The "If I can do it, you can" thread...

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tuonokid said:
[post]360312[/post] Hi Greg
Just had a look at my old seats as I have yet to put them in the loft. The rails and the structure looks so complicated from underneath, I hope you can manage to separate it all out.
I'd never noticed my status until you mentioned it but it looks like I've I've been promoted to an Elder which may be particularly apt :)

Aye, they are a box of snakes... Reckon that why easiest option is just drilling out Puma mounts and attaching to Honda's rails. Just need to source a set of early seats for their mounts so I know it matches what I already have & that way I can get it all done off the car & then just swap over.
My plans already changed a bit as just got these for the rears:
photo by G Whizz, on Flickr

From another '99 but I'd not seen that design before, so might be looking to retrim the Hondas eventually to match.

Re. status, pretty sure it said "Guru" the other day, perhaps it was deemed too meteoric a rise? Feared you'd go all Keith Moon on us and there'd be a Puma in the pool before y'know it! :lol:
 
Hi Greg
Aye those new rears do look unusual, are they leather?
I don't really care about the status thing as long as the next one isn't martyr :grin: .
Barry
 
tuonokid said:
[post]360315[/post] Hi Greg
Aye those new rears do look unusual, are they leather?
I don't really care about the status thing as long as the next one isn't martyr :grin: .
Barry

Aye, leather, I did wonder if they were a re-trim but the chap reckons not? Maybe an option in '99, or even a Euro interior? I like the design though, they a bit Millie-like but funkier to my eye, be interesting to see if the fronts are normal seats with that design or more Recaro? I will find out soon enough, he's not far from you, in Barnsley, so hoping to kill two birds etc. weekend after this? :eek:k:
 
Hi Greg
I wonder if it's the guy who I bought my door cards from as he was in Barnsley and had some leather seats for sale but he wanted too much for them plus the seats were a bit shorter in the leg support wise.
Yeah, combine the trips together, remind me nearer the time and I'll get the kettle on and the custard creams out.
Barry
 
First, cheers to those who took the time to respond to my "Help Me!" thread re. my locked up lambda. :eek:k:

So, I'd noticed the Puma wasn't running smoothly & was a little smokey. I initially feared that maybe the previous cambelt trouble hadn't been such a lucky escape after all and had actually caused a bit of valve damage but getting it on the scanner revealed a very erratic lambda reading.

Mine being a '99 it only had the one sensor and if you find you need to replace it & don't actually know where it is....(of course I knew where it was, I was not looking underneath the car for it, I'd simply lost a contact lens, or something, down there) it's actually pretty easy to locate... see if you can spot it in this photo:
photo (1) by G Whizz, on Flickr

So, after popping in the lens I'd dropped of course, I looked, gave a hearty laugh while slapping my thigh and said: "This is a doddle. It's a two minute job!"

Three days later I was still saying it but while rocking back and forth in the corner of my shed.

First, I tried just cleaning the sensor's electrical contacts in the hope I could actually make it a one minute job, it's worth a shot & obviously is a lot cheaper if it works but my sensor was past it. Thankfully, I managed to source an OE aftermarket one for only £18 by cross referencing part numbers.

Just pop it out and job done thinks I but it soon became apparent that space is rather limited (removing heat shields did little to improve matters) and more annoying again is that it sits in a slight valley in the manifold... so your normal spanners are pretty useless, as are your standard sockets due to the sensor wires. So, more dosh, this time on a specific 22mm lambda socket. Hahaha, now I gotcha!

Unfortunately, I suspect that it was the original sensor and over the last 17 years it had formed quite an attachment to the exhaust manifold, so much so that, despite soaking it in WD40, when force was applied it remained steadfast & simply spread the jaws of the lambda socket & slipped off, resulting in red knuckles and blue air.

After enlisting the wise council previously referred to, I was back to spending some dosh, this time on some PlusGas and a deep impact socket set. After another soak, cutting the wires to ensure the 22mm deep socket fitted (just) & grabbing the breaker bar I finally prevailed:
photo (2) by G Whizz, on Flickr

It wasn't just my knuckles that suffered though. The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed a rather dodgy looking engine to chassis earth strap in the first photo? Well, with only the slightest of touches it broke in two. The original (on the right) looks rather weedy so I decided on beefing it up:
photo (3) by G Whizz, on Flickr

I whipped this up and now am also considering doing a Big 3 (or 4) electrical upgrade:
photo (4) by G Whizz, on Flickr

So, all back in place and looking a bit neater too:
photo (5) by G Whizz, on Flickr

Another job done, total cost of £46 in the end but still cheaper than going to a garage I reckon, plus expanded the tool kit and my experience. MOT on Saturday, fingers crossed!
 
g-whizz said:
[post]360485[/post] The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed a rather dodgy looking engine to chassis earth strap in the first photo? Well, with only the slightest of touches it broke in two. The original (on the right) looks rather weedy so I decided on beefing it up:
The original is a weedy looking thing, isn't it, considering how important it is. Mine was looking frail, but did test OK, when I was checking the starting system on mine. So, I replaced it - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305-mm-12-Car-Engine-Gearbox-Battery-Braided-Earth-Lead-Strap-25-mm-Sqd-/222356972610?hash=item33c5822442

The only thing of note, is that Ford has a bizarre habit of earthing to painted metal parts, so you're only getting thread to thread earth contact! Just do a 1 inch (2.54 cm) circle of bright metal around the bulkhead thread hole (2 mins with Dremmel or Stanley knife + coarse sandpaper) and you'll have a true earth contact that even the gods themselves would be proud of.

Btw told you that PlusGas was good, didn't I? :grin:
 
Congrats! As we say the smarter one will let go, and lambda did let go :wink:

Btw, that earth strap is there just to eliminate noise from stereo system. It's job is to equalise the earthing potential of stereo and the rest of the car to eliminate buzzing. So, no need for going extra beefy on the cable. And one word of advice: both cables should be heat insluated as this is very hot (the hottest actually) area of engine bay. You may have noticed that original earthing strap was not insulated exactly because of that and lambda had special, heat resistant insulation. I would strongly suggest to cover both with some aluminum tape or something similar that will radiate heat back
 
Frank said:
[post]360490[/post]

The only thing of note... do a 1 inch (2.54 cm) circle of bright metal around the bulkhead thread hole (2 mins with Dremmel or Stanley knife + coarse sandpaper) and you'll have a true earth contact that even the gods themselves would be proud of.

Btw told you that PlusGas was good, didn't I? :grin:
Hi Frank, aye gave it a bit of a scrape under the chassis connection and yeah, PlusGas it is for me from now on, mind, I suspect a proper beefy socket helped too instead of that slack jawed affair :)

Wild E. Coyote said:
[post]360513[/post] Congrats! As we say the smarter one will let go, and lambda did let go :wink:

Btw, that earth strap is there just to eliminate noise from stereo system. It's job is to equalise the earthing potential of stereo and the rest of the car to eliminate buzzing. So, no need for going extra beefy on the cable. And one word of advice: both cables should be heat insluated as this is very hot (the hottest actually) area of engihe bay... I would strongly suggest to cover both with some aluminum tape or something similar that will radiate heat back

Hi Sinisa,
Ah, that explains my love life then! :grin:
Cheers for tip re. aluminium tape, I did wonder & routed the earth cable up & away as best I could but am always happy with the 'belt and braces' approach. Will get it sorted. :eek:k:
 
MOT sorted, just one advisory for an oil leak from that annoying pattern rocker gasket I've been meaning to change for ages... and now I have! Huzzah!

It's also had new links & 'bones, though I must confess, I didn't do 'em :shock: this was down to my jack playing up and my mechanic mate kindly sorting for just £25. Sometimes it's nice to have a Loreal moment, though £25 is definitely about the limit of my worth :)

Also dropped in some new Ring Xenon Ultima as got 'em for just £13 the pair, my grin at the price slipped a bit though when on removing the driver's lamp I faced this:

photo (6) by G Whizz, on Flickr

Seems the previous owner had been up to something, mainly breaking the seal and the lugs from what I can tell, and then just put it back with a single cable tie holding it all together, I love a bit of craftsmanship :lol: Still, it had stayed in there all the time I've had it so, until I can get a replacement sorted, back it's gone.... but (inspired by Rich's new FRP thread) with the luxury of 2 new cable ties! :wink:
 
g-whizz said:
[post]360549[/post] It's also had new links & 'bones, though I must confess, I didn't do 'em :shock: this was down to my jack playing up
Ah, the old 'My jack was playing up' excuse, eh?

