My New Project ( Millington Escort) to stop me using this

[genRS2000]

I have now been diagnosed as having a "Frozen Shoulder". There is no treatment for this, well not anything that is guaranteed to work. Doctors don't know much about it except that it usually cures itself in 18 months to 2 years. Resting it doesn't help so it is back to work on the car.

My mate John suggested I needed a support for the engine loom so I have made this



which has tidied it up nicely



When I raised the front strut towers I didn't know the exact height I would need and they are a bit high to get the correct angle for the TCA at ride height so I have had some spacers made to lower the strut 20mm.



The extensions are looking a bit grotty so I need to paint them again.

[Pikey15]

Very nice and tidy, good luck with the shoulder

[genRS2000]

Made a plastic bracket to hold the air temperature sensor.



When I get to the stage of the build where the suspension needs to be set up I will have to align the rear axle so it is parallel to the front axle which in this case is the front crossmember.
To do this with front suspension in place is not easy but I found a tip on the Longacre website to make it easier.

First I clamped a straight edge to the front crossmember and screwed another one to the chassis rails near the middle on the car.





Next I used a tape measure to get the middle straight edge parallel to the front one. Then I marked the position of the straight edge on the chassis rails and drilled a small hole on those marks.





Now when I want to align the rear axle all I have to do is line the straight edge up to the holes again and align the rear axle to it and it will also be aligned to the front axle. I will probably need to remove the propshaft to fit the straight edge.

[genRS2000]

I've fitted an overflow tank for the radiator



and the Geartronics gear position sensor to the gearbox





The sensor has to be fitted precisely otherwise the system won't work properly and could cause damage to the gearbox. At first I couldn't get it to fit as per the instructions until I realised that the adaptor that had to be used needed to be rotated to give the correct orientation before the sensor was fitted. Now I am confident I have it right position.

Hopefully this is the last piece of the jigsaw. It is the loom for the paddle shift system that I ordered 2months ago. Neil at Geartronics was very apologetic that it took so long and knocked £100 of the cost.

[exboyracer]

[genRS2000]

Back in action at last

My back problem flared up a month ago and I was persuaded by my doctor to go to a physio who was good with backs. Unfortunately after after doing the exercises he prescribed I was had worse pain much and couldn't sit for more than a few minutes and could hardly walk. Now after resting for a few weeks I am back to my normal low pain level and can do some work on the car.

My mate John has been made redundant which is very unfortunate for him but fortunate for me because he has more time to help me with the car.

So we started with applying the very expensive heat shield material I had bought after searching the internet for the best price.

We tried to apply it without getting wrinkles but found it was very difficult with the exhaust in place so I will live with some wrinkles.







Next up we put the gearbox in for the 3rd time. We had a problem with the rear mount not lining up but after some levering the bolts went in with a bit of persuasion.

We bled the clutch (easy now that I have the bleed screw in the new position) and checked that it was working correctly and not leaking.



While we were congratulating ourselves on a job well done I saw something that made me realise why the rear mount would not line up.
When I had to modify the shift peg on the gearbox the change rod was higher than before and now the rod was jammed hard up against the tunnel...not good!

So it was out with the angle grinder AGAIN to make room.

John did the honours while I shook my head at another change to the bodywork



We cut a large hole so that the paddle shift actuator and the gear position pot are now accessible from the top. I had already made the hole behind the gearlever longer so that the gearbox could be mounted with the gearlever on.



Before the gearbox went on I had to remember to hang the coverplate I had made behind the flywheel because it can't be put into position with the gearbox on.




Another problem I wanted to solve was making mounting the starter motor easier. Previously I had to modify the top bolt by grinding a flat on the head so that it would slide into the hole





Access to the starter is very difficult with the throttle bodies in place and once the bolt is struggled into place it was nearly impossible to tighten it.

More gave me the answer.
The starter is mounted using 2 of the bellhousing to engine bolts. The bolts go through the starter and screw into the normal threads in the bellhousing. Again it was difficult to get the bolts to go through the starter and screw into the bellhousing so I drilled them out so that I could use a bolt and nut rather than just a bolt.

Getting to the bottom bolt is easy but the top is a pain so I made a special nut with a tag on it so hold it while tightening the nut (it is impossible to get a spanner on the nut).

This worked well and the tag on the nut can be used to wire lock it in place.

