These pages serve as a repository for my Capri-related stuff, namely the list of some repairs done or to be carried out and hopefully completed on my 1978 Ford Capri that I have owned since February 2024.
 

On this page...

I had a morning drive to another neck-of-the-woods (pun intended) this week, and after a quick cup of coffee I stepped out to photograph the 'old Capri' amongst the trees:

I'd given the car a wash that morning but the paintwork needs a buff as the cover I'd had on it during some of the winter hadn't treated it too kindly. I'm still hoping to get a garage sorted out for it later this year...
 

Damn birds... and I'd just washed the car that morning!
 

I'd noticed a couple of leaks a while back but had been putting off/procrastinating about doing anything about them; the gearbox's rear seal appeared to be allowing fluid to spray around under the car, and the sump gasket appeared to be allowing oil to seep out onto the steering rack gaiter (such gaiters tend to eventually fail when this happens I believe).

I thought I might attempt to replace the sump gasket myself and get a garage to do the gearbox seal as I'd seen a video of someone replacing that and it seemed more involved, but in the end I realised I was not getting myself in gear (no pun intended), so I asked the garage to do both, having purchased all the necessaries myself.

However, the garage replaced the gearbox seal (above) but found it was still leaking and suggested the tail-shaft may be worn (looking online a further possibility is worn bearings, but I have not looked into this further.) As for what I thought was a leaking sump gasket they said was the front seal, so that would be a different task. For now I will just keep the engine oil topped up (it's hardly losing anything), and keep an eye (feel) on the gearbox, and either escalate things or just get the garage to top that back up when I think it needs it - I've bought some more fluid ready, either way [EDIT: I have bought a pump to attempt this myself].
 

It was time to give the car an oil and filter change. All went straightforward although when changing the inline fuel filter in the engine bay (something I hadn't done before, but it certainly needed it), I found the rubber fuel lines to be split at the ends where they join the filter. I snipped the ends off back to fresh material but then had trouble getting one end in particular to not slip off the filter when tightening the hose clamp. I saw the hose was still splitting so I trimmed it back a little further and then used a cable tie to pull the two hose clamps together against the filter (a trick I'd seen on Junkyard Digs).

Also, while I was under the car I noticed that a front right tyre is wearing on the inside. This is especially annoying because it is the other front one that has a slow puncture and worn thread on the valve stem, and is the side with the play in the inner tie rod of the steering rack. It would be silly to replace tyres before I get the rack sorted, but I can't do that until I can source inner tie rods, or bite-the-bullet and get the rack refurbished (I'm not convinced by "reconditioned" things because I had a reconditioned rack to another car and it only lasted 12 months before play developed again just as before). Plus, an inner tie rod is a fraction of the price. Surely the guys reconditioning the racks must have access to a supply of inner tie rods... I've made some attempts to find out if the same part is used on other models of Ford from the era; no success yet.
 

The engine oil I opted for

You can read the tale of events [here]

Was it the distributor cap after all?

The Chevy truck was oddly surreal, firstly (besides not having them here in the UK) because of it being left-hand drive, but secondly because I watch a couple of Youtube channels where such vehicles are fixed up, it took a moment for my brain to register that it didn't belong here. The Talbot camper was pretty awesome to see, as was the little mini. I got a friendly wave from the driver of the Caterham. But, for a change, my Capri was not the star-of-the-show in the Lidl carpark...

This is "Calamity Jane" and I found she and her rider have a Youtube channel. Such an inspiration.

It seems as if few trips out in a car (I generally only drive one day a week) don't experience some issue (usually some minor thing that "I need to address at some point"). Last month had the distributor cap failure [see below] and this is a continuation of that.

I had replaced the distributor cap but I had come to decide that I should have replaced the rotor arm too; "they wear together" ChatGPT later confirmed. The car, prior to the distributor cap failing, had been somewhat "lurchy" when holding a steady speed on a flat road. I thought the replacement cap had improved this but in addition to this it wasn't quite starting the same. So I set about sourcing a replacement rotor arm.

The first one that arrived was blatantly the wrong one (perhaps for a "V6 Essex engine" not a 1.6 Pinto with Bosch* distributor).

*I used ChatGPT throughout this saga to both educate me and try and suggest parts; it wasn't much use on the latter and would tend to fire back a part I had told it about as if it had sourced that snippet of information on its own.

Then I found rotor arms labelled exactly for my engine and distributor... so that must be correct, right?

There were noticeable differences; could these be overlooked and deemed to be simply a different manufacturer's way of doing things?

Top, Lucas-branded, bottom, Beru (originally fitted)

I installed the part and started the car and went out for a drive. Things seemed fine, improved in fact, but then there was a small misfire some 10 miles later when I pulled into an industrial estate, and then a stall and a slight struggle to restart when I came to slowly back out of a parking space on tick-over; "perhaps nothing unusual" I thought...

But then things started to deteriorate further; a loss of power if I stuck my foot down, and further stallings whenever I had to stop suddenly, and the car becoming increasingly difficult to start again. I rolled back only my drive (literally, because the car had cut out again), and set to diagnosing the issue.

In proceeding to check the leads it seemed to me that the exhaust manifold was noticeably hot, like a furnace that I didn't want to get my hands near to reach for the plug leads. I recalled that one of the guys who had helped me with my car when I broke down last month due to the failed distributor cap had commented on the engine being "hot", I just thought this was nothing beyond expected given it was a hot day and I'd driven around 100 miles. But now I noticed it too, even though then I managed to tinker with things, and now I didn't want to get near it, so perhaps it was hotter still.

I consulted ChatGPT about this; the heat and running issues, and it suggested the timing was off, causing combustion to happen in the exhaust manifold instead of where it's supposed to. Since all that had changed, as far as I knew, was that I'd fitted this new rotor arm; I guessed the different style was indeed the issue and I researched this further.

In addition to the heat, there was now a noticeable problem within the new distributor cap; the plastic on one edge of each of the four contacts was chipped away. I couldn't see how the rotor arm could have collided with this area to cause the damage, but instead it must have been the spark.

From my understanding the replacement original rotor arm (which is what I was trying to use) would have had a resistor in it, but because the original set of points had been replaced with an "AccuSpark" ignition system, that setup included a different rotor arm (a "red rotor"), and these are for the higher performance spark the AccuSpark system provides, and lack the resistor. I tried to check continuity and resistance with my multi-meter but this read that each rotor arm I now had was simply open circuit, even though they did work to some degree. I needed to find the correct rotor arm.

The original rotor arm on the car was a Beru EVL 4/6-0 FB and I had been trying to find an equivalent due to cost and availability. I think that might be a discontinued part. ChatGPT suggests 4/6 simply indicates is is for 4/6 cylinder engines. Beru's own website claims they supply rotor arms "With/without 1 kOhm — 5 kOhm interference", so perhaps the "0" in the model number implies no resistor. Their part finder provides no rotor arms for my car and has scant information on the Beru EVL 104 I have chosen to order from ebay. It looks right, but I won't know until I receive it and try it.

Oh, and once again I managed to pull one of the leads off its end... luckily I still had a long-enough spare from the ones I replaced last time, after I did the same thing (and I was being careful too).
 

With my car polished and buffed, I set off for a car show some 4-hour-drive-away... check out this view:

...yeah, this is a layby. I was supposed to pick my brother up on the way (from his house, not a layby), but within just 20 minutes my car stumbled and died when I stuck my foot down... twice. I got it going again after an hour, but essentially had to head back home #disappointing

Anyway1, you may recall that my car had an issue back in May that got resolved when I swapped in a new distributor cap... or rather, it seemed to. I'm now thinking that things had just cooled down enough... and that these issues have all been because of overheating *slaps forehead*

Anyway2, that's all a WIP while I procrastinate / wait for some hoses to arrive. I've learned a lot more about what's what and how things work, like adjusting timing and idle, and ignition circuits, I've even meddled with the valve clearances again... I'm just hoping I don't have a head-gasket to replace.

With my car having ongoing issues (see above - namely it cut out a couple of times and is then hard to start again) I proceeded to try and get to the bottom of things. Since I'd managed to get it started again by dowsing the AccuSpark module in nice cold electrical contact cleaner, I began here and ordered a replacement module. I'd done some research which had indicated that the setup required a certain rating of coil and I was being lead to believe my car was using the wrong one (I was mistaken here, but stick with me).

