My Millennium

I've also drained and flushed out the nasty brown power steering fluid and refilled with fresh red ATF fluid.



Well that was an absolute pain in the ****.
The cheapie hcv arrived as did some gearbox oil.

Dropped the gearbox oil and refilled with no problems, while that was draining I fit the hcv. What a pile of **** that it is, plugged it in and nothing no heat in the car and one of the pipes on the back isn't warming up. So I pull it back off and start testing it, sure enough when I add 12v there's no movement. I pull it apart to find this.

This was brand new and in a sealed bag, I guess you get what you pay for and thankfully I've ordered a genuine one. Anyway I've managed to cobble a hybrid together from the old and new.

Finally managed to bleed the system and get the heater working again. If I wasn't in a pinch I wouldn't have bought the cheap one and would have just waited for the ford part to arrive.

And these arrived today.

The listing was for a set of red leads, but messaged the seller asking if they'd be able to do them in yellow, after having no reply I assumed they'd just come in red but was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box.

The later style calipers I received when buying the millennium.

Yeah they look like shit, but they've been sent off to be reconditioned.

They look fine to me, you should have seen the Mondeo ones I bought for the Puma upgrade group buy a while back. They were a million times worse (well you know what I mean) but all worked fine - as far as I know. I know mine were perfect without having to do anything to them. :thumbs:

The problem is they've been in a very damp area for while by the looks of it and when I tried to drive the pistons back in the fluid that came out was quite dirty and milky.

Anyway some more stuff arrived today.

I replaced the old nasty wheel nuts this morning and removed the locking nuts. I can't stand the bloody things and have been left stranded before when one broke.



Excuse the state of the car, its getting washed later today.
I also fit the new aerial.


And removed the rear drums to check on the condition and size before ordering.

A few things annoyed me, one the locking wheel nuts were not much more than hand tight and two the hub nut was no where near tight enough. I'd say it was put on with a small 1/2 inch ratchet rather than a big torque wrench. Anyway I cleaned up the bearings the best I could and re packed them with fresh grease, I'll order a couple of kits for next weekend.

Sorry for the catch up posts.

While out in the puma the other day I noticed a small pool of oil under the gearbox when I returned to the car. After some faffing I traced it back to the vent pipe thing on top of the box, and in the wrong way. Once home I removed the breather and cleaned it up.


Refit, and checked oil level in the box and leak sorted.

Had half an hour on the puma last night, replaced the old frayed engine earth strap and the dying rear wiper motor.
Ok, so it's definitely overkill but I already had it and the original part is no longer available.

The rear wiper motor wouldn't self park, would stop as soon as you flip the lever back and was rather jerky. £20 from a breakers and the problem was sorted. Also opened the replacement up cleaned and r e greased everything to hopefully give it an easier and longer life.

I've had another session with the millennium this evening. When faffing with the hcv I noticed there was an oil leak from the cam cover so ordered a new seal, which arrived today.

So thought I'd do the plugs, leads and coil pack while it's in bits.
Cover off, and noticed more oil leaking into to the spark plug well.

Coil pack, leads and cover off and it looks like the last person to own it had trouble getting it to seal correctly as there's silicone everywhere, lots of it. Also I'd say they re used the rubber seal as it was quite hard and certainly showing its age.


Anyway I cleaned up and fished out all of the silicone and cleaned the sealing surfaces. Also it looks like the radiator hose going into the head has leaked considerably at some point in the past as there's a fair bit of hard crystallised antifreeze on the coil pack mount and around the top of the hose. This will be the next job, new hoses all round.

Anyway, I gave the cover a bit of a clean and refit it.

I then fit the new coil pack.

And the new plugs and leads and buttoned everything back up.

It always amazes me how much difference a decent service makes.
I've never been one for knocking other people's work, but I absolutely detest the use of silicone and those that use it when it's not needed. Even if a new gasket was used it would have leaked due to how tight the cam cover nuts were, they're supposed to be torqued to 10nm and I'd say they were more than double that.
Whoever maintained it was definitely in the mindset of the tighter the better, apart from where wheel nuts and bearings are concerned then that'll do seems to take over. It just amazes me what some people think is a job well done.

Had half an hour on the puma last night, replaced the old frayed engine earth strap and the dying rear wiper motor.
Ok, so it's definitely overkill but I already had it and the original part is no longer available.

The rear wiper motor wouldn't self park, would stop as soon as you flip the lever back and was rather jerky. £20 from a breakers and the problem was sorted. Also opened the replacement up cleaned and r e greased everything to hopefully give it an easier and longer life.

Some more fun with the millennium at the weekend.
Replaced the control arms as the ball joints were shot and one of the poly bushes was torn. I replaced the drop links while I was at it as well.

