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mk2marty

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Posts posted by mk2marty

  1. Recently bought an ex-Corporate Cab VF Calais-V for a daily driver. It's lush. My commute is 120kms of motorway a day, so the fuel use is actually bearable - it does around 8L/100km on average. Around town I imagine it'd be nearly double that...

    In fairness, i lowballed Turners because the transmission had an issue, which turned out to be the (apparently quite common) 6L45 split pressure switch diaphragms. Pulled the valve body out, and $20 worth of special tools from Ali plus $8 worth of plastic diaphragms and seals from Sonnax and it's fixed. Threw some fluid and a filter at it too. It took a solid weekend's worth of polishing and cleaning to get rid of the remnants of its former life as a taxi, and all the trim appears pretty hard-wearing - after 8 years and nearly 300 000km of ferrying politicians to and from the airport, there are no splits in the seats or wear evident on any of the interior plastics (aside from a few holes in the dash from a satnav or something). The grey alcantara on the dash/doors is a shit idea though, because it attracts dirt and it's hard to clean. First world problems. 

    Higher spec VFs are a properly nice place to be, on par with anything European of the era imo (once you get over the hard plastics in the cabin, which give away its taxi origins). It's quiet, the seats are comfy, and it has cool stuff as standard too (HUD, sunroof, subwoofer, Bluetooth etc). There's also enough space in the engine bay that should something break, you don't have to pull the motor out to fix it. The cooling system isn't totally made of plastic either, unlike a BMW. The 3.6 is grunty enough to pass anything in your way, and it'll tow 2100kgs. And the best part is that higher km ex-lease cars are getting really cheap now (like, they're going through Turners for ~$5k). Buy them before they're all fucked by scumbags. 

     

    Screenshot_20240321-140618_Photo Editor.jpg

    • Like 8
  2. 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. 
     

    • Like 3
  3. On 03/10/2022 at 11:01, Petes mk2 said:

    Thanks for advice once again. Have removed drive shaft from diff flange and noticed a small amount of oil seep out.  Has not continued but is this normal or do I need to replace seal. It is a Timkin type diff. Also how much play should there be when you turn flange by hand. When I turned it, it moved about 20 mm before load came on.

    Regards removing the engine should I drain the oil out of it. The motor is not going back into this car and maybe sitting around for a while. Are there any other thing I should do before storage. cheers Peter

    Link to project build

    https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/83961-petes-mk2-escort-1600-sports/#comment-2501579

    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):

    image.png.7bc2ed6d7c90b661f57ab109ffcaf1d2.png

    image.png.63a522268919ab6c76065ba3f2aa83fc.png

    image.png.7ae2b47e5bed38412420754b091dad09.png

    image.png.1888da0f078727a31a00a33ee5e71e66.png

  4. 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.

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
  5. 22 hours ago, ul9601 said:

     

    Anyway, a first gen champagne/sable coloured Honda Prelude which was at Coffee & Cars today belong to anyone here?

    An acquaintance of mine apparently has a 5 speed gearbox for it and wants to shift it. 

    This one?

    Snapchat-448385121.thumb.jpg.c286701d1fad51bd1d6b6b66da01a73a.jpg

    No idea who owns it, but it's a sweet car. 

    /that gearbox will probably also fit my Accord, so depending on $$ I could be keen. 

    • Like 3
  6. This thread is interesting - I'm taking on a roughly 120km a day commute next year, so was thinking about a bbq flavoured ex-Corporate Cab to waft around in. What's the going rate for LPG on a Rockgas card these days?

    • Like 1
  7. 24 minutes ago, kyteler said:

    Strange to see!  Can I share that with a dude on insta who is bagging one? 

    Yeah dude, no worries! This is the only other Debonair I've seen in NZ aside from his one (which funnily enough, I'm pretty sure used to belong to the caretaker of my old high school, lols). Quite a surprise to stumble across one in the Upper Hutt Countdown carpark 

    • Like 1
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