[ScottySportMk2]

Waiting for a new tip for my MIG before I can start welding[/QUOTE]

How to do get these the exact shap etc? Mine have gone in the same place what do you use?

Great Project!

[Joe-Tait]

Coming along nicely

Where did you get the gold engine bay material from in the end, if you don't mind me asking ?

[genRS2000]

Waiting for a new tip for my MIG before I can start welding

How to do get these the exact shap etc? Mine have gone in the same place what do you use?

Great Project![/QUOTE]

I didn't make them, I cut them out of a rusty Mk2

[genRS2000]

Coming along nicely

Where did you get the gold engine bay material from in the end, if you don't mind me asking ?

Amazon USA. http://www.amazon.com/DEI-010393-Ref...reflect+a+gold

This was the cheapest I could find. Even with shipping to Australia it was cheaper than buying locally.

[andysaab]

Have to say that is an epic build, have enjoyed reading the thread, looks the mutts nuts!!!

[Zetec_RS]

How to do get these the exact shap etc? Mine have gone in the same place what do you use?

Great Project!

I didn't make them, I cut them out of a rusty Mk2[/QUOTE]

I did the same but I ended up splitting the panels up and stitching them back layer by layer.

http://www.classic-ford.org/cfp/tm.aspx?&m=8290&mpage=4

But you need to find decent repair sections which is becoming difficult.

[13sport]

A friend of mine suffered a frozen shoukder, couldnt lift his arm above his shoukder height, nearly 2 years down the line it just worked fine one day.

[kevron]

This is going to be a cracking motor when its finished

[genRS2000]

A friend of mine suffered a frozen shoukder, couldnt lift his arm above his shoukder height, nearly 2 years down the line it just worked fine one day.

I am looking forward to that day !

This is going to be a cracking motor when its finished

Thanks


Now that I have a big hole in the tunnel I have to fill it in.

Started by making a template of what I need.



Template taped in place to make sure it fits OK.



Now I have to decide whether to make it from steel or ally

[steerfromdarear]

steel or alloy bolt it for access

[genRS2000]

steel or alloy bolt it for access

That is what am planning to do so I can access the gear position sensor and the paddle shift actuator which I have now plumbed in.






I have chosen to make the cover from aluminium so it will bend easily.



Made a wooden former to bend the cover.

[genRS2000]

Bending




Getting there

[genRS2000]

I have made some brackets so that the cover can be bolted down from the top as seat is in the way to bolt it from the side.




The cover is ready to be painted but it is very cold here ( 11º in the shed today), well cold for this part of the world so I need to wait until it warms up a bit.

[genRS2000]

It hasn't warmed up much here so I had to put a heater in my storeroom to paint the cover.



I have used some U section rubber weather strip to trim the edge and some pond liner to make a reasonable seal for the gearlever.

[FrEdOoOo]

Nice
Keep going the excelent work!!!

[exboyracer]

I like the lateral thinking with the pond liner, great stuff!

[mightymk1]

Interesting build, keep up the good work Have you managed to clarify what class you can run in with this engine? Not sure of Tarmac type regs as I run in C.A.M.S circuit events (I would love to use an engine like yours but not permitted in my class- IPRA)

[genRS2000]

Nice
Keep going the excelent work!!!

Thanks. Getting close to the end now.

I like the lateral thinking with the pond liner, great stuff!

I was going to use some neoprene rubber but when I pulled it off the shelf I saw the pond liner behind it and thought it's texture would look better then the rubber.

Interesting build, keep up the good work Have you managed to clarify what class you can run in with this engine? Not sure of Tarmac type regs as I run in C.A.M.S circuit events (I would love to use an engine like yours but not permitted in my class- IPRA)

I am building the car to run in speed events ( hillclimbs and supersprints). Here in WA we have a series that has an under 2 litre open class for closed cars that allows for highly modified cars so I can run in that.
I did want to logbook it with CAMS as a Sports Sedan but the rules didn't allow me to do that because the engine is not in series production ( needs to have been more than 2500 produced) so I have had it logbooked as a Closed Sports Car. This didn't go down well with the scrutineer as he didn't think an Escort is a sports car so I spoke to CAMS and was told I could logbook it as anything I wanted to ... as long as it met the rules.
So it could be raced in the sports car category. I am hoping I will be able to enter it in a tarmac rallysprint series we have here.....hopefully the organisers won't think it is too "way out".


I have spent the last few days installing all the electrical wiring and components. Thankfully I had marked most of the connections because I had to a couple of times to remember where everything went.

