1966 Mk1 cortina GT She Drives!

7 minute(s) of a 319 minute read

In between the work on the headlining I was getting a few jobs off the list firstly the distributor, the one I had fitted was a recreation based on the Lucas 45D which is a mechanical advance unit that I bought with the intention of using with a set of bike carbs but seeing as that has been shelved for a rainy day I decided to go back to a 23D and use a vacuum advance unit - I found that idling on the 45 style wasn't great and I have no information on the curve etc.

I bought an original 23D and a new vacuum unit and electronic ignition kit and spent a few hours making it look pretty.

The engine was much smoother on idle but I need to look at the started as the earth strap was hot whilst cranking.

the next think I have been wanting to do it get the bulkhead sealed off - this means new grommets and a great stick gaiter which I bought from the club, sealing the bulkhead means once the window rubbers are all done I can get on with the interior.

I gave fitting the rear window a go as the Front is too chipped to use and a replacement is being sorted via my insurance company which helps. The rear screen was pretty dirty but I decided to clean it once in the car as I didn't want to put any weight on it whilst it's not supported, I did remove the stickers beforehand. The RTTS sticker is from the last road trip I did in the Cortina before it came off the road back in 2006 - Ouch!

It was soon in and I have since fitted the trim but I'm happy that the glass is going in as it's starting to look like a proper car again

2-7-2021

It has been a while since I up updated the thread but I have been working on the Coritna I promise!

Moving on from the last update I managed to get a new windscreen and fitted and now the Cortina looks more car like as opposed to just being a shell.

It's made by Pilkington if anyone needs a reference - use the SAP number

Whilst waiting for some parts to come I made a start on fixing some leaks I had found/created. Firstly the steering box drop oil at a rate that would make BP blush so I figured whilst the lid was off I would turn a new filler cap as the replacements are only available in the rebuild kits which isn't worth the money when the bearings are fine as they are.

A few hours later I had a new cap and tethered so that I don't lose it! The lathe needs some attention as I found it has a lot of backlash and the drive belt assembly is worn. Not only that I need to learn to work in thou!

On a roll with fixing leaks I addressed the drip on the rear diff which meant taking the axle apart as you need to remove the half shafts before removing the diff - not a fun job!

With the axle back together I finished off the handbrake which I need to take some photos of as it's one of my favourite things about the Cortina. It's wonderfully over engineered for something that doesn't work!

I've spent the last 2 weeks trying to diagnose a problem which I thought would be easy but appears to be far more involved than I imagined, I had some problem getting the Cortina to fire up. Cranking had gotten slower and hard work so the battery was replaced but the problem persisted so the starter came off and was stripped and checked.

Nothing was out of place so it looks as though the bearings are the issue as the replacement turned the engine much faster than the original had.

The next issue was that I'm not getting a consistant 12v to the coil resulting in me wiring it directly to the battery which helped but hadn't sorted the issue. Wiring wise the switched live wire which this is part of has many joints and feeds the majority of the other cirtcuits so I believe there is a fault in there and I'm considering removing it all together with a single feed to a 12v bus bar and using that to simplyfy the circuit and also add more fuses as the horn, heater, radio and wipers are on the same fuse.

this won't be a quick solution but I am drafting up a new loom design to show how it will work before making the change.

What I need to do is work on that in the background whilst I get some jobs ticked off the list otherwise I won't keep the project moving along which is something I need to do - any way I hope you're all keeping well