1st May - 7th May 2006
Again, I didn't have the time or motivation for taking lots of pictures, so it's words only here for now. Also I don't remember the specific detail of the order of things, so it's just a summary of what has been done to the car over the past week.
  • I bought a quicker steering rack as I spotted a new/unused one going second hand at a good price, so now is as good a time as any to do it whilst the car is in bits. It is a simple unbolting job to swap them over, as the rack can be slid out of the side of the suspension area. To avoid removing the track rod ends, I just wound the track rods out and back into them, marking the floor to get the wheels back in the same direction - though I think I will get the front tracking checked to be sure. The problem with the new rack is that it has no lock stops so the cycle wings contact the body sides before full lock, so I need to sort out some lock stops as that's an MOT failure.
  • After some inspiration and a piece of ali from Richard, I made some supports for the rear bodywork. They brace the body just behind the main hoop mounts down to the chassis diagonals. I need to get hold of some large headed rivets to go through the GRP before I can finish this.
  • Refitted the belts and seats. The belts are a right pain to get sitting correctly, I think ideally the crotch straps need relocating to come up through the bottom of the seat, but no time for that right now.
  • It's good having se7ening neighbours, as Bob came up with a good idea for solving the side repeater problem. He has some old repeaters which are effectively surface mount, and bound for the bin. So I inherit them and spend some time making them fully surface mountable without me having to make any new holes, by having the wires pass through the existing holes and the unit itself double-sided taped to the body just in front. Temporary, but will get me through an MOT (side repeaters must be present and working on post-1986 registered cars).
  • Having got hold of some more fuel hose, I could finish connecting up the flexible fuel lines to the fuel rail at the engine end, and the fuel tank to the pump at the rear. So that's all done and ready to be pressure tested.
  • Refit the scuttle and dash fittings which I removed to ease it forwards to find out that the original side repeaters don't fit.
  • Bleed the brakes. I bought an Eezi-Bleed which some people like and some people don't, but I've got on ok with. The important thing is getting a good seal onto the fluid reservoir and not using too high pressure in the tyre. Then it's just a simple job of opening each of the bleed nipples, and ensuring the level doesn't drop below the minimum. With this done I can also adjust and refit the brake pedal properly.
  • Bleed the clutch. This has to be done manually, but is not too hard a job, just a bit fiddly access. The hose connecting the reservoir to master cylinder seems to be slowly degrading, but it can stay for now, just refresh the fluid.
  • Whilst bleeding the clutch I noticed that the clutch slave cylinder mounting wasn't actually fitting properly. I assume this has always been the case. The method of mounting is not that great, as it flexes a bit - I might try to redesign it totally at some point in the future.
  • Paint and repaint the washers I found which will allow the side mirrors to be mounted to the gussets in the cage. I expect the paint will still come off, but it will do for now, and I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
  • Put some fuel in, pressure test and check all the fuel lines, and actually start the engine - always a good way to make all the hard work seem worthwhile!
  • Having bled the brakes I can readjust the handbrake and refit the tunnel cover panels. Also refit the pedal cover panel. Almost there...

    I've booked the MOT for first thing Wednesday morning, and I think it's just down to sorting out the lock stops and track rod ends for then (the gaitors on the track rod ends have a couple of nicks in them, so may not pass). Oh I need to finish fitting the rear bodywork supports, and mirrors too.

    • 8th May 2006
    So, onwards in the direction of the MOT. The lock stops issue I've still not really resolved to my satisfaction, as the parts that I ordered arrived, but on checking against the old rack I realise that I've not thought about it hard enough. They are way the wrong size, so I think I'll have to resort to using jubilee clips after all. I decide to get on with finishing off the rear bodywork supports as I now have some large headed rivets. So it's just a straight forward drilling and rivetting exercise - though those large rivets are hard to pull! Once it's all rivetted up, the rear body is much less wobbly and is probably stronger than it was before.
    Before I go in, I note that a couple of the front brake bleed nipples appear to still be weeping. Then disaster strikes - I tweaked one of them tighter and felt it go soft. Bad news. So I go in and throw my toys around a bit.

    9th May 2006
    Obviously the brake thing needs sorting, and I suspect I'll have to replace some of the bleed nipples - or maybe all of them, especially as there are pointless ones at bottom of the calipers which may as well be blanked. Anyway, first thing to do is to postpone the MOT into the start of next week, which will buy me the time to get the bits and hopefully sort it.
    After lots of phoning around I don't really get very far with working out what the thread size of my calipers is. So in the evening I resolve to remove one to try to work it out. When I attempt to remove the one which felt soft, it shears off, so I also remove another to check the threads. With the part in my hand I realise that I have been quite stupid, and now understand how the nipples work, and that the weeping was just excess fluid draining from the nipple rather than weeping out of the caliper.
    To my great fortune, William turns up with some spares he has, they appear to be the same thread, so we try fitting them. With his help we quickly bleed out any air which got in, and he eyeballs for leaks while I stand on the pedal. All looks ok, seems I am fixed. I decide to wedge the pedal down hard overnight for a sanity leak check.

