Puma 4x4 Cosworth

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PumaJay said:
[post]362532[/post] agreed... F4 TTY would be an awesome plate for that!
yippeekiay said:
[post]362531[/post]
red said:
[post]362524[/post] ^^ I think you need a personalised number plate with 'FAT' at the end :D

Yup, less than £200 for a correct T reg one ending in FAT or could push the boat out for a plethora of plates all the way up to £175k for FAT 1 :lol:
red said:
[post]362524[/post] ^^ I think you need a personalised number plate with 'FAT' at the end :D

Well I did want a plate for the car but unfortunatly 'DAN 85' or '85 DM' is sadly way way out of my budget.. a fat number plate might be a good alternative! Might have a look :wink:

PumaJay said:
[post]362523[/post] As above... 1 year old! We need up to date posts :eek:
tuonokid said:
[post]362521[/post] Hi Dan
Well done mate, I can't believe this post is 1 year out of date, there must be so much more to come now. It will be great when you get this finished as it's a link between an old all conquering classic and a more modern FWD car. I would say a one-off but I was at a Croft Rally cross meeting 3 years ago and saw a lime green Puma (bloody quick) which may not be too different to yours.
Barry

Thanks Barry, yeah when you look around there are actually a fair few about, however I think I'm right in saying this one is the only one in road trim, which is why I wanted to keep it that way.

And yes Jay I'll get some more up to date photos up, although not much has happened - poor effort on my behalf!
 
Over the last few months of last summer the car ran well and was quite enjoyable to drive..

Few pics of the car






Then came it's MOT in October which on its own was no real issue at all.. the journey home and the fact 3rd gear didn't want to play ball anymore meant that I now had a rather large repair on the car. It drove home no problem as long as 3rd gear wasn't used.. it basically just rattles like crazy when engaged.

So the car went back in the garage and the hunt for a new gearbox that would cope with the power began... and luckily for me found a straight cut Bara Motorsport box that had recently had a rebuild.. a trip over to Essex and the box was on its way home to the garage.




Whilst busy with other things a fair few months passed and the car slowly became 'buried' in the garage.. but a few weeks ago now I decided that it was time to get on with it as the good weather was here again.. so I got the car uncovered and up on axle stands..



.. yes those are door cards in the engine bay!!



So with that ready it was time to get the old box out..





That's where I am up to as of tonight... plenty more to come as I'm going to change over to hydraulic clutch while I'm at it.. also going to look into the shot bushes on the rear beam during this stint.

Thanks for looking.
 
Managed to get a little time in the garage last night.. decided to look into the pedal box. First up was to remove the plate that had been sealed in to block the original hydraulic clutch master cylinder holes in the bulkhead.




Just needs a clean up and that will be good to go for now. Then moved onto getting the pedal box out which is a puma item that's had the Sierra/Escort clutch pedal put on the side.




Then one next to a standard puma box




With that out I'll look to getting the new pedal box fitted in with the master cylinder - seems daft someone went to the lengths to put a cable clutch in when all they needed to do originally was mount the slave cylinder on the side of the box and make up a braided hose.

Hopefully more to come soon.
 
Hi Dan
It's one of those self adjusting cable ratchet thingemybobs as well and they always fail, especially if you're using a heavy duty clutch.
Apart from the drive to the front wheels that (MTX75?) looks just like an MT75 even down to the donut drive at the rear. I wonder if it's the same internals as an MT75 and if it is it might be worth buying one for spares whilst they're still relatively cheap.
Barry
 
Hi Barry, yeah that's right it has the 'self-adjusting' quadrant, except I was convinced it never adjusted and caused a very floppy pedal! The clutch on the car is just the standard cosworth item so nothing over the top.

No that is the MT75 box. Just has different ratios for the cosworth setup as far as I know. There are a few companies that provide brand new complete gearkits for this box (at a price mind you) so spares are still readily available. Bara Motorsport is one of those companies that can basically build you a brand new box.
 
yippeekiay said:
[post]362633[/post] Weird, all pictures are now just links called Image. No idea if that's something I've done :-(

Not sure, all the photos are appearing for me. If someone else could confirm that the photos are showing that would be good.. it's not that interesting without the photos!!
 
Right an update on progress..

