AK 1106 rework ...

[Flyinghorse]

The CRS and Superblower have these and they are Ford Escort(And RS Sierra) RS cosworth items
   

[westcott]

Thanks for feedback Graham !!

[westcott]

I tried to get hold of a spare AC badge and found one on a internet platform (not Ebay). Unfortunatelly there was only one...
   
   

[westcott]

Hello all,
   
I'm back after the winter break and have a new issue to solve.
   
It is a often discussed one but never finally answered: What radiator fan switch is used in our MK IVs ?
   
My one let me alone after the first engine start this year and i went hunting for donor car and part.
   
Finally i ordered a switch which is exactly the same but different number on it.
   
The MK IV switch is a Otter switch # 5802082
   
The switch i found with the same dimensions and switching temperatures is out of a MGB from 1979 on with # 6800057A.
   
Don't forget to order 2 rubber grommets with the switch, one for installation plus one spare part.
   
Don't reuse the rubber grommet because the radiator is cutting into it forming a good seal during the installation.
   
Install the grommet first, add some water to the switch and grommet and push it in position by hand.
   
Everything fits perfectly.
   
The part can be found for example at www.mgpartsuk.co.uk and other shops.
   
Here a direct link:  https://www.mgpartsuk.co.uk/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=330_304_243&product_id=5359
   
   
Happy motoring, Uwe
   
   
   
Original part and grommet on the right, replacement and grommet on the left.
   
I put the same info into one of the original thermo switch threads.
   
   

[westcott]

Still working on TÜV preparation but an other issue appeared, the tachometer died finally.
   
   The tachometer is the Autokraft labeled straight dash one, not the standard Smith instrumentation normally used for the T-dash.
   
   According to Andy from Speedy Cables / Smith it is a Steward Warner housing and a Smith movement. With that information on hand i ordered a conversion kit for Smith tachometers to be driven by ignition coil and contacts, ECUs or ignition boxes. The kit is from Spiyda and must be attached to a intact Smith movement only with the electronics removed.
   
   I opened the instrument and found out that the movement or coil of the instrument is still working, so maybe the electronics internally gave up. The Spiyda kit was installed but the calibration by wav file and calibration cable did not work. I opened the t-dash Smith tacho and saw that the movement in the Autokraft labeled instrument looks completely different.
   The Spiyda page can be found here:
   https://www.spiyda.com/magento/index.php/vehicle-electronics/tachometer-electronics/smiths-rvi-rvc-conversion-external.html
   
   Check the video and documents on the Spiyda page for more information.
   
   I ended up with an order placed at uRevCo in Italy for a new complete internal movement, adjustable directly by push buttons and dip switches. The uRevCo kit will be here in a few days. After the installation i will post some pictures of the tacho rework.
   For the uRevCo kit you just keep the housing, the face and the dial or hand. The hand has to be drilled to 1mm inner diameter!
   The uRevCo page is that one, some interesting videos are there as well:
   
   https://urevco.com/

[westcott]

Last week my car had a TUEV date to correct the wrong rear tire size from 225 to 255. That wrong detail in the car papers was uncorrected until last week. The TUEV guy did not see any problem with the 255/50VR16 rear rubber and did the correction quick.
   
Because I received a "15 inch wheel gift voucher for 2 Acton Cobra Wheels(Trigos)" from my wife I was going to get TUEV approval for a set of 15 inch wheels as well the same day. The voucher was not a official one from Nicks page but based on the prices from Acton Enterprises for his Trigo front wheels.
   
The TUEV inspector told me that he need to check the real wheels on the car and he is not giving any cent on copies of other car papers. For documentation and his records he copied the Data Forecard from the later owners manual showing the 15" and 16" combinations.
   
One hour later the TUEV guy also aproved a new alternative wheel and tire set in the car papers allowing 7.5" front wheels with 225/65R 15 or alternative 235/60R15, the bigger one without any rubbing or clearence issues. The entry for the rear shows 9.5Jx15 wheels with 275/55 R15.
   
   
The sample set of 15 inch wheels was borrowed from Hobo's blue car and Vintage wheels identified the set as their product.
   
My car had the bended steering arms from the beginning and absolutely no issue with this specific set of wheels.
   
The dimensions of the wheel set used are as the following:
   
Front wheels: 7.5"J15 with 2.75" (~70mm) backspace
Rear wheels: 9.5"J15 with 3.5"(~89mm) backspace
   
My car has the 86 or later dual exhaust system but with the muffler in the rear fenders removed. The complete installation looks like in the pictures above showing the Ford rear brake calipers.
   
Actually I'm in discussion with Bob Lacey from Vintage Wheels USA for shipping costs. As soon as he is answering my requests i will order the wheels. Some update with photo documentation will follow as soon as the the wheel and tire combo is with me.
   
The often discussed cone angle was measured by me with a digital angle metre and identified as 60° on the Autokraft brass spinners, the Autokraft hex nuts and the aluminum Vintage Wheel spinners delivered with the wheel set.
   
One difference I detected was the length or depth of the spinners in direction to the hub. The Autokraft hex nuts and spinners are between 5 - 7 mm longer on the cone side.
   
That means the usage of Autokraft spinners or nuts on this specific Vintage front wheel will bottom them out before reaching the cone in the wheel.
   
That detail will explaine why some guys (in some cases) had to use additional cone rings on their cars using Vintage or Trigo wheels together with Autokraft parts just on the front.
   
The borrowed wheel set on my car looks not too bad.
   
Stay tuned for more detailed 15 inch wheel info and measurements in the future.
   

[MkIV Lux]

looks good, Uwe !

[westcott]

15" wheels:
   
   In the meantime me and the "frog" made some progress.
   
   The ordered set of 15 inch wheels arrived from Vintage Wheels in the US.
   
   Unfortunatelly they sent me a "Trigo" wheel set instead of the ordered "Vintage" wheel set. The set I ordered is the CSX or Shelby set: http://vintagewheelsus.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_71&products_id=575
   
   After a short mail conversation everything was discussed and we agreed that I will keep the delivered set.
   
   Difference between Trigo and Vintage is in the rear wheel where the Vintage wheel has an 3.5" backspace and the Trigo wheel has 3.65".
   
   So the Trigo rear wheel sits 3.8mm more inboard.
   
   Front wheels from both suppliers have 2.75 backspace, no difference.
   
   Trigo front wheels have some free cut inside the wheels to clear bigger disks and calipers.
   
   Vintage is offering an optional rework (welding in some aluminum spacer before the pin drive bores will be done) to adjust the backspace of the Vintage wheel to the original Autokraft 15" backspace if required.
   Vintage has a special "Autokraft" set with front BS of 2.5" and a rear BS of 3.5"
   See their web page: http://vintagewheelsus.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_74&products_id=588
   
   Trigo was not offering such an option.
   
   The new Trigo set even came with "ET" markings on the inside of the wheel, allowing a much easier documentation with German TÜV authorities.
   
   The above mentioned 3.8mm more BS on the Trigo rear wheels does not sound like such a big problem but newertheless all standard MK IV owners with silencers/resonators in the rear wheel arch should be aware of that.
   
   On my car the rear silencers are removed but I had to loosen all exhaust pipe clamps from the front muffler on rearwards. Then rearrange all tubing, move them as much as possible inbord, check the look and tighten all clamps again.
   
   That gave me some 10 to 15 mm clearance (with a Vintage wheel BS) between upper inner tire surface and exhaust loop in the wheel arch.
   
   So maybe the routing of the exhaust tube loop need to be changed or eliminated in the near future with the Trigos BS.
   
   
   Spinner investigation on 15" wheels:
   After receiving the wheels I started a clamping investigation with 7.5 inch front wheels from Trigo and Vintage using Autokraft hex nuts and Autokraft winged spinners.
   
   Both wheels did not clamp between the Autokraft hex/ three ear spinners and the hub.
   
