February 2001
Monday 26th February 2001
Ordered a fuel pressure regulator housing, four x 19mm long airhorns, and a throttle position sensor wiring loom connector (with pins) from Jenvey.co.uk. The short airhorns are required because theres not much room between the bulkhead and the throttle bodies, and for the time being, these will give the engine a bit more breathing space.
Sunday 25th February 2001
Reassembled the front suspension. The powder coated parts are shown in the photos below. Note: The tie-bar that you can see for the drivers side, is a specially adapted tie bar, made by myself from the bits supplied by the Fiesta Center. I needed extra clearance for the alternator, and after speaking with Ray, he agreed to supply me with a blank tie bar bracket, bar, and tie-bar to TCA bracket, which I had to weld on myself. If you buy the standard Fiesta Center 5-Speed fitting kit, you retain your original front tie bar and bracket on the drivers side.
I've made two 8mm thick aluminium spacers to fit between the tie bar brackets and the front cross member. These spacers lower the tie bars to their original position as fitted to the XR2 Mk1. Without the spacer, the front caster and camber angles are not the same as when you use the original XR2 pressed steel tie-bar brackets.
Refitted the front wheels, and lowered the car back to the ground. I've decided to ditch the steering rack thats on the car. It is a Peter Lloyd Rallying "Hi-ratio" rack which I bought three years ago. I'm not happy with the amount of 'play' that there is in the steering wheel. The rack doesn't look anything more than a 2nd hand rack, painted in black poster paint. And its no higher ratio than a standard rack. ie 2.5 turns lock to lock, so I don't know how they can advertise it as a quick rack in the first place. Not impressed, but I've had it too long to send it back. I'll get a TAS.UK.COM competition quick rack ordered.
I've mounted the new ITC bulkhead connector to the front bulkhead, after cutting a hole 1.25" (32mm) for it.
Friday 23rd February 2001
Collected the powder coated brackets and suspension parts. They look really nice. I'll fit them over the weekend.
Ordered some new bulkhead connectors from RSWWW.COM. Through work I get a 14% discount, which helps a lot when dealing with RS!
Fitted the ECU to the car. I made a bracket which the ECU sits in, and which is then fastened to the floor using some cylindrical rubber mounts, to absorb any vibration or knocks. If the bits from RS arrive this afternoon, I can get the wiring looms completed, and fingers crossed, I can power up the ECU and test it out using the DTA Software on the Tosh.
The XR Owners Club Bulletin Board facility has been temporarily suspended, which is why I've removed the XROC BB links from each page. If you still want information on the XR club, visit the www.xrownersclub.co.uk home page.
Monday 19th February 2001
Dismantled the door handles this evening, so I can get them powder coated. What a difficult job, drilling out the split pin that holds the handles to the mounting plates. Still, they've lasted 18 years, so Ford did build them well. Heatshrinked the end of the injector wiring loom, and cut a 3/4" hole out on the bulkhead where the connector for the injection loom is to be mounted.
Check out Toby Weston's new Diyfiesta.co.uk site. He's busy building a site showing whats possible with the Mk1 Fiesta.
And Mark Stewart's buying a Ford Cosworth YBB engine for his FWD Mk4 Fiesta. The mind boggles @ Fiestaprojects.com
Sunday 18th February 2001
Wired up the injector loom. Still haven't decided how to mount the ECU to the car. I want it to run inside the cockpit, rather than in the engine bay itself, as the unit isn't waterproofed, and therefore must run in a dry environment. I'll probably do what Jim Hearne recommended, and fix it directly to the bulkhead, using some rubber vibration damper mountings.
Friday 16th February 2001
I have the Dinitrol 4941 COSHH sheet here for anyone interested. Took the front tie bars and mounting brackets for powder coating. Just got the door handles and the rear strut brace left now.
Updated the sponsors page.
Acquired a Toshiba 4900CT laptop, which is going to be used to program the DTA Engine Management System when she's up and running. It has a colour TFT screen, 800MB hard drive, and a 75MHz processor. The DTA software looks and runs really nice on it. If you want to download the DTA software, to see what its like, visit the following link and try it out. Its amazing what you can do with it. Worth a look. Select the download page. They have a DOS and a Windows version. They're both identical, however the DOS version is recommended by DTA.
