'94 Escort Wagon: Continued

A few months ago, I purchased my brother's Escort, which he'd had for about a year and a half. That thread can be read for your enjoyment here. Now, I figured I'd keep that up now that it's been passed on. Some updates very soon.

yessss! I was sad to see this one go.

You can't go wrong with an Escort wagon.

Here's the deal: I have a kind-of-cool plan for this car, which I hope to complete before it falls apart, but I've inherited some other important problems. The exhaust had some holes which were fixed quite a few months ago with some cans and clamps, but it appears the pipe has hung a hole in itself on the hanger at the middle of the car. That's probably first order of business since I don't want to die sitting in traffic. Also, this pesky rust will have to be dealt with again soon. I ordered strut kits for the rear a couple weeks ago, finally, but they're on backorder (pooey). Then I got distracted looking at driving lights to stick on the bumper. I will do that when it's allowed by my small income. Also while doing all of that I found myself looking for an Escort GT grille, because they're cool. Much to my surprise I found one. And promptly purchased it for perhaps more than is reasonable for a piece of plastic. Now, when I can buy those lights...

Guess the pictures didn't work. Well here they are... Exhaust: Rust on the wheel arches: Grille!

It's been a while. State of things: Finally got the the hole in the exhaust. Got a new resonator and pipe but the bolts behind the cat were obviously too rusted (if there ever were bolts anymore. Seemed to me like just a lump of rust) to do anything with. Out came to sawzall. Then later I decided not to fudge it together Roadkill style, and actually try to get the bolts out. Since I couldn't get a good angle with the sawzall, I tried a hacksaw, which proved nearly fruitless. While sawing, though, the cat started to move, and eventually it got to the point where it could be moved side to side and forward much more than seemed normal. Yippee. Unattached the cat from the manifold, and all appeared to be okay.

Now I need to somehow replace the studs that attach the cat to the manifold, but I can't find where to get those alone—only with a new manifold, which I don't need. I do, though, still need to get the end of the old resonator off the other end of the cat. So right now I'm attempting to decide between buying a new cat and manifold, which I understand would be a pain to replace, as well as unnecessary, or just taking it up to our local friendly shop and paying them to do all my work for me.

Also, new rear strut assemblies came today.

Also, I'll be looking into the rear brakes—and the sticky parking brake—soon. The drums will likely be a shop job.

Being a Texas Escort guy I notice the different problems we have. Shame we are not closer! You get rust and we get sun and heat damage. I have yet to see an Escort exhaust rust out and have several on my parts cars. We blow up plastics and paint but not rust.

Bruce

The best part about this particular Escort is that it's been both a Florida car and a Michigan car. So its rusty AND the plastic bits are crumbly. At least the body is mostly solid. Here it's rare to see a Ford from this era that still has rocker panels.

Yeah, I was gonna say, I've seen much worse bodies on those cars than this. Hell, this is practically museum quality around these parts.

How long did the Coke can fart can hold up?

ssswitch wrote: Yeah, I was gonna say, I've seen much worse bodies on those cars than this. Hell, this is practically museum quality around these parts. How long did the Coke can fart can hold up?

Not long. Now it's got shiny new exhaust from the cat back, which I had the friendly local shop do because there was a stupid frozen stud in the manifold (they said it was broken. Hmm..).

Alas, an update. After much angry hammer-pounding, the new struts and exhaust, and even rear sway bar links, have been installed. It doesn't sound like an old airplane anymore, which is both a good and a little sad. Now though, when I start moving there seems to be a fairly significant vibration coming from somewhere. Not sure if that's normal. I know this car won't last much longer, and that's sad; if it was going to last a while, and I somehow got ample monies (the least likely of the two), I had a good plan for it: Just a quick trace/sketch render. I got impatient by the time the wheels came around. They'd be Enkei Classics or something similar, or maybe something like white Sparco Terras. Also the aux lights are further apart and smaller than they'll actually be. Those are the only part of this idea that will happen, unfortunately. In addition to those, there's the GT bumper with the square fog lights. Oh, and it'd have a possibly-turbo'd Zetec or Duratec.