   Reason is:
   
   A: the hubs thread is 4 mm too long(or in this specific case the wheel clamping width in the center is 3mm too short) to allow clamping without bottoming out the Autokraft spinners.
   
   B: the outer diameter of the AC 16" wheel cone is some 3mm smaller because of the steps or free cuts done to the wheels.
   
   That will position the Autokraft spinner more "inside" the aftermarked wheel cones and the arms will interfere before the cones will have a tight fit. In case of the hex nuts the small flange will be too close to the wheels centers, no more safety wiring.
   
   To solve that problem I had different possibilities:
   1: I ordered a set of stainless spinners from Cobraracing, Torrance Ca
   They are shorter and have a free cut directly at the inboard base of the three wings. They fit the new Trigos.
   
   2: add some 3mm free cut on the original supplied Autocraft spinners at the wing or arm base and shorten them 3mm at the end of the cone. Now they fit on the new 15" Trigos
   
   Without free cut the Autokraft spinner arms will interfere with the center of the 15" wheels and the cones will in most cases not come together.
   
   Without shortening the spinners or hex nuts will bottom out on the front hub and not clamp.
   
   The use of Autokraft hex nuts would need some rework on the wheels. The center of the front wheels needs to be turned down to allow usage of the hex nuts with the Trigos or Vintage Wheels.
   
   Autokraft 16" wheels with spinners or hex nuts:
   
   All Autokraft 16" wheels i saw using winged spinners instaed of the hex ones from the beginning had some more or less flatter turned down centers arround the spinners to avoid interference with the spinner arms.
   
   All 16" wheels I saw, using the hex nuts from the beginning and not prepared for spinner use had a small vertical step arround the center to allow safety wiring. Without that small step the hex nut flange with bores for safety wiring would sit too close to the wheel center and the safety wire would not be feasible between the parts.
   
   Conclusion:
   1. Autokraft winged spinners used on Autokraft hex nut wheels will sit too close to the 16" Autokraft wheel center and sometimes they have interference with the wheels.
   
   2. Autokraft hex nuts will fit every 16" Autokraft wheel
   
   3. All 16" Autokraft wheels delivered solely with hex nuts need some machining to avoid binding or close to binding situation of the spinner arms.
   
   4. Autokraft Spinners need to get a free cut at the spinner arm base and need to be shortened by 3mm as well if used with 15" aftermarked wheels
   
   I'm waiting to assemble my rear suspension (the reengineered drive flanges are still out for plating) to check final fitment of the 15" combination front and rear and to leave some feedback with more details here.

[Wolfy]

A shame the pictures were lost on this (and most) threads.

[westcott]

Last Summer the rear wheel bearings needed replacement. I realized a more and more worse roadholding in curves and turnes.

After a quick check of the rear suspension I found more then 10mm endplay  at the outer diameter of the wheels.

So the rear uprights were disassembled from the car and the internals checked.

- the thin adjustment shims were eaten up more or less completely on the right and not so much better on the left
- outer wheel bearings run a little rough after cleaning
- radial oil seals were all bad
- one hub was worn out at the seat of the inner race of the inner wheel bearing because of too much endplay over a long time and the race become loose
- both drive flanges had some surface wear where it is normally pressed to the inner bearing inner race

At the end it looked like the disappearing material of the drive flange coused some endplay. This resulted in bigger endplay which destroyed the shims and the metal debris caused the inner bearing wear.

After getting all the necessary parts from the www and most of them from Gerry at Hawk Cars I started the rework.

First the drive flanges got a sleave to increase the mating surface which is  in contact with the innerer bearing. The complete thing was shrinked and pressed together and then plated.

The inner imperial oil seals are replaced by easier to come by standard parts from higher quality, to fit them into the assembly adapter rings from aluminum were made and pressed in position.

The inner, more and more hard to get, bearings were replaced by alternative parts with same diameters but a bit different depth also from Timken. Actually the original inner Timken bearings are about 400 € each and still getting more expensive.

