More suspension work and some electrical

Again, long time between updates but a few more projects undertaken. The rear springs did come out again and have been reset a little higher. Definite improvement. Unfortunately, I have an annoying clunking sound over bumps in the front passenger side suspension that I am yet to diagnose. It could be in the coilovers and I am thinking of putting a small helper spring in to see if that fixes it. I went over every nut, bolt and bush but it’s so far eluded me. Next stop might to try and gopro it.

Along with playing with suspension I have also been working through some electrical gremlins. My fuel gauge has never worked properly and my temperature always seemed suspiciously low. I decided to do away with the original style voltage stabiliser and replace it with a Solid State instrument voltage stabilizer from Spiyda in the UK. This was a simple job that required splicing into the correct wires on the loom. The good news is that my temperature gauge now works and while the fuel gauge needle now moves a little bit, it still doesn’t work properly. I have bought another device that will allow me to match the impedance on the sender to the gauge and will fit that one day when I get around to it. The hardest thing about that job will be setting the levels, so I will need to drain the tank to do it properly.

My tacho has been converted to work with negative earth but it was always a bit unreliable due to the electronic ignition. To fix this I purchased a kit to convert the original tacho to an RCV unit that would work with the electronic ignition. This kit requires you to remove the old electronics from the back of the tacho and fit a new modern circuit board. You the calibrate the tacho and install it into the car. I chose to use a spare good condition tacho for the conversion and it proved to be a pretty straightforward job. Really the only challenging part was working out where to run the new wire directly to the coil. As I didn’t want to mess up my original looking engine bay too much I ended up running it tucked up under the drivers front guard. Again, I neglected to take photos but if anyone is interested in the Spyda gear, here is a link to their website – https://spiyda.com/

I did get the car out to the Small Ford Concours & Display Day at Camden and was pleased to win Best Restored. I don’t do many shows but it’s always nice when other people recognise the hard work you’ve put in.

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2 Responses to More suspension work and some electrical

  1. davidrees001's avatar davidrees001 says:

    HI Greg

    Good to see you are going forward, my rebuild is just about complete.I
    have seen three issues that has caused a clunk on the suspension

    The hardest to find was that the foot valve in the main strut was loose
    and with bumps the movement and noise was obvious.

            However that was years ago when struts were rebuilt, before the
    use of sealed inserts.  However if the insert is not securely locked it
    might be kicking side ways at the foot on heavy bumps.

    The second was that the strut top bearing rubber was old and with
    sufficient impact the upper spring plate could impact the body.

    Finally I have steel inserts in the lower ball joint to the strut.  I
    found that there was sufficient movement of the ball in the cups on
    bumps so I had to increase the shims between the top cup and the
    retainer to eliminate all movement, however that was not so much a loud
    noise more of an annoying soft rattle on irregular roads.

    * I see that you are using a sophisticated voltage regulator for the
    instrument, can you tell me please
    *

    1    is it a fixed voltage or adjustable

    2    will it work on a positive earth system.

    regards

    David

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    • Hi David,

      Thanks for the suggestions. I have retroford adjustable strut tops so I’m confident that’s not it, but I do think it is somewhere in the strut itself. I’m going to throw a passenger in and see if it’s still there. If it goes then I think it might be the spring when it becomes unweighted. In that case a small helper spring should fix it.

      The stabilizer is a fixed voltage, but they do make an adjustable voltage unit. It is marked as being suitable for negative earth, but I would suggest sending a message to Spyda directly to see if they have a suitable option for positive earth.

      Regards,
      Greg

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