We had made several attempts to start the aged Escort over the last couple of years but it was always either inaccessible or we would be distracted with something else. The decision was finally made to get it out of the museum and in to the workshop to sort it and give it a proper run, it had last been run at a charity event about 2 1/2 years ago.
First job was to fix the bodged solenoid wire, it had the wrong end on it, Russ took care of that before I got there. Next job was to see why it was turning over so slowly, I had my suspicions that the cable from the battery in the boot was far too thin but we didn't know for sure if the starter was ok. I took a spare good battery and a hefty pair of jump leads with me so we could find out for sure. I connected the battery direct to the starter, fired up the solenoid and the engine span over splendidly - great we knew now that the starter was ok. I then moved the battery and jump leads to the back,tried the starter again and it was barely turning. The thinnish red lead was rather warm along it's length, that will get replaced by some super hefty 35mm stuff, which will never give us a problem again. We will do the earth lead from the battery to the body while we are at it, for the sake of a tenner it will make matters better.
We moved the battery and jumpers back to the front of the car so we could have a go at starting it, we had already replaced a couple of gaskets on the twin side draught carbs as they hd been leaking, we fixed a leaky pipe at the same time. It cranked splendidly but was a bit reluctant to start. There is no choke cable connected so I was trying to choke the velocity stacks with my hands, which is always a bit hit and miss. Inevitably I managed to drown a couple of plugs and while the engine fired it wouldn't run properly. Malc's Grandson, Josh had appeared at this point so we instructed him to pull the plugs so we could do the age old trick of heating them up with a blow torch. The hot and now dry plugs were put back in, Russ got in the car and I held the two choke levers open while Russ prodded the starter button. She roared in to life almost immediately and sounded ever so sweet. She doesn't like ticking over for long, she has a pretty vicious cam with quite a lot of overlap, she's built for speed rather than comfort. Even so she sounded great, the induction roar through the 4 velocity stacks made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, the exhaust sounded superb, not silly loud but not muffled either, she was incredibly responsive to the throttle.
Only problem we noticed was that the charge light on the dash remained on suggesting that the alternator wasn't doing it's job, a quick check with the voltmeter confirmed that. It was just at that point that Malc turned up so we fired it up again so he could hear it for the first time in over 2 years, he was not disappointed. Next job is to replace that cable, we should get that in the next couple of days, we then need to have a look at the wiring, it's definitely wrong but there is no circuit diagram or wiring list for it and it's not the original loom. I need to spend some time working out what is what but at the moment I am a bit short of time due to trying to get the bodywork on my hot rod done in time for spring, I want to get the car through IVA this year.
Quick video here, sorry about the audio quality, it was a bit loud for the phone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPduRrB6u9g
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