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Zelandeth

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Everything posted by Zelandeth

  1. Couple of little jobs today in preparation for the MOT on Thursday. One thing which I knew for certain needed sorting was the headlight aim. I borrowed the Partner which I know the headlights are adjusted more or less correctly on and made a couple of reference marks on the garage door from a known distance. Starting point basically had the headlights pointing at the ground about 6' in front of the car. After a bit of tweaking things looked far more sensible. There used to be a huge gap between the lenses and the surrounds, they look more sensible now. Might need a bit of a tweak at the test, but all the adjusters are free now so that's only a couple of minutes work, and isn't the sort of thing my tester would mind happening while we're there if we need to. As mentioned last time, I had to tweak the locking washer for the nut that holds the steering rack to the track rod bracket as I'd put it on backwards. Just wanted to provide visible evidence (to myself as much as anything!) that I had gone back and fixed that. The Easybleed as seems to be standard both leaked fluid everywhere and overfilled the brake fluid reservoir. So I both drained off enough to bring the fluid down to the max mark and tried to clean up the general area so it didn't look like we had a huge fluid leak from the master cylinder. I'd had a new air filter floating around pretty much since I got the car as the one on it was looking pretty manky. If you wondered what filter these used, here's your answer. Yes, that's also me lazily leaving breadcrumbs for myself when I forget. Surprised to see this still being a current item from Mann given the *extensive* list of vehicles using it. Has a late 2023 date code on though so looks to still be being made. Spotted one problem starting to develop in the form of one of the driver's door hinge pins attempting to make a bid for freedom. Having grabbed a suitable drift this was hammered back into place properly. Have to wonder how long that's taken to work itself that far out. Noticeable that the door opens/closes more smoothly now. Will try to find time between now and the test to give the car a general clean, and I'd really like to come up with a more substantial mounting solution for the front bumper as I can see it's sagging again.
  2. This also happens frequently when trying to embed links or tagging users. As SiC says, it's just one of the "quirks" of the complete disaster that is the Invision text editor. If you're on a mobile device, *sometimes* forcing the page to reflow by swapping from landscape to portrait (or vice-versa) and back will kick it into working again. Not always though.
  3. It's on the car now so I can't easily measure it, but "an inch and a bit" I'd say. Maybe inch and a half for the outer diameter.
  4. Okay, let's have another shot at getting this steering rack to track rod bracket apart. Attempt number 1. This failed. The puller would always slip off well before getting any real torque involved. This wasn't actually in use, I just stuck it on there for the photo, so yes I know it's not lined up right. The correct tool for this job is essentially just a big ball joint splitter. However buying one of those would require spending more money than I really wanted to, and waiting for something to arrive. Instead, take one £15 splitter from Halfords and spend ten minutes mutilating it with a grinder until it fits. Remember, it's not stupid if it works! That let go with one HELL of a bang. The old boot was removed and things cleaned up ready for the new one to go on, which I'd already had long enough to have completely forgotten which box it was in and requiring 10 minutes of rummaging until it turned up. Done. Well, almost. I didn't initially spot that there's a flat cast into the bracket where the locking washer is meant to locate. So the nut was loosened off again and the washer rotated through 180 degrees since this photo was taken. Only casualty was me being careless with the grinder and nearly setting myself on fire. I was already kind of paranoid about fire was I was relatively close to the Rover while doing this job and it's proven so far to be by far the most stubbornly not fuel-tight vehicle I've ever owned! MOT has been re-booked for next Thursday. Shame they can't fit me in sooner, but it is what it is, I know they're always busy. Aside from the usual sanity check beforehand and making sure all the lights etc are working, I need to try to tweak the headlight aim a bit as I think it's still way too low. I'll make sure all the adjusters are properly lubricated before taking it in so it can be easily tweaked at the time if need be.
  5. That lot were (at least when I used to be in the area ~10 years ago) an absolute bunch of crooks. Avoid at all costs. Admittedly, they didn't tend to have anything half as interesting looking in the yard back then, so maybe things have changed.
  6. There is a huge satisfaction to be had from realising that the correct tool for a job is expensive. However you can attack a £15 one with the grinder for ten minutes and it should work just fine. Especially grin worthy when it does work exactly as planned.
  7. Yeah, looks like I'll need to get a puller on to it. I mean it's not something you want to come apart easily and from the locking washer it doesn't look like it's ever been apart before, so I can't complain too much.
