Harris.

So today ive taken the front roll bar off the 3 door to replace it with a saff 2wd one , problem im having is it seems to wide ,ive got the drivers side in and cant seem to get the passenger side in ,.

Ive unbolted the tca and then it goes in, but then you cant bolt the tca back up as its an inch to short .

Whos fitted one and what did you do ??

HELP i need to use the car

BRAMMER

iTrader: (23)

Can you not pull it in with a ratchet strap

Harris.

You ok brammer ? Ive not got one mate.i just gave up but putting the 3 door one back on is the same

So i may aswell keep trying with the saff one as heard there better ?????

dojj

iTrader: (3)

you need a ratchet strap to pull things together again or the ability to get both front wheels off the ground at the same time

Harris.

both wheels are off the ground ,on 2 trolly jacks mate

William MK2 Cosworth

only with a rachet strap or equivelant......

PAUL S

iTrader: (8)

check you have the correct one first as well, it should be stamped h14 on the drivers side part of the arb, just where the tca slides on, and the original one should be h13.

If you have big wheels the 2wd arb might force the wheels to far forward into the bumper

Harris.

I have 17s mate ,i will go and take alook. i still cant get it on .....

Harris.

Ok so ive tried to strap it with now joy? is there another way of fitting this bloody thing as ive now been laying in the garage since 11.30 trying to sort it out

dojj

iTrader: (3)

are you sure you haven't got the granada one or the 4wd cossie one?

they are very different and will give you "underpants" moments

what you do is put one end of the strap on one of the hubs and the other on the other end and crank it up

when you get to the point where both inner tca holes are in the correct position, slide them home and then tap them into place with a hammer and then use a screwdriver to line the holes up

you should make sure that the inner tca's actuall fit into the crossmember easily before you fit the arb as if the crossmember slot has been squashed by overtightening of the previous inner tca bolts it won't be wide enough to take the tca and so you will find they won't fit

Harris.

Im now trying to fit the standard 3 door arb back on . I used a strap (tied either end of the arb) and done it as tight as i could get it,the tried to fit it ,was still way out so the car can just sit on jacks tonight as ive had enough .

Harris.

So tomorrow ill undo the passenger tca ,fit the arb why its undone then use the strap to re position the tca ? correct way?

dojj

iTrader: (3)

the secret is to already have one tca in place before you strap the other one into place

you need a proper bigone, not osme el cheapo tesco one that holds your ipad to the car seat

dojj

iTrader: (3)

but yes, plut the arb into the ends of the tcas and fit them up so that all you hae to do is crank the arb to line up theone remaining tca inner bolt into the crossmember

if you have the rest of the suspension on place you get more leverage to put the strap into palce

Harris.

Thanks for your advice mate, i will have another go tomorrow.

What a pain in the arse job

dojj

iTrader: (3)

30 minutes if you klnow what you are doing

don't kill the otsl in the arb to body nounts either

Harris.

otsl? its all polybushed

Harris.

The tca is now around 5mm from me getting the bolt through but looking at the bolts for the anti roll bar they look threaded now so just trying to find a place open on a sunday who can supply them . if not il leave it off the road for the week .


Who has a 2wd saff roll bar on a 3 door because i hope this is all worth it

Marc sierra

iTrader: (1)

Put the arb through both tcas first and then fit one tca to the crossmember. After that you will have the problem you currently have.

I always jack up both tcas until the arb hole is level with the tca hole, that way you don't need to push the arb in really far. But be careful the car is still standing on the axle stands! When all the holes in the tcas are level I supply stick a screw driver through the hole in the crossmember to line it up perfectly. I never needed a ratchet strap.

Harris.

Today i went to get new nuts for the arb etc so i know all the threads will be ok .

My question is (why there is no roll bar on the car) what is the best one to fit ??

H13 3 door

or

H14 2wd saff

And will the arb polybushes i have fit on the saff roll bar too or do i need to replace ?

dojj

iTrader: (3)

i was a little the worse for wear the other night when i was typing and i meant "bolts"

if you have poly bushes then i found that it was always easier if i left the arb nuts a little loose to aid extra movement in the arb

it just takes a little patience the first time around, i'm sure if i was able to make some sort of teleportation device i could have had it fitted for you wihtin minutes because you have obvioulsy done something either wrong or you haven't tightened the ratchet far enough

dojj

iTrader: (3)

measure the thickness of the body of the arb

the cossie ones are 28mm and you should be able to use the same arb bushes on your one, they will come off easily enough

the polys in the tcas can stay in there, you don't need to move them

i am wondering if you have got the tca bushes in all the way onto the arb before you have started because trying to get them in afterwards is a small mission

Harris.

Me and my bright ideas !!! The whole jobs a mission I may undo both tca's and try it that way .

