Puma 4x4 Cosworth

Aaa, I see! Nice job, as always! Out of interes, how much would those two go for and where can they be obtained? I guess I would need to replace mines as well, but the cost of Ford ones is OMG.....

Seem to remember I got them of eBay. I bought a metre of each which cost for both around £50 I think, not the cheapest stuff but well worth it for reliability and resistance to the elements as they sit in a wheel arch.

nice updates!

Great project to follow!

Thanks very much for the comments guys, I'll try and get another update up soon.

:thumbs:

Quick update to get this to where I am now with it..

Drove to the petrol station.. Filled up. It leaked everywhere!! Now this is my own stupid fault and if you read the details on packets of sealing compounds it gives you all the information you need. I didn't and looking back on it now I'm really not sure why I thought it would work in the first place!

One leaking sender unit.. Basically the blue sealant I had used, is only for small gaps and threads not a gap of a few mm. So as the tank filled the fuel was able to 'creep' and push the sealant out and then just empty on the petrol forecourt. Why I didn't test this at home in the garage who knows. Lesson learnt!





So sourced a length of viton cord and the glue to seal it together into an 'o' ring and did this




This fits snugly in the groove on the sender unit and squashed down nicely when bolted to the top of the tank.. Decided this time to test at home.. Turned upside down and filled the tank half full and left for a few hours!



Result all good this time! Drained the tank, bolted back to the car and filled fully.

I can also report that the input seal on the rear diff is leak free now, so must have just been the wrong oil causing it to seep.

Moving on... For those that might remember when I made my new steering column linkage I had to 'shave' some material of one of the UJ's to stop it binding, whilst this worked fine I wanted to get a more precise/machined UJ made. Back in contact with the company that made the original and they made this




I also decided to shorten very slightly the end of the link shaft to give maximum clearance inside the UJ



This has now stopped all binding at this point and just leaves a little rub on the down pipe to sort at a later date. I have a sneaky suspicion that at some point I will need to lift the bulkhead bearing in the bulkhead panel to give a better angle, but for now the rubbing on the down pipe is manageable.

After this I drove it about for a fair few miles, covered around 300 odd miles and during the good weather earlier in the year was even using it daily! Took a couple of pics, forget how wide it is..




So it was happy driving miles for a while.. Until I got a burning rubber smell on full boost. Quick check on a suspicion revealed the doughnut was knackered. I think this is possibly down to me fitting the tripod through the wrong set of three holes, giving it a slight oscillation as it turned. This was the damage to the old one which hadn't actually been on that long.




I had a spare in the garage which seems to be a much stronger rubber and hard to flex, fitted the tripod through the other set of three holes and seems to rotate more true than before, so I'm hoping this was the problem.

That's me up to date! The car is still in the air from replacing the doughnut and whilst it is I'm going to fit the front diff plate I've had lying around for a while and maybe a couple of other bits.

Will post any progress.

Thanks for looking.

Wish I had even a fraction of your knowledge and skills.

ArtfulHussy said:

[post]354423[/post] Wish I had even a fraction of your knowledge and skills.

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Thanks very much

Always insipirational and aspirational read :wink:

Wild E. Coyote said:

[post]354428[/post] Always insipirational and aspirational read :wink:

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Thanks very much, I'm sure you're giving it more credit than it deserves. It's a dam headache most of the time!

They all are Dan! I thought I'd got mine ready for Fordfair and the boot actuator has just packed up....oh bugger!
Barry

This is what you call a proper project thread. I wish I could get so involved with such a project with the knowledge and skills you've proved! Love the above shot showing as you say just how wide she is!

tuonokid said:

[post]354446[/post] They all are Dan! I thought I'd got mine ready for Fordfair and the boot actuator has just packed up....oh bugger!
Barry

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It's always the most daft things that go wrong isn't it! Painful! :lol:

grayfox said:

[post]354447[/post] This is what you call a proper project thread. I wish I could get so involved with such a project with the knowledge and skills you've proved! Love the above shot showing as you say just how wide she is!

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Thanks very much for your comments. You'll be far richer if you don't get involved with a project like this! I just got a price for 5m of 25mm oil hose for a breather pipe and it's £80! There's always something to buy.

Glad to hear the tank all got sorted :grin: good work mate.

She's screaming for a front splitter! Well done on the progress, keep it up and really looking forward to see this at Ford Fair :-D

Brian' said:

[post]354516[/post] She's screaming for a front splitter! Well done on the progress, keep it up and really looking forward to see this at Ford Fair :-D

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I know! At some point it will have the front splitter put back on (a replacement as the original is knackered) and I'm also thinking the F2 spoiler will go back on to to balance the car's look. Yeah will be at ford fair so come and say hello!

red said:

[post]354478[/post] Glad to hear the tank all got sorted :grin: good work mate.

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So am I! At least in not driving around in a bomb now!

Little update..

Whilst the car was up on the stands I did a little job that I'd been meaning to get around to for a while. Had bought a strengthening plate for the front diff so it was about time it got fitted. Also gave me the opportunity to get a drain plug fitted like the rear






Diff plate



All fitted and back together



I also at this point changed the engine oil and moved on a FUCHS 15w50 ester oil. Was running a 5w50 before which I believe was a little thin, if nothing else it smells nice!

With that done went out on a drive and car seems nice and smooth still and this time with no burning rubber smell!! So the doughnut is behaving.

Seem to have a wobble on the steering wheel under braking which I don't remember before. I have just had the wheels balanced as a weight must have come off and was giving a wobble between 45-70mph, that's now gone but have noticed this new one. Could be discs but I think unlikely, could be tracking so will investigate.

That's all for now.