article

The pain and pleasure of
Leader-ship

There is a God. The God of kit-cars. He looked down upon me and thought "time to wind him up"ЕЕ..

I bought my Leader in late 1998 really to dip my toe in the water. It was Viva based with a 1600E 4 speed
box and a modified 1600 Xflow. I'd fiddled with cars in the past but this was a new ball game. I really
wanted to build one from scratch, but in truth I didn't have the time, however much I lied to myself, with
a busy job that took me abroad frequently and two very young children, and my wife didn't want bits of
old car outside the house.

During the summer of '99 I had great fun, but reliability wasn't its forte. I thought long and hard about
taking it off the road and doing some work on it over the winter Ц the exhaust dropping off made the
decision for me. The list of problems was not long (at the beginningЕ..)

Side mounted exhaust silencer dropped off

Turning the headlights on turned the dashboard lights off, except for both indicator "tell tales"
which came on solid!

The engine bay kept getting soaked in oil. I had redesigned the breather system, which helped but
didn't solve it.

It only ran on leaded fuel

The brakes were weak (good for constipation though!)

Low gearing made for good acceleration, but at top whack a Lada could overtake you.

What a simple list. A couple of week's work at most. Off went the SORN and in came the engine hoist.
I also bought the "Crossflow" book by Valerie and Peter Wallace which I read cover to cover before I
even started.

Engine

First job was to get the engine work started as that had to go off to be done, I hadn't the tools or to
honest, the confidence to do it myself. So off came the radiator and associated plumbing, and off came
the head, which went straight off to the engine builders be converted for unleaded.

Out came the block to have all the seals and gaskets replaced as that must be where the leaks were
coming from. As I took the engine to bits it all looked fine, light deposits on the head, no wear on the oil
pump drive gear, all tolerances looked great. The God of kit-cars had other ideas; we got to the
crankshaft. I had the block upside down with the sump off when Dave visited, who just happens to be
a motor engineer and has been a great source of advice throughout. He had a look ("this takes me
backЕ" etc.) and a play and pronounced "the crankshaft shouldn't have ╜" float."

Whoever had assembled the engine with the mods had put the flywheel side thrust washer in back to
front so that the face with the oil channel was against the static centre bearing instead of the rotating
crankshaft. The result was that a deep pit had been scored in the face of the crankshaft, made worse
each time the clutch was depressed to change gear as it pushed the crank against the thrust washer.
This also explained the oil leak from the front timing chain cover as the crank was sliding through the oil
seal, which had worn it and allowed a small seepage.

I was gutted. More to the point, I could see my wallet being gutted! I decided to take the line of least
resistance and so the block also went off to the engine builders.

Now, the engine builder, Anglian Engine Services of Eaton Socon, was a real find and was
recommended by Dave. In the end I had a long conversation with them and asked for the following to
be done:

New crank ground in and fitted with new shells and seals

Bore honed and pistons refitted with new rings

Exhaust seats converted for unleaded, bigger valves fitted, valve guides checked and replaced as
necessary, correct springs for the cam, head skimmed

Existing BCF3 cam refitted, and timed up with new timing chain tensioner

I decided that I couldn't stretch to an upgrade to 1700 as that meant new pistons.

A few days later I got a call. "Did you know that you had 1300 pistons in here and that it is already
overbored by 30 thou?" Now, I am not the nervous type, but by this point the word "engine" was
making me twitch. It turned out that 1300 pistons are fine as they raise the compression, however as the
previous builder had bored it by 30 thou and then refitted the original rings, the compression was
disappearing down the side of the piston and pressurising the crankcase. That would explain the oil
coated engine bay then.

The work was all done and the engine and head cam back separately. Time to rebuild it. It all went back
together nicely with new gaskets everywhere and a new water pump whilst I was at it, dropped in
without any fuss and all the plumbing was re-assembled. Oil and water were added (not through the
same hole I hasten to add) and the time came to start it. Would it start? Would it buggery!

I have to say that by this time I was seriously considering junking the lot. Every time I touched
something (and I was doing the other jobs at the same time) it became a whole lot more complicated
than it appeared and we really shouldn't talk about the costs in case my wife reads this!

So, down to diagnostics. OK, dizzy 180 degrees out, easily sorted. No spark at the plugs Ц hmmmm.
No spark from the coil Ц hmmmmm. Primary winding is making but not breaking. New coil? Nope.

To cut this mercifully short it took three weeks to get the engine to fire. The dizzy is one from a later
Mk4 escort which is electronic. The Crossflow book knows all about these and explains how you fit
them. I ended up down the scrappy getting another electronic dizzy of the same type and a manual one
to use in diagnostics.

So how did I sort it? Problem is, I'm stupid enough to believe what I read, and when it says "green wire
to positive and black wire to neutral" in the book, what it actually means is the reverse!!! I was fuming,
I was livid, but I did at last have a working engine, so I was also elated! A quick setup to get the timing
close and adjust the fuel from the Dell'ortos and that was done.

Brakes

Whilst the engine was in dry dock, I decided that it was time to sort out the brakes. Closer inspection
showed that the front disks were worn and the pads were cracking through age and only two pistons,
one on each side, were working in the callipers. At the back one wheel cylinder was jammed on and the
other wasn't working as the auto adjuster was seized. To add insult, the brake fluid was so old it was
the colour of Guinness but had a bigger head! Why is nothing on this damn vehicle simple.

So, off come the callipers at the front to be stripped, cleaned and re-assembled with new seals (which I
will mention are a sod to fit). Off come the hubs/disks. Now, the Viva had three brake configurations in
either Girling or Lockheed flavours. The Haynes manual doesn't quite succeed in covering all of the
colours in all of the sizes, and of course the details of my configuration were, shall we say, sketchy.

Suffice to say that there is a knack of splitting the hubs/disks, which I discovered after fours hours of
cursing the first assembly. The second one of course took 20 minutes. The only common factor was
liberal amounts of 20-year-old grease applied liberally to all of my tools and various parts of my
anatomy.

Back brakes were easy. Strip, scrape rust and crap off, replace cylinders and shoes and re-assemble.
Only observation here is that it is clear that the self adjuster was designed in the seventies as it takes
drugs to come up with something that awkward to re-assemble

The last item was the master cylinder. It was the bit I was sweating about the most but it took only 40
minutes to do a seal replacement (20 of which was getting the ****** circlip out!).

Anyway, reassembly time. All went back together sweet as a nut. Bleed the brakes (repeat last three
words at least 20 times). The god of kit-cars was obviously looking down on me wondering what
mischief he could throw at me next. He decided on a snapped bleed nipple. An amazingly simple yet
effective way of bringing me to a shuddering halt.

Tried cutting a slot in the small protruding lip for a screwdriver, but no joy. Off to Machine Mart again
(where I have been helping the share price for the last few months) for a tool designed to extract broken
bolts. The tool snapped in the nipple and as it was tool steel was a sod to drill with HSS drills. At this
point I recognised the futility and send it off for refurb, but ended up having to buy a new calliper
assembly as it was impossible to rectify.

The new calliper came and was fitted and so to the bleed brakes saga again (repeat ad nauseum)

After all that, I can now remain constipated.

Electrics

I think everyone dreads car electrics but it was easier than I expected. I did study 12V DC electrics at
university though (computers use the same source), so I suppose it should have been. It's the only
experience I have that has had any bearing at all on the work I've done to the car, the rest has been OJT.

The problem all came down to two problems; a missing neutral return from the dashboard lighting
circuit, and the fact that having gone to the trouble of soldering wires together, they were then wrapped
in the same electrical tape causing a short. This means the car has been like this for 12 years.
Frightening really. The hardest part was following the wiring as I knew what the original loom was as
the colour codes were right, it just that when the instruments were grafted on there was no system e.g.
some red wires were earth returns, some green/yellow wires were positive!

The wiring was a mess under the dash, so whilst it was off I stripped off all of the old electrical tape
(yuck), and remade all the connections with proper connectors. And the God of kit-cars was having a
day off 'cos it all worked first time.