Sonic Boom

iTrader: (11)

I personally prefer the H13 original 3 Door one, makes the car feel more nimbler.
Rich

Mike1

I think all RS500s ( Paul will correct me if I'm wrong ) got the H14 bar and some of the late 3-doors?
Also, I think if customers at the time the cars were new ( i.e. 86/87 ) complained about straight-line stability and nervousness at high speed they would replace the H13 bar with the H14 ( 2wd Sapphire ) type. It gives about an extra degree of caster ( more steering self-centreing effect ) depending on the individual car.

m4tt274

iTrader: (2)

ive always felt as though im doing it wrong without the correct tools, but ive always used a ratchet strap to do it and succeeded.

AiToR51

I use the same method as dojj.

Insert a TCA in crossmember and bolt it
Insert ARB in this TCA and bolt
Insert the another TCA in the ARB and bolt

Then use the ratchet strap to tighten it, you've to tight it VERY HARD and then try to fit in crossmember using a hammer and a screw driver

I've to use hands, foot in the shell of the car, even a big rod into the ratchet to make more strenght with hands.

good luck

Harris.

But the saff roll bar will push the wheels forward ?? towards the bumper ?

I do find my 3 door twitches and does not like driving on the roads where lorrys have put ruts in the road .

Ive not had the time this week so ill give it a go on sat .

Mike1

Yes, that is right

It was a common complaint when the car was new especially from people driving on broken/heavily cambered road surfaces with longitudinal ridges. Car magazine commented on it with their long-termer they ran in '87 as did the old Performance Car magazine.

There were also mods for the power steering fluid reservoir cap and other stuff

Apparently the pre-prod press cars had even more responsive front ends but after complaints on the press launch in Spain they 'softened' the inner TCA mounting bush and made subtle alterations to the TRW steering rack gears before full production.

When they brought out the Sapphire various mods were made to the chassis/suspension to make it a less twitchy car as that was one of the complaints about the 3-door set up. it was supposed to be a more 'stable' car in extremis

Harris.

So mike would you fit the saff arb ?

Turbosystems

iTrader: (5)

there was a recal on affected 3 doors to have the rs500/ sapph h14 front roll bar fitted
all rs500's and later production 3 doors had the sapph h14 roll bar on them from the factory

Mike1

I've already got one.....thing is it's on my Sapphire! I have driven a 3-door but can't remember if the front end bothered me that much. Overall, I preferred the 2wd Sapphire to drive ( and hence bought one ) so I'm not a good person to ask probably!

On my old XR4i I never tried the 3-door front roll bar

Harris.

At last got it all fitted and its back on 4 wheels ,in the end i went for the H14 2wd saff arb BUT it now catches the front bumper as said above i have 17s .

Next question is: who has done this and what did you do ??

Also anyone who owns a rs500 can you see if it has the H14 fitted ?

Ive taken the front grill off and pulled the bumper as far forward as i can and still no joy. I dont mind trimming bumpers and arches as to me you cant see them anyway aslong its its done to a nice standard .

So again whos done the above , a picture would really help me out here of a 3 door with trimmed bumper/arches

Thanks

Dave

Harris.

Not the best as taken on my phone

RONNIE AMIS

iTrader: (17)

Mike what was the power steering cap modification?

Harris. You just need to trim the inner edge of the bumper and it should be ok

PAUL S

iTrader: (8)

Like all rush jobs, some 500s escaped the swap over at Tickford, mines still on a h13. I prefer it as well, the car feels sharper and the wheels are not to close to the front bumper.

adam151082

i had that problem, ended up getting compresion struts.
think ill get another ARB and grind the sholder back at work so it wont catch the bumper

Mike1

Hi Ronnie,

It doesn't detail exactly what was changed on the early cap - it just says that Ford recalled 2300 3-door Cosworths made between August 86 and December 86 for 'inspection and modification of certain components used in the cooling system'.

Discovered as "if you drove the car at high engine speeds for prolonged distances ( flat out for 20 miles ) " the PAS fluid could escape out the system as it was pumped around "resulting in severe leakage"

I believe this was discovered as a side effect of investigating the early head gasket problems that plagued the car. They ran post-production high speed testing at the speed bowl in Nardo to try and solve them involving the car being driven flat out for extended periods then shut down without idling.

I'll dig around for more info as I am in touch with the guy that ran the long term magazine test car in Performance Car from new - he might well remember as he likes Fords!

Cheers

Mike

BRAMMER

iTrader: (23)

My car is an early 86 with the first run cylinder head and i have had issues with the power steering system from day one of my ownership and especially on long trips, i would have to top it up continually as it was bubbling up around the bottle and leaking out.
I have since changed the lot for a Spec R PAS bottle with later cap design, recon 2wd Sapphire Cosworth rack, PAS 9 row Mocal cooler with larger piping, modified PAS pump in hope to cure this issue out.

I am also running the H13 still and don't find it a problem and the car turns in sharp on the road

Mike1

I must admit I love reading about and finding out the details surrounding the development of a car, why things were done, why they weren't, problems they had, changes they made etc