The Scorpio is a great tow car - especially the Estate fitted
with the self leveling suspension (optional on the Saloon but rarely fitted). I
wanted to get a tow bar fitted to mine for towing a boat trailer and phoning
around indicated prices of between £140 and £150 plus VAT. Not expensive but
where's the fun in having someone else do it for you?
A quick telephone call
located a Witter tow bar and single electrics in stock for £96 incl VAT. Hang on
a sec - a part for a Ford Scorpio actually IN STOCK - there must be a catch! In
fact the Witter tow bar for the Ford Scorpio is exactly the same as the one for
the Ford Granada - not surprising really as they share the same floorpan. The
model number is F56. The same model fits both the Saloon and the Estate.
I opened the box and located all of the parts - it surprised me
just how heavy a tow bar is so you need to be careful as dropping part of it on
your hand will cause some damage!
Step 1 was to make sure that it all fitted
together and that I understood where all the parts went - not so straightforward
as the instructions were very confusing (translated from a foreign language
perhaps?). The kit comes with a longitudinal drawbar that fits behind the bumper
and a lengthwise front/rear bar that fits to a front bracket that bolts to the
body using the differential bracket fixing bolts. Two front brackets are
supplied with the manual saying one was for a 'transaxle' the other wasn't.
After a bit of fitting I realised that the Scorpio didn't have a 'transaxle' so
consigned that one to the bin - actually only one physically fitted so that was
easy enough.
Likewise the instructions referred to removing a lower trim plate and cutting a
140mm hole - this can be ignored as it refers to the Granada installation. In
fact the finished result is a very neat installation. The bar clears the bottom
of the bumper by 2-3 mm and the tow ball does not affect the number plate - very
neat.
I test fitted everything up before I started in earnest and it all seemed to
line up ok so I started to remove the rear bumper.
Firstly jack the rear of the car up and place it on stout Axle Stands - never
work underneath a jack please.
Behind the side pieces of the bumper you will find a large clip (called a
butterfly clip) that has to be gripped by hand and rotated 90 degrees - this
releases the sides of the bumper but you then need to grasp it from outside and
pull it away from the body - it's held in a clipped channel and a hearty pull is
needed to release it.
Next crawl under the car and locate the two fixing bolts at each side - they are
probably covered in underseal etc and Ford in their wisdom decided to use 8mm
TORX head bolts (T35). After 6 years these will never come out - I snapped 2
TORX bits in the process and ended up having to drill them all out - this is a
real pain as you have to then remove the studs. I took the metal brackets off
the bumper after removal and heated the studs up, cutting a slot into them with
a hacksaw and used a larger screwdriver to remove them - this was the most
difficult task of the lot.
Once the bolts are removed the whole of the bumper can be
removed but you need to release the number plate lamps. These simply clip in so
slide a thin screwdriver down the side with the clip and pop them out - then
turn the bulb holder 90 degrees to release them. Put the bumper somewhere safe
where it won't get damaged.
At this point I discovered quite a bit of rust in the rear section of the
bodywork and so sprayed liberal doses of Waxoyl and Cavity Wax everywhere to
prevent further damage.
I fitted the rear drawbar in place temporarily with
the large tow ball bolts through the original bumper holes - this allowed me to
locate everything before I reinstalled the bumper. The front bracket is
installed using the front bolts of the differential bracket - the
bolts are plenty long enough for this. Then the front/rear bar is bolted to the
front bracket and aligned with the rear drawbar which has additional plate
that bolts to a hole that Ford must have created for this very purpose - how
kind of them. Once these pieces are loosely bolted together you have to take a
piece of supplied angle iron and thread it into the box section - Witter give
you the measurements for two 10mm holes to be drilled but instead I placed the
angle iron underneath the box section and aligned the single hole on one of it's
sides with the Ford provided one and marked the positions for the two remaining
holes underneath, drilling them with a 10mm drill and finishing off with some
paint and underseal. Then I threaded the angle iron back into the box section
and bolted it up.
Witter give very confusing instructions about a spacer which caused me some
problems as they didn't show exactly where it should fit. The answer is that it
fits against the vertical edge of the angle iron behind the side of the box
section and not in front of it as their diagram shows.