The paddle shift harness fitted perfectly. It had to be connected to the DTA ECU which required some more It is pretty complex and I don't expect it will work first time.


Some tidying up of the wiring will be needed when it has all been tested.














So it is now ready to be tested .....

[Matt75]

That looks truly epic. Very well done to you Sir.

Can't wait to hear this fire up.

Cheers

Matt

[genRS2000]

That looks truly epic. Very well done to you Sir.

Can't wait to hear this fire up.

Cheers

Matt

Thanks.... I like the epic comment ... it sure does feel like an epic.


I forgot to include this photo of the gear position indicator and the socket for the steering wheel paddles in the last post.




John came around today to help with testing the electrics. It started badly as when the battery was connected the isolator indicated an overload and would not turn on.

Eventually we narrowed it down to the alternator circuit and disconnecting the charge warning light circuit solved the problem. So that was the first problem that will need fixing.

Then we tested all the other circuits. Results as follows:

starting ------- yes
dash----- yes
gear position--------yes
compressor-------yes
vacuum pump--------yes
brake lights------yes
fuel gauge-------yes....needs to be calibrated

lights.....no
wiper-----no
radiator fan----no

There is a link with the last three not working that we are going to look at tomorrow.

We checked the fuel pump circuit with the pump not connected( no fuel in the tank yet) and we had power to it for a few seconds then the relay would shut off. As it it controlled by the ECU I am hoping that this is because no fuel is being pumped which is sensed by the ECU so it shuts the pump off??????

We haven't tested the power steering yet as we disconnected it to see if it was causing the problem with the isolator and didn't get around to reconnecting it... another job for tomorrow.

Some bright lights:



Another job tomorrow will be setting up the gear position indicator and some to work out how to calibrate the dash.

[genRS2000]

All sorted today ... everything now works

Although things started badly when the battery was connected and the isolator once again showed an overload. After disconnecting each circuit in turn the fault still occurred which we could not understand until I noticed that 2 wires on the isolator were connected around the wrong way

This had happened when I first connected the isolator and the supply wire would not fit because it was too short but when I dropped it down 2 terminals on the main fuse block it did... well I thought it did as in fact I had connected it to the wrong terminal.. brain fade.

When we made a longer wire and connected it properly the fault disappeared to our relief.

The problem with the charge warning circuit was that I had connected one side of the light to D+ on the alternator and the other to earth when should have gone to ignition controlled 12V.
The lights, wiper and fan did not work because I had wired the switches wrongly....the terminals are different than normal was my excuse.

The fuel pump circuit is working correctly according to a DTA agent who posts on the British Rally Forum who answered my query. When the ECU is powered up the fuel pump is switched on for 5sec and if the crank sensor does not send a signal to the ECU ( indicating that the engine is running) then the pump is switched off.

We didn't get around to testing the power steering... the car has to be on the floor to do that.

We did set up the gear position indicator. It seems to be correct but will need to be checked when the engine is running as it makes engaging the dogs in the gearbox easier.

Next on the agenda is to program the dash and when that is done it will be time to fire the engine up.

[genRS2000]

The hoist arms won't swing out because the car is so low so I lowered it onto some boxes so I could check the power steering which seems to be working OK.





I haven't got a laptop so John's son has kindly offered to let me use his so I can programme the dash and check some of the ECU settings. The only issue is that it runs Windows Vista which I am told is not very good ( I have an iMac and don't know much about Windows). I have asked the DTA agent his opinion and he has used Vista so maybe it will be OK...we shall see....

[exboyracer]

Vista should be OK for what you want to use it for.

Well done on getting everything working

[FOSSIE]

Great work as ever. Really interested to see how this lot works! Is there any reason you've used a separate gear indicator rather than letting the X-dash display the gear? And is your dash using it's own stand-alone sensors for things like water temp and throttle position or has it a CAN interface with the ECU??

(Sorry if you've already answered these)

[bones]

The MK2 looks well,nice to see some nice different ways of doing things.
I see you are from W.A , I grew up there, Wilaton, Kingsley, Carine, Mullaloo, Ocean Reef.

[genRS2000]

Vista should be OK for what you want to use it for.


Well done on getting everything working

We were a bit worried for a while but got there in the end but I don't expect the electronics to be as straight forward... never had to connect a computer to a car before , hopefully there won't be much

Loaded the ECU software from the supplied CD onto John's son's laptop and it looks like it will be OK...it is an older laptop and has a serial port which is a bonus. Will get around to connecting to everything soon.

