Paul Grainger

Good to hear it. Cheers

Hi, nowhere common I am afraid and there are no other fuses in the line. I am a believer in it is probably caused by what you have disturbed. Therefore it is most likely to be around the aerial area in the boot. Perhaps the cable is just old and brittle and has broken inside when you moved it. Time to get the multimeter out! From memory I think the wires are red and white and run along the passenger inner sill. Good luck.

Hi Tim. Best advise is to make sure its empty as it will be a lot lighter. I drained mine first. From what I remember mine didn't have to come right out, sat there nicely while I changed the pump. Cheers

If the Base idle and fuel mixture it set ok then you look at the speed sensor on the gearbox. Is it connected? This should hang the revs up momentarily whilst stopping. They usually get an internal fault which makes the tick over fast and people disconnect them instead of replacing them. Cheers

Hi Nick, Just an idea. Which timing mark did you use on the crank? Sounds odd I know but there are two. You need to use the second mark on the crank pulley which is about 30 degrees behind the first one. To check the timing take off the rocker cover and turn the engine over to get the timing bar back into the cam shafts. When they are locked in place you can then check the crankshaft timing mark. To adjust it just slacken the cam pulley centre bolts about half a turn, the pulley's will then spin on the cam shafts. You can then move the crank until the correct mark is aligned. When all is correctly aligned you can tighten the cam pulley's back up. When Done I would turn the engine over twice and recheck tne timing before starting the engine. Cheers

Hi, you will hear the sound of the pump internal parts working which may sound like noise through a screw driver. PAS pumps normally whine if they have a problem.

It's not too big a job but if you are unsure I would get someone else to do it. It sounds like you are not sure where the noise is coming from. I would get a mechanic to have a listen and advise. Cheers

Definitely. Is it a CVH? If so the pump is driven by the cam belt and you really don't want that to fail. Cheers

Great stuff!

Washers left over is never a good thing. You will need to slide the rod out again to put them back in. Without them the plastic bearings will pop out the pedal when you press it. Once built up correctly cable replacement is easy. Get the cable on the pedal end first by lifting the pedal up and pushing the quadrant back to hook the cable on. Then get someone to hold the pedal up (or prop it up with a screwdiver if you are on your own) and get the gearbox end on last. Cheers

Time to get the multimeter out! Does the relay click? That will tell you which side of the relay is faulty.

Test the servo is working. Pump the brake pedal so it is hard and then press it and hold whilst starting the engine. When the engine starts the pedal should go down a bit. This shows that the servo is doing its job. If not then it could be a servo fault or a vacuum supply problem.

Think they must feel sorry for the Wally that posted it. They must be mental.

No longer available i'm afraid. Tin top ones are around but not for cabs. I needed some for mine a couple of years back. Ended up making new ones out of sheet metal. Most decent body shops will have a folding press for this. Cheers

Great to hear its fixed.

Nope. The Focus one is different I am afraid. Not sure if the main dealers still stock them. I would speak to a good factor like Euro car parts. Failing that there is always good old ebay! Cheers

There will be a fuse. Check the manual to find which one. Cheers

Speed sensor on the gearbox where the Speedo connects. It produces a square wave voltage when moving. The faster you go the higher the frequency. This signal is used by the ECU to hang the revs up a bit when stopping to prevent the engine from cutting out. The usual fault with them is an internal failure which causes interference in the signal line which makes the engine revs hang up all the time giving you a fast idle speed. There are some tight gits out there that just disconnect them instead of buying a new one! Follow the cable up. It connects to the engine harness next to the brake servo. It has a three pin plug. Might be worth checking its connected first. Will not show up on a code scan as all signals or no signal are plausable to the ECU. Cheers

I remember a 16v head for the pinto back then made by Warrior. Had some of those reving to about 8000-9000 rpm. The key is in the balancing. Lightening the flywheel and filing off bits of con rod and piston using an accurate set of scales. Ahh those were the days! DCOE Webbers made a difference too. #sniffpetrol

Sounds like a faulty speed sensor on the gearbox where the speedo cable attaches. Cheers

I agree. Escorts were never meant to be quick. My everyday car is a Jaguar 3.0 sport so my 1998 105ps 1.8 cabbie feels particularly sluggish!!!! Tuning is possible with any engine and there are plenty of parts available for CVH engines i.e. cam shafts etc. Thing is how much do you want to spend? For a decent increase you will need to spend a small fortune and Ian's solutions would be the best options to look at. Me..... I am just happy pottering around in the sun, driving a car which is still as it was designed to be! Happy cabrioleting.

Hi Steve. Best thing to do is test it first. Undo and pull back the trim so you can get to the aerial. Switch the radio on and use a test light or multimeter to check you have a 12v feed at both wires going to it. The earth for it is the small black wire. These aerials are pretty good at filling up with water and siezing. If this is the case then you could strip and clean. Replacements are around on ebay etc but quality varies. Hope this is of help. Cheers

The aerial should have a permanent live and a switched live to operate it. The later comes from the radio unit itself. Cheers

Reckon the cable might have come off the control flap on the heater box. Have a look under the dash as you turn the heat control knob backwards and forwards. You should see the cable move and where it clips on. Cheers

Btw you will need the ignition switched to position 2 so the battery and oil pressure lights are on when you test it.