This stuff is not 'all or nothing', no one feels 'guilty' if they don't fix their own PC, they just do what they can or turn the job over right from the start. Same with cars.

Most people are also more capable than they think they are and the proof lies in just the sheer number on non-professionally trained cooks who never actually starve to death and somehow manage to feed themselves.

As I wrote, it doesn't have to be 'all or nothing' and I'm glad that threads like this exist in a car forum. My advice is to research well and then have a go. A lot of this stuff is really not that hard, but just be aware that some is. Learn to know the difference and you're good to go. :)

Plus, with the coming of the Internet, this stuff is easier these days. Here is what most Main Dealer Parts Departments in London and South East England were like prior to the Internet - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoPXQ9fotZM

(seriously, some of those places were truly bizarre and I've seen parts guys dragged over the counters and whacked, when they did it to the wrong guy, and all sorts, back in the day. It was like something out of a Wild West saloon!)
 
I confess to a tiny shred of guilt but mainly to a big slice of smile at getting the links & 'bones done (& my front wheels balanced) for £25 :grin: I was quite happy to have a crack at it but with the MOT pressing & my jack not following suit I figured this was one of those "discretion is the..." moments.

...(Not so) Funnily enough, I am also about to tackle my PC as Win10 has crashed after trying to reactivate Kaspersky, won't even accept a standard reboot with the media creation tool so my only hope now is a custom reboot with a partition otherwise it's a factory reset of the laptop and total loss of documents, images and all data bar the original OS (Win7) :evil: ...Not everything it seems is better since t'internet :)
 
g-whizz said:
[post]360557[/post] ...(Not so) Funnily enough, I am also about to tackle my PC as Win10 has crashed
Sorry, I should have made that part clearer, I was comparing the hardware side, not software :) i.e. why do people not feel bad about not fixing one type of machine, but often do about a different type of machine.


g-whizz said:
[post]360557[/post] otherwise it's a factory reset of the laptop and total loss of documents, images and all data bar the original OS (Win7) :evil:
You can avoid that possibility of data loss if you put a small Linux distro (operating system) on a flashdrive, boot into that and grab all the personal stuff off the Windows OS partition and save it to flashdrive or external hdd/ssd. In other words, the Linux Operating System will give you access to the information stored on the Windows OS (the only exception is if Windows was hibernated, not shutdown before it blew up) This is a good automated tool for that - https://unetbootin.github.io/ and pick a simple Linux distro, like Puppy. Once you've done the flashdrive, you got it forever and never have to worry about data loss on Windows ever again. Hope that helps.

Linux stuff is pretty good and is my main OS these days (on this PC, I 'quad boot' - choice of 3 different Linux OSs and 1 Windows OS on boot) I only know M$ up to Win7 though.
 
Well, lately I've felt like a contestant on Strictly Dumb Dancing as it's been a case of one step forwards, two back, one forward.

You may remember I had a cambelt change that was something of a poor job and so needed re-timing by another mechanic? Well.....

On the front foot, I had a trip to Barnsley to pick up the leather rear seats (see photo in post from 09/02/17) and then over to Huddersfield to see Barry (and his lovely red Puma) and grab the rear bumper from his scrapper for a forthcoming project idea. Cheers for that mate.

All in all, it was a very pleasant trip, not even marred by the fact that Barry had promised Custards Creams but delivered Bourbons, you just can't trust anyone these days :lol:

Pleasant until the last 10 miles that was, when it soon became apparent that you really can't trust anyone these days as my engine started playing up again. With it repeatedly cutting out, I had to keep the revs high with the right foot, use the clutch with the left and the handbrake to slow at the lights and junctions; it was "fun".