So on with getting the new pedal box in, some slight difference between the two but nothing too difficult to over come, first was to remove the studs on one side as the cosworth master cylinder is boxed out in this locations on the bulkhead so bolts are used instead



Seemed to be a right difference between the two so the bracket from the old was used and the lower tabs cut off



Changes made and standard clutch master cylinder mounted





Pedal box mounted and the standard master cylinder now back in place



So with that done back to sorting out the box

New vs old



The tunnel is right on the car and it even has a cut out where the clutch fork is to release the clutch cable from inside the footwell - so I want to cut back the fork so it doesn't protrude the box as I will be using an external push rod style slave cylinder and still need to utilise it



Cut back clutch fork and a quick tidy of the welded locator tube



With that done I moved my attention onto modifying the brake fluid reservoir.. again - last time this was off I put a provision in for an hydraulic clutch take off.. but not sure what I was thinking as I put it in totally the wrong place. So I bought a weld on adaptor, plugged the old one and then sorted another issue I had with the pot. It seemed to leak out the cap, the standard ford cap. So looked at a standard pot and I think it's because it doesn't have a baffle around float in the cap. So set about putting one in and I hope this solves the problem, time will tell!

Before it came off the car



Modifying it







Fitted back to the car.. hopefully not to leak!




So with that done there's not much more I can do. I'm waiting on a short shift bar from R&B Motorsport for the gear lever but unfortunately they need to be made so not sure when one will be ready. But I've heard that these are worth the wait so hopefully one will be on its way soon. Once that's here I can get the box in and get the car back out and into the sun!

That's all for now, thanks for looking
 
Small update..

Given up waiting for R&B Motorsport, so as I've missed enough good weather already I've got hold of a standard gear shift and will be fitting that. It might actually put the gear lever in a closer position to the drivers seat.



Stripped out the part I needed - old vs new - could anyone confirm if that is a Sierra/Escort cosworth gear shift or not?!?



So with that I'll now start getting the box together and get this thing moving again!!

Thanks
 
Hi Dan


The gear levers probably just a generic part as this is the one off my spare MT75 RWD box and it looks pretty much the same most of the difference is probably in the remote housing and the linkage off the bottom of the gearlever. It's definitely off a 4WD car though as the supports for the remote on the 4WD are on top of the box whereas on the RWD they're on the side of the box.
Barry
 
Bit of progress from the last few nights... fitted the standard shift into the cradle and mounted back to the box for a test fit.. I see what people mean, the throw is enormous!

This is it in 4th gear!



So decided to take a punt and order the short shift from Compbrake, which arrived very quickly which was a nice bonus!



New vs old home made short shift



Shows it a little shorter than the old item so it may be a little kinder on the box. So with that I got it fitted into the cradle and fitted to the box




This has reduced the gearstick 'throw' by 5cm so instead of 15cm from say 3rd to 4th, it is now only 10cm. Not a huge difference but enough to put the gearstick in a similar position and function as the home made short shift I had on it previously.

Also managed to get the slave cylinder mounted on the side of the box



Which means the box is now ready to go in.. finally!




Will hopefully get the box in over the weekend and with any luck back down on its wheels.

Thanks for looking.
 
Little update..

After the first attempt of getting the box fitted didn't go too well due to the slave cylinder hydraulic hose fouling on the tunnel, an adjustment with the slave cylinder (turning up the other way) saw the box fitted and the car put back together.

Back down on its wheels and took it out for a drive Sunday afternoon for the first time in 9 months!

Slave cylinder mounting changed so the bleed nipple faces down and the hydraulic hose faces up



Needed to shave a tiny bit of the casing to give better clearance around the hose fitting



So with the box in I could fit the other end of the hydraulic hose and the reservoir feed to the master cylinder



Once the turbo heat sheild was in, I decided that the reservoir feed pipe was a little close so covered it with a heat proof material I had lying around the garage. Not very pretty but it does the job for now, I will re-visit this at some point down the line.



With that done I could get the car down on its wheels and it's nice seeing a bay without a flapping clutch cable!

Before



After




So for now I'm going to drive it about and enjoy it for a little bit, so far I'm really loving the noise the box makes and it's good to be back out in it.

Back from its first journey out




Thanks for looking
 

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