  8. Rain finally stopped today so I could move forward with this. No. I definitely didn't give it the second coat of paint using the boot as a spray booth. Also made a point of ensuring that the brake bleeder cracked loose while I had the arm still off the car as dealing with that as it stood would be far easier than in the car if needed. The hub cavity, spacer, stub axle and rear cover were all cleaned up. Not really many photos of putting the new bearings etc in as I was absolutely covered in grease for most of it. In fact I feel like I still am despite having washed my hands a dozen times and showered since I worked on the car. Probably the single most awkward part was actually getting the snap ring back into the groove in front of the outer bearing as it really was a bit beefier than my circlip pliers were designed for. However I managed to not ping it into low earth orbit or embed it in one of my eyeballs so I considered that a win. Getting the suspension arm back in place was moderately awkward, but honestly nowhere near as bad as I expected. I was able to lift the arm into position and get the inboard bolt started, then have a jack support the trailing arm while I started the forward one. Then was just a matter of evenly tightening them both up. Which takes takes a while as both of the bolts are really quite long. Definitely a job which made me wish I had an electric ratchet. Then the brake line was hooked back up. Not thrilled by the amount of tension on the flexible brake lines. Looks like when the camber correction hardware is fitted that an inch or two longer brake line should also be added. I'll look into dealing with that in the future. I appreciate that the brake shoes can be fitted back onto the backing plate as a single assembly without the need to wrestle with a bunch of faffing about with the springs. You DO need to mind your fingers though as there will be a heap of tension on there. Then the hub was reattached, the nut torqued up to VFT and the locking tab bent over to ensure it's not going anywhere. All that remained there was to bleed the brakes and put the wheel back on. A helper would have been handy rather than relying on the Eazibleed (which as usual leaked all over the place). I know I do have one of those far simpler one man bleeders somewhere, but we all know what my garage looks like. All back together. Glad to report that a test drive revealed no unpleasant noises or anything. The next task on the pre-MOT was the steering rack gaiter. Seems simple enough. Remove the end nut from the rack, separate it, remove old boot, clean, re-grease, fit new boot and reassemble. Yeah...the two parts aren't too interested in separating after 39 years. Ideas? I've left it soaking in Plusgas overnight. Guessing heat is probably the answer, albeit very carefully both due to not wanting to damage the rack itself and given the proximity of the fuel tank. Once that's done and I've given the headlight beam alignment a tweak we should be ready to head to the MOT again. Hopefully!
  9. Would have been a bit silly not to get the surface rust on the suspension arm treated and a bit of protection applied while it's off the car. Another coat will go on tomorrow before stuff goes back together. Nothing special, realistically probably not going to make a bit of difference, but I feel better for having it done. Well... probably not going to be tomorrow given it's looking like it will still be raining all day tomorrow. *Sigh.*
  10. Our experiences following a mental breakdown of a family member back in 2016 proved the whole innocent until proven guilty thing to be complete and utter cobblers. We instead discovered that "The burden of proof" instead lays with the accused. In this case as we had no actual physical evidence that the offense accused hadn't been committed, and subsequently basically got the book thrown at us. The NHS were waaaaay more willing to provide mental health support *after* the event that we'd been screaming at the top of our lungs was going to happen for the proceeding three years...ya know that might have been real nice to have before a loved one ended up dropping off the face of the earth for a full day, eventually surfacing a day later in a police cell under suicide watch. It just comes with the territory I think. Not going to let it get to me, as we're bit by bit getting things ticked off we need to before we can just get the hell out of here. Biggest headache is just that the employer of the largest earner in the family by a huge chunk has made it abundantly clear that they're neither willing to entertain less than 25% of time in the office nor relocating to another office elsewhere in the country. So that's a pretty major speed bump we need to navigate, and is definitely the biggest constraining factor with regards to timescales. The rest is just crap which might knock value off the house, which while unfortunate isn't the end of the world (within reason).
  11. I'm sure it won't be too hard to sort in the end. It's just a bit of a headache from a stress perspective having them breathing down my neck from two different angles within a couple of weeks.
  12. They've clearly indicated that I have 21 days to provide them with the evidence or it will be escalated (in red print even) to their enforcement team and that I may then be liable for any legal charges from that point, so ignoring it and hoping it will go away isn't going to be viable. I will be responding to the email address listed and copying by post, I'd just like to speak to someone to confirm if there's anything specific that would be useful for me to provide. In the absence of any other feedback they'll get copies of the documentation proving all vehicles to be in my name (except Chris' company car anyway which we see no paperwork for save for the rental agreement) and a covering letter explaining that I'm simply a hobbyist. I worked for a local council for eight years up north, which is one of the reasons that this lot being so damned difficult to communicate with is so frustrating. The only neighbours who can actually see our frontage are the folks across the road, who are the only neighbours we ever really communicate with, and get along quite well with. The others either keep to themselves or are rental tenants who change what feels like about every six months.
