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Well everybody, this is my 1979 Ford Fiesta. One of a kind, truly. I took these pictures at my friend's house before I bought it from him. We dropped the motor and bad tranny out, swapped the bad tranny for a used one (only to find out later that the synchros are nearly shot so I grind into second all the time), and put in a new clutch.
This was before I owned the car. When we hooked everything back up, we rolled out of the garage for a first drive ever and rolled about five feet to the parking spot in the pictures where it sat until I bought it. We couldn't drive it because the front left hub bearings were completely desintegrated. My friend lost interest in the project and when he told me he was going to sell it, I jumped at the chance to get my hands on it (I had been very envious of my friend, though I also own a BMW-go figure). $400 dollars later, it was mine. So, I set about replacing the bearings. When I pulled off the hub, it came off in two pieces. The splined shaft of the hub had been completely worn through. My guess is the people my friend bought it from never tightened the hub retaining nut to factory specs after replacing the brake pads or something.
When the nut came loose, ignored the noise, they drove on it until there were no bearings left and then continued driving on it, wearing through the hub's splined shaft. You can see in one picture how bad the castor angle is on the front left wheel. I scoured the internet, dealerships, junkyards, and parts stores looking for replacement hubs, but being a discontinued part for a rare car, it was a hopeless quest. I live in Lake Stevens, WA, USA and my family owns property about 300 miles from our house in Eastern Washington. My grandparents thought to stop at a junkyard on the way back from E. W. and by some crazy stroke of luck, found me a hub.
I slapped it on the next day (having pressed in new bearings into the carrier a week or so earlier), and took it out for a spin. I then found out that the discs are warped and I have an internal leak in my master clinder. But aside from shimmying a lot and the dropping brake pedal, she drives like a champ. Sounds beastly too, with only two feet of exhaust pipe. Recently, the carb that my friend rebuilt in our Auto Tech class has been sticking and it idles now around 1500 to 2500 RPM. I still need to work that out. I have installed a five foot CB radio antenna to go along with my CB radio and six inch rally lights on the front bumper since I took the pictures that you see now. I plan to take some better ones from more angles and a few interior shots and a better shot of the engine. Long Live Rallying!