Tackling the coil springs

So, one of the MOT failures was due to the springs popping out of place when the car is jacked up. Solutions that have been suggested include using garden twine to hold them in place, cable ties or a clamp and bolt set from the likes of Rimmers, although SprintMan fromn the TRDC has suggested that these don't work.

Enter Paul. And his seat belt idea. Get 4 seat belts, cut off the bit that anchors the belt to the car body and join them together to make 2 straps. Whilst the spring is in it's I am about to fall out position, measure the shock and drill holes in the body to attach the strap too. The other end will fit on the bolt that holds on the bar thing that lives by the diff. 

This might help:

See the hole in the top centre? That's the one end.

This weekend, Simon and I also had a fairly good go at balancing the carbs. Paul then strobed the distributor. It doesn't backfire as much as it used to!

M O T

Sod it, I thought, I'll take it in and see what else is wrong. We have done all of the things that we knew about. The original TO DO LIST all that time ago is now complete or defunct and thus it is time to work on another. To do that, I needed to take it to MOT man. To do that, I had to part with £120 for insurance. I limped it up the road to the closest one a few hundred yards away called TyreSales. 

Oh dear! I knew it wasn't running well and needed a tune, but decided that rather than spending £s getting tuning done, I ought find out what else was wrong as potential big bills would mean another year in the garage. I was rather light headed at the end - the whole of the unit was clogged with rich v8 petrol fumes. I think the tester let me off a few things as he was slowly being poisoned!

The failure list then:

1. o/s/f brake application uneven
2. o/s/f brake binding
3. n/s headlamp not in good working order affecting beam image
4. n/s/r coil spring not correctly located
5. n/s/f coil spring not correctly located
6. o/s/r wheel nut missing
7. exhaust emissions carbon monoxide content excessive (5665 against a limit of 1200!)
8. exhaust emissions hydrocarbon content excessive
9. front brakes inbalanced

Next time I have a mid life crisis in another life in an other world, please encourage me to buy a Mazda MX5?

You put the dashboard in...

... the dashboard out ... well, that was the plan. in fact the plan was quite ambitious this weekend. With Lionel's assistance, I was going to change the dash from grey to black, change the clocks at the same time, lay the speaker wires and fit all of the carpets!

The dash was unscrewed and the clocks came out(ish). It was decided that we would test the new (they are the ones salvaged from the Teabag!) speedo by bodging the cable in the back of the clocks and a quick burn/backfire up the road. It didn't work. It must be the speedo cable then.

As if by magic, Simon appears. As if by a little more magic, Paul appears. Paul then showed us where the speedo cable meets the gearbox. He accomplished this task by jacking one of the sides of the car very high. Whilst Simon (as he is the only member of the pit crew who can get under the car to undo the speedo to box holding screw thing, (maybe Lionel but he was still having fun and games with the dash)).

It was at this point that Paul noticed that the rear springs had popped out of their rubber mountings. he was not unduly concerned as he had obviously seen this sort of thing before. However, I was and I hadn't. Whilst worrying, we tested the speedos in both consoles to see what was going on. This involved fiddling with a drill, Artur Daley style. It was found that the "new" one worked fine. And thus, it was installed.

It was at this point that I realised for the first time, that BL had made slight changes to the console in the year between a fixed head V and a drop head W. It became clear that all was not well when the choke light illuminated when the hand brake was pulled and that the fuel light came on when the main beam was flashed. Even I managed to work out that this was not correct. If I recall correctly, Lionel called me something unpleasant and Simon buggered off for a tab.

But fear not. Paul came back to help fix the spring thing and Simon came back to retighten the box-speedo screw thing. The eventual solution was to remove the speedo from the "new" console and to swap it with the defunct one. Overall, another good day as I can now insure it and get it MOTd as the miles now go round. Not as much completed as planned though! However, I did manage to find the time to swap the grey door pillar edges for some black ones! Black really does look better than grey! [NB. Sorry Line, I know it is a difficult one but I still want to change the grey dashboard for the black one!]