I contacted AccuSpark after placing my order, but before I'd received it, and was simply advised to follow "Diagram 1". However, when the kit and included instructions arrived (which are quite comprehensive and get you to do a number of checks before installing the module itself), I came to realise my current setup more closely resembled Diagram 2, and I couldn't see how to change it to the first. One of the checks involved determining the voltage being supplied from the ignition circuit and this read 5V on my meter and implied there was a resistor in the circuit somewhere, however the length of wire running from the fusebox to the coil was clearly visible in its entirety and there was certainly no resistor here.

I consulted ChatGPT on this matter and following my suggestion that 5V was somewhat low it kept reitterating this as fact and lead me somewhat astray and into some concern that the car's ignition switch was suspect.

I came to recall that when I change the car's radio that this was wired into the ignition circuit and I'd kept this setup the same with my replacement. Had I overloaded the ignition circuit and worn out the switch? I delved back into the dashboard and rewired things so the stereo was now powered by the cigarette lighter circuit which is always live and only the REM wire was connected to the ignition circuit (to command the stereo on when the ignition is turned on), also meaning the stereo would keep its settings as it hadn't before (I knew this would be the case and I had decided I didn't care, I was just trying to avoid the stereo from draining the battery).

Anyway, that made no difference other than I think the stereo is performing better now it is not being powered by the ignition circuit.

Furthermore, in going down the path of "is the ignition circuit at fault?" I had ordered a relay which would have allowed me to power the ignition coil directly from the battery, but I (thankfully) never employed this.

It turned out I had been measuring the coil wrong, and I should have realised this - when measuring resistance you need to first measure the tester itself by putting it's leads together, then whatever reading you get should then be subtracted from the reading you get from the thing you're testing, i.e. my coil measured 2.4 ohms, but my tester's leads were 1 ohm, thus the coil was actually 1.4 ohms. I'd given this 2.4 ohm reading to the AccuSpark guy and thus he'd said to follow Diagram 1 as this was close to being a 3 ohm coil (which it now evidently was not) and thus a non-ballasted circuit (no resistor). Mine is a ballasted circuit, and the resistor must be somewhere in the dashboard before the fusebox.

Anyway, I figured all this out after replacing the coil with AccuSpark's own 1.5 ohm coil, because it measured exactly the same as the one I was trying to replace! Oh well, all that's new now, the only problem I had with this new coil was that it had incompatible terminals so I had to employ my new crimping tool here.

The AccuSpark kit also included a complementary rotor arm, so I swapped that too but alas the car still has issues and I've come to realise... it's overheating.

Something one of the guys said when I broke down in May was "The engine seems a bit hot." I thought this was odd but it stuck with me; it was a hot day and I'd driven for over an hour already, so "sure, the engine would be hot..."

When I got the car I observed the termpurature gauge typically reaching 1/4 or 1/3 the way up, and then if I was stuck in traffic I'd keep an eye on it and observe it getting up to half way. Beyond this I stopped paying attention. I'd also checked the water when I got the car, and again after I'd been on day-long drives to the couple of car shows last year and never really had to put any water in. The water just looked like it needed changing and I had intended to do this before the winter but never did.

Anyway, I now had this inkling that the car was becoming problematic once it had warmed up (it would always start fine) and I'd had such an issue with a car in the past that turned out to be the thermostat, so here I ordered a new thermostat along with a pair of radiator hoses as these ones seemed past their best and even showing signs of splitting, that and the hose clips were rusty, so I ordered shiny new ones of those.

When I came to do the job of draining the coolant to change the thermostat and swap the hoses I discovered the coolant was low in the radiator (there is no separate header tank). Du'h! I'd not once checking this throughout these issues since May. I felt stupid; I'd just been assuming all was well in this department - I'd been checking the oil (and already replaced that) and all was fine there.

Before draining the coolant completely I topped it up by a measured amount to determine how much it had lost: at least a litre, and maybe more if an air blockage had occurred.

I also discovered that all of the hoses, including the ones to the heater core, were crusty and needed replacing, a sign that the engine had overheated, so I had to order those heater hoses too. This was turning into an expensive job now because one of those heater hoses was hard to source and even then I hadn't found the right one as they differ depending on which carburettor is used.

I was now hoping I could just replace the thermostat, hoses and coolant and all would be well. But, no.

