Ford Popular 103e gone!!!

[poprodder]

hi everyone,

had  some time to spare this afternoon before a club meet at a american diner a few miles away thought i'd
take a few pics of pop.  

[Manky Monkey]

Very pretty Chris. 

[poprodder]

pretty!!!
i've now got a side exit exhaust, can listen to all that sidevalve horse power!!!! lol

[poprodder]

it broke today!!!

[Manky Monkey]

  What did Chris? The exhaust or the Pop in general?

[TwistedPatience]

it broke today!!!

'O crap'! nothing serious I hope.

[poprodder]

well the honeymoon is over, the pop broke today, i'm glad it done it
at home as it would of been very nasty out on open road!!!

needed to get some decorating sundries,  decided that we'd take the pop as I
like to give it an airing at least twice a week.

we got home, had a coffee then I thought i'd put the pop in its garage
as the sky darkened with rain clouds,

reversing in I decided I needed to straighten up a bit so pulled
forwards, reversed abit turned the wheel then BANG!!!

then the horn beeped and did'nt stop, I turned the wheel horn stopped
but there was then no resistence on wheel!!!

seems something in the steering department had broken, I still had to
get pop fully into garage as it was blocking rear roadway. turned the
wheels by hand horn started again, I lifted bonnet and disconnected a
wire, horn stopped.

eventually got it inside, turned round and found this laying on
ground.



yep thats off top of steering box, part of the casting at top where
securing rivets go through.

heres steering box.



so i'm now looking for a box and column will have to be cheap as i'm
skint at the moment.

cheers chris.

[Manky Monkey]

Oooh, bugger.
Knew exactly what that was as soon as I saw the piccie of the broken chunk of ali.
We bust the original one in my Pop in just the same way. They do seem a bit weak. It's the only component on my Pop I worry about. Wish Ford had made them from steel instead of aluminium.
I picked up a replacement one from the NSRA swapmeet in London for 10 quid, so they're still about.

Just been down to the shed. This is my original. When we broke it, we tried shortening the aluminium casting & replacing the rivets with allen bolts. It cracked again around one of the new bolts, but that was when we were trying to remove the steel steering column to shorten it, (my box is mounted on it's side & hooked up to a Morris Minor column in my truck).
If this is any use to you Chris, either to repair, (a quick bit of ali welding), or to canabalise for parts, you're very welcome to come & collect it, either from our place in Guildford, Surrey or Loony's workshop in Basingstoke, Hants. Yours for free if it helps.

[Manky Monkey]

We cut the steel column sleeve while we were trying to remove it from the box. I've also got the section we cut from the second column. Again, a quick dab of weld & it'd be servicable. Come & get it if you want it.

[poprodder]

thanks for the offer andy.

i've been trying to remove the box this afternoon.

what great fun!!!

first bonnet removal.





so then i could get to this.



disconnected the ball joint,removed wiring.
then took split pins out and undone bolts.

[poprodder]

then i moved inside of car!!!

steering wheel,indicator stalk,column clamp removed.



then tried to remove the access plate around column where it goes through toe boards.
with not much luck!!!



tried jacking up to get clearence between spring an axle,  no chance.

looks like i'm drilling screws out or removing rad,grill etc.

[poprodder]

also got this together.

[Manky Monkey]

Wassat?

[poprodder]

1300 ford x-flow bored, crank regrind, balanced, cammed etc a few years ago when i was young an carefree. mated to a pre x-flow gearbox.

[poprodder]

well the box is out!!!
had to remove a lot inside but managed to bend toe board back abit to squeeze it through.



heres the box after a clean up.









I opened it up an it looks ok inside everything runs free with no binding.



just got to make me mind up what to do now.