Cheers JB

I'm sure I did the ones under the plug leads but I will check

Yes, leads are different lengths on mine, but I'm paranoid!

S

More sunshine today, so I decided to tackle another pressing issue: the dying windscreen wiper linkage. I bought another one from Baz (BRV6) a good while back, so thought I'd finally have a crack at fitting it. The wiper had been catching on the edge of the bonnet and making it awkward to close, and the cheeky pups at the MOT centre marked it down as an advisory, saying the wiper was "insecure": which it wasn't, it was just off-centre

Anyway, unfortunately the images have vanished from the guide on here, so I did it blind!

Tools: socket set (if I remember correctly I used 10mm, 11mm, 12mm), flathead screwdriver, small crosshead screwdriver, pliers, lots of shop roll, degreaser, sandpaper, zinc spray, gaffa tape, loads of lubricating spray ... and the kitchen sink. No, really! I had to wash the rubber scuttle strip in it

Oh, and copius amounts of TEA.

New linkage:



You can see how off-centre it's become:



Rubber cap removed, and then this nut removed (I think it was the usual 10mm) - done on both arms:



It took me a while to figure out how to get the wiper arms off the spindles: it turns out you have to bend them backwards at the first joint, so they're in an "L" shape with the arm pointing straight upwards, and then it's easy to wiggle them off. This has to be done with the bonnet UP. After these were done it was time to take off the scuttle panel and the rubber strip. The little clips on the rubber strip need squeezing with a pair of pliers so they can be pushed upwards to release the strip.





Then time to remove 6 of these across the top of the scuttle panel. The bonnet has to be DOWN for this.



Now the panel's out in the sun, you can see how faded it is. I gave it a good cleanup and a respray with some matt black before replacement. There was loads of trash caught under the panel and underneath it, the bottom of the windscreen was caked with gunk, so that all got a good clean as well.





Time to remove the linkage: it's fastened at 3 points. The passenger end bolts onto the wiper motor. You can see on the driver end and the middle one that there's the spindle which the wipers fit onto, and then two bolts on either side:



At this point, and I can't remember how it happened, but when I was shifting or moving something there was a loud crack, and the dying part of the linkage finally gave way. So now the driver's wiper didn't work at all, and it was "do or die", as I couldn't legally drive the car without windscreen wipers. Cue "try not to panic and hope to God the new linkage fits and I don't break it" mode.

First problem: when I started undoing the flange bolts on the now-broken linkage, the thing was so corroded that the first bolt just broke off:





The second bolt also broke but further down, so it was still usable. The middle part of the linkage was in pretty good nick and the bolts caused no problems. It took me a while to figure out how to remove the other end, however: it's attached to the wiper motor with a connecting plate and ball joint.





First there's a securing 12mm nut and split washer to come off, which is no problem. But how this connecting plate and ball-joint then comes off the wiper motor spindle is not immediately obvious, as it's difficult to manoeuvre the linkage in the confined space. In the end I loosened the bolts on the wiper motor, which loosened everything off and I was finally able to get the connecting plate off and free the entire linkage.

Look at the state of this thing!!!



Then I realised there was no plate and ball joint on the new linkage, and I'd have to transfer it from the old one. But that required having a plastic cap on the end of the linkage, into which the ball joint fits. Unfortunately there wasn't one on the new linkage, and the cap on the old one was fastened with a plastic retaining ring on the back, which is not designed to come off. I swore rather a lot at this point.



However I managed to carve off the retaining ring with a penknife, and at least salvage the cap part by popping it out of the old linkage:



It was still possible to pop it into the new linkage and push the ball joint into it from the other side, but without the retaining ring it was very loose and would probably have come out.

GAFFA TAPE TIME!!!





So basically, I bodged it. The tape is strong enough to hold the plastic cap in place, without restricting the movement of the ball. God knows how long this will last, but gaffa tape has a half-life of about 4000 years, so hopefully it will see Sundance out.

Time to put the new linkage in. The driver end was corroded like the old one, but not half as badly, so I brushed off the worst of it and then sprayed zinc undercoating on it.



But then I had a problem in that when I took the old linkage off and two of the bolts broke, I was now left needing 4 bolts to fix the new linkage, but I only had 2 and a half (one was broken but still with enough thread to be usable). SO: I pinched a bolt from the air filter box bracket, which was exactly the same size, and the bracket doesn't really need two. I'll get some replacements on eBay.



