:: Diary - June 2005 ::

:: Sunday June 5 2005 ::

Last month I had problems with the windscreen leaking, and last weekend I sealed around the edge of the class with silicone. Today I painted over the join with liquid plastic so that should keep the rain out.

I don't quite have the confidence yet to throw away the leak-mopping sponge, in case I need it next time.

A couple of gratuitous photos of shiny rocker covers.

Another photo of a baldy tyre. I must fix these. Must.

:: Wednesday June 8 2005 ::

Replaced the ignition leads - hopefully, this will cure the misfire in wet weather. Unfortunately its dry and sunny so I can't try it out. But I do anyway and it seems fine.

:: Thursday June 9 2005 ::

Remember on January 16 I said that the hood cover had blown about in the wind and scratched the paint to shit? Well tonight I finally decided to have a go at fixing it, after washing the car again. Much rubbing with Meguiars Scratch X and the marks along the rear edge of the bonnet have almost disappeared. Unfortunately the scratches around the boot edge are a wee bit deeper and don't come out completely. Still a lot better than it was though. I'll have another go before I polish the car up for the summer.

Nevertheless, I'm a bit happier now.

:: Saturday June 18 2005 ::

I heard during the week of another possible reason for the car misfiring when it's wet. The fuel pump is just in front of the rear wheel and the electrical connections get soaked, and then if they have a bad contact, you lose fuel pressure. Clever eh? Good job somebody else told me about it, don't know how long it would have taken me to work that one out.

Jacked up car and removed rear wheel, remove battery negative lead (don't want sparky things happening near a fuel pump, eh>) then removed and cleaned connectors, greased with Vaseline and pushed it all back together.

Also noticed the state of the fuel filter, and remembered that I didn't change it at the last service. It's a wee bit rusty! I don't know if I'll be able to get the connectors off easily, and I don't really have time to fart about with it today if it all goes wrong, so I do the normal smart thing and leave it alone.

I wish I was that smart the rest of the time.

:: Sunday June 19 2005 ::

Decided to change the fuel filter. My resolve to leave it alone lasted one day. Will I never learn?

The bumbler's guide

Step 1 Jack up rear nearside and support with an Axle stand. Remove wheel.

2 Disconnect the fuel pipe unions at each end of the filter. The "out" union on the right hand side is easy - 17 mm socket, put a hammer underneath filter to stop it twisting on the bracket, and remove. This affords me the opportunity to get soaked in a filterload of petrol, which is nice. The union at the other end is of dubious parentage - it won't move, I can't get a socket on because the chassis rails are in the way, and an open ended spanner won't shift it.

Plan B

Remove other end of fuel pipe from fuel pump. 19 mm socket and it's loose. Unfortunately it's fixed to a valve in the pump (which is what I have actually loosened) so the union turns with the nut. Except it can't because the other end is still fixed to the filter which is still fixed to the car.

Plan C

Remove filter from bracket. After much fiddling and bad words, I get the bracket off the car and the filter out of the bracket. This allows me to spin the union off the fuel pump, and an opportunity for another petrol shower.

I get the filter in a vice and this lets me get the other union off, and, surprisingly, there is still a lot of petrol obviously held inside by some vaccuum effect, released when I let air in the loosened union. Another petrol shower. I am starting to wonder if I have inadvertently removed a new type of fuel tank based on some sort of tardis technology.

I put the released valve back into the fuel pump to prevent petrol pishing out everywhere.

At this point one of my neighbours strolls over for a chat, ciggy in hand. I almost knock him over as I adopt the normal safety procedure of running like fuck in the opposite direction.

Reassembly is, as they glibly say in manuals "the reverse of removal", except for the absence of petrol spraying everywhere. I am starting to miss it, now that my eyes have stopped stinging.

Here you can see the fuel pump with the new filter in place, and the short bit of pipe I had to remove. You (well more importantly, I) can see which way round the fuel pump wires go. Cars don't start if the fuel pump is connected up the wrong way round. So I'm told.