Thursday 15th February 2001
Made the four cables that lead from the injectors to the ECU. I've used Thinwall cable rated at 11 Amps, and I've used the quick release MiniAMP connectors. Each injector has a pair of wires, leading back to the ECU. They're all wired in parallel, and the ECU fires them all at the same time.
Tuesday 13th February 2001
Made a start on the wiring loom for the ECU. Made three cables, using the AMP connectors and the shielded twisted pair cable, for the crank (cs), water temp (wts), and air temp sensors (ats). Made a bracket to hold the ECU to the bulkhead. Just need to get some rubber vibration dampers so I can fix it to the bulkead, and protect it from vibration.
Monday 12th February 2001
Yesterday, I removed the front suspension tie-bars and mounting brackets. The XR2 front tie-bar mounting bracket both lowers and pushes the ends of the tie-rods in towards the centre of the car, to reduce understeer. And they work, because I remember fitting some to my 1300 Ghia, and it transformed the handling. Anyway, the Fiesta Center front tie bar kit, part of the five speed fitting kit, alters the position of the tie-rod ends. Yep, you've guessed it, they're not in the same position relative to the XR2, so fitting the Fiesta Center tie-bars and mounts, results in a less than ideal suspension setup. So, the modification is as follows. Obtain some 8mm aluminium plate, and cut out two pieces, 150 x 50 mm, and place these between the tie-bar brackets, and the chassis rail. This drops the centre-line of the tie-bars back down to 52mm below the chassis rail, which in turn returns the excellent handling characteristics of the Mk1 XR2. I've had two pieces of ally milled to 150x50mm, and I'll fit them on Monday evening. Whilst I've got the tie-bars and brackets off, I'll get them powder coated.
Sunday 11th February 2001
Updated the Electrics and Injection pages.
Saturday 10th February 2001
Finished putting the throttle linkage together. I had to make a couple of minor mods to stop the linkage from catching on the bodies.
Friday 9th February 2001
Took the ignition coil bracket and rear anti-roll bar brackets in to Faircharm for powder coating. Bought some more stainless nuts and bolts, for various brackets etc on the car. The remaining two bulkhead connectors have arrived.
Wednesday 7th February 2001
The Webcon parts have arrived. ie Fuel pump, filter etc. I can make a start on the installation of the ECU now. Last night I made the data cable that connects the laptop to the ECU. It has a 9 way D-type Female on one end, and a 15 way D-type Male on the other (SVGA connector).
Watched some excellent Ice Racing from Chamonix last night. Theres not much motorsport on the Eurosport channel, but what I've seen so far has been pretty good.
Tuesday 6th February 2001
Ordered some Dinitrol 4941 Underbody paint from Frost.co.uk, for painting the underside of the car.
The missing bolt has arrived from TAS.UK.COM.
Monday 5th February 2001
The parts from Webcon should be arriving tomorrow. Thats the last of the bits I require to wire in the 3D engine management system. ie Lambda sensor, air and water temperature sensors, numerous connectors for the injectors and the sensors and ignition coil unit etc.
Called TAS.UK.COM to see where my remaining wheel bolt had got to. Hmm, no sign of it, yet I sent it back via 1st class post last Wednesday. They're going to make sure that one is in the post tonight.
Saturday 3rd February 2001
Made the water radiator mounting brackets, from 1.5mm aluminium sheet. Pop riveted the brackets to the shell using stainless steel rivets.
The alternator fits, and the new pulley lines up perfectly with the crankshaft pulley. Now I can measure the length of the required drive belt, and get one on ordered.
Made a dipstick tube mounting bracket too, from 3mm aluminium, and bolted to the engine.
Finally theres a picture of the panhard rod, with the rod end attached. You'll have to excuse the mess underneath the car. Like I said, I've not painted the underside yet.
Friday 2nd February 2001
Wow, where do the weeks go at the moment? They're just flying past. The new alternator pulley arrived at work today. I'll get it fitted over the weekend. Installed the extra long wheel bolts, so the front wheels aren't going to fall off now! The remaining bulkhead connectors and backshells are not due in until the 20th feb. Time to kill. Maybe I'll make a start painting the underside of the car. Its still primed, and theres supposed to be some silicon based paint thats very good at keeping the rust at bay.
