Messages

[no]

Ah yeh I've similar chores before the weather gives in, a mossy brick laid yard to pressure wash, sand and seal, and re-gravel the driveway, but thankfully no painting Pressure washing is the most fun any chore can get though.

Only ever seen a 1st Gen in the flesh the once and it was years ago when I lived in Portsmouth near the Reworx garage. Definitely not enough of them on the road, would love to see another.

Sway bar end links are finally with me, after the customs charge I wish I'd just bought some clones of the originals but never-mind, won't be importing anything else until the car's running. Will also repaint the rear sway bar whilst it's off too as it's picked up some slight surface rust. The mounts are somewhat.. crispy.., will sand them back and see what's left. Least the bushings look good.

Pic of the front. I went through a can of WD-40 getting the suspension off.

Pic of a budweg recon rear caliper on the left and my original (opposing) one on the right. The fronts, oddly enough, are just bare metal however I'm not overly fussed about how they're finished right now, will work out something better when I have the time/money.

Finally back and removed the front bodykit, intakes, radiator, uim etc, so I can work a lot easier. It's dark and grimey in the shed so getting closer to the fuel issue makes life a lot easier.

Pulled all of the engine bay fuel lines to see what I've got, *only* the hose from the fuel pressure sender I had to the fpr was split and this was entirely due to the hose being clamped to the fpr's bayonet at a slight angle, a little less than 45 degrees - if you have this in your car, definitely take a look. Since the hoses are rubber I'm going to replace the lot with ptfe with goodridge 811 fittings. The problem with this is the fittings to the hard lines, ptfe won't clamp so I'll need compression fittings and unfortunately the lines from the primary rail, feed and return have already been flared. So to get any compression fittings on there I'm going to have to cut these back, fit the compression nuts and reflare them, I can't see how to do this in-car yet but I'll give it a go, fail, and then do it properly.

The radiator appears to be where the coolant leak has been, so that's now sat in the naughty corner, will replace that with a koyo.

The coolant level sensor issue was down to a faulty sensor, or at least it's own wiring - man that coolant level buzzer needs a volume control, I could hear it from down the road. I sent an email to turblown regarding their ewp kit but haven't heard back. Before SORNing the car it ran without an air pump and idler, so whilst everythings out I want either an idler puller added in, or just go with an EWP and be done with it.

Oil Level sensor issue I've not properly looked at yet. Regardless, it's just a sensor/wiring problem, the oil is holding fine and runs clear.

Fixed the side lights.

As for the suspension I've some sway bar links stuck in customs right now, they want £60 to release them.. *sigh*

Also removed the radiator mount and support bar rust and repainted, 15minute job just to make me feel better

As an aside, utterly disappointed with the company that did the bodywork before it was taken off road, I swear the fittings they used they must have picked at random off of the floor, lots of different sized bolts, missing washers, mix of allen and hex head bolts, some fittings missing entirely, just a mess. On the positive side it's inspired me to do a nut and bolt replacement of pretty much everything. Bank account, less inspired.

Heck, that sounds nasty. I can see myself being massively ocd once I've put this thing back together again too.

Minor blow, whilst working on the electrics I noticed the ss braided line to the fpr was seeping fuel. Removed it and stripped it down to take a look and there's a lovely crack in the rubber at the exact point it met the fpr's connector's endpoint. I've got a lot of the exact same fuel lines so will be replacing the lot now.

Cheers matey, just subscribed to your thread now.

Well, I've no idea how to attach pics (nor edit) without spamming huge pics so I'll wait until I work it out

fc commander output

[The Issues]

Hey Folks,

First and foremost I know it says this is my first post however I used to frequent the forums as 'gerbilstuntfarm' quite some years ago, SORN'd my car because quite simply I (severely) ran out of money, then I moved miles away which meant I left the car in a damp dark rust magnet of a shed in the middle of nowhere for I *think* almost now 10 years (!). Last thing I remember was being on some rewiring trip and looking at some new seats via Clive. Why I didn't store it properly is a question for an younger me Still, I'm finally back in the game now.

The Issues..

Tested the electrics with a new battery and the dash reads as though there's an electrical fault. Engine, Oil level and Coolant level lights are all on. Fixed one poor ground elsewhere but same problem. I have an Apexi ECU fwiw.

Seems some furry little shits have decided to do their own re-wiring work, so a couple of wires - at least - to the dash have been been gnawed at although they mostly took a liking to the insulation, especially the PS lines. Looks like they tried to remove my EPS for me

More importantly, the oil pan, not in the pics unfortunately, has sheets of rust quite literally hanging off. Have called around for a replacement but so far have had no return calls as of yet, so will most likely import a new one.

The steering knuckles, similarly, are pretty bad. Bearings are obviously fine.

I have a hardline from braided steel lines direct to the front calipers, these are just utterly knackered, they're steel and are now brittle. I literally snapped these off with my fingers.

There appears to be little if any coolant in the car. I can't remember what type was in there before. Hopefully not a sign of something worse.


I can only visit the car a few days a week, so dealing with this in stages

First visit..

Removed brakes, not a bad job despite the rust. Reconned replacements have just arrived here, these are reconned from budweg, surprisingly good. They don't include the rear mounting bracket nor slider pins though, so some extra work. One of my slider pins was also bent somehow, have bought some better looking second hand ones off of ebay to clean up, they're on their way.

Removed fuel.

Drained and replaced engine oil.

Removed most of the suspension, mostly okay, the front sway bar links were nasty though, aftermarket sway bar links are in the post.

Tested electrics with new battery, have got ECU output with okay voltage readings and windows, most lights, fuel pump all fire up. Partially lost my sidelights.


Next Visit (mostly for my own reference )

Remove the rest of the suspension to evaluate the bushings and rust.

Manually crank engine see if it'll actually turn.

Remove air locks from cooling and refill, see if I have a leak.

Test plugs fire. Think these were originally 10.5s, will see, have all 9s as replacements. Can use the olds to crank and foul once I've replaced the sump.

Flush through brake fluid and temporarily cap end points. Caps I've picked up from automec. These are brass, and a nice fit.

Fix electrical issues. Oil Level will be easy, I know there's oil in the sump so it's either a grounding issue or the sensors kaput.

Replace Oil pan if it's arrived. Will be 'fun' in this shed.


Any input always welcome (yeh I already know I'm a bad person for letting it get this way, so please don't remind me ), and if you're ever in Staffordshire then feel free to come see what a rusted out FD looks like.

Cheers