All reassembling very nicely. You can see the damage on the wiper where it kept catching the bonnet before:



Everything back in place except the rubber strip:



BUUUUUT ....
.... when I tried the wipers they didn't seem to work. The linkage worked fine, I had tried it before I put everything back. But with the wipers on again, nothing worked. After taking off the wipers and scuttle panel again several times, I worked out that it was a timing problem, and that the motor was trying to drive the wipers into a position they couldn't go, which made them stop. Solution: Eventually I fitted just one wiper, with the scuttle panel off, and watched how the linkage moved, and where the wiper ended up after each cycle. I slightly loosened off the linkage at the motor end and gradually adjusted its starting position, and the position of the wiper on the spindle, eventually managing to get the end of the wipe cycle to match up with the wiper resting where it should towards the bottom on the windscreen

... and then just as I was congratulating myself on a very good day's work, I realised that all my fiddling with the wiper motor had drained the battery So tomorrow I need to find a power pack or some jump leads, which for some reason I don't seem to have

S

Borrowed a power pack early this morning to kick the battery into life. It wasn't quite dead, just not strong enough to turn over the engine. In normal circumstances I never, ever, have any problems starting the car, even in the cold, so I assume it's not a duff battery, just that it's a delicate little flower and can't take much abuse. Five or ten minutes of radio or heater without the engine running, and it's a gonner. I recall someone at a garage meet said it looked like a race battery(?) I might consider replacing it.

What killed it yesterday was fiddling with the wiper alignments (which meant running the wiper motor), and then running my compressor to check the tyre pressures.

Anyway, after that I went straight to Halfords this morning and bought my own power pack!

Rocker cover gasket update: after my run to London today I checked the rocker cover, and there's a very small leak of oil in one corner, but not very much. I tightened the bolt a little - it was a bit looser than the others - and that seems to have stemmed it.

S

Doing good there Serena! Now I know where to come to fix my squeaky wiper mechanism

As for the battery running down, car batteries can be a bit down on there best if you only do short runs with everything on; lights, wipers, radio. I found in my old sierra that if I left the rear screen demister on too long it would suck the battery dry in no time! but that may just have been a Ford thing

How old is the battery and what are it's fluid levels like? may just need some of the cells topping up. Have you got a battery hydrometer? this will tell you the condition of the fluid in the cells and can help determine if a battery is on the way out. if I remember correctly I got one from Halfrauds for a few quid

Jon

Thanks Jon, good call, it's maybe 5-7 years old, but in that time I haven't checked the cells

No hydrometer on Halfords site but plenty on eBay, I'll get one

S

Hi Serena,

Well done on the wiper linkage work. Really impressive!

5-7 years is a reasonable life for a battery. I reckon with all the TLC you show, Sundance deserves a new one- if necessary! Car batteries do have a habit of 'dropping dead' (at least in Oz). I think what happens is the plates become fragile inside, eventually one 'drops off' inside one cell greatly diminishing its capacity. S oyou can start the engine, but not if you've sapped the battery some as that damaged cell is now exhausted. It may appear to charge ok too, but charge for a shorter period. The damaged cell may have a lower water level.

If you do lots of short trips the battery may never fully charge back either.

And check all battery connections/terminals are clean, free from corrosion and tight.

One more test/check is to see whether your alternator seems to be functioning properly- put a voltmeter across the battery before starting. It should be roughly 12.5V. Less than 12V means discharge/dropped cell. Then start the engine with all ancillaries off (lights, radio, fan, etc) and measure the volts across the battery. Assuming the battery is OK, the voltage should go to 13.8V - 14.5V. Higher is overcharging, lower either the battery is discharged/dead or the alternator's not charging. Turn the lights and radio on, the voltage should stay about 13.8V, if it drops to the 12's the alternator may be weak- rev the engine at the throttle and see.

Don't check the voltage at the cigarette lighter or similar. Mazdas seem to have relatively poor wiring and mine, well stored and with little use, shows large voltage drops if e.g. the electric windows are engaged. Engage two or three windows simultaneously and the engine revs are affected, the voltage drop is so large. Even my Mazda 3 has a similar problem, my Subaru doesn't (one of the few corrrect things about that bomb).

If you do get a new battery, for me (at least) buying a slightly higher capacity or 'good' one can mean I can still start the car even with a dropped cell i.e. showing ~10V before starting, 'cos one cell's out.

Patrick

Brilliant, thanks Patrick - I'll do all that as priority

I had noticed that sometimes the elec windows come up quite slowly as if the car is struggling to complete the task, and if I turn on some electrical items the dash lights and headlights dim (not when turning the ignition, but when the engine is already running).

I do try to make sure that nothing electrical is switched on when I start up the car, so I'm not putting a massive strain on the battery/power all at the same time.