Exhaust

This was the bit I was dreading, and it got left until last. I can't pass the MOT without an exhaust, I
can't buy an off the shelf unit to fit and I can't take it to get a custom system fitted 'cos it doesn't have
an MOT.

In the end I did the maths on tube bore to get the best flow I could and I fabricated my own by buying
lengths of tube, bends and a silencer in 2" diameter. It all came together with a lot of grunting and
heaving. Its held together with brackets at the moment so that I can get it through the MOT. Later it
can be welded, something I can't do (or I probably can, but have never tried it and don't want to start on
this).

It actually sounds good, with a coarse bark. More luck than judgement.

MOT

Elation, I had finally got it to the stage where it could go for its MOT 11 months and 16 days after the
last one ran out. But the God of kit-cars felt I had not suffered sufficiently and it failed! After all that
work it failed! Why? It didn't have side repeater lamps or a hazard light circuit. I expected to have
trouble with the emissions test but it sailed through that.

Now, I may be naive, but if a car has passed the MOT for the last 12 years without these accoutrements
why does it fail now? A long and surprisingly calm conversation ensued during which we looked at the
Ministry or Transport rules. They state that any car built since 1986 has to have these. Mine was built
in 1988, but from parts made in 1974. It made no difference. No repeaters and hazards, no certificate. In
the end I accepted it because I can see the safety reasons, and because they were clearly minions of the
God of kit-cars.

I couldn't face taking the dashboard off, which means removing the windscreen, so I spent a few
evenings with my legs over the rollbar and my head rammed down a narrow footwell. To add insult to
injury, the loom wasn't designed to cater for hazards so it all had to be plumbed in the hard way.

One week later I was back. The mechanic looked over it for two minutes and said fine. The certificate
was mine. And then the rain started.

Those of you still awake will recall that I wanted to change the back axle and gearbox. Well, I haven't.
The axle (3.89:1 Magnum) is in my garage having been stripped, shot blasted, primed and with new
brakes installed except the pipes. This will be this winter's project. As for the gearbox, a type 9
beckons but I still have concerns about changes to the propshaft, number of splines etc. so that will
happen when I have all of that sorted in my mind.

For now I want to get back in and drive it for a while, run the engine in and get it tuned properly

Summary?

Having faced the malicious God of kit-cars and survived, I believe I could build from scratch. This has
been put on hold, however, by she who must be obeyed as the amount of time I've spent on the Leader
has not been welcomed, and she wants me to have something all four of us can use at the same time. So
building from scratch will have to wait a few years until my boy is old enough to help me and Sylva
merge with Beauford!

The work took me year of elapsed time, but I was determined I was going to do it on my own, and I
spent 4 months travelling around Europe on work days, so weekends were spent with the family and the
Leader sat untouched. I didn't work on it every evening either as I also have a busy social life. Without
this, it would have taken roughly 3 months.

One thing that has been a real pain is parts. There are no "performance" parts available such as uprated
brake systems, and ordinary parts always have to be ordered, and invariably are wrong when they
arrive. It needs some planning.

The other thing I would think hard about if I bought second/third hands is whom I was buying from.
The car I have has needed pulling apart to remedy problems caused by sloppy original construction. If
there's a next time I will want far more evidence of thoroughness of build.

And finally, its been brilliant. All day I do brain work, organising people, projects, processes and
budgets which is what I've been trained for. In the evenings I get in the garage and fiddle with
mechanical things, finding out how they work or why they don't, and pitting myself against the
malicious God of kit-cars. It is hugely absorbing, often frustrating and for the first time I understand
why some of you out there build them and then immediately sell them to start the next.

If anyone is out there and is thinking of doing it, but is holding back because they don't know how it all
works, then just do it, get it in the garage and with a few simple tools start fiddling. Remember that it is
a set of parts bolted together and if someone else could do it originally, then so can you!

STOP PRESS. I stopped being a lazy git and replaced the gearbox in 2001. Didn't need to
change the axle after that. And I'd prefer to forget it than document it as I've only just stopped my
therapy sessions!!