  13. Give me strength... Just had another letter from the Council. Apparently they're under the impression that I have started operating a vehicle restoration or repair business out of my property, in contravention with the local planning regulations. They are investigating the matter and invite me to provide evidence to prove that I am not in fact operating said business. Um, how exactly am I supposed to provide evidence of NOT doing something? Guess that's going to be a fun hour sitting on hold tomorrow trying to get through to speak to an actual person. This is in addition to the planning enforcement notice received from them a few weeks ago about us having apparently built a fence on their land - despite every single set of plans I've had sight of (including from the land registry) clearly showing our boundary to butt up right against the footpath. Still waiting for them to confirm the details on that one, though at least they have acknowledged they've received my initial response.
  14. Think this is the original res. I do have a photo of that car on film I believe, which I *may* be able to pull better resolution out of. Can't remember off the top of my head how much closer/further away I was when I took it. I did take a note of the dimensions, but can't for the life of me remember where! The front plate is very clean looking though, I'm not at all convinced it's not a (relatively) modern replacement. Was completely devoid of any makers marks that I could remember seeing. Would have made sense for them to both be of the same type when the car was new I'd think.
  15. Fscking weather. Me: Wants to put the Trabant back together. Weather: Hah! *Rains all day.* Guess that'll be waiting till tomorrow if I can find time then.
  16. Well worth a drive if you ever get the chance. I think the biggest surprise really is how old fashioned they don't feel to drive. All the controls are light, it's quiet(ish), handles far better than you'd think for how squishy the ride is, and it's just such an easy thing to waft around in. Or at least it will be once I trust it not to break (again) at any moment anyway!
  17. That's definitely one of those things I'm filing away as useful stuff for future reference. Would never have thought of it but yes, that's a really good idea. Been feeling pretty frazzled today, so probably not the worst thing that it worked out I was lacking a worthwhile car to take to Rustival. Reckon I'd probably just have been overwhelmed and ended up retreating after about an hour. I did need to run a couple of errands in the morning though. Decided to take a brave pill regarding transport. Proof it has actually moved. Made it home again too. Without breaking down. In fact without adding anything else to the to do list. Though the oil leak hasn't miraculously fixed itself. That's going to be a barrel of laughs to fix. It's the gasket behind the oil pump/filter housing that needs to be replaced. It's just *slightly* awkward to get to. That's a problem for some point over the next few days though. I did grab a quick video showing where we've got to this afternoon. I literally just wedged my phone between the dash and the windscreen, so low production quality! The loud bang about halfway through was me closing the glove box which decided to fall open and scare me half to death completely randomly. So... Oil leak is the big priority for the sake of other road users. I'm not comfortable driving it further until that's sorted. Other high priority items will be getting the radiator recored, the remaining original coolant lines replaced and the tyres need to be changed as they are definitely flat spotted. Only really noticeable above 50, so not a huge issue for local use, but definitely want doing before any longer trips - they're absolutely ancient anyway so they want changing anyway. I do actually feel like I'm making progress now at last rather than just chasing my tail, which is nice. However, you remember the fuel leak which caused a small environmental disaster and caused our house to stink of fuel for a full week? Guess what reappeared this afternoon? From exactly the same spot...Yep, the same bloody leak. I think the root cause of the issue was actually down to the fuel filter itself. This had no ridge on the end of the hose barb, and I think the hose was just sliding down from the 8mm to 6mm section. Said cheap and nasty tiny filter has now been consigned to the bin and a larger, better quality one has been fitted. It was immediately apparent once the hose was connected that it was far more secure even before the hose clip was done up. Said hose clip has also been replaced to be safe. I've had that happen before on one of these but thought at the time it was a fluke. They're getting binned though now. Will I be obsessively checking these connections every single time the car is used for about the next year? Yes. Also really need to get some black HT leads, like seriously... Rover wasn't intended to be today's main target though. My box of several different sized pullers had turned up, so battle commenced with the Trabant wheel bearing replacement. Honestly not sure if I had loosened it when I tried to remove it last time, as it just slid straight off today with relatively little effort. Not maybe quite as bad as I was expecting given the noise this was making, but yeah this clearly isn't as clean as you would like to see. Even more to my surprise, the lower shock absorber bolt unscrewed with any drama. Couple of people had mentioned that removing the handbrake cable *before* starting to remove the trailing arm was a good way to save your sanity, so I wasted far too long trying to figure out the correct way to dismantle the brakes. Got there in the end though. Reassembling that won't be