cozmic

Hi all heres a bit of detective work if anyone wants it I need a number plate light (complete unit) for my mk3 zodiac i,ve done all the usual ebay owners club etc to no avail. Knowing what ford are I guessed they may well have used the unit on other vehicles, I know mk1 & 2 cortinas are different, prefacelift mk1 escorts look very similar but without a part number I don,t know The zodiac part number is 211E-13543 so if anyone can tell me either if they know what else it fits or where I can buy one I would be very grateful Bye for now Charlie

Welcome to you mate good to see another mk3 on here

hi all apart from a couple of years college I learnt my trade and gained my qualifications (tree surgeon) on the job. My wife however attended university and gained a bachelors degree, a post graduate degree and a masters degree over a period and is now employed in local government the point i,m trying to make is that although I am classed as a professional my wife earns about 11k a year more than I can and I earn fairly good salary. So as long as students study a subject they are likely to persue and pass theyre courses they can earn good pay which more than offsets the rise in student fees

no it's not threaded just push the long piece of plastic on the cable end and it should just pop off http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Speedo-Cable-Ford ... 230c70155f this link shows a close up of the cable end

As far as I rememer the speedo cable has a nylon collar/ clip that secures it to the speedo head. The easiest way to remove it is undo the instrument cluster ease it as far forward as possible ( possibly remove the column surrond as well) you should then be able to get your hand round the rear of the speedo and feel the clip, it has a ridge sticking out which if you press it in (it is pretty stiff) the speedo cable should detach It is easy to remove even if my insruction dosen,t oh and sorry about all the double entendres

Don,t forget old ford auto's do the ford pinto engine and capri steering/suspension conversion

Cheers mate I,m retrimming the interior over the winter changing it from black to red and re-chroming the bumpers I'll post up some pictures when I get started

Never heard of them but looks a very well made zorst, can your supplier not shed anymore light on the company who made it ?

Yep pretty miffed some fool put a mk4 gunsight on it looks pooh but if I take it off i,m left with 2 holes don,t really want to have to mess around with it yet as the paint is so good. Going to have to go soon though bloody thing

Aah ok thats made things a bit different the twincam/ double width thing is a classic rally setup used by ford on their twincam rally cars before the group 4 cars came along. It is a good baseline setup it may however be a little "soft" for serious track days depending on your suspension strut/spring settings, pesonally I would be looking at using coilovers with maybe 170lb springs with 300/70 short bilstein inserts and then the twincam arb, anti dive kit, poly bushed through out ,adjustable tca's are a good idea as they will enable you to get a bit more camber angle. Ok I realise that little lot ain't cheap but it is a good proven tarmac system which works well, obviously this is only my opinion it never hurts to get as much info as possible ,the nearest to trackdays I got was tarmac rallying so other peoples suggestions may be better than mine. Iam somewhat envious I must admit I haven,t built a competition car in years but I do miss it.......................................not enough to sell my zodiac though

Tension struts will take a fair bit of abuse especially if you can uprate any of the bushes/ struts etc , ie on a mk1 or 2 escort a good all round setup is twincam antiroll bar, double width kit , poly bushes or race spec solid bushes, and an anti dive kit. Lots of people track their cars using this kind of setup and get good results, I only ever ran tension struts on my club level rally cars and found the setup more than satisfactory. I don,t know what is available for a fiesta but I would imagine there,s plenty to choose from a poke around the web should give you plenty of options race preperation garages will normally give good free advice

WOW 200 bhp out of a 2553 six is very impressive that must be pretty much at it,s limit, as you say I can imagine that it won't last long if most of the internals are stock, the engineering tolerances are pretty slack in there A friend of mine ran a mk3 zody with a full raymond mays head/ carbs and manifold and it produced nowhere near that amount and lasted about 2 years. As far as I,m aware the weakest parts are the main bearings and big ends and obviously the head ,pre xflow was never a brilliant way to go due to poor flow characteristics and valve bounce at higher revs. I have heard of people boring the block and using 2.8i pistons (with suitable machine work) which would increase power over stock and enable you to lower compression ratio to suit a turbo better. The biggest problem facing a carb turbo setup is the carb pressurisation I know renault managed it as did suzuki on a bike engine. a normal carb will normally fail to hold pressure properly, but searching the web further may help you find a solution good luck looking forward to hearing how you progress with this if you run into any problems feel free to message me I have 10 years engineering experiance although I haven,t done much recently