So, on the back foot, out with the Forscan and yup, it's Bletchley Park in there: there was the P1381 code again (VCT overadvanced, bank A) only this time it was having a hut party with C1967 (RDO short circuit to ground, whatever that is) and B2261 (Parking lamp switch failure, which we're assuming is side lights?) It was that damn P code again though I was most concerned about. Comedy is apparently all about timing and cars must be very similar because when it's out, it just ain't funny.

On chatting to my mechanic mate it transpires that somehow (despite my informing him of the need for them) new stretch bolts were not used in the re-time. I despaired but at least it seemed we had a diagnosis.

Trying to get just the replacement bolts on their own though proved something of a stretch in itself. I was getting conflicting info from local Ford dealers (both in terms of part numbers and the nomenclature of the required bolts) while neither Dayco or Gates supply them separately. Eventually, after a bit of detective work, I managed to narrow it down. For future ref... the VCT pulley bolt is Ford 1126969 and the crankshaft bolt is 1057134.

My eyes widened though at the cost. The Ford dealer quoted me just over £15 for the VCT pulley bolt (on eBay they were just under £14) and just under a fiver for the crankshaft pulley bolt, which on eBay were double the price for one listing and £15 for the other. Maybe they should be called "stretching it" bolts?

My eyes positively popped out though when, after discovering a bit of wear around the bolt hole on the VCT pulley itself, I asked Ford how much a new pulley would cost.... a rather staggering £520 being the reply!!!
So a 2nd hand one at £42 from Ian G it was, cheers fella.

With all that done, car was re-timed and taken out for a test drive ... and the little b*gger did exactly the same thing again!! Another step back goes I. :evil:

My mechanic was rather stumped and I was something else rather more fruitily Anglo-Saxon... so in desperation, I put out a shout to the stout-hearted souls of Project Puma via "Help Me" and in an avalanche of indifference received exactly zero replies. I was now feeling sorry for myself.

Then, just as I railed against "The Gods" for their capricious nature; the Variable Control Timing* for being far too variable and not nearly controlled enough, and I was on the verge of abandoning all hope, there was a crack of thunder (I really need to change my ringtone) and then the voice of an angel come to deliver me from my torment... actually it was more of a baritone Yorkshireman as it was Barry on the phone, my hero! (He has long flowing locks just like Fabio too...honest!)

He reckoned that my mech' hadn't actually followed the correct procedure regarding the tensioner as outlined in the Gates tech bulletin. Now this would have been entirely feasible if not for the fact that I had specifically warned my mechanic about this rather specific procedure, and sent him the specific tech bulletin (twice) and also sent him a link to the very specific "How To Guide" with illustrated Ford TIS from PP's own pages...(all in all, I thought I'd been quite specific on this point) so surely Barry was, dare I say it, gulp, wrong?!

After chatting it through Barry kindly also agreed to speak to my mech' mate and at that point I learnt two valuable lessons...

1) When it comes to Puma cambelts, Barry is never wrong!
2) When it comes to mechanics, the saying "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink" might have been invented for them, if it hadn't already been invented for horses of course. Hmmm, how about "You can lead a mechanic to data but you can't make them think?" :wink:

That's really overly harsh to my mate to be fair, it's more that because they have done cambelts X times they think the Puma is just another job, and even if you tell them it isn't they can adopt that "yeah,yeah,yeah, I'll be fine" attitude... which eventually ends up with three attempts at re-timing someone else's poor cambelt change. Four attempts by two different mechanics should be a warning to anyone that the Puma needs more attention than most in this department.

My advice is: if you are going to tackle this yourself make sure you've got the skills and the specific tools and that you follow the Gates bulletin and Barry's wise words to the letter.
Cheers again for all your help on it mate. :eek:k:

If you can't take it on yourself then get a mechanic who's done Puma VCT's successfully before or, failing that, give him all the information and INSIST he reads & FULLY understands it (among other things, the correct pre-tensioning of the adjuster is critical) and preferably kidnap his family pet as insurance that the job is done correctly. Fido's tooth for a tooth jumped seems fair.

In the North West, there is at least one more mechanic who could now do it as he's had enough practice... though whether he'll ever want to see a Puma again after the amount of stick he's had over this is another question :lol:

So, hopefully, after another set of bolts, it's now one step forward again and my timing tango is complete... next up, a rumba with rust....

