bmxnz11 Posted June 3, 2017 Author Share Posted June 3, 2017 The wheel arch and surrounding area was pretty rotten where dirt and moisture had gotten between the layers. All 3 layers were cut out and replaced. I started with the middle section, the strengthening inner piece and then the outer wheel arch. Was a bit tricky to make as the original pieces were no good as templates. Once the structure had been put back into the van I did the outer quarter. I reused the bumper bracket area as this was fine, but remade the rest of the quarter with 4000 small folds in the folder. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmxnz11 Posted June 3, 2017 Author Share Posted June 3, 2017 Once the necessary welds were cleaned, everything underneath from the firewall back was blown out, scrubbed, etched, tarred and painted. As always, all hollows were sprayed with 2pot epoxy stuff and then cavity wax. Have since put it back together and used it again. Come at me wof man. //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/52065-bmxnz11s-81-escort-van/ 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted August 15, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 15, 2017 Not much of an update. I've panelled the inside of the van with some cheap ply which came out pretty sweet. I'm hoping to stain it next week. The motors been running like a bag of dicks. I've yet to really go over the essentials but instead have picked up a spare 1300 which I'm hoping will solve everything. Hmmm thoughts on the wheels? Picked these 13x7 Cheviots up last week. Have been thinking about changing wheels lately as I'm getting a bit of rub in the rear when the vans loaded up. I think they might look OK if it sits low enough. 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted June 28, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 28, 2018 11months later... I cleaned up the wheels above and went with the usual gold centers and polished lip. They were pretty hacked up beforehand but a bit of elbow grease went along way. I hand filed the lip down to take out most of the hacks, sand blasted the centres and sanded/polished the lips. They came up surprisingly clean. Painting these types of wheels with all the spokes was a very tedious task. Wheels ended up getting etch, 2k, base and clear. Pretty happy with the end result. I think they would look better if the van a sweet paint job to match. In the middle of my wheel obsession I also purchased and cleaned up a set of Cheviot hustlers. Have always like the classic 4 spoke. At this stage I had one rolling car, little space and 5 sets of wheels so the hustlers were sold on. Whilst i was in the the mood I sandblasted the wide steelies and sprayed them in a metallic grey. They were looking a bit crusty and I didn't want the rust to take over. I quite like them. They are now put away in a safe corner for the other van. I also got sick of having no interior in the rear of the van. They came out factory with nothing protecting the sides from getting knocked. I spent a bit of time making up some panels from some cheap plywood. Just the other night I finished covering the panels with a woolen blanket from the local 2nd store. Cost me $18 plus a can of Ados. Other small things include a new center consul, stereo, electronic ignition, sound deadening and a battery. Rechecked the timing and tappets as well. Runs a shit ton better then before! I ran it to mangatainoka , over to palmy and back home a few weeks ago with zero issues. Stoked. Lastest WOF was a clean sheet with the comments "oil leaks from engine, gearbox and diff". Guess thats the next job. 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted March 24, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 24, 2019 So I've been driving this around as normal. Failed the latest wof on an exhaust leak and a driveshaft uj. I ended up replacing most of the exhaust with extractors and a copy resonator. Pulled the gearbox, replaced the rear seal, changed the clutch plate and release bearing. Replaced the driveshaft with a spare . With that done I took it up to Napier over New year's. Got a bit warm on the way up,l. On the way home it developed a vacuum leak which I couldn't find. Wouldn't idle and would only run at high revs. Made for some frustrating driving. After a few hours of this it miraculously fixed itself. Still not sure what that was about. With it running so well I decided to do this.. ... Cbr600 carbs. I made up a manifold last year and this weekend thought I'd man up and actually have a go at installing it. Got all my vacuum, water and fuel lines sorted. Drilled mains to 1.3mm and blocked off the air correctors. Took vaccum lines off all four runners that run to a common line and go to the dizzy and brake booster. Running a mechanical fuel pump and currently have the pcv valve venting to the atmosphere, will fix this later. Got it installed this evening, crossed my fingers and turned the key. Once the fuel came through, it started and idled. Immediately fuel starting pissing out of a few places of the carbs, so I turned it off before I could give it some revs. I'm thinking a seal kit through the carbs. My other thought are the float bowls aren't sitting quite horizontal so I'll need to look at adjusting the float, or the other obvious fault could be non regulated fuel pressure. Will take the carbs of this week and see what's what before trying again. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted June 30, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 30, 2019 Wired in an electric bike fuel pump which fixed the over fueling issues. Tuned them with a vaccum gauge but had trouble so resorted to a hose to my ear. Threw a colortune at it and it was running rich all through the range. Wound in the pilot jet all the way and it was still rich at idle. Have ordered some jets from aliexpress and will play with them. Have driven it around the block a few times and it certainly comes on song. I had to horey up a return spring, ended up using an old matchbox chassis. Have yet to rectify this. 17 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmxnz11 Posted October 9, 2019 Author Share Posted October 9, 2019 Got this a wof in august. Needed to replace a few things like steering rack, engine mounts and a brake cylinder. Kind of put it on the back burner while working on the orange van and house. I played around with the jets in the bike carbs and felt I got them a bit better. Still seems to run rich at idle, pilot/fuel screw screwed in quite far, and doesn't have the pick up at mid range when I put the foot down. Yet to investigate too much. Have started to make an air filter housing for the carbs. Using a cut down filter from a Hyundai pony? It was cheap at a swap meet so I built the housing around that. Carved up a wooden template and used the press to make the initial swage in the lid. Folded and cleaned up the edges before pressing and drilling holes for the thread studs to hold it all together. Will probably just clearcoat it. Next step is to actually tune the carbs better. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted April 23, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 23, 2020 Bike carbs having been running ok. Have just been fiddling with them with a length of hose and a color tune. They make a glorious noise when opened up Was searching for ages for a particular rev counter. I wasnt keen on mounting it on the pillar, steering column or bonnet. Had always wanted to put one in place of the drivers air vent, which is out of the way and looks subtle. I finally found one at a swap meet and it slotted straight in. Just made a bracket on the back and mounted the original vent below (picture was before I mounted it). For some reason it reads 500rpm too low? I've double checked it's set to the 4cyl. Cant complain for $10. Bonus 'escort' brand. I pulled the rear leaf springs and air shocks to use on my other van, and replaced them with standard parts plus a couple of 2inch blocks. Cheers @Beaver for the u bolts, matches the shocks! Drove it through summer. Had no problems hauling bikes, hauling parts and a couple of camping trips including the maiden wagnats trip. The van ran fine, really needs an extra gear though. Had an awesome time, definitely keen for that one again. Went to start the van the other day and noticed a rather large puddle of coolant on the ground which ended up in this. Ive taken the opportunity to take more out than necessary to clean up the engine bay and change a few gaskets. I've adjusted the tappets and ordered a new water pump, which I'll install after repairing a small leak in the radiator. I've noticed its started getting a bit fumey out the oil cap once its warmed up. The only thing I have changed is the venting. The pvc valve now goes into a small filter, instead of back into the manifold. Would this be a factor? Compression checked a few months ago which was 160-180 across all four. It also has the magic '37' stamp which I believe is a gt head. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted May 1, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 1, 2020 Cleaned up some engine parts, brake booster, battery tray, rejetted the idle jets, new gasket for the oil pump, removed and cleaned up the swaybar mounts. I assembled and put the new waterpump on the engine but forgot to put the alternator tensioner on! Removed the assembly and in doing so I had to destroy the new gasket. Happy to know the vnt copper gasket spray works very well. All put back together and assembled the rest of the motor for a start up. Unfortunately it wouldn't catch on any cylinders and a couple of back fires through the carbs. The only thing that has changed is I've leaned out the pilot jets from a 35 to a 32 and adjusted the fuel screws. Will check these and any potential vaccum leaks tomorrow. Have since cleaned up a few more cables. Good old British workmanship. Bonnet stay/post should have been centered. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted June 17, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 17, 2021 Still using this when I can and taking it on regular trips. Most notably I took this down to Nelson and Motueka last September for a bike trip. Had no issues other then a weird oil vapour smell. I put it down to over filling the oil, I couldnt get a clear reading on the stick, and it clogging up the pvc valve. I was lucky enough to spot another escort parked up along one the bays and the retired guy was happy enough to lend me a few tools to remove some of the excess oil. Have just done general maintenance to it like replacing the rack bushes which were non existant and made for an exciting drive home. 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted June 17, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 17, 2021 The last few trips over the remutakas was really really bad. So before the Motueka trip I gave it a compression check which pretty much confirmed it. I ended up picking up a complete motor, gearbox and radiator from a runner up the road. It all looks pretty promising with a new waterpump, hoses and other a few other parts. Queens birthday weekend I pulled the old one out and put the new one in. I cleaned up the new one, gave it some paint and put in a new clutch, pressure plate, waterpump barb, radiator, and changed over my electronic dizzy, carbs, fuel pump and extractors. I ended up cutting the exhaust off just after the extractors so I need to weld on some flanges, sort the timing and fill it with fluids then it's good to go. Fingers crossed it actually makes an improvement. 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted July 22, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 22, 2021 New gearbox seal, cleaned up and painted the exhaust with heat stuff. Having trouble firing it up. Have spark, air and fuel to the carbs. Bit hard to see if the fuels getting pulled in, we've tried pouring fuel down the throats but it still wont ignite. Confirmed I'm not 180 by looking under the rocker cover and rotating the motor over. Starting to think the timing mark on the crank pulley is not the correct mark. Will take the rocker cover off again and double check everything lines up where it should. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted July 27, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 27, 2021 After triple checking my timing and putting the standard carb back on, it still wouldn't fire up. I checked the tappet clearances and noticed the exhaust was very tight at tdc and therefore 'open'. I checked and had to adjust all the exhaust tappets. Turns out none of the exhaust tappets were ever fully closing and therefore I never had a sealed chamber at tdc! Next pop it started up and idled great. I picked this up as a runner, but no idea how that could have been. I'll recheck the tappets another day when its warmed up and do a compression check. Oh well. Proved it wasnt the bike carbs, so they'll go back on tomorrow. 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted September 28, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 28, 2021 I put the bike carbs back on and ran it up to the palmy swapmeet but on the way back it developed a strange misfire/stutter at constant throttle. I checked a few things before admitting defeat and putting the standard carb on again. I took it all apart and gave it a good clean with a diy ultra sonic cleaner but the stutter was ever present but not as bad? I didn't have time to investigate it too much as I had a roadtrip booked with it down to the west coast for a bike ride. I wanted to mount my bike on the roof for a couple reasons. It would free up all the space in the back, plus it meant I wouldn't have to worry about dragging all the mud and crap in. Using a tow bar bike rack is OK but meant I would have to take the bike and rack off everything I needed to get into the rear. I couldn't find anything suitable for the roof so I was determined to make my own. A visit to grandad one day and he casually mentions his old roof rack is in his shed at home and had been for 40 odd years. A quick look in the exact spot and what do you know. Grandad had this rack years ago on his mk1 zephyr. Under all the new paint, there's the zephyr green which he painted to match. Fitted it up to to van and it was perfect. I made new feet and gutter mounts out of old folder dividers from a file cabinet (not pictured) to mount it. The rack was too short to fit my bike in so I made a front bar out of an old rusty piece of angle iron and used some tubing from an old exercycle to make a dummy axle to mount the forks too. Perfect for the parts bin van. The 1,300km west coast trip went well. The roof rack survived, even when I forgot about the bikes and took a branch off. Luckily it was at low speed and the tree was mostly dead. I lost one alternator bolt, a second came loose, front left suspension has decided to start knocking, discovered a couple of leaks under the dash and with all our gear we were riding bump stops some of the way. Success. 