[ffoy]

these clips need depressed to release cables from bracket on body

cables removed

broken/incomplete/inoperative hardware for cables

front of inner cable moving freely

but bringing rear part of outer along for the ride

rear end of cable seized in 'on' position (gaiter compressed)

gaiter not compressed on this side

56 plate car has the later style rear calipers

pads are very low

discs are bad

fuel supply & return pipes in vile condition

larger pipe has quick-release fitting so any repair would need to incorporate same

 

[ffoy]

So my flexi and handbrake cables arrived and I've started the welding together of the backbox and its pipe.

The cables were £31.99 (all in) from Ebay. There are loads for sale and I could've mb got away with buying one but it was more hassle than it was worth scrolling thru all the listings so I just got these for whatever reason. First thing to do was compare them against the originals. There are a few very minor differences but they seem to be correct dimensionally. I took about twenty pics of the fittings at the rear end (as these differ) but could not get camera to focus on them for some reason.

The flexi was only a fiver (£13 with P&P) and could've came from anything really so I also checked that against the rusted one from car and it looked pretty much identical, dimensionally. It was only when I went to take pics I noticed it's actually a genuine Ford one. I assumed it would be an El-Cheapo so am quite pleased about that.

So onto the backbox. The pipe and box obviously need to be welding back together in the right orientation otherwise the thing won't go back on the car. So with a little wire-brushing them offering up the two parts I could see where they used to be connected.

There's no way you could prop the parts beside each other and start welding the fresh air in between. Partly because they are so rusty but also due to the awkward shapes so I decided to put a tube inside the backbox to give me something to work from.

Interestingly you can see the original pipe did extend quite deep into the box so (theoretically) you could grind out the remains of the old bit and start again.

Anyway I have lots of (galvanised) 48mm scaffold-tube offcuts and this was a very snug fit inside the old pipe but it's very thick-walled and I guess that would restrict flow of gases leaving so I just went for some thin sheet-steel.

Rolled it up and stuck it in the box then welded it on.

After that I slid the pipe onto the new stub and tacked that, using my alignment-scratch for positioning.

So that's it in one piece now but still a bit to be done as the top of the pipe was very corroded and holed.

I also want to offer the exhaust up to the car first to make sure it fits before welding it up solid.

new handbrake cables

part number

front fittings differ slightly

middle fittings same and includes clip for bracket on car

rear buffers a little different

rear fittings metal instead of plastic on new part

£5 flexi above rusted original

dimensions and orientation of flanges etc look similar

new part is genuine Ford

checking where backbox was joined to its pipe

and again. a lot missing here

pipe very rusted on top

page break

 

[ffoy]

continued

original construction was pipe inside box

galvanised scaffold tube to test for size/fit

perfect fit but too heavy and difficult to weld thru galvanization

this steel sheet used to make a stub

welds at point where reference-mark made

pipe reattached to box

will complete welding all round once fit on car is checked

 

[mondy zetecs]

Excellent ,wish i had a welder for a few little jobs i need doing .

 

[PURPLE_2L_LX]

One thing I wish I had sometimes, but it would be used so little I keep thinking is it worth getting one.
I have enough gadgets as it is.

 

[twincarbs]

What exactly are those rubber sleeves on the handbrake cables supposed to do? I seem to remember you can slide them along the cable, but never really known where they should go.

 

[PURPLE_2L_LX]

To protect the inner cable from the elements. Advantage of being flexible so stay in place when the
handbrake is on or off. Well thats the theory but I have seen enough seized inner cables to know
they often have issues. Possible sealing water inside the cables rather than keeping it out.

 

[ffoy]

Excellent ,wish i had a welder for a few little jobs i need doing .

Yes they are good but it takes a while to get comfortable with them (MIG). I guess the sooner you start the sooner you will be competent. I wouldn't spend too much money on 1st machine. Mine is an old SIP Migmate and found it does fine for everything. I wouldn't got for the gasless type either and avoid really cheap ones which have a permanently live torch. They are very annoying to use

 

[ffoy]

One thing I wish I had sometimes, but it would be used so little I keep thinking is it worth getting one.
I have enough gadgets as it is.

If you want something versatile for the workshop Oxy-Acetylene is better but much harder to weld with and the rental charge on the bottles is extortionate (getting near £300 a year).

 

[ffoy]

Hi guys.

Just to say I got the repair finished on the backbox today.

Basically offered-up the mid pipe and the back section (hung on their rubbers) and everything looked ok. I would've like to have connected the front flexi too but no way of getting to it without taking car off the ramps under rear wheels then probably wrecking the bumper trying to put the front on them.

With the pipe hanging on the rubbers it was free to swing down completely as there is no support at all for the bend. There's no bracket on the (aftermarket?) back section to meet with the bar on the rear subframe.

No wonder mine looked so out of synch with the rubber and jubilee-clips for my temp repair.

I therefore decided to add a bar so looked something out and lost it. Spent at least an hour driving myself nuts looking for it, inside and out 😟

I eventually gave up and did the rest of the actual joint to the backbox. It turned out ok considering the metal was so bad there.

Anyway after I packed the welder away and tidied up then moved onto a another job completely I found the bar - hanging on the door handle 😐🙄

So got the welder back out and put that on.

So that's the exhaust basically ready to go on.

I noticed on 7Zap the other night that there are 3 different part number for the exhaust rubber, believe it or not. The petrols take on number with an odd one at backbox and the diesels take the 3rd number.

They are about £10 each on Ebay etc so I started asking (on Facebook) for used ones and a guy is supposed to be sending me some for £10 plus P&P.

I also asked about the clips for the end of the cable. You can't get them anywhere. A guy is selling me 6 for £15 posted. This was all before I left the house today and I'm thinking that's nearly £30 on widgets. I could've got a new backbox for similar money.

I found 3 or 4 rubbers down the barn today so I won't be buying any more just now.

Want to keep costs to an absolute minimum as I think it's all going to fail on the rusted fuel pipes. 😔

I'm dying to pull them off and see what I can do about repairing them with copper pipe but want to check manual first re depressurising fuel system (Haynes covers this for the petrol models) and also concerned it won't start again (easily) once I've disturbed the system.

I need the car to be mobile so I can stick it back in the barn each night so the Gaffer doesn't start moaning (it's his back garden effectively)

repair to top (holed) part of pipe

and finished underside

bar added to bend part of rear section to utilise hanging position on subframe

 

[ffoy]

So I got the exhaust back on today.

Was a real breeze accidentally: Jacked up the car at front (on wishbone rear mount) intending to just put flexi on but the whole side of car goes up high enough to get a ramp under the front and rear wheel on the jacked side.
Was very easy to roll under and put the whole thing on.

I didn't bother with gaskets, torque-wrench, heatshields or handbrake cables as that'll all need done again when I d/w the rear caliper(s).

Anyway am glad I put the new bracket on as there is basically no support without it. The only thing stopping it all from swinging down is the fact it's bolted to the flexi which must put a lot of strain on that.

The bracket is a little too far back which is odd as I thought I was welding it on too far forward yesterday. I think the flexi being absent when I mocked it up is the cause. The flexi must be pushing the rest back a little.

Anyway I can easily adjust that with the gas torch. Or I can take a little off the front of the pipe. Prob do both as the rear mount is also stretched back a little which suggests we have too much pipe overall.

The thing I've put on is quite long-looking but in practise it isn't too long. I think this back section has a shallower U-shape perhaps than the original. I have my old petrol ones up on top of container and can easily check this.

Mb that's why Klarius omitted the bracket 🤷‍♂️

Once the car was back on the deck and started up it sounded much better than it has of late but it does look odd with no valance on the rear bumper. The back box is almost fully on-show

exhaust back on including support on subframe bracket

new bar is too far back

back box less so

looks odd with no valance on bumper


I decided before dealing with any more stuff to bite the bullet and get the fuel pipes off to come up with some sort of fix. Checking online with various people (Facebook groups etc) the consensus is that you don't need to depressurise the diesels to work on the system.

So I decided to start scraping away all the rust and scale and that would result in a small hole that the diesel could start to weep from.

Well after quite a bit of heavy scraping there were no holes and the pipes were starting to look almost acceptable so I scraped just about all of it front to back and think I may get away with this and some rust-convertor to make them look acceptable to the MOT tester. There's no way I'd expect him to pass dodgy pipes but these seem surprisingly solid and once it has an MOT I can perhaps visit the local breakers yards to find a better donor assy

scale scraped from fuel pipes

scraped along full length

view of other side of pipes where they go up to tank connections

 

[ffoy]

small update....

I got the clips for the handbrake-cable to caliper-arm

only needed one for this car but bought 6 as seem to need them every time an MOT is due and I have 3 of these cars which I'd like to get MOTd (to sell or use myself) so am sure they'll come in handy.

Was £15 (posted)

Seems crazy when the exhaust flexi was only £13 (posted)

but hey when you compare it all to price of fuel it's buttons I guess.

I may have said before but they aren't available at all (1151909) and I guess you could use a suitable size of E-clip but I couldn't be bothered pioneering that so just went for these

1151909 unobtanium so bought several used ones

 

[ffoy]

Ok so here we are again - wrestling with all the fasteners on the struts (rear) to service/replace brakes, shocks, etc 😩

I don't know how many times I've done this on Mondeos or how many new fasteners I've bought (lots) but it always seems to be a total pain with rounded bolts, no room for leverage, hammering undersize sockets on then the inevitable snapped bolt or three. 🙄

Well yesterday I set about doing the O/S/R strut on the 2.2 and it actually went ok 😯. Got the whole thing off and stripped to component parts with only 2 snapped bolts.

I won't go into minute details about it as I've done that on my other car-diary before but there were a few points of note....

Looks like the brake disc and spring have been replaced before but not the brake hose. I'm changing the caliper and shock and hopefully putting new hose on but worried about shearing-off the nut on the (new) brake pipe.

What I was really surprised about was getting the pinch-bolt out the strut.

I've had these snap before and had to get remains out with MIG welder or taken them out full with heat from oxy-acetylene but never attempted it in-situ with penetrating fluid alone (ACF50).

Things went well with all the other fasteners, despite their horrendous appearance, so I tried the big bar on the pinch-bolt and felt it move a fraction so persevered with it (back & forth etc).

For the track-control arms (to knuckle) bolts I hammered a 14mm socket onto the first one and it came out easy but I wasted about 20 minutes trying to get the socket back off the bolt (holding socket in vice and trying to knock bolt out) with no success so I put the bolt back in knuckle and hit the socket off the bolt

Not wanting to do all that again I risked the (correct) 15mm socket on the 2nd one and it undone fine.

I had similar trouble with the caliper-carrier bolts. Used a 12mm socket hammered onto the 13mm bolts. Worked fine but what was a big help here was having the drop-link disconnected first to give better access.

Slight problem if you only have car jacked on one side is that when you disconnect the drop-link it will not come out of the bracket on the strut so I jacked the strut back up (scissors jack) to take the load off and pop the ball-joint out

Wit the leg off the car (and pinch-bolt out) you can separate the rusty shocker from the knuckle quite easily by spreading the knuckle open a fraction, I used a spanner which was a tight fit in the (relaxed) joint.

The most corroded fasteners were the 4 Torx-headed ones holding the hub to the knuckle. You could barely tell they were even Torx. The bottom 2 had just enough shape left in them to take the key but there was nothing left of the 2 upper ones so I ground the heads off then at end of night got them out with the MIG.

Separating the hub from the knuckle is never easy but the brake-plate was paper thin anyway so I got things moving by hammering a sharp chisel in between the mating faces.

So at the end of the day I had it all apart (still to take top-mount & spring off shocker) and 2 headless bolts to remove from the knuckle.

No matter how many times I've done it before welding nuts onto studs just results in the nut snapping off and hunting around, then ruining, more nuts. So after two failed attempts I tried something different:

Welded a bit bar (stuff used to make the exhaust hanger) to the remains of the bolts and they would right out no probs.

here we go again. remove strut in less than a day

first Mondeo I've had with the later rear calipers

drop-link top

track-control arm (rear) bolt

pinch-bolt

caliper bolt

top-mount bolts

 

[ffoy]

nut came off drop-link ok with (5mm) Allen head not rounding

strut needed jacked to remove drop-ling balljoint from strut

14mm socket hammered on rear track-control arm bolt got things moving

but socket totally jammed on bolt

socket removed thus

fwd track-control arm bolt (RHS) removed with 15mm socket

13mm caliper bolts removed with 12mm socket hammered on

was amazed to move pinch-bolt in situ

trailing-arm bolt removed ok with 18mm socket

 

[ffoy]

caliper removed attached to disc due to ridge

hose pinched whilst separating caliper from disc

hose looks like original (08/06)

brake pipes are new (copper?) but nuts rusted to nothing so will not come out to replace hose

heads on hub to knuckle bolts almost unidentifiable

Torx socket is very snug fit in hole on hub-rotor

bottom bolts had enough head on them to remove conventionally

removing top-mount screws with extensions (10mm socket)

strut remove with hub and 2 bolts with heads ground off

spreading knuckle to separate from shocker

separating hub from knuckle

 

[ffoy]

damaged bolts to remove from knuckle

nuts welded to bolts to remove

nuts snapped off

bar welded to bolts removed them fine

new (stainless) screws to replace rusted ones which hold handbrake arms to calipers

seal kit(s) for front calipers bought

pads would prob be passable but will replace them

 

[ffoy]

OK so that's both struts off and dismantled now

I won't replicate all the stuff, re fasteners, on 2nd strut apart from to say I didn't really use any penetrating fluid (had ran out) and, as photos show, the threads on most of the bolts are clean as a whistle. The corrosion on heads isn't really stopping anything unwinding imo. Just makes it harder to get good purchase with the normal-sized socket or spanner.