I took particular care to avoid air blocks in the system as the Hayne's manual and others said this was a common problem when refilling the system. I couldn't be certain I wasn't getting an air block, but I was doing my best to rule that out. With all that said the car was still overheating (the needle was passing half way) 5 minutes up the road. I got a few miles away and then had to park in a layby with the bonnet up waiting for the tempurature to get back down to 1/4 before proceeding further, stopping a second time for half and hour, and then getting home (even though the car had likely been overheating prior to my knowledge of the issue, I didn't want to be knowingly driving with it like that). But when did it lose that litre of coolant? Back in May on that fateful day? It seemingly ran ok after I got it started again, but now it doesn't once warmed up.

There was one thing left in the cooling department: the water pump, so I researched and ordered a replacement... and ordered the wrong one!

I thought there were only two obvious variations: how the fan attaches, and the style of impeller. But no, the one I received had a threaded spindle for the pulley and fan, whereas mine required a non-threaded one (the bonus here is that the company just refunded me, even though it was my mistake).

With the correct one purchased and everything reinstalled (the radiator had to come out) and coolant put back in again (I'd bottled it up to reuse and it now contained stopleak*), I went out in the car again, and... it still overheats.
 

With the issue of coolant loss and overheating, these things were pointing towards a blown head gasket. The issue with this was that there were really no other signs; there was no notable white smoke from the exhaust, and no mayonnaise in the oil. When I'd originally drained the coolant it showed a slight hint of oil being present by way of a hint of a film on the surface, but to me this wasn't significant enough.

I therefore proceeded to order a compression tester and I tested each of the four cylinders. A clear sign would be that two adjacent cylinders would display low compression...

They didn't. However, #1 was notably low, #2 was ok, #3 was somewhat low, and #4 was ok. The verdict? Inconclusive.

While I still couldn't rule out the head gasket, things were now looking like piston/cyclinder issues with regards to cylinders #1 and #3, so I now ordered a simple and cheap borescope, here are the resulting pictures:

To my eyes, and from my understanding, the crown of cylinder #1 coincides with its compression test result being low; I think it's quite noticably pitted.

Somewhat surprising through all of this is cylinder #4 because, and I'm not sure I've mentioned this, when I replaced the spark plugs last year I discovered that at some point the threads had been damaged and a heliocoil inserted. I'd always assumed this wouldn't bode well for things and perhaps that cylinder would have low compression and show some signs of damage. The opposite seems to be the case and I'm even suspecting that this cylinder has been reworked because 1) its compression is as good as cylinder #2, and 2) it looks pretty good in there. I'd worried that the work to install the heliocoil could not have been carried out safely in situe and the head would have had to have come off in order to avoid fine shards of metal ending up in the cylinder.

So, how to proceed?

I'm not certain if the state of the pistons has deteriorated since my ownership of the car, or suddenly got worse, or if perhaps a fuel mixture (or even bad fuel) is to blame for the running issues of late. I still don't know how/when the loss of coolant has occurred.

I've even contemplated, and had it suggested to me, that a deterioration of the radiator could be causing the whole cooling system to be running hotter; I did flush out the whole system and there was rusty water throughout, and the radiator was removed and given a good shake and flush, but I'm reluctant at the moment to throw £180 at a new radiator.
 

August was a bust - there was that car show [see below] that I never got to and with another one planned (and paid for) at the end of the month [August] I had to bail out of that one too... luckily I hadn't also booked a campsite spot.

I pretty much determined my car had a failed head gasket and after doing a compression test and probing the orifices with an orifice-probing camera I further determined some further work will be required beyond just doing the head gasket (pistons/piston rings etc - hopefully nothing more). If it had been a clear-cut-case of "oh, it's just he head gasket" I could have pressed-ahead and tackled that in my driveway with the hope of getting to the next car show, but that wasn't to be the case. Oh well.

(I've never done this level of work on a car myself before but being a 40-year-old car, it all seems pretty simple and straightforward to work on, so I'm hopeful...)

I then had to switch my attention to getting my garage sorted, which I should have been doing already, and now September is well under-way. I spent a week shuffling computers and stuff about my house from the soon-to-be garage into other rooms, creating lists of what was going where. Then came all of the little bits and pieces and that has been taking more time than the bulky stuff. Now I'm down to bare workbenches which were once to be home to a model railway that never really materialised... I have a life of unfinished projects, and some barely-begun ones; I try not to dwell on this.
 

Finally, my car has its garage...

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