New Puma project

[CherryVimto]

Maybe you have a saggy mount then. The brace was clear of everything when I had it fitted to my Puma.....

I've got some exhaust parts ready to have the turbo down pipe made. For the exhaust I'm going to be using a Hoffman race tube and an Ashley rear box. They are essentially straight through so should hopefully flow quite well.

I left the rear beam and ARB polys on the car when it got scrapped. For the price it wasn't worth the hassle taking them off.
Just found a bargain set of FlowFlex polys for the rear beam and got a set for the ARB too. The beam polys were almost half price!

Bargain!

Next parts to buy are:
Nuts & bolts etc for the rear beam and wishbones as I always replace them with new
Top mounts all round

 

[CherryVimto]

Just picked up the wishbone and rear beam bolts from Ford

Will hopefully soon be swapping the wishbones over for the ones I've got already fitted with polys and getting the polys in the rear beam.

 

[PatsyPuma]

That's just reminded me I need rear beam bolts too. Can I ask how much they were please CherryVimto?

 

[CherryVimto]

Can't remember off hand and not able to check at the moment.
At a guess I think they were two and a bit quid each. The nuts were no more than a quid each. I can check for sure later.

All of the bolts cost me just over £32 Inc VAT which I thought was quite reasonable for Ford. And they are the correct type and shear strength.

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

They are 12.9 IIRC

 

[CherryVimto]

That's just reminded me I need rear beam bolts too. Can I ask how much they were please CherryVimto?

Bolts:
Finis 1127011 £2.22 each shear strength 10.9

Nuts:
Finis 1381971 £0.90 each

 

[hardmonkeys]

Oh..ohhhhh, this looks waaaaaaayyy over my head, so I'll be watching with great interest...

 

[PatsyPuma]

That's just reminded me I need rear beam bolts too. Can I ask how much they were please CherryVimto?

Bolts:
Finis 1127011 £2.22 each shear strength 10.9

Nuts:
Finis 1381971 £0.90 each

Oh you star, thank you!

 

[CherryVimto]

Well, this project has been so slow and boring, it had reached page 2 of the Project section :'(

I've now got insurance and tax sorted out so I can now actually drive the damn thing!

In a weeks time the turbo and manifold, new race tube and rear box will be temporarily fitted to it so a down pipe can be made for the turbo.
After that I can bring her home and actually start on this very long awaited turbo conversion!!

 

[fiestaseb]

Look forward to updates mate

 

[tuonokid]

Hi Tony
Might we see you at Ford fair in the Puma this year?
Barry

 

[CherryVimto]

Hi Barry

Yes I hope so, all going well.

I'm hoping to have the car ready for Fiesta in the park so as long it's done for that, Ford fair will be certain!

 

[tuonokid]

Hi Tony
Will be good to see you again with your new project, I hope I've got mine and Andrew's project ready in time but either way we will be there :grin:
Barry

 

[CherryVimto]

Finally a little progress.

Turbo and manifold fitted ready so the downpipe can be made....

 

[CherryVimto]

Had a really good weekend.

Downpipe now made thanks to a very good friend.

We put the original manifold and CAT back on but with a new race tube with the Ashley rear box I had on my Thunder.

The Puma is now home, but found out on the way back the brakes are diabolically shite. If I had fitted lumps of 3x3 to the wheels, they would have done a better job.
Luckily I've got two pairs of ST150 calipers and a set of pads & discs.

 

[Puma Lee]

What cat are you going to use with your turbo? any new pictures

 

[CherryVimto]

I'm thinking about using a 200 cell sports CAT.

No new pictures at the moment. The Puma looks like a Puma at the moment but will try and get some pictures up of the downpipe when I get time.

A small list of things than need doing, sort of in order of urgency...
Replace front brakes
Replace wishbones
Free binding rear brakes
Fix non cancelling indicator
Swap electrical plugs on drivers door window switches (switches reversed)
Get rid of the disgusting green dash/dial lights

Other jobs:
Re-hang exhaust with shorter rubber mounts
Poly bush rear beam
Poly bush ARB
Fit poly bushed torque/gearbox link
Fit coilovers
Fit front splitter
Strip interior
Start to fit parts for turbo conversion

 

[Puma Lee]

Sounds like your nearly there then lol, Be great when its finished im sure.

 

[CherryVimto]

I've got almost all of the parts for the conversion. I just need some vacuum/boost pipes and a couple of fittings for the oil return as I still can't get that worked out.

When I brought the Puma home I found the front brakes were just about shot, but other than that the car felt reasonably good.

But today has been another story. Got to work with a flat tyre. I pumped it up and found the valve leaking but that stopped after I poked it in with a pen lid. Tyre went down again so took the car over the road to have a puncture repaired just for the tyre to go down again.
After the wheel was taken off we found air hissing out from behind a flat spot on the inside rim where it had obviously been whacked. Luckily a splodge of bead sealer stopped it. How long for I don't know.
Now the wheel has been off I can feel the flat spot on the wheel. It feels like I'm driving on a massively over inflated/hard tyre with a lump in it.

The wheels are 38 offset and there are thin cheapo spacers slipped over the studs leaving a lot less thread for the nuts that I'm happy with. I want to remove the spacers but with 38 offset wheels wrapped in 205 wide tyres, I'm not sure I want to start with rubbing issues.

The car has now developed a metallic rattle coming from the front somewhere. Sounds like there is a rogue bolt laying somewhere behind the dash and its started to drive me mental.

There is a clonk when I put the clutch in when pulling away or moving slowly both going forwards or in reverse. I'm damn sure there is also a rattle from a driveshaft or the gearbox.

When I pull away the car feels like there is something holding it back as I need to use more revs than I'm used to. It may be unique to this car, I don't know.

So, at the moment I've got no confidence in this car whatsoever. It's not living up to the Puma reputation!

I can put down a few plus points:
Heater works
Seats are firm
Headlights are actually good

 

[Puma Lee]

always good to have something that works, maybe its your gear linkage making the noise.