The distance piece between the inner and outer bearing with additional shims was replaced by a one piece part from hard steel,,individually machined for each side.

Each distance part was set up to 2/1000 inch endplay for road driving.

All the adjustment work was done with the worn hub, because it was easier to slide the bearings on it without a press.

After a lot of calls with Gerry and Alan the final adjustment was done and the worn hub will be a dummy setup part for all future rear bearing endplay work. Its kind of a expensive special tool.. :-)

After installation the car was completely different in roadholding and ready for a trip to Italy, ok it went to Italy by trailer but had some nice 600 km Italien roads to discover by itself.

Before the trip 15 inch Trigo wheels, directly ordered in the US, and Avon tires were fitted rear and Pirellis front. With some necessary work on the original Autokraft brass spinners to make them fit without the common problems often posted here all was fine and an improvement for the overall look.

 

[westcott]

To use the Autokraft spinners with the Trigo wheels the spinners were shortened by 3.5mm on the wheel side and a 4 -5 mm radiused  free cut was needed at the base of the arms to avoid binding between arm and wheel before the cone is seated.

This is because of the different length and diameter of the cones inside the Trigo and Autokraft wheels.

If you don't want to free cut the spinners you have to turn down the outer side of the trigo center of about the same 3-4 mm. But you still need to shorten the spinners.

If you don't want to shorten the spinners you need to order the aluminum aftermarket spinners with the trigos or get stainless spinners from Thomas at Cobraracing,Torrance, California.

Both spinners are shorter and allow the mounting of Trigos without the often mentioned adapter cone rings, especially to the front hubs of the MK IV because they are longer in the cylindric area between hub flange and thread.

The pictures show the shortened Autokraft spinner with needed free cut alone and assembled plus at the end the stainless steel unpolished spinners from Thomas Petrus.

[westcott]

The 15" Trigos with Pirellis front and Avons rear

[AC Ventura]

Very nice, maybe a little lower would be prefect. I think the Trigos very similar to the Hawk/Autokraft originals and right now, the only option. You will see my car uses 65 profile tyres (Avon 225/65/15) in the front and with no rubbing, although this depends on offset. Plus you get more front ground clearance. These are the same diameter as the 275/55/15 rears.
How do you find the mirrors? I tried  every round unit under the sun, but found the original units the only ones that work in every situation, including when opening the doors with sidescreens fitted.

[westcott]

Vintage Wheels is an alternative, I think Vintage also supplies the wheels to Redline for their actual MK IV 15" sets.

[westcott]

Some update...

I lost a bit the way of originality and modified my steering column, steering wheel and the heater system switches.

Sorry for that  :o

My car had the Rover SD1 steering column but I changed to the Ford unit during my rework as I got hold of a "Lightweight" straight dash out of an AKL.

After some years of driving it I started to hate the steering column plastic parts and Mercedes Benz heater switches.  ;D

Beginning this year I had an idea how to modify the column, sterring wheel and heater controls to something in between.

The intention behind was not to cut or modify the instrument panel but have a more cleaner and higher quality look.

So a spare SD1 column was ordered via Rimmer Brothers and some rough layout activities began.

At the end the column spindle was just moved a little bit inside the column tube, a small adapter tube was welded to the upper end of the tube and a VW indicator switch unit with integrated steering lock was installed.

The matching steering wheel boss was machined by Moto Lita UK. Joe Kaluza will still hate me for all the questions, answers and mails we exchanged for weeks. :)

After a package test build the old VW unit was exchanged for a NOS one and the result looks not too bad.

To do a new 60s like instrument panel with glove box and cut outs would have been much easier but I still don't want to to turn my MK IV into a pseudo 60s fake.

The bowden cable for temperature regulation was blocked at the heater unit to "hot" and all Mercedes Benz controls were removed.

The holes in the dash are covered by 2 adapter plates with integrated switches and a rotating MG B heater control. 

Whats your opinion on the changes, is it some improvement in look or is it just ugly?