I take it your referring to tension strut/ anti roll bar versus compression strut. The compression strut is a much heavier duty unit and keeps the wheel in its correct position fore and aft, it does however mean you have to lose the anti roll bar so people tend to run higher poundage springing to cancel out some body roll, this setup does tend to be a pretty hardcore setup and does transmit a far amount of vibration and noise. A tension strut/ anti roll bar setup is a more road orientated setup as it means you can run softer spring rates without losing handling, the trade off is the road wheel can move fore and aft more as there are more bushings involved which all flex when the car is driven, however they do give a more isolated ride as the bushings absorb most of the vibration Basically then if most of your driving is on the road (even spirited) your best bet is probabaly a heavier duty version of the tension bar/anti roll bar setup with poly bushes. Hope that helps

sounds like either an airlock or jammed thermostat, never heard of the jet wash idea before be interested to hear if it works

Tuning the 2553 straight six zodiac engine is quite expensive with few real term gains to be had: Raymond mays head, triple carbs,extractor manifold will yield about 116 bhp which is about all the standard clutch can cope with (it was always only just adequate). Fuel consumption with that little lot would be around 12 mpg Old ford auto can supply you with a complete front suspension/steering setup which will allow you to bolt a pinto straight in with the benefit of capri steering/suspension/brakes to boot, admittedly not cheap as it has to be done all in one go but a good end result, especially as the pinto has huge tuning potential. Having said that as a lot of people have already said the engine bay is pretty big so loads of options I know an essex slots in with no baulkhead mods required, so time to decide which direction you want to go in hope some of that helped

Yep probably either condensation or dodgy fuel station fuel, unless you have a split filler pipe or fuel cap sealing ring, if it becomes a problem Wynns dry fuel is the business just poor it in with a fuel tank of petrol and it somehow neutralises the water ???? don,t know how it does it but it does

Oh what !!! just when I was working out how to fit a ground effects body kit and demon roof spoiler to my Zodiac along with 8 exhaust pipes and a set of under floor neons Guess I won,t be getting a feature then

6 pot righteousness

My cousin had a harrier the same colour years back quite the hot ticket in its day class motor nice motor mate

They weren't old when I started driving seriously though they were just good cheap fun motors mainly mk2 and mk3 tinas, and capris then I got into zodiac mk3's I guess because my dad had 3 of them when I was a kid. When I got older I strayed and owned 4 or 5 bmw's and a few other things (mainly junk) but got another mk3 zodiac bout 3 weeks and still can't understand why I ever drove anything else.

Aways had a soft spot for mk3,s this one is the dogs excellent work bud you really did the biz I take my hat off to you well done

Hi everyone as promised heres a couple of pics of my new ride i,ll try to get some better ones on soon hope you approve/like .It was restored about 9 years ago the interior needs a quick tidy up but other than that its pretty tidy.

Hi all not sure if this is the right place for this post but thought it may be, just wondered if there are anymore isle of wight osf people on here be good to meet some like minded locals for meets cruises chats etc

HI people finally back in the old ford fold after a few years in bmw wilderness just picked up a nice clean mk3 zodiac and am wondering why I ever strayed from the blue oval. I have owned around 25 old fords 1974 or earlier mainly zodiacs, cortinas, capris or escorts, I,m 44 and live on the (sometimes)sunny isle of wight a few old fords over here but getting scarcer every year, my kids are pretty much grown up now so the only child at home now according to my wife is me hope to get to know a few of the people on here and make some new friends. I,ll get some pictures of my zodiac on here soon take care everyone Charlie