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Stripping the Donor !! November 3rd After thinking about where to start I decided to remove the electric fuel pump first, then the petrol tank. I soon discovered how much pressure there is left in the fuel pipe, when I cut it, ( I was going to make some new ones up anyway), petrol spurted out everywhere. It was now that I realised although an integral garage is nice, it can end up stinking the whole house out. The boss was not very happy about the smell of petrol all over the house. The tank came off no problem , bloody hell what a size !! , there won't be much room left in the 2B if I fit that!. I have now decided on getting a tank made up with swirl pots and bottom exit for the gravity fuel pump. I have also kept the inertia fuel cutoff switch, (located in the boot under the spare tyre).
Next Job, the bits and bobs in the engine compartment, ie alternator, coil, fuel filter, radiator and such like. Remember to label up all the wires, ( I forgot one and don't know yet where it goes...). The radiator came out okay but pissed dirty water all over the garage floor, which I then proceeded to tread in and out of the house. which I cleaned up before the boss noticed. The rest I blamed on the dog.. The exhaust then came off in one piece no problem, then the manifold. Right now for the engine, I was lucky enough to have loan of an engine hoist from work, so once the bolts were out, the engine came away no problem.
Now for the propshaft bolts in preparation for removing the gearbox, no problem there, except that laying underneath the car I managed to put my head down in a pool of oil/water. The gearbox came way no problem and I left it under the car. Time to stop today. November 4th Dropped the rear sub/frame axle/diff assembly first thing, no problem, then took out the steering rack. Next dropped the front suspension and removed the struts, I will need these as I have opted for the standard sliding bush setup for the2B front suspension. Blast !!! busted my socket wrench (I was using it as a hammer at the time),will have to stop for the day now..
November 10th First job of the day...remove the pedal box and steering column. No real problems, had to bend myself almost double to get under the dash and undo the pedal box nuts, only to find the brake pedal is separate from the rest, so had to dive under the dash a second time. Steering column came out no problem, however I did manage to break the plastic screw fixing from the top cowling cover. Lots more room inside the car now so I decided to remove the seats as well, also removed the handbrake while I was at it. By now I had discovered a total of 95p in change under the seats and carpet, so it looks like I got a better deal than I thought with the Sierra !. Now comes the bit I was not looking forward to, removing the loom. After consulting the ever so accurate Haynes manual,l out came the upper and lower dashboard, instrument cluster and center console.Bloody hell ! what a mess of wiring, and I've got to try and sort this lot out !!!..
The picture on the right shows the Alarm someone has fitted, won't it be fun trying to find out where that goes to in the loom. I can now see the Engine Management System, Advanced Warning System and Lamp failure Indicator, it does look however as if they are on separate sub looms, so I should be able the identify the wiring. Oh well better get on with it .. started at the back of the car by threading all the wires from the lights etc, back through the bodywork. I now have even more wires in the footwell area. It's starting to look like an explosion in a spaghetti factory.. I had just started to trace the loom within the engine department
when visitors started to arrive. Oh well looks like that's it for
this weekend ..
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