33 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted December 6, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 6, 2021 I purchased an entire rear end a couple months ago because I needed the axles for the orange van. The diff in this spare looked pretty good so a plan was hatched to clean it up and swap it into the blue van. The blue van's diff has always been a bit noisy, there was a fair bit of play and generally leaky. It was also the last piece to be addressed under the van. I ended up stripping the spare down to metal and spraying it in 2k. The brake backing plates were later stripped and also painted. I ended up using the original blue axles because they were the only spares I had. The seals and bearings looked and felt OK. I threw in some new handbrake dust covers and a new handbrake rod bush. I cleaned all the brake mechanics and spruced them up before assembly. The brake cylinders were replaced a few years ago so they were fine. Old vs new. Everything has been hooked back up. Just need to bleed the brakes before I can give it a test. 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted December 21, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 21, 2022 Used this over summer then it sat unloved for 9months or so. Went for a wof the other week, failed on a tear in the driver's belt. Replaced them with some retractible seatbelts and we were away. I've been meaning to build a simple 1600 motor out of my spare parts. I've slowly been gathering bits and pieces. I have a bottom end which I picked up years ago, bored to 60tho, new pistons, bearings, machined crank, all balanced and lightened etc. All my heads are the standard 1300/1600 size so I grabbed one which had the best valve guides as I'm trying to avoid getting anything machined. Stripped it and dunked it over night in our funny hot tub with washing soda and it came up good. I could have thrown it together and called it good but I may as well tidy some of the areas up. First was to remove the lip around the push rod gallery. Removing the lip will help the oil drain. Porting. I read up on lots of porting do's and don't and it appears there's quite a bit to it. From what I read on crossflows, pointless enlarging the ports if I'm keeping with the standard valves. I ended up cleaning up the casting, removing some restrictions and smoothing out the lot. Inlet bowl before. Inlet bowl after I didn't do as much to the exhaust bowl and ports but still tidied them up some what. I was going to do the whole gasket matching thing but it turns out theyre actually the right size. One less job to do. For the Inlet ports I removed the casting marks, smoothed the entries and removed a little meat from the sides to try and direct the flow a little better. Before After All surfaces were taken down to 80 grit. No exact science here but in my mind it looks like an improvement. The head has been welded in the past and has been skimmed bit I hit it with some glass and emery cloth to confirm it was flat. Just need to lap the valves and I'm calling it done. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmxnz11 Posted January 15, 2023 Author Share Posted January 15, 2023 Valves all lapped, threads all cleaned and the remaining surfaces were skimmed. I was hoping to build this motor before Nats but I got unexpectedly busy over the holidays which didn't leave me any spare time so I'm thinking I may not have it done. The current motor is a bit sluggish on the hills due to being a bit low on compression on a couple cylinders so tonight I did a wet compression test to see if I could locate the low compression issue. Engine up to temperature, all spark plugs out, wide open throttle, turn over, check numbers, pour a little oil in the chamber, repeat. My understanding is if the numbers change, the rings are the issue. If the numbers don't change, the issue will be something in the head. Hoping the numbers wouldn't change and then I could justify simply putting my new head on and away we go. Unfortunately the numbers did change so is it even worth changing the heads over? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted May 6, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 6, 2023 Took this down to nats, had a ball. Went down a few days earlier and took my bike. Camped out at rarangi the first night and then went down to st Arnaud before Nelson and marahau. Was concerned about heading over the takaka hill but it was sweet, didn't get warm or anything. 1,000km trouble free motoring. Started work on the spare motor for this. 691m block, 1600, +60 1300 pistons, lightened and balanced rods, crank has had work on it, gt cam, new cam followers, double timing chain and the modified head. Won't be installed anytime soon as there's a few other things on the go first. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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