I got it registered, and had a bit of a working bee day on the car. It was getting hot sitting on the HWY, so i needed to sort that out. 

We had set out to do a list of jobs
-change water pump
-change thermostat
-fit plates
-and if time allowed change oil in diff

Well we did the water pump first, fitted the new pump, then discovered the fan and pulley wouldnt bolt up. Pulley offset was wrong, and bolt thread was wrong, yet the pump was identical. Looked at the box, it was to suit pre-flow kent engines, so early cortinas. So pulled that off and fitted the old pump again. 

Because we had to remove the radiator anyway, i decided to fit a better condition, spare i had. 

Changed the thermostat. 

Fitted plates

Did not get the diff oil done (needs doing though) 


Car all back together ready for its first drive





We decided to go fill bith cars up with fuel and go for a short drive. Im happy the cooling system is all good. Even in todays 35 degree heat, it stayed at 85 degrees coolant temp  

I had to laugh, Cal made a comment along the lines of, "i think you think the Mini is faster than it actually is" my response being, bull****, the Mini is a rocket. 

Tried to keep up with him at the first set of lights, im flat out, and after about 10 seconds he had 100+ meters on me hahaha. 

That mini is running a 1330cc (originally 1275 cooper s engine) big cam, big carby, extractors, and weighs about 150kg less than the Escort...i have no chance in hell of keeping up lol. 

I had a good look at the Escort to try work out why the diff wasnt straight. After measuring off a number of relevant spots on the car side to side, it turns out the driver's side front leaf spring eye was 10mm further back on the car. Which is welded to the chassis. 
I asked around on fb for advice, and pretty much every response i got was basically, never use a tape measure on and Escort, because they were all put together badly haha. 

Anyway, Cal and I decided to unbolt the diff, and try moving it anyway, no good. So we come up with another idea, when we installed the 1" blocks, which has appeared to work. It has corrected the rear wheels, and brought the back ride height down perfect. 

It just scrubs the rear left arch on big bumps, and turning left turns too fast, from the body rolling sideways onto the tyre. 

So this is where I am at. 

I now know the cause of the vibration, and know how to fix it. More caster. Ive been informed that (you will all know this) by lowering the car, it causes the control arms to go too far backwards, and not run enough caster. 
 
So Im now chasing an adjustable sway bar. if anyone can help me out, i would like one asap. 

Warren Heath has said he can supply me with one, but can't get in touch through FB. So Warren if you're on here let me know please :P 
 

I absolutely love your little mk1. Cracking work on it, its looking fantastic. Great news its registered, and even better that you're out bombing about in it. Keep the updates coming!
 
Especially interested in the sill repairs. My 4door mk1 has the same "fallen off the jack" look that yours did.

The only time my Escort (my daily) develops a steering wobble is when something is starting to wear.
If a steering wobble is not corrected it may develop into a safety issue.
 

Looking really good, nice job on the paintwork, alot can be said for super clean original paintwork. Most people are in too much of a hurry to put crisp new paint on a car when the old stuff just needs a bit of elbow grease and thats still alot easier than rubbing a whole car back. Older paint tells a story to me, imperfections are just little trophies...
Keep the pics coming, good to hear your enjoying the car.
Cheers Drew

Hey,
The car most certainly did behave itself, other than the caster issue of course. Oh and the funky fuel gauge haha. Telling me it was empty, when it ended up having ¼ tank left haha.

I thought about the tops, however i figured that in doing that, its essentially moving the whole suspension backwards in the car that little bit, if that makes sense. I feel like i should correct the bit thats out of whack first, ie the lower arms being backwards.

Well i hope that works, because ive ordered a K-mac bar for it, which is cheaper than the K-mac tops anyway.

I managed to draw up and calculate a diagram to workout how much the arms moved backwards, in which case was 6-8mm. So this is how much i need to move them forward to correct it back to factory original caster, plus a couple mm because i can.