It is true that I don't use the car every day: I do longish (50 mile) motorway trips to London every other week, but otherwise it's only regularly used for a 6 mile commute once a week, and the odd trip into town. So it could be that I'm just never charging the battery enough.

S

The battery will degrade over time as the lead cells dissolve in what basically ends up being acid. If you do top up the battery don't use tap water!!! Only use distilled water, the minerals in tap water will make it's life much shorter.

Once the car is running the alternator should run everything, the battery is really only for starting the car. An alternator should push out somewhere around 14 volts if I remember correctly, 12 to run the car and a couple spare to recharge the battery. The drain occurs over winter as you use more accessories (heater, demister etc) and less goes back in to the battery. It takes quite a bit of oomph to turn the engine over and on short runs that isn't topped back up.

As for the electric windows, I find if I do two at once they go slow, probably all on the same circuit or something, so I do them one at a time

Dark_Jon's right- and I believe British water is rather highly mineralised. Serena, I got the impression you work at a Uni (papers, etc.), if so rock up to the Science labs and ask if you can have some demin (deminerslised, sometimes known as Millipore) water. It should be on (a special) tap, if not feel free to give 'em a withering look

One other thing was the battery capacity: FYI mine is 60Ah (book says 50 for 1.8l and 60 for V6, so it's uprated), 600CCA. Mine's a 1,8l with (by today's standards) not really that much equipment load. Now this is large and used to be V8 territory, my previous 1.8l car had recommended 280CCA and approx 30-40Ah, which I uprated to 340CCA.

I'd be interested to hear what capacities are in your UK vehicles?

The two numbers mean the following:

- The Ah rating is basically how much energy is stored in the battery. The rating may be of the form "RC" (Reserve Capacity, the minutes the battery can supply 25Amps at 80F), Think of it like how big your fuel tank is. Increase this if you have heavy/increased electrical loads or require more reserve capacity to run things (e.g. with the engine off). They don't often seem to quote this in Oz. Given most cars start within a second or two, this is a rather moot value unless the battery is discharged/constantly discharging. This generally requires a bigger battery and/or less&bigger cell plates- which can be more robust. Again basically the higher the bigger.

- The CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) simply states how quickly the battery can supply its stored energy. Think of it like how big your fuel pump is. This is what determines whether it can turn your starter motor or not. This needs to be uprated if, for example, you do something that makes the engine harder to turn over: install a heavy duty starter motor, or heavy duty cams, or increased compression ratio, etc. This CCA increase generally requries more surface area for the chemical reactions, therefore more cell (and thinner) plates- which can be more fragile.

So uprating the CCA will give reserve capacity to turn the engine over if e.g. a cell drops out. At least this way you can get back home/to the garage/to the end of the week to change the battery. Uprating the Ah helps when you run the stereo for 2 hrs whilst turning the wipers over trying to fix the wiper arms! But a 7Ah SLA battery (the type found in e.g. alarm systems, even jump-start packs) will start the car so long as it can supply the current required for the starter motor.

Patrick

In Scotland we can use tap water in batteries.

Right, a bit of prep for changing the radiator. If you've read my posts elsewhere recently you'll know that (a) Sundance has a water leak; and (b) I've been fighting an aluminium bolt in the slam panel, which I need to get off to change the rad. I didn't have any proper M6 bolts three years ago when I repainted the panel, so I put in some random flat-headed aluminium ones of about the right size, as it was all I had to hand. I also thought they looked cool at the time but it was particularly stupid of me, as at the time I didn't know about the existence of copper grease, so when I tried to take out all the aluminium bolts last week, to prep for the radiator swap, one of them was corroded to * and impossible to remove

I must have used half a can of Plusgas on the thing, but no luck, and being aluminium, the head was getting carved up and I was in danger of not having any head left to remove it, and having to drill it:



As a last resort I attached FOUR extensions to my 17" breaker bar (1 from Halfords, 3 from my socket set), to accommodate a flimsy flathead attachment that I was sure wasn't big enough and wouldn't do the job. But despite being as wobbly as the leaning tower of Pisa, this mash-up actually bloody worked. The breaker bar is your friend



I've now cleaned up the area under the slam panel, and I await the arrival of my brand new £9 NRF radiator from Amazon. Yes, £9. It's £50 or £60 elsewhere, so Amazon are cutting someone's throat, but hey, I need to keep SD on the road. This model is listed on the Mazda EPC as a suitable replacement for the OEM version, so hopefully it will fit, and will last more than 6 months. If it doesn't, well hey, I've only spent £18 including delivery, and maybe in 6 months I can afford a Behr/Hella.

