Re:The Rat Trap

Some more progress

Replaced all the piston slides and rubbers and everything is nice and smooth now

Replaced the front bearing. I couldn't get the nut off at home and didn't fancy the £40 or so quid for the tool so took the whole hub assembly off and up to my friendly garage where the swapped over the bearing for me. Kicked myself many times for not getting it done whilst I was doing the kingpins.

That done I turned my attention to a nagging concern. There's a bit of white smoke and something dripping out the rear exhaust. I got in my head it may be the head gasket but checked tonight and there's 0 apparent coolant loss so I feel fairly safe.

Took the rear silencer off and poured a couple of cups of orangey liquid out. Left the motor running for a while with the silencer off but there's still some dripping. I caught some in a tub and tasted it and I'm 99 percent sure it's just water with no coolant. The cars been off the road a long time so perhaps it's a lot of condensation or maybe it's been through a ford and not driven much after. Who knows. But there's no other indication of it being a head gasket so whatever. Once it's actually on the road I think it'll clear.

Did notice a section of my rear *cross member has a nice hole in it. It's hidden above the exhaust. Couldn't be bothered getting the welder out so I'll leave it for now and come back to it. Can't see it being an MOT issue especially as it seems to be completely hidden.

Other than painting it and locking the auto hubs I think I've done all I can at home. It's needing rear brake pipes which I don't fancy tackling. So, I'll insure it, book an emissions test to see if the lambda looks dodgy, and move it up to my friendly garage.

Only question is whether to paint it first or not. I've changed the colour on the V5 but don't want to spend more than I have to before knowing what the MOT check throws up ....




*The bit behind the rear bumper. Whatever that's called

Another quick job before i pass it to the garage. Converted my auto hubs to locked (cheers kirkynut for the guide).

Had a wee go at splitting the casings but couldn't get an edge in. Found my garden hose is a tight fit in the hole at the back though so popped that in. I'm likely to manual hubs at some point so I'm not too fussed about it being failproof, though I think it'll last a very long time anyway.

Did find the little black o rings/seals pushed the cog up slightly out of mesh so opted to leave them out. It all seems fairly firmly in place anyway.

You're welcome!

Kirkynut

Another job ticked off actually. Was worried about the driver's side front and rear seatbelts passing the mot due to rat damage. Managed to get 2 front belts cheap and found that it is possible, with some minor modification, to fit a front seatbelt in the rear! I had thought I'd need to remove the rear seats and belts for the MOT so pleased to just be able to tick it off now.

Decided to be brave and purchase the insurance also. Still have my worries that the MOT is going to throw some crazy stuff up or the emissions will be way out of whack and difficult to pinpoint without the codes being readable. So I'm gambling that it'll be sortable and I've saved money by not paying to have it moved to the garage. Fingers crossed! I'm taking it up on Tuesday so will know soon what else, if anything, is needed.

Cheeky update -

Had a last ditch attempt at sorting the dead OBD2 port today. Long story short I succeeded! But I think I've killed my instrument cluster in the process.

I took the cluster out to recheck my connections. Managed to short something in the process. Lost all of the 'delayed' warning lights other than airbags (EML etc).

Found a popped fuse whilst trying to get them back and my OBD2 came back to life! Interestingly I had previously checked the fuses and not found an issue. Maybe a poor connection of some sort but whatever - replacing it brought the port back to life.

A scan with what I have shows no faults so I'm wondering if it was on due to the fuse. Cleared it anyway. Annoyingly though I now can't tell if the light would be off or not ....

For now I've made a magical secret emergency repair which may assist with the MOT assuming it passes emissions. Then I'll replace the cluster and hope all the lights come back no issue.

Fingers crossed - I'll know more tomorrow

Reading between the lines it looks to me like pre 2003 cars are not required to have a functioning EML/MIL light for the MOT. Will confirm with the tester today but that would be handy!