mk2marty

Was good to finally put some faces to internet names! Only photos I took:

Totally expecting to see this at work tomorrow btw

According to my info, the tag decodes as follows: C=Ford UK CKD kit A=Auckland (Wiri) assembly plant A=Escort T=Two door sedan T=1977 production year P=April production month 85878= unique 5-digit identifier Model: A=Escort Drive: 2= right-hand drive Engine: J3= 1300 2V Kent engine Trans: B= 4-speed manual, floor shift Axle: D= 4.125:1 ratio final drive Trim: P = unsure, this code isn't in my chart, but early Sports to my knowledge used cloth seat trim from an Escort GL with vinyl door trims, of either beige or brown. Paint: 7=1977 code L=electrocoat primer 2=Taubmans paint vendor EF= I think this is Olympic Blue, based on research of NZ-assembled Escorts I've seen over the years. We had unique paint codes (because local production), so overseas manuals and colour charts don't translate here. Unfortunately, the guy I knew with the proper list of NZ paint codes just passed away over the weekend, so I can't ask him. 1= again, unsure. A lot of cars didn't have a number here. SVC ST=December 1976 CKD kit generated. So in essence, that tag belongs to a 1977 Escort 1300 Sport, and the powder blue colour is likely pretty close to what it had originally.

Reason for Rejection #18 from the VIRM:

Being a 1600 Sport it should have had 9" rear drums from OE, although yours is a very early production model so it's possible that it didn't get them. Odd. In terms of the oil from the pinion flange, it sounds like it's working its way up the splines on the drive flange, which these are known to do. Replacing the pinion seal won't help this, but a judicious amount of silicon sealer in the splines will stop it. That does mean the flange has to come off and the pinion nut loosened, which unless you're careful and get it back in the right place will upset the pinion bearing preload. Too much and you'll collapse the bearing spacer further, which means pulling the final drive apart to fix. The silicone will probably also mean the drive flange is harder to get off in future, but meh, it's better than an oil leak. As for the backlash, if the axle isn't noisy personally I wouldn't worry about it, a used Timken axle does usually have a bit of backlash. Depends on what you're doing with the car/how deep your pockets are, though. Here are some possibly useful bits from the Ford book (the pictures are of a Salisbury, but the principles are the same):

I've got a Uniden R3NZ, which picks up posted speed cameras (via GPS) and speed vans, but you have to mess with the settings a bit to narrow down the detected K band range otherwise it picks up every "your speed" sign/shop doorway sensor etc. It's good for Ka band (mobile radar), it usually picks it up a decent distance away (like several kilometers) unless there's particularly hilly terrain. It also goes off when you're getting lasered, but by the time that happens it's probably too late anyway. Wouldn't drive on the open road without it now, not because massively illegal speeds or anything, more just for the peace of mind on passing lanes or for those random 30km/h signs for non-existent road works. Has the ciggy plug adapter too, so easy to swap with the suction cup mount between cars. Mate had a Valentine that told you which direction the signal was coming from, which was a nifty feature.

Cheers for the speedy reply! The car is standard otherwise, so maybe this will be the tipping point for more mods... Or maybe I'll ask the body shop to just weld the guards on. It would probably take a fairly observant WOF inspector to notice the difference, but why risk it tbh.

Front guards on a Mk2 Escort are spot welded on from the factory. If I were to bolt them on using rivnuts and M6 bolts every 60mm or so (for ease of panel gap adjustment/removal for future repairs etc) would this get into certification territory? My thinking was that people have run fibreglass guards on Escorts for decades, and given that they predate any kind of frontal impact legislation it might be allowable - the bolts are spaced at roughly the same intervals as the spot welds were, so whatever body stresses the guards carry should be unaltered. However, the bloke painting the car reckons otherwise, and tbh looking at the VIRM it may be classed as a modification to the vehicle structure. Who is right?

@brocky41 will PM you with a list of random trim bits I need for mine

Yeah can't do tonight, but keen for next month!

One year on from when I bought it, and it's looking a bit more respectable. I bought a grille, front bumper, front air deflector, chrome moulding and column switchgear from the wrecked sedan in Lower Hutt, which has prettied up the front of the car immeasurably. Also, in a feat of impulse buying, I bought some headlight covers from a NOS Honda accessories bloke in Indonesia, who very kindly sent them over just before lockdown. They couldn't go on the car just yet though, because while the grille and surrounds were a lot better than the ones on the car, the surround was missing the left hand corner piece. There was a guy in the States who was selling a couple of corner pieces, and after lucking out of people in this country who might have the right part, I sent him some internet money for the piece of moulding in question. Three and a half months later, it managed to fight its way through the COVID ravaged postal system and finally took its place on the front of another Accord, half a world away from the car it came off. It was definitely worth the wait though! In other news, I fitted some headlight relays because the high beam switch had enough and self destructed one night. Fun fact: the switch is before the fuse in the headlight circuit, so when resistance through the switch gets warm enough to soften the solder on the terminals, there's nothing to stop the wire from falling out and then trying to weld itself to anything that has a body contact nearby. Unfortunately, without drastically altering the wiring loom there's no easy way to remedy this. The best course of action was to fit the replacement high beam switch and run it through a pair of relays to remove the current load. Other than that, there isn't a lot to report. Tune in next time for the valve stem seal replacement and 1980s stereo install, hopefully

Yeah, I still own this. One day I'll fix all the photos in this thread, but for now here's a slice of the 1980s on my front lawn. Nothing else has happened really, apart from that the WOF man decided he didn't like the Recaros, so I'll have to swap the original front seats into it, and it needs a driveshaft hanger support and rear gearbox seal replacing. Maybe once the Escort is out of the garage I'll give it a bit of a freshen up, it probably deserves it by now.

Just arrived, carpark is full though!

Keen!

Cheers mate! Maybe it's the Northland climate that helps with the project car enthusiasm