Driveshaft Renewal

The driveshafts had previously been removed from the Sierra rear beam and set aside. Soon these will be needed for assembly onto the car. However, first they need to be renewed.

First the internal metal surfaces were masked in tape, i.e. those which go inside the final drive and the rear hub. Then a wire brush attachment in a drill was used to remove all loose rust. After degreasing, a couple of coats of smooth Hammerite were added.

The driveshaft gaiters were most likely the original from when Ford built the Sierra about 20 years ago. It seemed prudent to change these while the driveshafts were off the car. I used a 'slide-a-boot' kit for each. These were bought from eBay and can be used without having to dismantle the drive shaft.

First the old gaiter is removed. The cone is cut down to length and covered in the lubricant provided. The cone is placed over the end of the draftshaft and the gaiter is pulled over the cone on to the driveshaft. The gaiter needs to be pulled inside out beforehand. The gaiter is now pulled the back the right way, grease packed into the CV joint and finally the cable ties used to secure the two ends of the gaiter. The cable ties were used in preference to the metal bands as these were difficult to get tight.

Below the finished driveshaft, painted, gaiters replaced and ready for installation on the car. Same process for the other driveshaft.

Wiring Loom

When you open the Tiger provided wiring loom it can look a bit daunting. The fuses and relays are obviously on the branch that comes up through the battery tray, but what about the rest? Finding which was the front and which was the back was achieved by identifying the large black alternator plug. Also, the wider double brown wires connect to the starter motor.

With the loom fed through the transmission tunnel the next step was to cut a hole in the battery tray to take the rubber gromit which is already on the loom. To cut the hole I used my trusty hole saw with a 41mm blade. Overall this work well, but like drilling the holes in the aluminimum panesl for the seat belt bolts, the teeth did tend to snag. It was a bit easier on the battery tray as the aluminium is thicker. Next time I think I will use a step drill for cutting circular holes through the aluminium panels.


Next it was time to start attaching the loom to the chassis. For this I used cable ties, cable tie mounts and rivets. The ties and mounts from Screwfix. Once the loom was attached along the inside of the transmission tunnel I then moved on to do the rear and finally the engine bay.


To identify each of the wires I used a number of wiring diagrams: the ones in 'the book', plus a couple sourced from the internet. None fully matched the actual colour coding and make up of my Tiger wiring loom, but by a process of elimination I worked out what each wire is for. I also took the opportunity to label each wire as I went. This should make connecting the wiring loom to the various items later on that much easier and quicker.