First of all I'll tell you about my old car. Never had a name, dunno why but he had character for sure. The most dependable car you could want.



Yes he was 5 or 6 different colours, was a 1.3 but such a good car. I bought my daughter home from the hospital in him when she was born, passed my test in him (which bought some funny looks from the examiner) and he ran on air. 70mpg on mixed roads and could go from Derby to Skeg Vegas and back on 15 quid. Dependable as heck, the day after my daughter was born I drove up to Chesterfield to pick up my girlfriends mum, from junction 25 of the M1 to J30 basically. The alternator failed but it kept on going all the way up there and I still have no idea how that was possible. Unfortunately he got rear-ended by a drunk driver and that took it's toll on him and six months later he had to the great road in the sky. Still miss him.

However, seeing as I love MK3 fiestas I got another one, an SI. When I bought him he had lex-arse lights, M3 mirrors (why have these when you need to wind down the window to adjust them!? And they shake like mad above 15mph so you can't see anything!) and had generally been mistreated by a couple of chav owners.

I used my old car as a donor because this one had no electric pack, the very basics. So that was the first thing done, including swapping over the PATS box. Next I set about swapping the suspension out for new parts, new front and rear shocks and springs, wishbones and a few other bits.

After 6 months of owning him it was MOT time. And boy did he fail. Emissions, brake lines, rust, brakes. There was a lot of work for me for two weeks before the retest was due. So new brake lines put in, everything cleaned up engine wise for the emissions, new brake discs and pads, rust cleaned up, new Cat. The MOT tester was a bastard and after making me wait like what felt forever outside he pretended it was a dangerous car.

Then one snowy day driving somewhere, can't remember where, I drove over this very familiar trench:



Which got filled in the next working day (literally in the very early hours of that day too):



Think they realised they messed up when I reported damage to my car? Don't worry, I'm suing the council about this, no suggestions needed.

It ruined the suspension. Bushes split, grinding coming from the front, could not hold a straight line at all. This car was off the road and it was going to be expensive. Annoyingly it was going to be cheaper than buying another car (and risking that one being worse).

It took months to save up for parts alongside the extortionate bus fares.

I needed:

Wishbones
Track Rod Ends
Possibly hub bearings
Tools and equipment to test components (this was the biggie really)
All the little bits you forget about that need replacing when you do stuff on a car (or was this the biggest cost?)

Things got held up by me having a serious chest infection and taking two months to recover and I had to dig into my savings pot to do some other things.

When I finally got to taking the car apart the drivers side looked ok-ish, but everything was being replaced on both sides to ensure mirror parity. The passenger side though, whoa. The holes for the bolts in the bushes on the wishbones fell clean out. The balljoint was only hanging in by the power of the rubber protection (!). I dismantled this side like the other and things were falling to pieces. The track rod end ball joint was almost the same. Then I noticed the inner CV gaiter moved oddly. So I decided to take out the drive shaft. It fell in two. The inner CV had been completely destroyed. I think I counted about 4 pieces drop out into the oil bucket when I pulled out the shaft, then another 2 or 3 bits when I popped out the part that goes into the diff. I only got one pic:



But then there's this one just for the sake of it:



I got another hub and driveshaft from a fez that had just been dropped off at the local scrappy and looks in really nice condition for something being scrapped, gaiters perfect, put a wheel on it and no movement from it in any untoward ways, so I had it. It fit in very easily, much easier to get in than out (about 2 hours difference to be honest, being a noob to mechanics doesn't help).

So I rebuilt that side.

Then I started to put on some very nice items:



A MK1 Mondeo Servo and Master Cylinder. No ABS feed and a blocked off hydraulic clutch line.







Recognise them? Yup, ST24 discs and calipers. I didn't take pics of the spacers, but these fit straight on with 5 or 6mm spacers ground down to a 130mm diameter and the mounting holes on the spindle carrier drilled out to 12mm. You will need longer studs to do so, especially if you have to further space the wheel out from the disc. Problem was I had a broken Bleeding Nipple on the drivers side. Took me 4 days of work on this to sort out due to lack of tools and experience for this kind of job. I had a panic when I finally got the new one in and the whole thing fitted to the car. Got my pressure bleeding kit out (I get funny looks when I have a wheel on the engine) and did a test bleed with some old fluid I had, wasn't going to waste the genuine Ford stuff until it was ready ready. I got some signs of fluid coming out, then nothing. Tried it a bit more, still nothing. Thought sod it, do the other front wheel to check while I think of something. Air popped out of this one, then fluid came out, ran it a while, job's a good'un on this side!