This is where I should have left it, but me being me thought I do a few more bits. The exhaust is off center and doesn't sit correctly in the bumper cut out. I was hoping it was just a case of take the back box off and re position it. Well we all know what old fords are like and they never make things easy. I took the exhaust clamp off but couldn't separate the back box from the centre pipe, it was completely rusted solid. I moved onto the next join which is from the centre pipe to the cat, soaked in plusgas and got the blow torch on it and the stud broke of on the first attempt. By this point I was already pissed off and fed up, but moved onto the next join which was the cat pipe to manifold. Again doused with plusgas and had the engine running for a good 10 minutes, the first nut came off easily as did the second the third broke off straight away as did the fourth and the last one wound out with the stud. So I get underneath to try and move the cat down, although loose it wouldn't budge and I can't see what's holding it in place. After waiting for it to cool down I find the bracket with 2 13mm bolts holding it to the block, thankfully these came out easily. Straight onto the next problem, the cat won't pass between the bulkhead and the bloody driveshaft. Of comes the wheel again and pop the ball joints off again, surprise surprise the driveshaft is stuck in the hub fuck fuck fuck. So off comes the knuckle (getting deja vu, I had the same issue with my mk2 st) with the drive shaft still intact which leads us to this picture.

Now finally I can drop the cat down, but now back to the original problem of not being able to separate the back box. By this point I've had enough so cut the back box off and removed the entire system.

As it's dark I move inside and start on separating the driveshaft from the hub. Luckily I had an old hub puller and was able to push the shaft out.


While it's off it would be mad to not change the wheel bearing so waiting for that to arrive.

Anyway back to the cat, using a laser stud remover I was able to remove what was left of the broken studs.

I got cracking with the hub and bearing this evening.

And the new skf bearing pressed in.

New hub and cleaned up abs ring pressed in.


And replaced the old studs on the cat with new stainless studs.

super effort going on here!!

I've started building it back up today, well that was until the rain put a stop to things.
I pulled the strut off and replaced the top mount and bearing.


I fit the new crush gasket and wrestled the cat back into place, and refit the driveshaft and knuckle.

I finally finished all the jobs and got it back on 4 wheels again on Sunday, started at 8am and finished and took it for a blast at half 5.

The first job was the brakes, remove the old rusty calipers and worn and pitted discs. I fit the new 258mm discs, carriers and new calipers as well as new flexi hoses. I had thought about going with some braided lines but with the puma it's a bit of a nightmare as they don't come with the supporting brackets that bolt onto the strut.
Here are the original 240mm discs next to the new 258mm and just for a laugh an old MK2 st disc.



Then I moved onto the coolant leaks. I traced it to the sort of manifold that sends coolant to the heater matrix and the radiator, once the hoses were off it was obvious that both hoses were leaking. With the housing being aluminium any coolant that gets between the hoses and aluminium fitting cause it to grow and deform the hose and push against the spring clip.



While I was there I replaced the coolant temperature sensor as well.

Once that was sorted I moved onto fitting the new engine mount. Should have been a nice easy job but it requires a 41mm socket to remove the aluminium part of the mount. Who the hell has a 41mm socket just sitting around.

Went for an easy job after that and replaced the throttle position sensor.

By this point i was getting fed up and stopped taking pictures, but the next job was fitting the new exhaust. Nothing special just a cheap Hoffmann system to last until I get a decent system.

I was expecting a bit more noise from it, but then I'm used to driving the MK2 st. Either way it make a nice sound.

Tonight I gave it a wash after work.

I got a little head start on the rear brakes this evening and pressed the new bearing races in to the new drums.

Hi.
Looks like a job well done. What led bulbs did you fit? I tried some a couple of years back they did not work well so I put the originals back.
Regards
Richard

I used these.
194 LED Light Bulb 6000K White Super Bright 168 W5W 501 T10 Wedge 9SMD 2835 Chipsets LED Replacement Bulbs CANBUS Error Free for Car Dome Map Door Courtesy License Plate Lights (10pcs,White) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08BLBBXVR/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_T91XR0W3PQP3KN6J0JVC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I have read the entire post, wooow my compliments!!! Great work

I had planned to get the new drums, shoes and bearings fitted this weekend but due to 45-50mph winds I decided against jacking the car up. I gave the car mats a freshen up instead.
I gave them a good vacuum and a good going over with the upholstery cleaner. Once dry I will try and re dye the stitching.



I gave the new drums a few coats of paint to try keep them from rusting for a while and had a set of Michelin PS3 tyres fitted. What a difference they made to how the car drives and handles. The tyres that were on when I bought were terrible and a mix of various different brand budget tyres that were way past their best and were covered in cracks between the tread and on the sidewalls.