*Edit it's actually "Variable Camshaft Timing", maybe that was my problem all along? :?
 
:grin: you make such a woeful story sound very amusing.

Odd you had no replies in the help section, usually someone chimes in, and I didn't even see it to be fair.

Fingers crossed it's all sorted and you've seen the back of that now :grin:
 
red said:
[post]362287[/post] :grin: you make such a woeful story sound very amusing.

Odd you had no replies in the help section, usually someone chimes in, and I didn't even see it to be fair.

Fingers crossed it's all sorted and you've seen the back of that now :grin:

Cheers & no worries Matt, only referenced it to reflect my pitiful state at the time... & make Barry look even more heroic :wink:
 
Bah, da da da, da daaa da da da... "Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking... "

Yup, it's time to ruuuumba with rust... the big question was would the ol' hips be what they once were? The Puma's not mine, mine are positively snakelike... as long as it's a python that's swallowed a goat we are talking about.

First off, it was out with the rear interior, rear seat removal details here if needed http://ford-puma.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/removing-rear-seats-from-ford-puma.html

So I could now check the rear of the floorplan...
IMG_2699 by G Whizz, on Flickr
...so far so good

Then removing the rear interior panels, details here:
https://www.projectpuma.com/viewtopic.php?t=4110

The only things I'd add to that are to make clear where the three doorway clips are:
IMG_2703 by G Whizz, on Flickr

and also where the other two of the three 8mm bolts mentioned are,
IMG_2684 by G Whizz, on Flickr

Note there is also a boot light just to the right of them that needs unclipping (it's a twist fit) before you go moving the panel.

With that done and the fabric lining pulled back (the plastic cover to the rear seat latches just unclips with a bit of jiggling, it not you, and then you can pull the fabric over) I was still happy with what I found.

IMG_2702 by G Whizz, on Flickr

IMG_2689 by G Whizz, on Flickr

Next was removing those speaker boxes to get a good look at the arches from the inside. I didn't bother removing the T50 seat belt bolts mentioned in the guide above as it's not essential for this. There are three easy to spot bolts holding it at the top (10mm socket required) undo and pop it off the plastic locating lug at the bottom and out it pops.

The nearside, and things still looking good...outside
IMG_2709 by G Whizz, on Flickr

and in:
IMG_2708 by G Whizz, on Flickr

At this point I'm thinking of transitioning from rumba to samba because on the offside I've previously had the arch professionally repaired with a Puma Schneide panel... so my puma's hips looked as foxy as any Brazilian beach beauty...
IMG_2698 by G Whizz, on Flickr

But on removing that driver's side speaker box it seems that the beauty is a little skin deep and the repair wasn't as professional as I'd been led to believe...
IMG_2690 by G Whizz, on Flickr

It looks like they've just welded in the exterior arch panel without doing much about the bit of rust on the interior beneath, which is a bit like trying to add fresh milk to a soured pint. So, after a bit of a scrape to see what's what, looks like this needs sorting:
IMG_2694 by G Whizz, on Flickr

Thinking a wire brush clean up, then trying Bilt Hamber gel to derust, then Vactan into the crevices (just in case the gel can't get in far enough) and then something like bondaprimer and then paint? Any other suggestions also welcome. :eek:k:
 
I am affraid that if you brush it hard enough, the rust will evaporate to nothing and you will see holes. That needs welding in the fresh material...
So sorry about bad news, don't kill the messanger
 
Wild E. Coyote said:
[post]362598[/post] I am affraid that if you brush it hard enough, the rust will evaporate to nothing and you will see holes. That needs welding in the fresh material...
So sorry about bad news, don't kill the messanger

Hi Sinisa, thanks for the advice, no worries at all about shooting the messenger... though the "professional" repairman might be another story. Can't understand how you could weld the new panel in over that and think it is OK? :roll:

Not sure about how that area structured but given the limited scope of it and the fact it is interior, once properly cleaned up, would a decent glassfibre (cloth and resin not just filler) repair suffice? If so, at least I could do it myself and not be hoping someone else does it properly... and then finding they haven't. Also, if welded I assume that would affect the exterior panel too and it would then need a respray etc, so be basically paying for same job twice. Cheers, :eek:k:
 

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