Puma Plus

[JonB]

Finally got the plenum chamber assembled onto the engine today. What a total mofu of a job that was, you need fingers like ET to reach some of the bolts, plus I had to open up the holes in the lower flange to 1/4" to allow for the distortion in the upper part from welding. Then managed to finish off the coolant pipes and connect most of the loom back up, got a couple of issues there but should be able to overcome them.
Next on the agenda is to refit the front suspension now that I have had the shagged bearings pushed out and new ones pushed in by my local garage. Built up my new struts and driven on the hubs, attached them up with new rubbers underneath, threaded through my regreased driveshafts and bolted on my nearly new wishbones. Bolted up the track rod ends and fitted the drop links, then had a quick tidy up before it got too dark to find the tools!
The discs and callipers can wait for another day as can the routing of the vacuum pipes and throttle cable that all seem a bit too long now.

 

[PumaNoob]

Seems like youve got a lot done mate, ive just fitted new bearings to my hubs, and done pretty much all of what you are doing, and to have done as much as you have in that time is really good! Looking under your car will be like looking at a new car now! Did you change the ball joints on your wishbones, or are they still fine??

 

[JonB]

Ball joints were fine, but then the wishbones are nearly new. Got them off a guy breaking an MOT failure, they still have the part number stickers on them.
I did get a fair bit done but I was able to get a good 6 hours in, you can actually see my garage floor now instead of piles of Puma bits.
The general plan for the underside is to replace every single bit of rubber with another rubber bush. This car will has to be a city car as well so I am looking to keep it soft but still handle as it should. Standard rubbers should be good for a few years of happy motoring and as long as I get some decent tyres should also keep me out of the ditches when I do get out of town.
Once I get the front finished I will just turn the car around and rip the back apart to do the same, might go for some discs if finances allow, failing that certainly the bigger drums.

 

[JonB]

Got the discs and callipers on today, then set about bleeding the clutch and brakes. The fluid in the pipes was well manky and took nearly two litres to purge the old crap and air out, lucky I bought a five litre can of DOT4 for £17.99. Then put some plain water in the header tank, some ATF in the steering, 4 litres of 5W30 in the engine and 2 of 75W90 in the gearbox. Deliberately not enough of the oils as I am not flat and level yet and only water as I want to check for leaks before the expensive stuff goes in.
Repaired the broken wires to the A/C pump and bolted the batt box in, fitted my new air pipe between TB and MAF, wow only £5 for a F9... part number. Still undecided as the way to go for filtering the air, might just replace the cone one but add some sort of baffle to stop the hot air from the engine getting too close, or go for the air box/green panel/cold feed combo.
Managed to route the brake vacuum pipe under the intake and plumbing and give the throttle cable a gentle curve right around the front of the bay, feels OK on the pedal.
Need to sort out the odds and ends now, clutch switch, steering, ECU and a few other bits.

 

[JonB]

My car finally has all four wheels on the ground!!!!
Had to do it really to get the hub nuts done up. She looks like a Puma again because the bumper and bonnet are back on, need to sort the panel gaps out but that can wait as have some waxoiling to do and want to get in the gaps first. Realised as well that she looked quite low so took the centre to arch measurement, I now know the eibachs I obtained are the -30mm ones, guess I'm going to have to drop the back a bit now.
Decided to do the grilles in red, smooth the bumper and fit a sticker numberplate on the bonnet.
Still got to sort the ABS sensors and extend the lambda sensor wires but time to turn her around and start on the back, might pull the interior while she is out of the garage but the weather will decide the order of things there.

 

[JonB]

She has been rotated and this became a problem as I had to remove the boot lid because the spoiler stopped the garage door coming down, they are suprisingly heavy. My car is now minus the rear beam and shocks, quite a PITA even though WD40 was sprayed on the bolts yesterday but nothing a 1/2" socket and hammer could not cure. Think I know why the handling was shite as one rear bush had 1/8" play in it the other was more like 1/4"! She also seems to still have small drums on the back so time to trail the for sale sections before changing bushes as the beam may yet change.
The rear seats and cards are out as are all the seatbelt components and boot linings, found quite a few spare earth wires just chopped off and the alarm sounder was unplugged for some reason.
Then got to the stage where it was too dark to see so had to tidy up and put away for the day, might get as far as plotting the extra holes for the new seats in the morning but no promises as laying in bed is far more comfortable than laying under a car.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I have 200mm drums for sale only about 6 months old if you want, the backing plate is the original item

 

[JonB]

Cheers Steve, I'll keep that in mind but will decide later as I'm thinking discs on the back (just for the look of them).
Been doing a bit of interior chopping this weekend.
Undercut the rear cards to allow the squab to fit, then had to chop some of the boom boxes out from the rear speakers as well. Had to trim 10mm off of the backs of my new rear backs as well, the hole pitch was the same as the originals but the hinge brackets are tighter in the Puma, should be OK now though.
Need to slightly relieve the back bottom of the squab as well just to blend the radius, but decided not to upset the old folks in my block by angle grinding on a Sunday at teatime, tommorrow is another matter.
Will have to obtain some steel plate too for reinforcers, 14swg (2mm) should do it.