    10th May 2006
    Having fixed the brakes sooner than I expected, it's a bit of a shame I had to postpone the MOT, particularly as the weather is rather nice this week. Anyway, I've also ordered some track rod ends to be collected at the weekend, I need to press on with the lockstops, and there's other things I can do (not MOT vital) anyway. So I spend the evening looking the steering rack as someone at work has offered to turn some collars for me. However, looking at the measurements I don't think it's very straight forward without compromising the amount of lock.

    11th May 2006
    As expected we couldn't see a simple and quick way to make up the collars I wanted for the lockstops, so I resolved to fit jubilee clips. So I spent the evening doing so. I am a bit concerned about their fit within the gaitors, so I decided I will round the sharp edges off the bolt heads on the jubilee clip worm drives and stick plenty of grease around them to minimise the chances of them causing damage.

    13th May 2006
    After a bit of a performance whereby the supplier had sold the track rod ends I ordered to someone else, I managed to get hold of a couple of them. So back in the garage and I had soon fitted the track rod ends, with another attempt at keeping the front wheel alignment right, but I think it will need checking as it's all been changed now. I also fettled the bootbox to fit around the cage, as the rear stays are in a slightly different position, and fitted that. Also, I fitted all the mirrors and got them setup as best as I can with the car in the air. Whilst on a roll and making good time, I also fitted the new aluminium solid rack mounts, which I thought I might as well do whilst I have fitted a new rack. Finally I have also got a fire extinguisher, which is something I have been meaning to do for some time, and so I fitted that just in front of the passenger seat.

    14th May 2006
    So it's at last just about done. All that remains is for me to get the wheels back on, and get the car back down on the ground. I have the MOT retest tomorrow morning, so it will be everything crossed that it passes ok, because I won't have alot of time to fix anything before I am due to leave on tour.
    With the car down on the ground, I decide that I have time to give it some love and so spend the afternoon giving it a good clean and polish. I know it will get dirty on tour, but at least it will give it some protection and should help it to clean up again easier.

    15th May 2006
    MOT Day. I have booked the morning off work to get the MOT done, and all being well, to be able to get it taxed also. As I push the car out of the garage to drive the 5 miles to the MOT garage, it starts to rain, typical.
    After an hour or so, I am back with a test certificate in my hand. All that was found with it was that the offside front wheel bearing has a little play in it (I had actually felt that myself), and was advised to nip it up a bit - should be simple enough to do. Somewhat relieved that it has passed, I head off and get myself six months road tax.

    Later on, I find that the rain has made the side repeaters fall off again, so I just remove them - I'll have to resolve that problem properly after the tour. Also it doesn't take very long to get the exhaust swapped back over.

    16th May 2006
    I've managed to persuade Tim to help me to have a look at the front wheel alignment, as he has a device which enables us to measure it with some degree of accuracy. So I head over to Tims house, a good excuse for a little run out in the car also. It doesn't take too long to get the wheels pointing more sensibly, and it's a good job we did, as it had gained a bit too much toe out (it had been hard to push about).
    We also had a brief go at getting the steering wheel pointing straight again, but time meant that I will revisit that task tomorrow.

    17th May 2006
    My final day of fettling and getting ready before the tour, as we are off tomorrow. So the first job is to finish off getting the steering wheel straightened, as driving with it slightly skew is uncomfortable. This is pretty simple, and I have to be careful with the adjustment so as not to upset what we did yesterday. I get it close enough, if it's still annoyingly out, I can easily twiddle it some more on tour.
    Next job is to tighten up the front wheel bearing. I've never done this before as they came from Westfield built up already. But after a short battle to get the split pin out, I tighten it up the minimum amount and it removes the small bit of play whilst still spinning freely. Unfortunately this is where my hassles start, as I went out to get a split pin, but fail to get one the right size. But I manage to get one by popping back to the MOT garage and scrounging one!
    The other job for today is to sort out and attach the padding to the roll cage. It's good having a cage, but no good if it just means you will bounce your head off it in and accident. So whilst it uglifies the car, it is necessary, and I attach high density padding to all the areas where a head might contact it.
    Almost ready...

    18th May 2006
    It's effectively day one of the tour for me, as a group of us are driving up to Cheshire this afternoon ahead of the start tomorrow. But of course, everything is last minute, so I spent some time in the morning modifying the car cover to allow the mirrors to stick through it. Also I have to gather together all the tools and spares I will carry with me, and seal up the bootbox with it's temporary lid.

    ©2002-2009 David Hackett UDM4