Running rebuild

[Mark Bagnall]

Things are looking up. This yellow series 3 Phaeton is the sort of car I should have bought first time round - it drives, has an mot, and I fit in!!
I won't go into all the details but the purchase took around a month - there was no V5 at first. Collecting was a marathon - 240 miles there, with huge road works was bad enough but coming back the first stop for fuel resulted in a complete failure of the starter motor. Luckily my son in the support vehicle had no problem push starting so we eventually made it home around midnight.
I have now started working through the car, listing jobs - the idea (which I'm sure many people have) is to bring it up to the spec/standard I want while using and enjoying it.
Basic spec as relayed by last owner; 1700 cross flow, 711 block, BCF2 cam, running unleaded. I'm hoping the valves have hardened seats and valve spring have been sorted, although I'm only using 6 to 6,500 revs as a rolling road print out and on road experience suggest power peaks at 6,000.
The first job was to sort the starting. The last owner had installed 24 volt starting with 2 enormous batteries behind the passenger seat. Now I know this has been used for high compression cross flows before but a web search and my gut suggested a properly working system should cope without the need to go to 24v or an expensive high torque starter. Simple testing, by direct wiring the starter, produced no action and a quick strip down revealed burnt brushes and burnt and pitted rotor.
Even though I'm out in the wilds of Shropshire, there is an old school auto electrician who rebuilt the starter the day I took it in (R J Jones, Snailbeach, recommended, if you are ever this way).
I then spent this morning putting into practice my experience of designing electrical connectors (if there is something wrong in a circuit, first check the connections) by cleaning and tidying the connections and adding additional wires (to ensure the lowest resistance) including removing one battery and returning to 12 volts. The result is perfect starting!
So I'm on my way and really enjoying the driving - ill add some more photos and comments tomorrow.

[Adrian Southgate]

Nice one Mark. and you made it just in time to get some fair weather too, nice.

[Mark Bagnall]

Oh yes. I had to make a quick run to the local car parts/accessory shop before they closed this afternoon (radiator cap was in kit form when I checked water level) and it was excellent. I am lucky where I live as I am surrounded but great country roads and little traffic.

[James Doulton]

That looks like a nice car.

[Mark Bagnall]

Thanks James. Not quite so good up close but not a bad paint job. The inside needs tidying once I have found some seats that I don't get backache from in 20 minutes!

[Dave Adams]

cooling on Duttons is often very poor due to the location of the radiators and the lack of ducting of the air through the radiator core. folks assume because the radiator is at the front the air knows it has to go through it rather than the easier route around it.

nicely done with the batteries i am not surprised the starter was all burnt out having 24V through it, that trick is the same as fitting a 20A fuse because your 5A circuit keeps blowing its 7A fuse....so you bung a bigger fuse in it to cure the problem.

[Mark Bagnall]

Dave, I agree about the radiator. I am pondering which would be easiest, add to the bonnet or around the rad to bridge the gap between the two. There is extra complication with the oil cooler piping.

[Adrian Southgate]

Maybe a combination of the two Mark, add material around the rad and the twiddly bits around the oil cooler pipes to make a smooth join line and then match the inside of the nose to meet it.

[Mark Bagnall]

As bought, the oil catch tank was a squash bottle fed, through holes, by heater hose pushed onto (no clamp) the vents. This resulted in a generous application of oil over the engine bay. The neat alloy catch tank was from eBay for £20 connected with the correct oil compatible hose has cleaned things up. The tank is only 1/2 litre but if it fills up quickly I have problems. There are several tanks available, I went for one with a filtered vent and 2 inlets to suit the connections I had and avoid pressurising the system. Time will tell whether the theory works out.

[Mark Bagnall]

NUTS

I took a wheel off and this is a typical nut.  The polished ring is where the tapers mate - obviously not right.  I've been looking on ebay and a new set aren't too much but not sure which is correct. 

The wheels seem genuine ford RS and I've seen nuts intended for these with a small boss and a large flat washer - trouble is the washer wouldn't fit well with the tapered hole.  Nuts with tapered washers look like they should be right but but all list based on car!  I've not had a chance to measure the holes yet but the taper will be difficult to measure accurately.

Any views / experience on these?

[Adrian Southgate]

They are capri rims, 6J thick spoke, should take standard ford wheelnuts with a rotating taperface however, if you still have imperial studs then its going to be awkward as the old mk1 RS rims had flat face nuts as you described above.

The nut in the top picture is not a genuine RS wheelnut.. taper washer is too small.

[Mark Bagnall]

Thanks Adrian, I'll check the threads.

The rear are on 1" spacers, which is why they fill the arches pretty well.  Not looked at the front yet- loads of jobs but the wheel nuts need sorting soonest.

I've some 7 inch ford pepperpots that came with the Malaga - so they should be the same fitting, although I guess I would need shorter studs if I didn't fit the spacers?

[Adrian Southgate]

Left nut is genuine Ford RS / Capri job, Right nut is aftermarket locking nut... totally useless.
And yes I went out to the garage.... The M12 x 1.25 thread was standard on Mk2 escort onwards and nearly every set of alloys ford ever fitted used the same nut design.

Most of the ford wheel nuts had a chrome 'skin' that covered the hole in the top so overtightening will 'pop the cap' if the studs are too long, maybe look for an old set down a breakers?