Great work as ever. Really interested to see how this lot works! Is there any reason you've used a separate gear indicator rather than letting the X-dash display the gear? And is your dash using it's own stand-alone sensors for things like water temp and throttle position or has it a CAN interface with the ECU??

(Sorry if you've already answered these)

I have to admit to a certain amount of stress now that it is time to try to get it all to work.

I will be using the gear display on the X-dash providing I can get it to work. The Geartronics one is there as a backup and Neil at Geartronics supplied it free of charge
I have connected the CAN interface to the dash and if it goes to plan the dash will receive all the data it needs from the ECU. The Geartronics GCU is also connected to the ECU (hard wired) as it needs signals from the ECU (eg throttle position ) and also has to send signals to the ECU (eg engine cut). The gear position sensor is connected to the GCU and the ECU....it is all pretty complicated!

The MK2 looks well,nice to see some nice different ways of doing things.
I see you are from W.A , I grew up there, Wilaton, Kingsley, Carine, Mullaloo, Ocean Reef.

You would find Perth has changed since you were here...a lot more people and traffic and many more suburbs.

[bones]

Yeah my olds were saying it has changed loads since I was there, we were on the edge of the bush which was great for jumping on my DT250 no helmet and ride up the coast to Quinns rock with my mates trying to outrun the Rangers. 3 fines and confiscation of my bike eventually made me sell the bike, not a care in the world at that age. Happy days
Are you north or south of the river?

[FOSSIE]

I have connected the CAN interface to the dash and if it goes to plan the dash will receive all the data it needs from the ECU. The Geartronics GCU is also connected to the ECU (hard wired) as it needs signals from the ECU (eg throttle position ) and also has to send signals to the ECU (eg engine cut). The gear position sensor is connected to the GCU and the ECU....it is all pretty complicated!

I was wondering how it would work if the ECU could provide some of the required info (water temp, TPS etc) but you needed some stand alone sensors/imputs too - for instance oil pressure or fuel level (guessing the ECU doesn't know these?) Is there a CAN port and a plug for extra wires in the back of the dash?

[genRS2000]

Yeah my olds were saying it has changed loads since I was there, we were on the edge of the bush which was great for jumping on my DT250 no helmet and ride up the coast to Quinns rock with my mates trying to outrun the Rangers. 3 fines and confiscation of my bike eventually made me sell the bike, not a care in the world at that age. Happy days
Are you north or south of the river?

Neither...I am in the hills.

I was wondering how it would work if the ECU could provide some of the required info (water temp, TPS etc) but you needed some stand alone sensors/imputs too - for instance oil pressure or fuel level (guessing the ECU doesn't know these?) Is there a CAN port and a plug for extra wires in the back of the dash?

Tom, do you mean the paddle shift ECU rather than the DTA ECU? If so it needs TPS, Tacho from the DTA and sends a gear cut signal to it. The loom that came with the dash has provision for the CAN... a High and a Low and the loom that came with the DTA has the CAN High and Low output ..I have connected them together and we will see what happens on Saturday when we are going to see if we can set it all up.

[uknuta]

Hi, this is an awesome car, well done. I was just wondering where you got your anti roll bar from? thanks

[FOSSIE]

No I meant the Engine's ECU - I'm using an MBE system which controls the gearshift too, so I don't need the Geartronics GCU. I was just wondering how it worked when the X-Dash took some info from the engine ECU and some from separate sensors, but if it comes with it's own loom then I'll not worry about that! With any luck, my ECu will have a spare channel and the the dash can get everything via the CAN stream, no need for extra sensors.

I've never seen one of these Sadev's running with Geartronics (I know it's been done, just never seen it) so I'm really keen to see your's up and running - should be very slick!

[genRS2000]

I have spent the past week trying to come to grips with car electronics, computers, Microsoft Windows and useless French instruction manuals.

The first thing on the agenda was to connect a laptop to the DTA ECU to check it was working and look at the settings. As I knew nothing about using Windows ( I do now though) I needed an operator. So my mate John came over with his son's laptop ( when he lost his job 2 months ago he had to give his back but he now has some consulting work so will be getting his own).
I thought it had a serial port so that we could connect it directly to the ECU but it didn't so we had to use serial/USB adaptor that I had got from a DTA agent. We couldn't get it to work .... every time the ECU software was open we got 2 messages, one said the ECU was connected and ready but then it immediately it disappeared and another message said it wasn't connected ...failure. We concluded that the drivers for the adaptor were not installed correctly.