Here you can see the new filter in place in the top right of the picture, with the connector off towards the engine. I realise at this point that changing the brake hoses (the thinner rubber hose in the photo above) for the stainless steel ones I have bought, would be a lot easier while the filter is off. Bugger.

And here is a rare photo of my extensive air-conditioned workshop facilities, just after I had finished. Witness if you will the fine selection of spanners all of the same three sizes, chosen carefully at random to fit between various obstructions to turning 4 sodding bolts. Notice also the inevitable hammer (if you can't fix it with a hammer, you're not hitting it hard enough...) and tin of PlusGas, the car repairer's friend.

For those of you of a more observant and nit-picky-health-and-safety-nyar-nyar-that's-not-right-correctness disposition, I would also point out that the car is NOT supported only on that trolley jack. There IS an axle stand in front of the jack, under the suspension arm, although it's all but hidden by the jack in this photo. So bog off and mind your own business, I'm not making you get under there, am I?

After checking that the fuel pump connections are the right way around, start the engine and then check all the fuel unions for leaks, then replace wheel.

:: Thursday June 23 2005 ::

Got home from work to a power cut - so like a smarty-pants I decided to occupy myself by changing the brake hoses on the car - I mean, how long can it take eh? I wasn't intending to finish it, just get a start made so that the car is back on the road for the weekend.

Of course, because I'm clever, I started with the most difficult one, the one under that fuel filter that I changed at the wekend. I was right - you DO have to take it back off again to get the brake hose off. More petrol showers.

The outside end of the hose comes off fairly easily, remove metal pipe, remove lock nut, remove end of hose. Done.

The inside end is more awkward - access is restricted so a selection of spanners of different lengths is needed. Eventually I get the old one off, ready to put the new one on.

At this stage the inner metal connector just refuses to go on the thread - I wiggle it and waggle it (and the hose) but it's just not playing. A few experiments show that it fits the old hose but just won't go onto the new one. I get my light and notice that the first couple of threads are damaged, and so ar the ones on the hose - it's been cross- threaded at some stage. Bugger.

By this time there is brake fluid everywhere, mixing nicely with the petrol.

I don't have any spare female brake connectors, so I cut one off the brake pipe that goes along the swing arm, and install it on to the inner pipe. This lets me get the inner part together and get the fuel filter back on, so that at least the petrol drips are stopped. I forgot to mention that the brake fluid stopped dripping ages ago, I think the system is empty.

Superb.

I need to buy some female connectors and then make up a new metal brake pipe and get it all back together again.

By this time it's dark, I'm sweaty and honking of petrol and brake fluid, and blacker than a naked sweep's scrotum. Not the most fruitful evening's work, but at least this is the most awkward one.

:: Friday June 24 2005 ::

Despite the grief of last night, I got home from work armed with a new packet of brake connectors, and decided to finish off fitting the hose I started last night. And I did.

Then I discover that one of the fuel filter connectors is leaking ever so slightly - just enough to show up as a dark patch before it evaporates. Tightening it doesn't help so I have to take it apart and put on a new brass washer. This means disconnecting the hose again, and another petrol shower.

Then I start to the nearside front. The front has two rubber hoses, one from the body out to the hub (to take up suspension and steering travel) and then a short bit of metal pipe before another hose into the caliper (so that you can take the caliper off to change pads, and also to allow the caliper to slide, because that's how it works!

For some reason (don't know why, I didn't have to do it) I decide to take the caliper off so that I can see inside it to check that dodgy hose fitting. When the caliper comes off the brake pad falls in half. This is not good news, you unnerstan? Better than having it come off when I am trying to stop though - that is distinctly a terminal bad news situation - and the indications are that this was probably imminent!

New pads required tomorrow then...

