Back on the road

[Shamea2]

Its been a slightly disappointing six months.

Hopefully all sorted now.

New rear shocks and springs
Bespoke radiator fitted.
New alarm and immobiliser
Electrical fault caused by a loose earth wire..........days of my life I will never get back  :)

All part of the fun though.

Nigel

[Max (Allan)]

Good to hear you're back on the road again Nigel. Car looks as good as ever!

Back in January you were enquiring location of the fuel pump relay, but didn't list it as one of the things that kept you off the road for past 6 months. Was the problem traced to the loose earth connection?

I've had a few of challenges myself over spring and summer. Was obliged to replace almost new front tyre last year ruined due to excessive wear on the inside edge caused by incorrect camber angle (David S - Wheel Tracking post Nov 2018). My Ace doesn't have adjustment for suspension geometry and after a lot of deliberation I decided to build in adjustment by cut the upper wishbones and replacing the rubber bushes with threaded rose bearings.

As well as adjusting both cambers I took the opportunity to experiment with the caster angles (I've long thought caster was insufficient – car has always had tendency to wander off course if not given constant attention). I could have skewed wishbones further back by means of the turnbuckles to increase the caster, but that would have entailed resetting camber for each caster adjustment and vise versa. Instead I shimmed the rose bearings back 6 mm in the mounting brackets, which increased the caster angles about 1 degree. The improvement was dramatic – car now drives as though on rails.  8) The only downside - the ride is harsher on rough roads.  :(

The other problem encountered this summer was a fuelling problem. The morning I was due to meet up with a windscreen specialist at Lakeside Shopping Centre off M25 for to repair a screen chip and see if he could identify who's parts bin the windscreen seal/trim originated engine was reluctant to start, ran rough once running and had woeful lack of power. Thankfully car got me to Lakeside and back, but I remained baffled what had gone wrong, so connected a pressure gauge at the fuel rail and cranked the engine to see what psi I was getting. The pressure rose very slowly, only reaching 28 psi after 3 cranks, and same once running. And pressure didn't increase when vac hose was pulled (should normally read 32 and jump to 42 with vac hose disconnected). Also pressure dropped to zero the instant engine was switched off (should decay very slowly).

Looking for likely cause on Mustang forums engine displayed classic symptoms of fuel pressure regulator failure. I found a new one on Ebay in States a bit cheaper than Summit price for Ford OEM part, which in any case Summit didn't have (apparently Ford don't make the FPR anymore) and waited nearly 3 weeks for it to arrive. But it didn't solve the problem - engine still ran like a pig!!  >:( >:( Finally I did what I should have done in the first place – (1) read the pressure directly at the pump outlet, which revealed low pump pressure and (2) read my own post of May 2018 about fuel starvation, because removing the pump I discovered the short hose connecting the pump and outlet pipe I replaced last year had ruptured again.  >:(

Anyone need a fuel pressure regulator? Only used once – honest.  ;)

[David S]

Good to see you back on the road Nigel.

Like you I have removed the alarm/immobiliser as is was one of my electrical issues, now have a simple immobilizer.

Have a new electrical fault to chase, by pressing the windscreen washer button -  it kills the engine, found this out whilst travelling down the M40. Not found where the problem is yet - the search continues.

David