Unlikely I'll get one from Mazda, though, much as I'd like to keep things OEM: the local Mazda dealer quoted £165 including VAT

The rad will be here Wednesday, they tell me (it had better be); more when it arrives.

S

Really hoping that when it turns up it's not for a 1/12 scale replica !

_________________________________________________________________
Speed is subjective to only how far you keep your right foot down..

Oh God, don't!!

A friend did that with some whisky glasses on eBay recently. Six whisky tumblers for a couple of quid?? He should have known better, turns out they were plastic and literally thimble-sized

S

Pocket money that Serena!

Looking forward to seeing how you get on

Doorbell just rang, this was waiting...



... inside which, was this!



Looks like my £9 punt on Amazon paid off (great price, but make and model are listed on the Mazda EPC as a suitable replacement). It is the right size , it's the right rad with all the fittings in the right place, and I checked the existing radiator cap, just to be sure, and it fits perfectly.

Now all I need is for real life to get off my back for an afternoon so I can fit it. Actual fitting shouldn't take long, but I want to do some rust prevention work on the front cross-member, and that's easiest to do with the radiator removed.

And the radiator wasn't damaged in transit !
The 2nd biggest win of all !!

_________________________________________________________________
Speed is subjective to only how far you keep your right foot down..

"Radiator swap day" was a longer day than I anticipated. And was somewhat heightened by a very non-flexible deadline of 5pm, after which I had a meeting and then a dinner appointment with my boss.

It should have been as simple as:
1) Remove slam panel
2) Remove rubber stops on either side of the top of the rad
3) Pull off the skinny pipe from the expansion tank
4) Unplug and unbolt the fan
5) Pull off both rad hoses
6) Watch feet get thoroughly soaked by coolant water
7) Remove radiator cap to transfer to new rad
8 ) Pull out old rad
9) Do all the above in reverse
10) Refill the radiator, run the engine until it's warm and bleed the system with the rad cap off for 15 minutes
11) Turn off engine and top-up coolant
12) Have a beer

... yeh, right

It went fine as far as 3). Upon reaching step 4), I unplugged the fan and removed the top bolt of the three fastening it to the rad (for the anoraks amongst you, these were M6 15s, one on the top and two on the side). I discovered that the remaining bolts were rusted solid, and as there wasn't much room to work I'd have to take the fan off the radiator once it was out of the car.

So on to step 5). Pull off the rad hoses. Easy, right? NOT if you still have the original spring clips on there, which after 19 years Sundance proved reluctant to part with. And I discovered that my pliers weren't actually big enough to compress the damn things in order to move them ( kids, if you still have these things on your hoses, then for the sake of your sanity and the flesh on your hands, buy a pair of wide jaw grips before you start this job, and then lob the spring clips into the nearest dumpster and switch to jubilee clips).



With the help of a lot of penetrating oil I managed to get the top clip moved and wriggle off the top hose. Cue a torrent of water from the top of the rad, and wet feet. If you do things in this order (and that's not a recommendation), remember to move the fan plug out the way of the torrent of coolant from the top hose!



You can just see a peep of the condition of the rad in the above pic

On to the bottom hose. Which, after I managed to edge the hose clip aside, I tried to remove at the radiator end for about an hour, with no success despite gallons more penetrating oil, scraped knuckles and much swearing. And not helped by lumps of rust from the dying hose clip - which were welded to the hose - biting into my hands. Eventually I realised I'd have to pull off the hose at the engine block end instead. Which worked in under 5 minutes Cue an even larger torrent of water, though, from inside the engine.





So at last the rad came out; time to remove the fan. The remaining two bolts were rusted solid to the square nut-type things on the back that pliers can't grip properly (why use these bloody things, Mazda, WHY?). The first bolt promptly broke in half. Whilst I managed to remove the second one from the old rad by physically breaking the plastic which was holding it in place, the bolt was then still attached to the fan, and refused point blank to either break or come unstuck (see pic below). Obviously whilst breaking the old rad from around the bolt was fine, I didn't want to break the fan, so I decided to leave the bolt on there, as I could still re-attach the fan to the new rad with two bolts.



That left me with this zombie ... thing. I believe it was once a radiator. I'm ashamed I made poor Sundance use it for so long (although it's not the original rad, it was already second hand when I got it from R0b in Swindon a few years ago, although it was in much better nick then!!) The hose came off after I took this pic, ready to go back on the car.



At this point I took a break, and cleaned up and resprayed one of the foglight blankers, which until now I'd never had access to, to remove. The other one can't be removed unless you take the bumper off, or have a VERY short screwdriver to remove one of the screws, as there's no room to get tools in.