Most of the rest of the system comes apart reasonably easily, except for the joint behind the radiator which is seized solid and only mounted to the chassis on a bendy metal strip so I can't get any decent leverage on it. In the meantime I put the rest of the system back together, the pipe from the caliper and the wee metal pipe.

In the process, I notice that the new pipe has a different connector into the caliper. The pic shows on the left, the male convex connectors that are throughout the rest of the system. The caliper connection, on the right, is male convex (ie it flares inwards instead of outwards) and I don't think it will seal properly. Unfortunately I can't change the connector on the end of the hose, and I'm not taking all these hoses back off to send them back - it took the sods 2 weeks to deliver them in the first place and I'm not leaving the car off the road while I sort this out!

I decide to put it together anyway and see if it works.

I can still see no easy way of getting that last connector off, I just can't prevent it bending.

It's getting dark, so I need to have a think about it.

Why did I start this...

:: Saturday June 25 2005 ::

Saturday dawns bright and sunny, and my sunny day car is off the road. Great.

First task. Down to the shops to buy some decent brake pads.

Second task - get that stupid stubborn connector off that had me flummoxed last night. I wedge a hammer under it to stop it twisting (more in a fit of pique than through any pre-determined technique), batter a socket on, and it comes off!

I get it all back together in no time after that. The long braided pipe on the left here, takes up all the suspension movement. The shorter looped pipe on the right is only there to make it easy to slide the caliper off to change the brake pads. This is the one with the dodgy connector.

This is it from underneath - you can see the end of the long pipe, and a short metal pipe, then the braided pipe to the caliper. The dodgy connector is the one closest to the camera.

The other side front is easy, and so is the remaining rear.

I happen to notice in passing, in what I hope is a relaxed and calm manner, that the offside front spring has snapped. In two places. "Tsk," I hear myself say, "I should really fix that some day soon." That's what I heard myself say. It's a good job the vicar wasn't standing behind me at the time, as she might have heard something entirely different.

I bleed the two rear brakes and nearside front. The offside front brake bleed nipple snaps off. It does this at 4:55 pm. The local motor factor is 10 minutes away and closes at 5 pm. Great. Game over for today then. I manage to extract the remains from the caliper, ready for a new one.

Why oh why oh why did I start this...

:: Saturday June 25 2005 Update ::

Advice on Pistonheads is that the hose ends are the wrong type and won't seal properly.

Now regular readers among you will have realised that I am not averse to the "chuck it together and see if it works" school of engineering. Which is fine, for the most part. Brakes, howeve, are a different thing - when all else fails the ability to stop takes on some importance, because otherwise it's inevitable that, sooner or later, you'll come to rest against some object that more rightly belongs in the passing scenery. TVRgit's second law of coincidences dictates that the probability of said progress-buffering object being both solid and sore, is equal to 1. I prefer to do my stopping with vehicle and bones intact, TYVM. So I'll fix the brakes.

I'll install a short length of metal pipe, with the correct ends on, in place of the short flexi-hose on each side. The longer hose accomodates all the suspension movement, the short hose is only to allow the caliper to be lifted off for brake pad replacement.

I'll also get a new nipple and that should be it!

:: Sunday June 26 2005 ::

Make up metal pipes to replace the "wrong" flexi-hoses, and put them on. Put a loop in the pipes so that the caliper can move slightly when the brakes are pressed on.

I'll try to get the right nipple and the right hoses, then bleed the whole system again I think. This setup will do till then though.

I've spent 3 days kneeling beside that car in the sun and i'm all sunburnt - i blame my own personal hole in the ozone layer caused by all that evaporating petrol...

:: Tuesday June 28 2005 ::

Bought a couple of springs and shocks from Dave tonight. I just have to get round to changing them over now.

First I need to get a large strong tight-fitting 19 mm spanner, that I can get a good lever over and loosen the bolts that hold the springs on. I have ordered a fandabby quality spanner set on ebay and am awaiting delivery.