that right hand pad, and only just visible on the pad at the bottom. Thankfully a change in tone under braking alerted me to their state...just before Bruntingthorpe!

Nice big fat fresh new pads fitted with shiny new split pins - ready for bleeding!




I only have about half an hour of flatting left to do on the bumper before I can spray it, which I desperately need to do tonight. I also hope to bleed at least some of the brakes tonight. Must book an MOT first thing on Monday!!

[mike_wall15]

You need a new MOT and for it to pass before FF?

[heeman10]

Yes, and tax. The worst timing ever, got a lovely little job list now:

1. Flat bumper, spray, leave for at least a day then polish up etc, re-fit lights, plate, fit it back on the car.

2. Take a look at a slightly notchy feeling in the brake pedal - something to do with the new master cylinder/servo.

3. Fit new brake lines to the master cylinder, then replace all brake fluid in the system and bleed all four corners.

4. Fit rev limiter and hopefully launch control too if I have any time

5. MOT it, hopefully pass...who knows


I need to leave for Shrewsbury on Friday morning, and didn't book an MOT in case I was in danger of missing it. So all I can do is call on Monday morning (if I'm ready by then...going to TOTB tomorrow) and hope he can see me on Tuesday morning. Far too tight for my liking, looks like the diesel might be going to Ford Fair...

[mike_wall15]

MOT's are meant to happen before or after the show season!

Just give it your best shot and see what happens, may the force be with you!

[MarkRS2K]

your be fine, we all have faith

[~nomad~]

looking good James! need a favour as it goes, can you grab me on msn next time you are on

[heeman10]

Bad bad news at the moment. Had a great day at TOTB (pics and videos will come shortly), then came home to a Fiesta nightmare. Spent one more hour flatting off the primer to spray the bumper...masked it up, wetted down the floor, one last wipe off, and the spray can went bananas. Something was up with the nozzle (this is the £10 can I got mixed at Halfords - PERFECT colour match btw, v happy on that front) and it made a real mess of the bumper. It filled the top of the can with a pool of red paint, and sprayed the messiest, patchiest, most runny coat of paint I've ever applied. Time's so short I tried to persevere and ended up with a total mess. I'm going to Halfords today to get another one made up, possibly two depending on the condition of the second can I didn't touch.

That was the beginning of the nightmare. My dad helped my bleed the front calipers up on Saturday, so I put the front wheels back on and raised the back ready for bleeding. We bled one side up, then came to the last corner, just as the pedal was getting nice and firm and I heard a weird spraying sound He did it a couple more times, and I traced it down to the front left corner. Went round to look and then floor and arch lining were drenched in brake fluid I took the wheel off this morning and found the braided hose, made up specially by Lee@Fusion to suit the metric Fiesta pipe and imperial Wilwood caliper, had rubbed through on the coilover threads Dropping the ride height further, combined with the threaded body of the coilovers as opposed to the smooth Ford/Gmax shocks caused a catastrophic end to the hose's life - one that could put an end to mine as well really. It's an oversight on my behalf, most probably down to the rushed fitting of the coilovers without checking out other aspects of the car at the time. I was desperately trying to finish them off for FITP, and overlooked a problem that's not visible while the car's in the air...but once it's on the ground and the suspension's compressed, frets away at the hose.

So now I have four days in which to find some more hose, rectify the problem, get more paint, flat the bumper down AGAIN, spray it again, hopefully with good results, get the car taxed and MOT'd, and get down to Shrewsbury. How does this ALWAYS happen?

~nomad~ - Gimme a bell if you want dude, am not on MSN a great deal.

[mike_wall15]

You just aren't very good at organising things james... you have so many car building qualities, but just let down when you decide to do everything 5 minutes before you need it ready! Just like your uni projects the night before!

Hey, bad news with the brake lines, but good that it all happened while the car was standstill

Shame about the spray aswell, maybe it was a faulty can? At least the worst part is that you need to go and get another and smooth the runs over. But I'm sure the bits of colour you did get on will help with the build up of colour coat.

Keep with it lad, and at least you had the other turbo if all becomes a rush!

