The Rocket ST159

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The donor strip

I'll update the progress of my donor tear-down on this post, so it'll get updated lots.
I'll start with a list of things I've been able to sell, along with what I got for them, after postage, and a net cost for the Donor.
Donor was €1100, plus €305 to ship it, so €1405 to me

Part	Price after shipping etc
Half-leather interior	€210
Front headlights, both sides	€60
Fog lights	€18
A-pillar trim	€10
Ford 6000CD radio	€35
Towing eye covers	€6
Mirror (both sold)	€30
Front bumper	€25
Wheel brace	€10
Radio fascia, controls	€25
Ford Badge	€2
Boot carpet	€5
Rear bumper	€20
Power Steering rack	€20
Heater fan, resistor	€30
Front grille upper	€5
Interior lights	€10
O/S front 3/4 panel	€15
Clutch master cylinder	€10
Front Suspension	€50
Sunvisors	€10
Scuff plates	€20
Parcel shelf	€10
Front brakes	€80
Radio aerial	€5
Rear wiper motor	€10
Abs sensors	€20
Weigh in shell	€67
Recycle plastics	-€32
Space saver	€15
Radio	€10
Gear selector	€25
Pedals (less switches)	€5
Ford badge	€5
Wheels and tyres	€124
Instrument clusters	€39
Aftermarket cold air feed from donor	€60
Aftermarket exhaust	€130
IMRC, inlet manifold, idle valve	€120
ECU, keys	€55
MAF	€13
Immobiliser ring	€10
Net running cost of donor	€28

The teardown; I concentrated on getting to most readily saleable items off first, also anything easy that won't interfere with other bits.  For instance, the donor lives outside, so I wont be selling the boot before I've sold the interior and carpets!
Equally, taking off the bumpers early is a good idea, they get in the way, and are easily damaged if you're a  clutz like me.

Removing the headlights was a sensible place to start, taking note to photograph and label all the connectors, as I'll actually be using those.  In addition to the two obvious screws, they're held in behind the wheel carpets, so turn the wheels in (hard left for the right hand side and vice versa) to get access, take off the wheel well covers while you're in there for better access.  Having the car up on axle stands would be helpful if possible.  
Fog lights can be nice earner if you price them more carefully than I did; I was just looking to get money back quickly rather than hang on for the best price.  You'll need to get under the grille to get at the retaining screws.

Interior
When stripping the interior, don't forget to remove the battery positive, the airbags can get upset at removal of the seats!  The interior buyer asked me for the connectors for the electric seats, and having been so careful up to that point, forgot to disconnect the battery when snipping them, lots of sparks!  Seat bolts were T40 and T50 torx, which I had to buy new, not in your everyday set.

The hardest part of the interior strip was the rear door cards, I found it tough enough to locate all the screws.  Also, you may have different results, but in removing the rear seats, I found it couldn't be done without unmounting the seat backs from the hinges, as I couldn't get the lower mounting bolts out with them on.  
You'll be amazed how much room there is once the interior is out and sold, must easier to work.  
Don't remove the rubber around the door sills yet though, I did and sitting on it working around the steering wheel is very uncomfortable.

Lights and rooflining
Interior lights were all handy enough bar the middle front one, I had to do a fair degree of prying to get it out.  But it does grant access to the radio connector which should be easy to sell.
Ripping off the ceiling lining is probably not a good idea; it produces a lot of dust, you won't be able to sell it, only frees up wiring and washer bottle tubing you can cut anyway.  I'll be cutting it up and sneaking it into my domestic waste a few small bits at a time!

Radio
The ST170 normally comes with the Ford 6006CD autochanger, which should be a nice little earner, unfortunately mine seems to have been replaced with the more standard 6000CD, which fetches a much lower price.  You'll need to either make or buy on ebay the little tools to extract it from the dashboard.  I had a set from my Pumas, but I've been able to fashion some using coat-hangers and a file.

Bumpers
If your bumpers are halfway decent, get them off and sold, they sell quickly (locally, posting would be painful). Plus, in the case of the front, it's much easier to get at cooling rads. Don't discount fiddly bits, I sold the Ford badge and towing eye covers, and I have the ST kickplates to come, doesn't look like there'll be anywhere for them to go.

Weigh in
I committed pretty deeply to getting everything I could off the car, so I cut the whole chassis up with a 9" grinder, and weighed in the metal at a scrap yard.  A lot of work for very little return, and I ended up having to pay to have the plastics recycled, so I'd nearly have been better off getting some oik collect it.  

Exhaust
3+ years later, I shifted the 'stainless' (but mildly corroded) Japspeed exhaust for a decent €130. Nice.

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Had a good day of work this weekend; sold a few bits, got the fuel sender out, handbrake lever and cables freed, the pedal box released and the aftermarket exhaust off.
I've finally got some bits that go on the car!

Fuel Sender
The fuel sender fit into the RTR tank beautifully, the first thing that did, but here's a thing, the Focus tank is about 12-14cm high, the Rocket one twice that. Presumably when the tank is 50% full, the sender will think its 100% full? Unless the floating arm can be extended and the sender raised off the base of the tank somehow?
And about the sender, even with threaded bar extensions, it's going to slosh around in there surely? The donor tank has a plastic mounting ring into which the sender clicks, but the base is going to wander all around the inside of that tank. Hard to imagine the IVA being ok with that. The Build guides seem very quiet on this point, anyone done anything interesting with the sender?

With light fading I went inside and had a brief test engine fit. With the Rocket chassis in its current position the engine crane hits the garage door (it's slides overhead, but not all the way to the roof). So I lowered the axle stands to their lowest position, and the oil sump just about cleared the bars. It didn't get any better after that though, because the engine mount (offside) couldn't line up, the oil sump was sitting firmly on the lower bar of the chassis engine bay. I should preface this by saying that I've taken the gearbox and exhaust manifold off so I can move the engine around easier, so it's skewed a bit to the offside.

When I have a bit more time I'm going to reattach the gearbox and see if I can get the mounts to sit together, or is going to be a big problem.
I'll reserve judgement until it's all properly together, hopefully it'll sort itself.
On the positive side, I loosely fit the exhaust manifold back on and there looks to be clearance.

The donor is proving itself a useful external shed too; all the bits I'm not ready to use, and the spagetti of wiring staying nice and dry inside the still lockable Focus. I've had to hold off selling any door parts, and I've covered it with Lidl's finest car cover, but definitely a positive.

I'm almost completely finished with it other than that; a few brake lines, fuel pipes and I can rip the jack out from under it. Just a day with the grinder then :-)

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Goodies

I've had a very nice month on Ebay, and overall, a bit of a result. My credit card is utterly destroyed, but at the prices I got them for, it was an 'investment'.

[Seller's pictures for the moment]

ECU
First up, I scored an old, but unused Omex 710 for £400. Sent it off to Omex to be checked and updated. I have to say, I'm incredibly impressed with their service; they tested it, sent me a base map for my ST170 (after enquiring about the details of my engine, injector flow rate etc), told me how to rewire the Omex 600 race-spec loom I bought to work with the 710, and even threw in the additional wires I'd need to drive my VCT. All this and they charged me for 15 minutes work. Insured postage back to me, all in, £35 inc VAT. Amazing. Yes, you could buy a Megasquirt for less, but who are you going to call when you can't get it going?



Loom
After a lot of misses, and a few weeks of searches, I scored huge on the wiring front, I got a race-spec Omex 600 wiring loom from a failed Vauxhall-based project, with connectors, relays etc for £80. With the aforementioned Omex help, I'll have £1400 worth of engine management for a third of that.



Throttle Bodies
Got a full set of GSXR1000 throttle bodies, with injectors, wiring harness, TPS for £79  Going to need to space it myself, but a user on here was kind enough to send me a full guide with pictures. The hardest part I think will be waiting until after my IVA to install them and hear that noise..



Speaking of noise
When I first pressed the horn on my Puma I was so embarrassed by the noddy-noise I don't think I used it until I got a proper new horn (Focus).
Not sure if these'll make it to the Rocket, but I'm tempted, imagine the surprise as a 500kg go-kart honks like a Big Rig.




Oh yeah, and the scrappie provided me with a Focus 1.6 rad and MK1 Mondeo shifter (which I'm unconvinced of).

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Rewiring my loom for Omex 710

I picked up a cheap Omex 710 and second hand Omex 600 loom for an Opel Astra from Fleabag, and with the generous advice of Guy @ Omex, did some small rewiring to suit my ST170 lump and Omex 710 ECU.
It's over in the Technical Section.

Wifey wasn't that happy I did it on the dining room table.

[Stiggy]

Locking 2 extra nuts against each other and then lock wiring them together by drilling the corners of the nuts should remedy the balance bar "inoperable by mechanical means". Provided you wire them to a fixed point i.e not the bar itself. Drilling a hardened brake balance shaft is something to avoid. IMO. They used to ask for them to be welded until it was pointed out that this may change the structure of the material.

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Feb 22, 2015 14:43:44 GMT bazandgav said:

Just a quick thank you for your comprehensive brake line build guide section - have used and adapted all you diagrams etc... to guide me through the minefield of braided brake line fitting!! Will just have to keep an eye on your thread now for the electrics section as we are using an ST170 as well :-)

Again, many thanks.

More than welcome :-> Built on the work of @bobn and Mark Harnett's now deleted build guide.

The wiring is a beast over a hill not too far away, hopefully be able to make some sense of it, anything I learn I'll be sharing here and in technical section if it's worthy.

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Bits'n'bobs

Retrimmed my front side panels; looking at everyone else's builds, it looks like the IVA trim needs to go all the way around the panel, not just the cut outs. Not sure how this will impact how I'll get through it to the rivnuts in the frame, but luckily I held off on drilling it yet.



Battery poles

I bought a fancy battery with entirely-alien M6 female connectors on, and my donor wiring (to be briefly used to check everything still works) has conventional poles. the Health and Safety lady was on her tea break, so I had the thought to cut the poles off a scaly old dried up battery that got abandoned long ago.  Drill and tap to M6, Robert's your mother's brother, I have some temporary fittings, rather than spend £20 on some SAE adaptors.  





Which would have been fine, until I forgot everything Mr Henly ever taught me and burned off the plastic. Turns out the poles really were made of lead, which melts at the same temperate as the abs plastic burns. Leaving me with naught but a toxic puddle.

Wheel diet

I've always known I wanted to run 15s, but another compelling reason to do so; each tubby Wolfrace Eurosport 17 with tyres was 18.6Kg!  Basically like carrying a whole person, distributed across the 4 corners. 

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Mirrors

Picked up a couple aftermarket GSXR-type mirrors with indicators. Masked off the mirrors so I don't scratch the glass.



Drilled out the round bit in the middle to feed the wiring through.



Drilled M6 for the bolts, M3 for the wiring, which fits like a glove.



Left all my sockets at home, so it's not held on properly.

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Tidy up the loom

With signs of life, I got to work correcting bad connections and removing what I didn't need.

Fuel sender float position was not affecting the fuel gauge, and I discovered one of the 4 wires was torn right at the connector. Connector was well crimped and I couldn't get the mushed wire out, I didn't have any compatible spares and Halfords and Macquillans weren't much help either, so I committed my first wiring crime (of many!) and soldered the line to the old, very closed, spade connector.



With the float a little past half way, gauge was about half, nice. Low value on my multimeter looked around 100ohms, and about 2/3 was 212. Couldn't get multimeter poles onto contacts with the float at full, but I'll measure them again before I seal it.  I'll be using a Koso dash later so this will be important down the line.



I spent the next 2 hours peeling the loom, ended up with dozens of metres of black tape everywhere. Much easier to see where everything goes this way, but boy is it sticky. Rips latex gloves, and thicker gloves lack the finese to unravel it.



Removed all the interior wiring loom, lights etc and stuck it in an Ikea bag, loom now half the weight.



The central locking module is still in the picture, unconnected, because half the connectors on this side of the loom are still attached, have to peel a fair bit off before I get to the bottom of all of that.




What's the point, you might well ask?  I have an Omex 710 ECU to go in later, with a race loom (for an Opel, will need some modification), so most of this will be chucked out.  I just wanted to make sure the car starts (fuel lines and better ground wiring before that happens!) on the stock gubbins before I introduce elements I don't know work with these pieces.   The ST170 has a kooky fuelling system (returnless, with Driver Fuel Pump Module) and a non conventional air intake (my MAF is on a custom cold air feed pipe, and the IMRC changes the intake path at high revs).
Not sure how my Omex will handle the IMRC. If it doesn't, I might jump straight to the GXSR ITBs..

It's good to see where everything goes too, maybe relabel it with accurate names.

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So I found out why I couldn't get the lump to crank on the stock gubbins.



I asked for help on here, and after reading a few other people's guides, I went to youtube to educate myself.






After watching these, I've done a series of voltage and continuity tests and have come to a conclusion..

From the spec sheet, my Varley Red Top should be capable of 310A.

While my starter wiring could be questionable, it's unlikely, because I never disconnected any of that stuff when I took off the engine loom, it's been hanging out of the engine since it came out of the Focus. There's a pd of nearly 13V between the -ive pole of the battery and the starter solenoid terminal (with in-line trickle charger).
But, it falls off a cliff when I turn to Pos III. Like, two brief attempts and battery voltage falls to 11.4v.

To confirm, I took it to a battery place here that does free battery voltage and CA (cranking amps) tests. I didn't expect him to find it anything else but faulty, part because in my heart I suspected it was, and because he'd go broke testing batteries and finding them good. Test equipment looked legit. Voltage 12.5V, nice, but a paltry 16 CAs, conclusively knackered.





So kids, don't buy second hand batteries on ebay, and then leave them on the shelf for months.
<facepalm>

The guy would sell me an Odyssey Extreme PC680 for €130 or a generic alternative (Leoch LPX600) with identical specsheet for €80. Both 7Kg, both with similar cranking capacity. Which is about what I threw away on this junk Red Top

Anyone used these Leoch batteries before?

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Plan for the short term is to use jump cables from the Alfa (Serena has a big battery) to see if I can tease it into life, and if I can, conclude that my battery was dead money.
Ug, I just looked up how much I paid for that p.o.s. battery. From Momentum Motorsport, if anyone is curious.

If the starter or wiring is dodgy, the whole inlet manifold has to come off to get at it, which is a big mess. I've tried shallow and deep sockets, with and without extension bars, I just can't get at the nuts with the mani on. please please please turn over. :-)