21st November
Having given up on getting the right brake parts locally and being away for several trips, I got fed up with waiting and shopped around for an axle. I can get an Escort rack and stuff elsewhere. Found an advert in Classic Ford magazine and they said they could help. Of course Martin then wrote in to say he had the parts. Since the price was the same or less I decided to get 3.9 ratio axle, rack, brake kit etc, Spax units and springs from Martin and arranged to collect them today. Inevitably a couple of things have not turned up but they will send them soon. Since I’m off to HK for two weekends it does not matter. I had a good run up to Rushden and got back at 1.30 then wondered what on earth I could do to get the axle, which needs two to lift, from the car to the back shed. No one at home and neighbours out. I thought maybe I could put it under the chassis by sliding it out of the car and onto something. But of course it was sunny so I decided to try to trial fit the axle anyway. Got Alistair’s old Tonka toy dumper truck out of the shed and lowered one end of the axle onto it and carried the other, steering it under the Fury.
There is limited info on live axle Fury’s on the site and everyone seems to have built the posh IRS version. Using the B&Q trestles I bought at the start I supported the back of the chassis, got the axle onto the spare stands then tried to fit the bolts for the trailing arms per the “manual”. It says you need two people but if you have a child’s Tonka truck you’re OK. Typically every hole was filled with powder coat and slightly undersize so the file came out. It’s time consuming but I don’t mind since this way the bolts are a really snug fit and I don’t want slack in the suspension. The Watts linkage trailing arms point straight back when you trial fit them. But actually they need to follow the sides of the rear chassis very very closely to point inwards towards the diff to meet the axle brackets. And at first this seems odd, but a bit of metal bashing and the chassis bracket can be made the right shape. You also have to make sure that the floor panel is cut flush with the edge of the chassis or the arm cannot swing nor meet the axle brackets but that only took a few minutes with snips and a hacksaw. It’s not rocket science at all but just needed a phone call to Chris at KCW because it felt wrong to me to force the bracket and arm slightly off the natural angle for the other end of the arm to go into the bracket on the axle. Also the nose of the diff is offset to the offside of the car, which threw me on the axle alignment. Anyway as it went dark I got the trailing arm on each side into the axle and bolted loosely in place to the chassis.
I wrapped the car up in its tarpaulin and felt very good about it all again. I must admit that the delay in getting parts had taken the edge off my enthusiasm but now I’m back and raring to get on. The wiring loom has arrived so I’ve enough bits to play with for a while.
Martin’s son David chatted about engines while I was there. I said small Ford and he recommended a 1.6 Zetec which they can find easily and they then have breathed on by someone with fast road cams and it does not need a new ECU. I think the decision is made (but see later!)
There is limited info on live axle Fury’s on the site and everyone seems to have built the posh IRS version. Using the B&Q trestles I bought at the start I supported the back of the chassis, got the axle onto the spare stands then tried to fit the bolts for the trailing arms per the “manual”. It says you need two people but if you have a child’s Tonka truck you’re OK. Typically every hole was filled with powder coat and slightly undersize so the file came out. It’s time consuming but I don’t mind since this way the bolts are a really snug fit and I don’t want slack in the suspension. The Watts linkage trailing arms point straight back when you trial fit them. But actually they need to follow the sides of the rear chassis very very closely to point inwards towards the diff to meet the axle brackets. And at first this seems odd, but a bit of metal bashing and the chassis bracket can be made the right shape. You also have to make sure that the floor panel is cut flush with the edge of the chassis or the arm cannot swing nor meet the axle brackets but that only took a few minutes with snips and a hacksaw. It’s not rocket science at all but just needed a phone call to Chris at KCW because it felt wrong to me to force the bracket and arm slightly off the natural angle for the other end of the arm to go into the bracket on the axle. Also the nose of the diff is offset to the offside of the car, which threw me on the axle alignment. Anyway as it went dark I got the trailing arm on each side into the axle and bolted loosely in place to the chassis.
I wrapped the car up in its tarpaulin and felt very good about it all again. I must admit that the delay in getting parts had taken the edge off my enthusiasm but now I’m back and raring to get on. The wiring loom has arrived so I’ve enough bits to play with for a while.
Martin’s son David chatted about engines while I was there. I said small Ford and he recommended a 1.6 Zetec which they can find easily and they then have breathed on by someone with fast road cams and it does not need a new ECU. I think the decision is made (but see later!)
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