Benno

Got a few questions to ask the wise ford gods....
regarding a 78 TE Cortina cast iron 4.1L auto

Firstly I pulled the dash from the old girl the other day. When I disconnected the speedo cable I found that the clip was broken, me being curious me I pulled the whole cable from it's sleeve but when I pushed it back in it no longer worked. Is there any bodge up job to make it work again or do I just have to go spend $75 and get a whole new cable whacked together??

Also, I've never personally played with a carby until I got this car, and until I got the workshop manual for it I thought the fuel/air mixture screw was the idle control screw. Kinda works the same :S (with some side effects I soon discovered) Can anyone give a clue on what too start with when tuning a carby?? I've tried all different combinations but it either doesn't start good after sitting and when it does it runs-on when I turn it off. Not sure whether the mix screw in or out is rich/lean :S

Lastly, brakes.... it has drums on the back, how well is the disc/drum combo meant to brake?? Should it stop virtually instantly from about 60 km/h?? Because if I had to stop for a youngen chasing his ball across the road.... it wouldn't happen. A week or so ago I completely bled the whole system, but absolutely no improvement.

Just one more question... When bleeding the rear drums the workshop manual says to only bleed the right rear because they are connected, when doing these together how long should it take to completely flush once air has entered?? A couple of times during while bleeding I forgot about the fluid and air ran into it, but it took ages to get the air out with a one man bleeding aid. Not sure if air was leaking past the nipple or what was gong on.

Much appreciated guys, without this forum I wouldn't be able to get advice (no thanks to the snobby mechanic down the road)

Regards, Benno