at all awkward I'm sure. The self adjusters in this are really quite clever. A really simple sliding ratchet arrangement which is built into the shoe retaining pins. They can move outward away from the piston, but not inward - so the force of the shoe moving itself works the adjuster. It's really simple, but looks to me like this should be quite reliable. The brake line itself was the next thing to be disconnected. Of course because I am highly intelligent, I parked the car such that I had to lay in the Rover's oil puddle while doing this. Well done. Then it was literally just a case of unscrewing the two trailing arm bolts. I did support the bottom of the hub with a jack to ensure any remaining tension on the spring was supported. There wasn't much, but there was definitely a bit of tension left. Just enough I'm sure to make getting everything back together an absolute pain. Something definitely missing here! Oh, here it is! The shock absorber mounting bracket also then needs to be removed from the arm as it gets in the way. I was really worried these bolts might snap, but they thankfully didn't. Did protest a bit, but they came out. The rubber cover the revealed the cause of our issue. The inner bearing had clearly suffered water contamination based on the amount of rust that fell out. Pretty sure this was the cause of our issues as the outer bearing didn't seem to be noisy. The stub axle could then be knocked through the back of the hub. This is seriously chunky looking for a 600kg car. Can of Plusgas for scale. The inner bearing can just be pushed out the back of the housing with a suitable drift. The outer one comes out from the wheel side - after you've found and removed the circlip hiding in among the slimy old grease under the seal. One set of knackered bearings. The thing on the left is the spacer which sits between the two. This needs to be cleaned up, then I can set about (carefully) installing the new bearings. That's probably going to be tomorrow afternoon's job. [] Clean hub. [] Pack new bearings with grease. [] Install bearings. [] Install new seal. [] Reinstall stub axle & add some more grease just for good measure. [] Reinstall cover. [] Reinstall trailing arm. [] Reconnect brake line. [] Reassemble brake shoe assembly & handbrake cable. [] Reinstall hub with new nut and locking washer. [] Reinstall brake drum. [] Bleed brakes. [] Put wheel back on. [] Test drive. Assuming I've not missed anything critical. Now I know how it comes apart hopefully should go back together a little quicker. Having now seen how it comes apart, I reckon you *could* do this with the trailing arm still on the car, but it would be way, way more awkward - and the additional stress and swearing probably isn't worth the half hour or so it might save. *Hopefully* we'll have this back together tomorrow.
  18. Yep. And the first car in Europe to feature remote controls for the stereo as a factory option I believe. Yanks got there first though.
  19. Ping me a PM, sure we can come to an arrangement. It's not going to do me any good as all of the hardware on mine is the later style. I'll need to see if I can un-seize it at least. Sadly it's suffered the same fate as everything that was in the boot, looking as though it's been stored on the bottom of the ocean. Had half hoped the puller might have turned up today, but it hasn't. Have been feeling really rough today as well which has hindered my productivity somewhat. Some of you who have followed my trials and tribulations with the Rover will remember me finding this floating around in the back of the engine bay not attached to anything when I had the heads off. My guess was that it was a breather which should be attached to the gearbox proved to be correct. Somebody had obviously removed it at some point and never hooked it back up. Why I'll never know. This isn't something you really want to leave open to the elements for obvious reasons. However reattaching that original line wasn't going to be easy. Can you see where it attaches? Zoom... Zoom further... There it is! Yeah, there's no way I'm getting the original moulded nylon line back on there. Maybe if I had the car properly up on a lift and I could get two hands in there from underneath, maybe. On the driveway, not a chance. After fighting with it for about half an hour I gave in and fitted a rubber hose instead. You'll have to take my word for the fact that it's attached at the gearbox end. Should do the same job just fine though. The fluid level was also a *little* on the low side. Took this to get it up to what looks to be the correct level (the handbook has the fluid level check procedure marked down wrong), saying to check it cold with engine off...not warm with engine running as is correct. Prior to adding that fluid we had nothing on the stick at all when the engine was running. Also worth noting that these gearboxes do NOT take normal Dex II/III fluid. They need type F fluid. Surprisingly, Mileham's had a few (admittedly rather dusty) bottles on the shelf. Don't imagine they'll be bothering to re-stock those! It looks, feels and smells the same as what's in the box so I'm reasonably confident this hasn't been filled with the wrong fluid at least. Also apparently the heater box is missing a bunch of screws. Don't think I have any others that are short enough in stock so will need to buy some. So far the fuel system still seems to be cooperating. Though I do need to adjust things a little as the warm idle is way too high, at about 1000 rpm in neutral. Should be nearer 750 - or lower if you can get the engine to reliably idle slower, to reduce the "thump" when selecting drive/reverse. In other news, did I drive around in circles for ten minutes this afternoon so I could catch this? Yes, yes I did.