By this time it was getting late and freezing in the shed so we gave up. On Monday I decided that I would have to get my own laptop so after a internet search I found a place selling used ones that had a serial port and Windows XP installed.
On Monday afternoon John came back and we connected my laptop to the ECU using the serial port and straight away got this



Success

So now we moved on to the dash.

I wanted to change the screen from the 2 columns that were displayed when it was initially switched on. After reading the manual that was on the CD that came with the dash it appeared to change the screen I had to design what I wanted then upload it to the dash. The first thing was to load the software onto my laptop. Of course that did not work... each time the dash software was opened a message appeared saying a file could not be found. So I rang DTA and they could not help but emailed the French manufactures ( DTA supply the dash but it is made by XAP Electronic). I got a quick reply from DTA with the advice from Bruno at XAP. He sent the file that could not be found and I loaded that into the software and also updated the laptop's Windows XP ( 95 updates that took 45 min !!). By this time I was getting to know how to use Windows with John's help. The dash program still wouldn't open so we went to John's place and loaded the software onto his desktop, his wife's laptop and his son's laptop and guess what ... on each one the program opened perfectly.

Now we were really stumped but John had a bright idea ( he is a consulting engineer so he is paid to have bright ideas). He suggested that as my laptop was the only one that didn't have Microsoft Office that could be the problem.
So we loaded Microsoft Office onto my laptop and the dash program open immediately..

We then spent all day trying to design a screen but because the manual was useless we had no luck. So I rang DTA again for advice they were not at all helpful ( Alan the owner has a reputation for being difficult). He didn't seem to understand what my problem was ( I now now why.. more on this later). Luckily when Alan had forwarded Bruno's email from XAP it had is email address so I contacted him and he provided me with instructions on how to do what I wanted.... his english is good thank goodness!

So I designed my screen and connected my laptop to the dash using a USB cable as instructed in the ( useless) manual and clicked upload but again it would not work .. kept getting an error message. Again we decided that the USB drivers was the problem but even downloading the drivers from the XAP website didn't help as we couldn't work out to install then.

By now I was regretting getting the dash and didn't think I would ever get it to work.

I emailed Bruno for advice but the instructions for loading the drivers that he provided were for Windows 7. It was now Friday night and we had spent 4 days on the dash and it appeared that I would have to upgrade to Windows 7.

Next morning I thought I would have one more try with Windows XP. I connected the laptop to the dash and tried once more to load the drivers. The problem we had before was the OK for the selecting drivers from a drop down menu was greyed out. But then I clicked on the driver folder and suddenly the OK became bold so I clicked it and the drivers loaded. With crossed fingers I opened the dash software and clicked upload the upload started
According to the manual after uploading the dash had to be restarted so I did and got this



which is the screen I had designed!!!
But wait there is more .... I knew that the dash can have 8 different screen so I pressed the green scroll button and sure enough there were 8 different ones. This is one



I had been in email contact with a DTA agent in the UK looking for advice and he said to ring him but I wasn't able to get him due to the time difference so I emailed him to say I had succeeded in getting the dash working. Something he said in his email got me thinking and a "light bulb went off in my head". I sent an email to him with my revelation and he confirmed what I had been thinking.

It turns out that I have wasted 4 days on the dash ( apart from the driver problem which I would had to solve in any case) because when the dash is supplied by DTA it already has 8 preconfigured screens loaded and all you have to do is plug in the CAN BUS and turn it on. When it came on there was a basic screen and if I had pressed the green button to scroll I would have seen the other screen
If only there had been proper instructions supplied!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I know why Alan couldn't understand why I was having problems and gave the impression he was talking to an idiot.

There still is some things I need to set up on the dash ( shift lights and alerts) but I think Bruno will be able to help with this.

( I couldn't be bothered to proof read all this so apologies for any mistakes)

[genRS2000]

I don't have any experience with fuel injected engines so I have arranged for someone who does to come and help me fire it up..... 3rd July will be the big day.

Meanwhile I have tidied up the plug leads using some separators I had bought and one I made myself.

[exboyracer]

Nice work

the MS office thing is totally bizarre! I have worked in, around and with IT support and Windows PCs never fail to do my head in