Wednesday, 24 August 2016

Ford Capri - Distributor Caps

Previous blogs I have written this year relate to the problems with my white XL running roughly at times. I spent a lot of time trying to eliminate fuel problems but lately the car has been running really badly. I have always been concerned about the side entry distributor cap that I bought with the new Accuspark distributor. The inserts in which the clips fit are very shallow & seem to me to allow some movement in the cap.
I have a number of spare caps but they suit the Bosch distributors & the Accuspark is a replacement for the Lucas brand. The photos show that the Lucas style is narrow in diameter.



The first one is the side entry that I have been using, the middle one is the new top entry & the one on the right is the Bosch style. The other photo shows the difference in how the clips attach to the cap. I originally choose the side entry as it gave better access to the distributor as the plumbing (water hoses) for the Weber carbie with the automatic choke is quite extensive.



After a lot of stuffing about, mainly due to my misreading the order of the plug wires (which I had carefully numbered!), I got the engine running again & it sounds pretty good but the proof will be in a road test. I also adjusted the carbie mixture screw to get the car running a bit leaner.
While trying to get the car running with the wrong firing order, it back fired several times through the carbie, starting a small fire. A bit of excitement for a moment!!! A very thick towel that I had handy was put over the top of the carbie & soon extinguished it, thank goodness. I have never had anything like that happen before. The foam from the air filter was burnt but that was all. I am very fortunate it was not worse.
 
Hopefully the rain will have stopped tomorrow & I will take the car for a decent test drive. 



Tuesday, 9 August 2016

Ford Capri - Ford Consul Capris

It is very unusual to see these come up for sale but there are two on EBay at the moment.

This the first one & is claimed to be totally original, built in 1963 & unrestored with 20,000 miles on the clock. The seller claims it to be the best Consul Capri in the world. It is listed at $50,000 with a Buy Now tag. Quite a few people watching but no one has put the money down yet.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Ford-Consul-Capri-1963-1500cc-All-original-20-000-miles-/201635901606?hash=item2ef26fb0a6:g:05QAAOSwH3NXnS-j


This is the second one. This is a complete car in need of a total restoration.
There were 17 bids at the time of writing with bidding reaching $4050 with 2 days to go. Could be interesting.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Capri-Consul-classic-Cortina-Escort-Anglia-rare-/182234277623?hash=item2a6e0266f7:g:xmAAAOSwdzVXpyWt

 
 
Postscript - the following day, 11 August.
I now see on EBay that there is a third Consul Capri for sale ($22,500 - buy now price). There hasn't been any of these seen for ages & now three for sale at the one time!
Here is the EBay site: