Saturday 25th February. Front suspension re-visited.

Another cold day and another day playing musical cars. I had to get all three Cortina's out to get photos for my insurance renewal.  Whilst doing this I also decided to put the newly painted wheels on the estate. I think it look good. It's certainly given it a more 'sporty look'. 

The Green Cortina was then moved into the garage for further work. I haven't really been happy with it since fitting the alloy front hubs. They have a 10mm offset and make the front wheels stick out wider than the rears. You can see in the pic below how much further they stand out compared to a normal hub.

Now, ideally I'd like to fit my original hubs but I have a problem with that in that one of the holes for the studs has lost all of its splines, so the stud wont stay tight in the hole. This means I wouldn't be able to tighten the wheel nut, or if I could, probably wouldn't be get it undone again. So for the time being, I'm unsure hot to get round this problem. It's either find another hub (Which are rare because they are GT ones) or look at having the stud welded into the stud hole. (I'm not happy with this idea I have to say)

While I had the car jacked up I decided to replace the front springs. I currently have 8 inch springs with 'assisters' fitted, but I've never been happy with these either, so on Monday I purchased a pair of 9 inch springs from Gaz shocks at Basildon. 

I managed to get the driver side done, but by then it was 3pm and my nice warm house and some lunch was calling, so I called it a day. I can't really progress until I get the hubs sorted anyway, so there's no rush on this job. 

Saturday 18th February. Various Jobs!

Today was the day that I needed to play musical cars so I could get the estate out of the garage at long last and get the Zetec two door in. 

Before moving the estate I needed to adjust the clutch. Since fitting the new clutch the pedal had been too high. With this done, I then had to shunt all three cars around to get them in the right position. 

Whilst I had access to the Green Cortina, I jacked it up to adjust the rear shock absorbers to give it a softer ride. It's still banging and rattling on the back end, but I think this is the exhaust again. It also feels like the brake servo isn't working as well, so this will be investigated soon. 

I then moved the two door Cortina into the garage and got it up on axle stands ready to do some work. After the ball joint sheared on the drivers side, I wanted to remove the nearside and check that one out as well. 

With the ball joint assembly removed I then disassembled all the parts and checked them thoroughly. I did have a spare complete ball joint assembly, but that was for the drivers side. After checking the existing ball joint itself, it looked a bit dubious to me, so I stripped the new assembly down and robbed the ball joint out of that. 

This was a job that I had wanted to do for some time, as I had been put off driving the car since the offside ball joint near disaster last year. The problem was, other cars being stuck in that garage had prevented me from doing so, so I was pleased to finally get it done. My next job on this car is to get the oil pressure gauge working and bleed the slave cylinder as I think it has air in it. 

On a different note, I had been painting a set of wheels nearly every morning this week for the estate. I had a seen a Cortina Mk1 saloon for sale recently in exactly the same colours as my estate. It had Ford Rostyle wheels fitted and they looked really good. I tried one on my estate and thought it looked good as well, so I managed to buy a set that needed restoring.

I'm looking forward to putting them on the car, but I need some centre caps and chrome wheel nuts for it to look the part. As soon as I can find these, the wheels will be fitted. 

Saturday 4th February. Clutch Replacement

 The clutch that I'd ordered from The Cortina Mk1 Owners Club arrived on Thursday evening, so I was all set to get it fitted and get the engine back in this morning.

Luckily the weather was quite mild and I was in the garage at the bright and early time of 08.30. The first job was to fit the clutch to the flywheel which was easy enough. I had borrowed a clutch alignment tool that had been made out of a first motion shaft from a Cortina gearbox, so that saved a lot of time and inconvenience. I also replaced the thrust bearing, but this was a pain in the arse and took far longer than expected. I then started work on lifting the engine in, but this was a pig to line up as well and it even got to the stage where I turned my back on it and went indoors for a cup of coffee as my frustration had put me into swearing mode!

After some calming caffeine I then tried again and this time the engine lined up on the splines and slotted in first time! I gradually went through all the other bits that needed to be bolted on or connected up and by lunchtime the engine was in properly and running. A bit of shunting up and down in the garage showed that the clutch was working as it should as well. Good news. 

I then refitted the radiator and the bonnet and then called it a day with this car.

My Green Cortina was the center of attention next as the new rocker cover that I ordered from Burton Power Products last November had finally arrived. (It arrived the day after the clutch actually)

With a new gasket fitted as well the rocker cover was installed and I have to say look's really good. In fact it's almost a shame to have to have the plug leads and strut brace running over the top of it. 

 The strut brace had been sitting in the boot for months now. I hadn't bothered fitting it because I'd been waiting for the rocker cover to turn up, so now it had I was able to put it back on. With the plug leads reconnected and the strut brace now on it was time to call it a day as it was 2.30pm and I hadn't eaten all day. A good days work though and I had achieved everything I wanted to.