P.S. Sent you a text about getting the tobt stuff up, but it hasn't delivered, must be that poor excuse of a phone signal you have!

[Max M4X WW]

Nasty, Sounds like a right arse. Hope you get it all sorted

Ive allways been worried about my brake hoses. They never seem to sit right, rub on things and are at quite a nasty bend now the cars lowered.

[heeman10]

Mike - All that lot answered in our phone call I think!

Max - Some of these things are too easy just to bolt in without thinking through in their entirity, specially when time is tight. Time is the killer of finesse when it's in short supply.

Update

I've just got back from a long afternoon of driving, with two brand new braided hoses, 50mm shorter to counteract the suspension drop. I measured the first lines up off the standard Ford hoses, so the shape/position of these shorter hoses should be better.

Interesting find

Dave at RSM (Road and Stage Motorsport, Morecambe) looked at my holed hose and said "That's not from rubbing, it's shorted out". I said there are no connections in the wheel arch, then remembered that one of the brake pipes touched the positive battery terminal as I was removing the standard master cylinder - and this was the result! It had thinned the walls to the point that when the system was almost bled, the pressure was enough to blow it out. Every time something like this happens, I learn good lessons, so I'll just be thankful that it happened here and not entering a fast corner. Time to get back to work! I'll do my best.

[garyhurn77]

chin up fella, i m shore everything will come together.... as you well know you cant rush things like brakes etc! good job you found the hoses before you took it out and found it as you mentioned on a "bend" now that would be bad.


if its not ready for ford fair, will be dissapointing but not for the want of trying!

the car is a credit to you mate! keep up the good work, maybe some pro plus would help this week

[heeman10]

Cheers for the kind words

I managed to turn things around in a big way last night. All brakes are sorted, bled, and feel extremely good A very very firm pedal and nice short travel, better than I'd been hoping for

Bumper is not flatted down again ready for spraying, washed down and just drying at the moment to be sprayed before lunch. I'll fit it tonight, MOT it tomorrow if he can fit me in, and hopefully give it all a clean and polish and possibly fit the rev limiter. Here's hoping the paint goes on properly today!! Pics later.

[MarkRS2K]

good stuff, lets hope the MOT guys dont find anything that'll hold you up

[heeman10]

Update

At last, something to be happy with!

Car's on the ground

Bumper's sprayed, partly polished (using Mer, the most abrasive polish I have) and back on the car

Wired in and fitted the rev limiter last night, only took a couple of hours, and sounds insane! Mayyy fit launch control before Ford Fair

Hopefully it can be MOT'd this afternoon, here's hoping nothing's an issue.

Some pics...

I modified my head on the F/O/S coilover strut bracket - thanks to an insanely tight brake fitting that let go suddenly



And some pics of the bumper. I'm entirely happy about the results I've had. It's totally presentable, and is definitely a huge improvement on the mess it was before. Should come up a bit better with a few polishes







Bring on the MOT and a good wash and polish!!!!

[MAD_Adamski]

nice cut

[heeman10]

Thanks, I did that myself too!

[rich_frst]

nice cut and bumper looks spot on matey!!!

now get the rear done

[garyhurn77]

looks superb mate, all the hard work paid off, and you ve probably saved ya self a few hundred pounds not going to the bodyshop!

fingers crossed it flies through the mot and your able to get it down to ford fair

head looks nasty

[RS_Rawli]

bumper looks sweeeeeeeeet

nice cut; least its in a spot where your hair will cover it......

oh wait

[heeman10]

Might fibreglass some hair onto my head with my new-found skills...

[rich_frst]

glass a wig on mate

[DaveRom]

Ouch nasty cut mate

Bumper looks great. Have you done that with aerosols too?

[mike_wall15]

Pah, was probably only a light cut, but you let it drip for 30 mins before taking the pics!

Bumper looks good, but saying that, your old bumper didn't look too bad in the pics sometimes. I can imagine it looks great in real life though, fingers crossed can see it on Sunday! :aviator:

[PUMARST]

Nice head You must be careful

[Brammer]

Great job on the bumper & brakes, great head modifaction

[mickylee]

bumper looks awesome, well done!!