Capri - Replacing broken alternator bracket

Several weeks ago on my usual run up the mountain, I popped the bonnet to find that the alternator bracket had snapped. I have no idea how long it had been like that but I do have a look under the bonnet fairly frequently. Thankfully the alternator was tight and had not moved.
So the first step was to find a replacement. I was fairly certain that I had a spare one in my parts bin and sure enough, after a bit of searching, found five different ones. I found the best matching one, gave it a clean up and a spray of black paint in readiness to do the job.
There were only two bolts involved and I anticipated it would take about 30 minutes. As usual, wrong, wrong, wrong! I had forgotten that the bolt holding the bracket into the block was quite long so as I loosened it, it fouled onto the pulley wheel. I also had a ratchet ring spanner on it that I could not get off!
OK, things then get a bit more complex. To get the pulley wheel off, the fan has to come off. To get the fan out, the radiator has to come out. to get the radiator out, it has to be drained. What fun! Then I found that one of the bottom radiator brackets had come adrift so some solder and Araldite saved the day.
After all that, the bracket went on very easily and all the bits went back on without any dramas. I guess that is what makes old cars so interesting and frustrating at times.
Here are some pictures (click to enlarge):

Capri - Replacing front brake hoses.

This is my first post for some time having been unable to do any maintenance on my cars due to various reasons.
I have not replaced the front brake hoses since owning my Capri XL and was a little concerned with some corrosion on the left front hose. I was able to locate a set of replacement hoses on UK EBay which is a good source for small Ford parts. I try to buy brand replacement parts and I like QH parts and they are often advertised. The cost was a bit more that I thought due to postage and GST (this is something that has to be considered now when buying parts from the UK).
First concern was whether the new hoses were correct. After putting them beside the existing ones, they looked correct so I started to disconnect the RH front hose.
Disconnecting at the disc end is not a problem but the hoses go through to the engine bay. As when doing anything on the auto with an automatic choke, the RH side is a nightmare. The connection with the fixed brake line is just under the end of the battery tray, under the coil and under many other hoses. I loosen the coil so I could get better access. It also took a few sprays of WD40 to undo this connection. (See the centre photo. The connector is just to the side of the battery tray).The LH side has heaps of room and access is not a problem. (Photo 4)

 

I had two big dishes under the car to collect the brake fluid and after the brake fluid had drained, I noticed that the bottom of the master cylinder was covered with gunk! I guess dirt from the old lines. I should have really taken the master cylinder reservoir off and cleaned it but took the short cut by cleaning it with a paper towel and a rag. This soaked up all the rubbish and left the inside quite clean.
Some new Dot 3 fluid was added and I waited a while until I tightened up the bleed nuts. Then I bled both side several times using the one man brake bleeding device. The pedal pressure came up really well.
The only trouble with cleaning the back section of the reservoir meant the fluid in the front section looked very dirty so that is the next job.

I did the same with the rear line. Remember, it has only one bleeding nut on the LHS. After doing the same process, I am left with a brake pedal which is nowhere near good enough so I will need to go through the process of bleeding all the wheels again. A bit of a long drawn out process but at least I have new brake hoses and very clean, new brake fluid. I finally bleed all the lines about 3 times and although it is pretty good, I think it could be a fraction better.
So, now after all of that, I have new front brake hoses.
[Click on the photos for a better view]

Capri - Redlands Australia Day Rally 2019

Another good morning at the Redlands Australia Day Rally and this year the weather was pretty kind.
We even won a raffle which made it even better! There are always a huge range of very diverse cars at this event as the photos will show. Only one Capri this year but a lot of small & big Fords.



Click on the pics to enlarge.

Capri - Parking Brake at last

I have tried numerous times to get the parking brake on my white XL to actually hold. Every time I think the adjustment is correct, it just fails to hold. After thinking it might be the cable, I bought a new cable from the UK but that did not solve the problem either. I tried both the adjustments, the main cable & the rear cable but still it would not hold.
After having a good look with the brake fully on, I noticed that the main bracket attached to the axle housing was actually catching on the diff filler plug & this was preventing it being fully extended. (See the photo below)

 

My first thought was to see if the diff plug could be screwed in any further but after removing it and re inserting it, that was not the way to go as the plug was in as far as it would go.

Next idea was to insert a longer washer/spacer on the main cable so that I could get more adjustment at that point. (The last photo shows a small black pipe added before the main adjuster washer.) This still did not solve the problem as the brake was still not quite holding. It was nearly there but not quite!

Next idea was to try to shorten the rear cable between the two wheels by inserting a small metal collar (about 1 cm long) on the cable before the attaching bracket on the non- adjusting side. The collar was  from a metal building plug and was crimped onto the cable. (See the photos below.)

 

 

Just by shortening the cable by this small amount required me to slacken off the adjusting side and the rear cable was quite taut with the hand brake released. Then the test! I applied the parking brake & immediately noted that the adjustment had worked & the bracket was not catching on the diff plug. In fact, I had to slacken the adjuster off several time to get the interior brake lever at a reasonable height.
(Here is a photo with the final adjustment done. Note the difference between the bracket & the diff plug compared to the original position.)

 

With a few applications in the garage, it appears that the park brake is holding well, at last! I hope when I do a road test it also passes the test.

(To enlarge the photos, click on them)



Capri - Restored Cars Magazine (Jan-Feb 2019)

Our Capri Club President, Anthony & myself were approached at the All Ford Day in regards to an article on Ford Capris to be published in Restored Cars. After a photo shoot several months ago, the article and photos are in the Jan - Feb 2019 edition (No: 252). Here are some photos but there are more in the magazine.

Capri Club Christmas 2018

Last week the Capri Club held its annual Christmas breakup. The best car on the day was the Zircon Capri V6 owned by an 85 year old who drove up from the Northern Rivers of NSW. It won the trophy back in 2006 and looks just as good as it was then. It also has air conditioning which helped the drive on a really hot day. Here are some photos: