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13 May 04 (1.5
Hours) Engine in – almost! I managed to fit the engine in to the engine bay. I tried putting the engine on the ground and lifting the chassis over it. This didn’t work, mainly because I still have the exhaust & inlet manifolds, gearbox and alternator still connected. I ended up using engine hoist and lowering the engine/ gearbox in to the engine bay. Remember to remove the gear stick! Also get a bucket because gearbox oil drips out when you lower the engine/ gearbox at an angle. Engine is in the engine bay, but no engine or gearbox mounts fabricated or fitted. (Steering wheel place there for the photo!)
20 May 04 (1.5
hours) Now that I’ve finally separated the engine from the Escort cross member I can now get easier access to the steering rack mounting bolts. These were rounded off by a loving, previous owner. I had to drill out the bolts, burning out a lot of drill bits in the process. Could only get one track rod end removed – the other one kept turning in the Escort steering hub. Was going to cut it off, since I will have to replace the track rod ends anyway for MOT & SVA, but since this is a long way off thought I want to avoid fitting new parts to early! 25 May 04 (30
minutes) Ended up cutting through the nut on the track rod end with a chisel to get the steering rack removed! Cleaned off 25 years of road cr*p off the steering rack and sanded down rusty bits. 27 May 04 (10
minutes) I painted the steering rack with red lead paint.
29 May 04 (3
hours) Fabricated steering rack brackets, welded in to place on chassis and fitted steering rack. 1 June 04 (1
hour) I wasted time stripping down the Escort steering wheel & column. Don’t bother – you need a different column for the SVA (Sierra). I’m embarrassed to say that I spent 45 minutes getting the steering wheel off. I pried off the centre cap, removed the large (22mm?) nut and thought I saw a second nut below. Could not get this nut to move, ended up grinding through the collapsible part of the steering wheel. Found out there wasn’t a second nut, it was just part of the wheel and the only thing holding the wheel in place was the splines! 5 June 04 (1
hour) I spent some time on a hot Saturday afternoon trying to remove part of a Sierra steering column. (I’d been given a Sierra wheel and top column previously by Dunc) Struggled to remove the lower section that has the two UJ’s that are needed. I had to borrow a very big hammer to remove the bottom UJ from the Sierra steering rack splines. 9 June 04 (45
minutes) Cut the lower steering column in two and temporally extended it to the correct length using the tubular steel I had left over from the back panel supports. (Plan to change this top a thicker tube later. ) Two strange things! After cutting the lower steering column that I’d spent so long removing at the scrap yard, a second one appeared by magic in a black bin liner in the passenger foot well of the Locost….. I must tidy up garage to save time!. Notice that there are two versions of the lower column, one is solid round steel, the other is cast steel. Make sure you get the solid round version! (Luckily I got both free of charge). Second strange thing – I noticed that I welded the engine bay bracing tube (“R”) in the wrong place and it fouls the steering column. It should line up with the corner of the transmission tunnel. Cut one end off temporarily to make room and will have to replace complete tube that is now too small. End of June (1
hour, not sure what day) I spent ages trying to workout how to fit the Escort pedal box without having to chop it down too much. I welded a circular bracket temporarily in place to hold the column using part of the magnetic 90 degree clamp I got from Screwfix. (Not recommended, slightly too large inside diameter for Sierra bush. Going to buy a proper one from Lolocost) Welded this at the same height as I had seen in the pictures of other cars. Couldn’t work out how to do this without fowling the steering column. 1st to
16th July
(2 weeks) In Portugal, on holiday.
20 July (1 hour
on car, 1 hour talking!) I stopped by a local Locost owner in Cumbernauld on the way back from work (John – “Zilspeed”) to see how the complete Escort pedal box was fitted on his road going car. Noticed that his was mounted quite high and the steering column went below. Pictures of John's escort pedal box mount below:
Got back home and welded my pedal box in the same place. Trying to be clever I fabricated and welded two brackets to support the front of the pedal box. (John’s only had one). Found out the reason he only had one, was because a second bracket means you can’t fit the steering column! Guess it’s out with the angle grinder again.
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