On the way home from work I messed up the shift linkage (and the shift bushings have been pretty much depleted already). I think I shifted too hard, maybe into 4th, so basically to get it in 2nd and 4th the rest of the way I had to pull back hard on the lever and hold it until it was in gear. Assuming it was something simple like that the bushing was finally completely gone, I thought I'd just look at it in the morning since I have the day off. Drove home, parked it. Half hour later my dad says, "You know your car's broken?". Well, a lot of things are broken, so yeah kinda. But no... Surprise! That can't be right. I didn't see personally, but something is very broken. Sigh. Apparently it will need welding, so it might be a little while... Hopefully I can drive it just with 1st, 3rd, and 5th... I still don't know how I was lucky enough that it didn't actually fall off until after I was home from my 20-mile trip home.

I'm gonna play armchair mechanic, ya ready?

That really just looks unbolted, I smell a quick fix.

In reply to ValuePack:

If only that were true. Took a look for myself and can confirm that it's broken broken. Here's where it bolts in.

I like the miata wheels on it, its a nice touch.

Well, crap. Are the threads history or did the boss crack and bolt just walked itself out? Threads don't look too happy from here...

In reply to ValuePack: There's a little thread left way further in there, not sure if it would hold at all. I'll see if I can get something welded on there and then drill the hole and thread it.

Updates! 1. Fixed that transmission linkage bolt, just re-drilled and stuck in a helicoil. 2. Bought some Hella 500FF lights, but haven't had time to figure out how to wire them up because I finally got hardware to mount them and am now not home. 3. Did the rear brakes, which was intimidating because they're drums and it was my first actual brake job. New shoes and drums, and the parking brake mechanisms were completely frozen up, so I took care of that. 4. Drove it 750 miles to Atlanta with no problemo.

drewski1611 wrote: Updates! 1. Fixed that transmission linkage bolt, just re-drilled and stuck in a helicoil. 2. Bought some Hella 500FF lights, but haven't had time to figure out how to wire them up because I finally got hardware to mount them and am now not home. 3. Did the rear brakes, which was intimidating because they're drums and it was my first actual brake job. New shoes and drums, and the parking brake mechanisms were completely frozen up, so I took care of that. 4. Drove it 750 miles to Atlanta with no problemo.

Win!

Now stick a turbo on it

In reply to BlueInGreen44:

i vote KLZE swap or BPT

Hello again GRM world, it's been a while. Here's the dealio: I need new wheel bearings so I bought them like... 5 months ago but still haven't replaced them, because I'm confused and stuff. Next, I had a little oopsie with an icy road without snow tires. Did an extra-good job and wiped out TWO wooden reflector posts. Next, I fiiinally installed my Hellas. I'll have to move the switch to put the radio back in though... wish there was a better spot for it... Now it's just down to the sticky parking brake (think it's the cable), bearings, and an annoying exhaust rattle. Oh, and a vacuum leak, maybe checking out a leaky brake master cylinder... I'll probably think of some other important things.

Clutch issues have had the mule-wagon sidelined for a few days now. Around this time last week they started, before the weekend I bled the system, and it then drove fine over the weekend... only to begin its stubbornness the following Monday. Ordered new clutch master, clutch slave, and brake master cylinders, so by now I've removed all but the old slave. The flare nut wouldn't come off for now. Updates will follow.

Additionally: last week I also went to a salvage yard I was told of, so I salvaged the following: a bumper (of the same color! Of the 4 or 5 same-gen 'Scorts, 2 were green); a glove compartment (one of mine's hinges broke so now it's super annoying); an inside door handle (now everybody won't have to ask how and struggle to get out); anddd a visor clip. Didn't have to pay for that last one; score! Yeah, boring stuff. Tried to get a left fender off but between them both being more rusty then mine, and my not caring enough, I scrapped that idea.

Unfortunately, the new bumper means I won't immediately have the Hellas back on. They were a pain to get off, anyway. Maybe I'll just save them for the 924 (whenever that actually gets going again).

I got everything on, but... Still not done, mostly because the bleeder screws on the rear are quite stuck and I don't want to round them off. So, many rounds of PB Blaster later...

Also, one of the wheels won't come off because the shop tightened two of the lugs too tight... for the impact wrench... Not sure how they did that. Welp... not going there again, I guess.

Rust sucks,up here in the rust belt I haven't actually seen a '94 escort since about '96 as by then only the door handles up remained.