All that remained was to tighten everything up - I used 35Nm with a Torque
Wrench for all bolts.
Then to refit the bumper - I removed the temporary bolts holding the rear
drawbar which was by now firmly secured to the car and pushed the rear bumper
back into position. There are 4 M8 bolts supplied in the kit that replace those
TORX bolts that were destroyed earlier and these are fitted with the original
large flat washers and bolt the drawbar to the bumper through the bodywork. With
everything nice and secure all I had to do was refit the side pieces and replace
the butterfly clips.
Wiring
I am only using the
Scorpio for towing a trailer and so a single plug was adequate whereas a Caravan
will require a double unit. After removing everything from the boot I found a
convenient rubber grommet already in place on the right hand side which fed
cables into the light cluster. All that was needed was a pack of Scotchlocks
(supplied) and a multi meter to test which cable was which (looking at the power
connector the top wire is sidelight, next is indicator, next is stop lights,
reversing light (not used) and earth. The kit I used came with an audible alert
for when a trailer is connected but I will investigate advice that there is a
dashboard lamp available.
I connected up all of the wires as per the instructions and fed the cable
through to the socket which was simply wired up and then bolted in place, having
received a healthy dose of wax to prevent corrosion problems later.
If using the same method as I did for connections then the loom for the left
hand light cluster is also available at the same point - this is needed for the
separate connections needed for the left hand indicator and left hand sidelight.
Don't use the light cluster earth for earthing your connections. I remove one of
the fixing nuts for the cluster and cleaned around it to bare metal. I then
fitted earth rings to the wires and bolted them under the fixing nut, spraying
some wax around it afterwards.
The only problem that I found was that I needed a long length of cable to
connect to the Foglights - someone put them in the bootlid!
Finally I bolted up the tow ball very very tight and plugged in the
trailerboard to test the whole lot. And it all worked!
All that remained was to get the black hammerite out and spray the whole lot
liberally with Waxoyl to keep the rust at bay.
Now although I enjoy messing around with cars I have to say that the £50 odd
that I saved was not really worth the efforts that it took to do this. I would
recommend that you get the tow bar fitted by a professional as the bumper bolts
will not come out and will probably have to be drilled etc. But, I enjoyed doing
it and found some rust that I managed to prevent spreading.
Here
you can see the rear bumper removed showing the box section into which the angle
iron piece is threaded. Place the small spacer next to the angle iron, then the
box section and then that large plate that connects to the drawbar.
When
I removed the bumper I found quite a bit of surface rust. The car is a 1995 and
I was surprised to not find more. Anyway a liberal does of cavity wax was
sprayed into the box sections and inaccessible places to prevent further rust
forming.
I
laid all of the parts out under the car to measure and see if it all fitted.
Actually the tow bar was of very high quality and everything fitted first time
and without needing modification.
Here
you can see the bracket thar locates the differential - the instructions are a
little confusing but choose the options for a car not fitted with a transaxle
and use the front bolts.
This
picture shows the front bracket bolted in place to the differential bracket. The
front/rear bar is then bolted to this, running back to the drawbar.
Now
all bolted up and just needing a coat of paint and wax to keep the rust at bay.
Finally
installed with it's black protective cap - it's a neat piece of kit and I have
no hesitation in recommending the Witter tow bars
Here
you can see the rear bumper removed showing the box section into which the angle
iron piece is threaded. Place the small spacer next to the angle iron, then the
box section and then that large plate that connects to the drawbar.
When
I removed the bumper I found quite a bit of surface rust. The car is a 1995 and
I was surprised to not find more. Anyway a liberal does of cavity wax was
sprayed into the box sections and inaccessible places to prevent further rust
forming.
I
laid all of the parts out under the car to measure and see if it all fitted.
Actually the tow bar was of very high quality and everything fitted first time
and without needing modification.
Here
you can see the bracket thar locates the differential - the instructions are a
little confusing but choose the options for a car not fitted with a transaxle
and use the front bolts.
This
picture shows the front bracket bolted in place to the differential bracket. The
front/rear bar is then bolted to this, running back to the drawbar.
Now
all bolted up and just needing a coat of paint and wax to keep the rust at bay.
Finally
installed with it's black protective cap - it's a neat piece of kit and I have
no hesitation in recommending the Witter tow bars