The exception to this would be the pinch-bolt as that gets very corroded into the knuckle.

I actually had to break out the oxy-acetylene on this one as nothing was moving with the breaker bar and 14mm socket hammered onto the bolt head.

The next job was to get the top-mounts and springs off to transfer them to the new shocks. This ended up taking a ridiculous amount of time. Firstly searching for my only 18mm ring-spanner. I looked for ages then came to the conclusion it's actually buried under the ground

I seem to remember on my disastrous A-frame episode I lost it in the dark in the yard which has since been overlaid with tons of 'type 1' road-plannings
.
Anyway it was going to take days to get one from Ebay so I decided to butcher the nuts off which meant drilling them down the sides till they were weak enough to budge by smacking with a chisel.

This worked ok but am sure with correct spanner I'd have saved hours. They are never easy to remove as they are on very tight and you are only gripping the rod with a 6mm Allen key (which can end up actually twisting).

I've also found that the spring on the N/S/R is broken. I suspected this as the car seemed to sit lower at that side but could never actually see the damage as it was on top coil.

Looking at the very rusty spring it's not surprising it broke but then again they seem to break all the time. The O/S/R one has been replaced before I got the car but there is no brand name or numbers on it.

So now we have a delay as I need to get a spring. Unbelievably someone was selling a full set on Ebay (must've got lowering springs) and I won them for 99p (plus P&P)

Problem is I don't reckon the seller will want to send them for that price so I've messaged him to say happy to send more cash - and he's not responded yet

One thing I'm quite pleased about is making a 'tool' to keep the struts upright when they are on the compressor. I've mentioned this before (on other threads) but basically due to the bracket welded onto one side of the struts they won't sit straight and it makes changing the springs a real hassle and it feels very dangerous 😬

I've tried to work round it before by propping something with a bit of metal or whatever but it was time to do something better.

It's just a metal bracket which bolts to the bracket on the shocker to match the factory bracket opposite. Seemed to work quite well

However, much as I expected. it doesn't quite work on the new part....

The new shocks already differ in that they have 19mm nuts up top and take 5mm Allen key on rod (way too small imo, would be much better with larger) but the bracket on them is lower than the factory one

I'm not sure how this will affect ride-height or whatever but I would imagine it would cause a lot of head-scratching if anyone replaced only one shock and the car was sitting differently on either side. It would also affect the ARB as it bolts to the bracket which would now effectively be sitting higher up - despite its holes being in right place

2nd pinch-bolt needed oxy-acetylene to shift it

spring on N/S/R strut is original and very rusty

spring broken at top

struts sit squint on compressor due to factory bracket welded on one side

making tabs/ears to bolt to bracket on shocker

tabs connected with bar to bear on spring-compressor platform

bracket bolts to bracket

struts now sit upright on compressor

drilling nut as no 18mm ring-spanner available

nut eventually moves by weakening it

new shock same, dimensionally, as old one in all places apart from bracket which sits on rear subframe

 

[ffoy]

So, yesterday, I went to barn to start re-assembling stuff

But with one broken spring, no 18mm spanner and the usual messing around trying to makes things (knuckles) look nicer I wasn't going to actually finish anything

I also got a resolution to the issue I noticed with the rear shockers....

I have 2 pairs on new rear shocks. They were bought for my 1.8 and 2.0 Duratecs but that didn't happen

I dug out the other ones, which are Sachs, and they are identical to the originals. Sachs did make the originals actually so that makes sense, but it was a long time ago so things could have changed since.

I'm now Googling the NAPA numbers and posting on Facebook about them. People are saying different things: 'they are obviously for lowering springs' 'NAPA means need another part again' but am basically none the wiser.

Also took a picture of the sticker from the original shock to see if it differs from the ones on my petrol Mondeos.

And lastly I did find a number on the newer spring but Googling it draws a blank. I was hoping to get one the same as it.

Anyway back to the job in hand....

So I now have my shocker standing upright and secure in the tool so putting the spring, top-mount etc back on should be a breeze compared to previous times 👍🤞

Well it wasn't by any means.