 

[JonB]

Have not really done much over the past 3 months mainly due to a combination of weather, work, Xmas, work, weather, getting married, work and weather.
Still managed to drop the petrol tank down and drill through to bolt in the rear squab, then reattach it.
Got some discs comming for the rear so did the bushes in the beam, plenty of swearing for that job. Even managed to snap some M8 bolts that I was using to extend a puller to get them in, M10 did the job though.
Re hung the beam with some new dampers and -30mm springs ready to bolt on the brakes. Final tightening will have to be done on the floor as per Haynes manual instructions.
Decided that the interior plastic need a bit of a change so used a sponge shoe polish to black the blue down. Looks quite good.

 

[JonB]

Been a bit busier recently, got the rear discs bolted on and bled out. Had a real ball ache with the handbrake cable though, ended up having to fabricate the balance bracket out of strips of 3*19 aluminium. Took advantage of the stripped down state and undershielded the rear arch inners, gave the liners a good clean then sprayed them up with suede waterproofer (pissing in the wind I feel but may help the water run off quicker). Dropped her down and tightened everything up, sort of looks in line so fingers crossed.
Still that done was able to crack on a bit and refit the exhaust heat shields. This was closely followed by the cat back st/st exhaust although I did have to trim about 2" off of the front pipe to make it all fit around the bends. End result is an exhaust that will not grind itself on speed bumps so that will do.
With the car now level again checked all the fluids, nothing seems to have dripped out.

 

[JonB]

Now for the exciting bit.
Thought it best to have an intermediate check on the mechanicals before stripping down the electrics for the next stage.
As far as I know the Engine from FRP#336 has not run since it was stuffed in 2010, know it turns on the crank so no worries on ceasures.
Hooked up the battery and turned the key, let the fuel pump prime then turned the key some more.
Cough, cough, ROAR.
Exhaust has a slight blow at first joint, but she runs. Finally turned her around under her own power (on a private garage forecourt not on the road).
Well chuffed for now, proved the clutch and brakes work too. Was able to fill the power steering fluid too.

 

[JonB]

Fixed the blowing exhaust, cost a whopping £1.49 for a new gasket, now I can hear the pipes knocking the heatshields. Sure I'll have to lift her up again for something so it can wait.
Did the ECU swap today, TAPE for TAPE as it turned out. Switched the chipped bit of the key (yes I know only one) and I appear to have done it right as she started. Pity I forgot the how to guide on programming it to do the boot and locks, will sort that next session.
Seeing as I am going to try my luck at MOT time with a sticker front plate thought I'd better loose the dent for the original in the front. As I seemed to recall from previous cars (and bikes) my bodywork skills are slightly below average, sadly they have not improved with age.
Going to start on the front seats next, need to improve on my last attempt by about 30mm towards the centre. This may involve some welding, luckily I found my fire extinguiser.

 

[ScubaSteve]

what was wrong with the other tape ecu?

 

[JonB]

Nothing wrong with the old ECU just had a standard map on it, replacement one was out of FRP#336 and came with the engine. Will probably put it up for sale when I have a clearout of all the bits I don't need any more and get a bit of cash back, its been one way traffic so far.

 

[JonB]

As it was not raining, decided to wash the dust off and take a few pics. Sadly the camera had other ideas and the kids seem to have chored all the AA batteries but did manage a couple of shots before it died.
[image]3537[/image]
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[image]3540[/image]
Managed to get one of the interior too, might not be to everybodys taste,

V949HHJ

• JonB
• May 19, 2012

Will try to get some that actually show some of the work done up later.

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Looking very similar to what mine looked like before i crashed it.... very nice indeed.

 

[JonB]

Update time.
Will have to fill in the details later but we now have a car that is MOTed and taxed.
This means I can now run her down the road and get the geometry checked and my slow punctures fixed.
She will have to stay as a double cat motor for a while as I intend to wrap the FRP manifold before refitting it.

 

[PumaJay]

looks like im setting a trend with the stick on number plates.

for me it would look a million times better without the red grilles, but thats just me.

 

[JonB]

Time to fill in the gaps.
The front seats took more cutting than welding. Original plan was to strip them off the runners and bolt them down, drivers side to fit me and passenger side to give best share of available space, new MOT rules about seats having to move scuppered that so had to use the runners. I did manage to shorten the track of the runners and use the original captive nuts to anchor the back down. Had to drill fresh holes for the fronts and went for M8 nuts and bolts, also had to chop a bit of the front inner metalwork of the seat out of the way to go over the floor pan.

 

[JonB]

Next thing was the dreaded ABS/TC lights.
I had fitted a Focus rear disc setup and spliced the supplied sensors into a bit of Puma loom, knew the joints were good as I had continuity checked. All the gaps seemed good but the lights would not go out and was able to lock up like a goodun when I stamped the pedal. Time to swallow my pride and get professional advice.
It was explained to me that the Focus uses a square wave signal and the Puma uses sine wave signals. This gives three choices, change rest of ABS system to Focus, change Focus bits to FRP style or ditch ABS. Option 3 is a MOT fail so no good for a road car and option 1 is just silly, so stripped the rear hubs off.
Managed to get a friendly workshop to machine down the hubs to take Puma tone rings and press new bearings in for me. I had drilled out the sensor holes to allow Puma sensors in.
As I had already bought some new rear sensors from EBay I decided to have a go at shaving them down to get them to fit close enough to read the rings, and after a few tries (with help from AMT) managed to get the lights to go out.
Got myself insured and proceeded to fail the MOT.
Failed on headlights being missaligned, emissions for CO, and not having a catalitic converter where one was originally fitted.
BUGGER.