February Update

Nothing too much to write about other than the Corsair saw regular use from September to November 2021 when visiting the workshop where the VW Beetle we have was being worked on – See this link to the WordPress blog about the story of our Beetle. It was running nicely even with a blowing exhaust. I had purchased replacement exhaust manifolds before Christmas but hadn’t found the enthusiasm to fit them, yet as there is a problematic bolt on the offside that I know about and, at the time of writing, ignoring it for now.

Corsair at South Coast Customs & Classics workshop (mid November 2021)

Over the Christmas break I did get around to fitting the new oil pressure switch and rewire the loose brown wire that had been attached to the coil at one point. For the first time in my ownership (remember since March 2000) the oil light on the instrument panel illuminated when the ignition was turned on! The weather had been very damp from there on as well as the roads being generally filthy so it hadn’t been driven since a short run before Christmas.

Electrickery and the MOT (again)

I got the Corsair back from John’s in mid July after he restored the nearside jacking point and the floor chassis sections in front of the rear spring hangers on both sides. He had also cut out previous repairs on the rear chassis sections under the rear seat and restored to like new. When I collected the car, John informed me the side lights and a head light were not working, but when I tested them on my way home all seemed to be working.

some nasty wiring under the dashboard
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Blue Dots

blue dot light effect on Corsair

I first came upon these back in 1990s as a custom tail light effect mainly seen on hotrods or pre 1970 custom cars. By the mid nineties, I was spurred on by a friend in the Capri Club who had them on his Mk1 Capri and subsequently I fitted them on a couple of my Capris. I remember the packaging stating ‘off road’ use only and only got picked up by the police once for the ‘non factory’ lens alteration, so from there on I carried spare unaltered lenses in the car.

Fitting was quite straight forward and now armed with better tools than 25+ years ago, it was an easier job. I ensured the hole in the lens I was to cut was directly aligned over the bulb holder to maximise the final effect. I used a 19mm (wood) drill bit with a variable speed drill, though a 24mm bit would have been ideal. Using a small curved file I enlarged the hole to 24mm so it could house the chrome ring which would hold the blue dot lens. There are four tabs on the chrome bezel ring, two to grip to the light lens and the other two to grip the blue dot. For greater security I used a universal clear glue to hold the blue dots in place.

With the simple modification done, fitting the lenses was all that was required and some low light to get the full effect of the lights with the brake lights on (see video, above).

3 Events and an Alternator

When I got the Corsair back on the Friday (26th July) my main goal was to get it to the local classic and bike show at the Barton Hill Recreation ground, on Sunday. There was an existing problem that I had forgotten about which was the ignition light staying on and glowing brighter with more revs. I spent an hour or so on the Saturday diagnosing it to be a failed alternator. The Barton Hill show wasn’t far, and I sensed the Corsair had enough battery life to at least make it to the show which I had missed for the last 3 years. The show was a peaceful informal affair, with a few people taking an interest in the car.

Barton Hill, Shaftesbury 2019
Continue reading “3 Events and an Alternator”

Two Tanks and a Breakdown

Saturday morning was when I had a spare hour and I could fit the replacement fuel tank knowing it wasn’t a too arduous task having taken the fuel tank out before. I was hopeful about the fuel sender would work that came with this fuel tank but unfortunately it didn’t. Anyway the new tank looked so much better and was much cleaner (clean metal) inside, so I transferred about 2 gallons of clean looking fuel from the old tank. That is where my glory ends.

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The drought ends

Being somewhat dismayed with life and other things, I had left the Corsair well alone – there was no need to involve it in any work, feeling the way I was. Typically though, the weather had been extremely nice from the first May Bank Holiday weekend with it still continuing to be hot and sunny, including today, the day I finally ran out of excuses not to do something for the Corsair. So, feeling brighter and more confident with myself, I chose to use the day to clean up the spare fuel tank I bought way back in February.

Continue reading “The drought ends”

The Ignition Switch Fault

So in early March, I was going to try and do an electrical test of my circuits to the fuel pump, but wasn’t sure how to use my tester unit properly. I therefore took a peek at the ignition switch which threw up this horror to me… evidence of things getting hot and a potential fire risk. Could something else be causing this? or was it the switch mechanism shorting out? There was fair bit of corrosion on the terminals and I wouldn’t be surprised if the internals were in a similar condition.

Original 4 position ignition switch looking a bit melted.

New ignition switch fitted just requiring some insulation tape to be wrapped around the connections.

So, Easter Sunday (1st April) and I finally get the energy to go out in to the garage, plus it wasn’t too cold, wet or snowy. I plugged in the new ignition starter switch that I got some time ago and cleaned up the terminals by cutting off the old melted insulation material. With the wires and spade connections exposed they looked to be in good shape and I didn’t think they needed a rewire, so wrapped them with insulation tape for further protection.

So, with the battery reconnected it all fired up, and the engine stayed running. I just need to re-tune the carburettor just as John had last year because I still had the flat spot even after putting in new jets.

Update 2nd April: The engine fired, ran for about a minute and then cut out, for it not to re-start – so back to square one.

The Starting Problems Continue

Moprod fuel pump and filter. Original set up.

Since the Corsair spluttered to a halt on the on the driveway back on Christmas Eve, I’ve been tinkering away trying to solve the fault. Testing the fuel pump, checking the points and condenser, rebuilding the carburettor and fiddling with all manner of idle mixture settings, had not made any difference. The Corsair would start, fire on the first turn over then cut out.

Continue reading “The Starting Problems Continue”

Summer 2017 Update

The Corsair has been with John at AJ Restorations for 2 months now, however my brief to him was to tinker between his bigger paying jobs to keep the costs down, only thinking it would be a carburettor tweak and a few other bits of tuning to get the car running properly. Well, nothing is ever simple. There are problems with the carburettor possibly having the wrong idler needle and jets but the main issue now is that the distributor appears to have seized in its mounting and won’t turn for adjustment.

Visiting John’s today, I got to chat with Peter who helps out twice a week and is Ford trained from the 1970’s so he is quite familiar with the Corsair. However, the distributor is stuck, seized, no move. The internal weights had seized up too but they free’d off after a good soak with oil. So, the Corsair is looking rather sorry for its self at the moment.

Closer view of the distributor that has been causing a problem

Inlet manifold off the Essex V4 to give better access to the distributor

I also took down the distributor I bought some months back and after taking delivery had a suspicion that it was for another Ford car. It is quite different to the one in the Corsair which is probably a Lucas type and the new old stock one I had was a Bosch. Anyway, it was hard to identify the numbers on the box but John knows a man that can and if isn’t suitable then I should have the right info to re-sell it.

Fuel or electrical problems…

Last week – too much of a crap mood to write anything then – I looked at taking the Corsair out for a bit of test drive around the nearby garages/flats access road. While it took a bit to get started, the engine ran lumpy with popping and back firing through the carb, just as before. All I could think of was the fuel was dirty and contaminating the jets and other fine points of the carburettor. A message on Facebook about this and it was suggested that the electrics were at fault, but the other week the engine was running sweet, however the fuel did look dirty in the carb float chamber. So I have decided to remove the fuel tank (at some point), clean it best as I can and flush through the fuel lines, filter and pump, clean the carburettor (again) and hope this will solve the carburettor set up problems. I have also bought a NOS Motorcraft distributor, but upon closer inspection suspect it is for a Pinto (Ford) rather than for Essex V4.

I will get on to it when I feel like it and I need to buy a cleaning agent for the fuel tank.

Dom