First of all I put the shocker in with the factory bracket inwards (so it would have more to rest on) and then tried putting the spring on but due to the banana shape of them there was no way it was going to go on straight enough to complete the job. So that was about an hour wasted.

I then turned the shock 180 degrees and compressed to spring down pretty far. This wasn't easy as you need to lever the rod inwards as the spring goes down as it catches on the top coils.

Once that was done with a good bit of rod above the spring there was no way it could be levered enough to get the top pieces on.

So I was kind of snookered. I then figured if I relaxed the spring a bit it would be easier to lever things so did that and was able to lever the rod into centre to get first part of top-mount on the rod then start taking the spring down further and get the last bit and nut on.

Thankfully it worked but it took hours. There has to be a quicker way. I'm thinking some sort of hook to pull the rod into centre of coil would work. Levering it with bars etc could damage the surface and doesn't feel safe.

Anyway it's on and I've got an 18mm ring-spanner on its way but no response yet from the springs guy so will now need to get a pair of springs

only a small part of spring missing but don't want to re-use

NAPA shock (LHS) differs from original and new Sachs

rods are all same length so it's unlikely that NAPA one is for lowering springs

this NAPA part number refers to 'non Sport suspension and not for 18" wheels'

can't find any ref for numbers stamped on NAPA shock

data on Sachs shock

sticker from original shock. will numbers and colour of oblong differ from petrol shocks

can't find and source for numbers on replacement spring

with factory bracket inwards spring would never go over rod

with shock turned 180 degrees spring does go over but levering still needed on rod

top-mount on rod but nothing to lever on

spring relaxed a little. parts need to be levered to where blue outline is

parts eventually went on by levering rod with large bar

one strut done

 

[ffoy]

As mentioned above I'm wasting time making the knuckles look nicer

I did this before on knuckles from my 1.8 and a spare one I have and decided it was a waste of time as I de-rusted them completely and painted them with Epoxy mastic and/or Epoxy or both and I swear I could see water seeping out of them in the winter - indoors 🤬

But as it's 'summer' just now and things don't seem so pintless and the spare one doesn't seem to have re-rusted that badly I decided to give it another go 🤡

I use electrolysis a lot and it's a bit of a PitA but with the Oxalic acid it's just a case of throwing the item in the tub and wire brushing the weird powdery stuff off after it's been in a while.

I have to say I was impressed at how clean the 1st one was coming up after only a day or so. Bouyed by this I've put the other one in the (much larger) electrolysis tub so they should both be ready for paint by time I get my spring(s) and spanner

knuckles being cleaned in Oxalic acid

this one has been in for a day or two and dried off/partly wire-brushed

lots of numbers on the knuckle castings

spare knuckle (2004) cleaned and painted some time ago

not much of this data will remain after cleaning

S17VA 8F 9 06 7549 I think

 

[ffoy]

So I've made some more progress but rather than write one huge post will break it down into chunks.

So I said, above, that I won some springs for 99p on Ebay. Well they arrived very quickly with no drama and the seller confirmed he'd taken them off his 2.2 ST to put lowering springs on.

I was expecting a set of 4 Ford ones (ie with coloured dots on them) and wishing I'd not fitted that 1st pattern spring so I could have a matched pair on the back.

Well it turns out the front springs are OEM but the rears are 2 un-matched pattern ones so there was no point disturbing the one that was already on my new shock.

I forgot to say earlier but I did eventually ID that rear spring as KYB RH6069. Was quite pleased about that and see that you can get them quite cheaply on Ebay still but now I'll be trying to ID the other 2. Have drawn a blank so far. 🤨

Amongst the bewildering option for OEM springs shown on 7Zap etc I thought these news ones might be blue/orange/orange which is for Duratec saloons with special suspension but after checking with ppl with better colour vision the dots are actually pink/orange/orange so that matches the Ford option orange/orange/violet which is for diesel engine, manual transmission, special suspension.

Makes you wonder why the guy put lowering springs on (30mm) if the ST ones were presumably already lowered. The pattern rears in the box are definitely not shorter than the others I have and I don't have any fronts handy to compare.🧐

Anyway I got another fitted without much drama but still a total hassle trying to straighten the rod relative to the spring to get the caps on.

another man's cast-offs

4 springs for 99p plus P&P

fronts are original Ford

rears are pattern parts

this is apparently orange/orange/violet

not managed to ID this rear spring yet

or this one

now have 2 new shocks with decent springs