Then I cleaned up this lot on the front crossmember under where the rad sits. The metal is still solid, but very rusty, paint chipping off etc., presumably because of rad leaks over the years, or maybe because there's no undertray on that side to keep splashes out (is there meant to be one on the nearside? Am I missing one?)

Before:


After:


Nice new rad in place, with fan re-attached! I discovered I didn't have a spare bolt to re-attach the fan on the side (the bolt broke, remember), so I used a couple of cable ties instead. Job done. A very few rad fins squashed, though only slightly, nothing major. Seems to be a hazard of the job that you knock the fins when trying to put the hoses back on



Looking so much better through the bumper now (the dark patch on there is a shadow, not a leak!) There's still some derusting to complete, especially underneath the crossmember, but today was curtailed by that meeting with the boss.



The last job was to re-attach the hoses. I was running out of time and my hands were cut to shreds by the spring clips, when some motoring deity (Ahura Mazda, perhaps) sent me an angel in the guise of an interested neighbour who likes tinkering with cars and had an extensive tool kit. HE BROUGHT ME PROPER HOSE CLIP PLIERS!!! Forget flowers, chaps, the way to a woman's heart is garage tools.

I refilled and bled the system, cleaned up (God, I looked like a stoker off the railway) then got off to my meeting. No leaks apparent from the rad or hoses. The expansion bottle was half empty again by the time I got back, but I'm not sure if that's just the coolant settling or whether there is - as I suspect - a second leak in the system, this time from the water pump.

Pump being changed in July, hopefully, along with timing belt.

Excellent. No doubt while sitting in an expensive restaurant with your boss he commented on your manicure?

You did well. When I took the rad from my poor scrapper I damaged the top union. For the bottom one I just sawed through the pipe!

He did buy us two bottles of champagne, so fortunately nobody was in a fit state to comment on my manicure

I wish I COULD have sawed through the hose, but I didn't have any spares! When I do find a new set I'm switching to jubilee clips.

Tell me, did your 1.5 have one undertray or two? I only have one on the right, and as there's a fastening point nearby that looks like it may have been for a left one, I'm not sure if I'm missing one. Or maybe it's there in case the skeleton car became a left hand drive?

S

Nice work Serena

Maybe put a mesh behind the holes/vents in your bumper? stop stones taking out the new rad Keep it a dark grey/black and you shouldn't notice it.

Mine has 2 under-tray parts, they sit either side of the beam/cross member thing the front engine mount sits and go across to the inner arch liners, so you may have one missing.

Congratulations Serena on a job well done!

Patrick

Cheers Jon - damn good idea about the mesh, I'll see what I can find Will hopefully keep it from getting too clogged with dead insects as well.

Yeh, in the pictures of the crossmember above, you can see I've only got the one tray. I've only ever had one since I got the car in 1999, when it was 2yrs old ... so if it's missing then I don't know what the first owner did with it, it was a brand new car!

S

My wreck which is still here has both trays....but they are very rusty so don't get any ideas Serena! Your car has managed thus far!

Champagne eh'. No doubt you will soon be employing liveried young men to maintain and operate Sundance.

Thank you Patrick! Am very relieved that it's all done, and I no longer need to carry several litres of water everywhere!

S

Rusty - are they metal, then? Mine's plastic!

Champagne: well he was treating the project managers for their recent performance, and I just happened to be there

S

Well if you mean what I think you mean then yes!

Oh well, no servants it is then. Still, staff can be such a bore.

This thing! Are we thinking of the same thing?



S

Yes I think so.....but you still don't need it!

Spent the day painting sons 4 pot calipers and applying Alfa Romeo stickers (plenty of room for them)! Look great behind his 18" Cloverleaf wheels. Paint used? Mazda red!

Here in Aus we use plastic meshed flyscreen in front of the radiators !
You can go "upmarket" with steel or alloy mesh if you want

_________________________________________________________________
Speed is subjective to only how far you keep your right foot down..

I forgot to note that I'd dealt with a more minor issue recently: the spoiler light cable hole in the tailgate.

Originally the only thing in this hole was the central bolt holding the spoiler down, but when I put the extra spoiler light into the pre-Ford spoiler which came with the car, the cable went in here instead.

Unfortunately as the hole is no longer filled by a bolt, it was also likely to let rain seep in under the spoiler foot, and rot the tailgate from the inside.



My solution? This:



It looks like something from a sweet shop, but actually it's a rubber patch from a bicycle repair kit. I cut a slit in it, wrapped it around the cable, over the hole, and glued it down.



One the spoiler is bolted back down, the patch - which isn't quite flat - should keep out any water drops that seep under the spoiler.

S