Went back to the other side, took the nipple off all the way out, poked around with a long needle, brush, everything, nothing. So I had a ciggy. Then took a needle to it again and shit myself as fluid hit the wheel arch liner while I was trying to get hold of that nipple and shove it back in. Shall we call that a success? I think we will! Unfortunately I couldn't bleed the whole system as I am outside and there was one hell of a angry black cloud coming my way. So I got everything on the car and finally put it back down on the ground on all four wheels.



And yes, that Subaru next to me has smaller front brakes than me. I've had to put 15" Focus wheels on, which have a massive offset of 52.5. This meant with the 6mm spacers behind my discs I still needed a 3mm between the disc and wheel to clear the strut I put some 5mm's on the rears as they looked sunken in compared to the front. The tyres are very big, being 195/60/R15. But when I come to get a new set of tyres I'll go down to 195/45/R15 to match my previous rotation size. To finish the car and have it ready for driving I need to torque up loads of bolts, reattach the horn (removed to refill the gearbox oil), clean the rear brakes, get caliper retaining springs, charge the battery properly and give it a damn good clean.

My ideas for the future for this car:

To keep the damn thing running!
Install a heated front windscreen, probably a MK4 or MK5 windscreen from a scrappy and get someone to bond it in for me (fits fine but needs creativity on seals and rubbers).
Get low profile tyres (about 45)
Maybe, just maybe consider the cost of a lowering kit. 35mm seems to look good on the tyre size I have in mind.
Find electric mirrors.
Put my XR2i kit on it.
Paint the car black.
Convert the front wings to the square repeater type (plus I've got some rust at the bottom)
Tango the indicators after painting it black.

I'll be slowly adding stuff over time, money isn't easy to come by, lol.

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good work mate

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Rip Ben Elvin (jam)

Well yesterday rob_fiesta bought my 14" Si alloys, thank for that mate, shame your fez is playing up wouldn't have minded seeing it.

With those proceeds I bought NGK sparkies, caliper retaining springs, brake cleaning fluid and a foot pump. rob_fiesta can vouch for the torrential rain here as he turned up right in the middle of it and that rain has made it unfeasible to go out and fit these items on before I go to work. Hopefully the sun holds out and lets me do it tomorrow along with a full bleeding of the brakes.

Once that battery is charged I will be testing out the brakes with the front in the air for sticking, catching or general failure (!). That's if the battery being low is the true cause of the starter clicking as it makes a sound I've never heard on a low battery!

Quick question, if the starter is screwed, what Zetec engined cars can I get the stumpy one from?

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cheers for the alloys mate just refurbed them today
it was raining abit
how did you get on with the brakes ?

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RUST IS LIGHTER THAN CARBON FIBER

http://www.fiesta-si.com
http://www.fiestaguides.co.uk/

Well today I managed to get out to the car and do some things in between all the damn rain we've had.

The battery had gone flat, but it seems a quick 5 minute burst from a battery charger that I suspect doesn't actually work set it right again (though I will get a new battery in a few weeks).

There are no leaks from the passenger side driveshaft that I replaced, success!

The passenger side wheel turned freely in neutral but the drivers side didn't. Confirmed that the caliper is not stuck or anything on that side and could turn it by hand but it seemed stiffer than the other side. Chucking it in gear and revving it can only just get it going. Think I need wheel balancing too, gets a fair bit shaky at the speedo reading 50mph (in 5th gear with the front wheels up). When the drivers side wheel stops turning it actually reverses half a rotation or so, any ideas what could be causing this? Last time I did some neutral running with wheels in the air both turned freely.

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good work so far

Until I've finished the little bits to make it roadworthy I'm leaving the vibration thing as it's very hard to diagnose.

After doing the brakes I was seriously not happy with the brake pedal position and it's feel. It was at least an inch lower and there was another inch of weird travel after that. I suspect I need to bleed them again with some air but that really really doesn't explain a lot of the movement, especially as it was like that before and now with a new servo I should be feeling the pedal movement differently.

I got started on thinking about why the pedal was lower. Basically the servo pushrod is shorter than what it should be and this translates into a much lower pedal. It sat about 1 and a half inches lower than it should be and had a side effect of revving the engine too much as your right foot adjusts to which pedal is lowest! Not good and makes you look noobish...

Now the brake pedal is actually quite simple in how it works. The pedal itself hinges on the main box bar. The pedal has a split near the top to let a rod come through it, and the pedal pushes on a bush that pushes on a wider part of the rod. I noticed not long after the servo mod that the pedal had free movement upwards upto where it hit the retaining clip.

So here's a little picture collection:



You need some washers, preferably slightly smaller holes than this but these will do. I'll measure the rod size and buy some proper fitting washers tomorrow.

Pull this black clip off and then the white spacer behind it.



Now remove the pedal by removing a very hard to see clip on the right hand side of it, then push the bar towards the passenger side just enough to get the pedal off. Remove the white grommet thing off the push rod behind the pedal.

This is what you should now see:



and this is the white grommet thing:



Put the washers on behind the white grommet thing:



And this is the finished pedal result:



All pretty much level with each other, I've raised it past the soft feel too so the hard point is much higher on the pedal. The first white spacer has to be cut back to the distance you've spaced it out, but other than that it's nothing hard to do.

Problem is I haven't refitted it all properly yet, I can't get the pedal box bar back in place!! ARGH!

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Got the pedal bar back in place. Unfortunately I kinda had to dismantle to entire pedal box! Pedals are level, firm and responding perfectly.

Took it out for a drive and it starting making noises down the passenger side. It was wheel speed related so when I stopped I checked the wheel nuts as the noise changed around corners and different wheel loading amounts. Somehow I'd torqued them up about 20-25 lbft too low!

The car is back on the road! Tracking needs doing but that's it. The car is finally driveable!

Going to sleep for a month now.

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Car is still going. Just wanted to pass on to people that if you do happen to fit the ST24 brake setup along with the Mondeo Servo and Master Cylinder, erm, get DOT5 brake fluid. Ran my brakes in for 100 miles or so, then had to use the anchors out the window to stop because of some idiot. Boiled the Ford own brand DOT4.1. And tore my effing face off.

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Anyone know of a modification to the battery clamp? Mine rusted on and had to drill the bloody bolt out when the battery died and now the battery rattles around.

Other than that and slowly buying in bits for bodywork repair and little engine bits the car is running well, though I reckon the tracking needs a recheck as I suspect that is ever so slightly out and I'm getting a pull to the left and a slight float at 50-60 on some surfaces.

The car was good to me today and went like a spanked cat to Skeggy. Almost had a couple of crashes with people coming the other way trying to overtake on blind corners (once again, thank god for the ST24 brakes), them trying to overtake, I was just minding my own business at the speed limit! Never got such good performance doing overtaking myself actually, was quite surprised.

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not sure on the battery clamp mate, maybe modify one and weld it on?

do the brakes make that much of a difference? something i want to do before i think of a bigger engine! its nice to hear a fiesta suprising someone with speed for once mine does that occasionally!

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fifi

It surprised me in the way it actually did what it should. An the brakes are that good. With wide tyres on the front it's hard to lock up and under full braking it squirms about!

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sweet! and they fit under your 15's?

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fifi

Yep, good amount of room spare, reckon they'd go under any 15's. I would suggest doing the whole lot on the brakes, do the pipes, unions, recon the rear drums and shoes and put something hefty on the fronts as well as a master cylinder and servo from a mondeo.

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yeah sounds like a tasty job like! think id do braided lines, the lot!

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fifi

ive heard that the best and first mod you should do, is a mondeo servo, and even with that the standard 240mm brakes are good for 130bhp

i was told off as like most i just went for larger brakes, even my RS2000 260mm could do with a mondeo servo, 280s is overkill then... if he was right that is

i used to have St24 brakes on my mk4, wanted to keep my 14s though so couldnt keep them

but these with uprated discs and pads do me fine just need that servo!

I did think about the braided lines, but then after seeing the price for such a tiny thing I decided that keeping an eye on the current ones is an ok choice!

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lol, true. mondeo servo easy to get hold of?

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fifi

Easy to find in a scrappy, a pain in the ass to remove though!

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