  20. Well I guess that's one way to dodge speeding fines and ULEZ charges... My spot today sadly doesn't have any accompanying photo, I'll try to snap it in the future. However there's a house in Luton which must have half a dozen LDV Convoys outside looking to be in varying degrees of functionality to disrepair.
  21. The images everywhere aside from on here are hosted on ImgBB. I have heard of some VPNs and the like sometimes having issues with that host. Glad that my nonsense has provided interest. So today didn't go quite according to plan. Failed at the first hurdle, getting the hub off the Trabant. Looking at the parts diagram it should just pull off once the hub nut and locking washer are off. However my puller literally exploded before anything moved a millimetre. I've ordered a rather more substantial one, but it won't be here for a day or two. So I spent an hour on the Rover instead. First thing I noticed was that I'd missed trimming the cable ties underneath the car. Oops. Up until now I've had a power supply to the pump jumped off the feed to the starter solenoid, requiring the bonnet to be opened and a plug physically connected or disconnected every time the engine was started or stopped. Today I set about wiring in a proper, ignition switched source. Borrowed from the heater blower fuse and routed to the pump via the routing of the factory wiring loom. Looking a bit tidier. Thirty minutes of so of driving around, then leaving it to cook idling in gear for ten minutes or so didn't reveal any more unknown issues. So I need to take a brave pill and actually try taking it out of the neighborhood tomorrow to see what happens! Felt kind of odd doing a test without either ending up at the side of the road or having to bodge anything!
  22. Well evidently I need a better puller than the one I just snapped in half! Granted, I think it cost me something like £10 about 20 years ago so I can't complain too much!
  23. I don't suppose this is the correct puller for the hub is it? It came with the car. Thoroughly rusted up of course as it was in the boot. No idea to be honest, doesn't look like it is related but figured I'd ask the question. The bearing a day or so back rapidly degraded from the occasional slight noise to "horrible gronking noise with each rotation." Meant to be going to Rustival this weekend. Also was supposed to be going in for an MOT tomorrow. Great! The MOT isn't actually a huge issue as it's not out till the 14th, but I feel bad having to cancel at pretty short notice. I like the guys there and really don't like messing them about, still I called to cancel as soon as I knew I wasn't going to make it. I did get around to replacing the cracked nearside reflector from the stash of parts I've started to accumulate. Doesn't look like this one has ever been fitted, was just a bit dusty from years in storage. The Rover also gave me a good old runaround over the last couple of days. Having successfully proved that my idea for the fuel return system worked I decided that as the weather was dry it was time to get it put together in a less shonky way. I'd thrown it together using some 3/8" copper brake line originally as it was what I had to hand and I didn't have enough actual hose in stock. It was never intended to see the road like that though, it was just to see if it worked. It was time to do it "properly" though. We picked up the return from the factory T on the carb feed line. The original return line has been capped off for safety's sake. I don't think there's any chance of it suddenly starting to spill fuel back to the engine bay, but I just don't want to take the chance. Hose clips obviously still had to be added here. That bolt is only half threaded so there's a nice smooth area to seal to the hose, and the bit of hose is a snug fit on both the bolt and the nylon line. The line follows the route of the factory fuel lines down the back of the engine bay. Then follows the main bundle of pipework and cabling along the underside of the car. Up into the car through the bung I'd found in the floor under the rear seat (with a suitable grommet to protect the hose). Then joins the loom of cables and pipework that runs through into the boot through a grommet behind the backrest of the rear seat. Then around the tank and onto our former vent port that's now our return spill port. Couple of additional hose clips needed here in the photo. What you can't actually see is that there's a piece of copper line inside there that runs right down into the tank - that rubber boot isn't actually involved in fuel handling, it's just providing a vapour seal. This should have us most of the way towards having a working fuel system. Though the car was still running a bit lean it seemed (as it demonstrated to me a week or so back when I had the air cleaner off and blipped the throttle, resulting in a cough and then proper shotgun like report out of the left hand carb which left my ears ringing for about an hour). This didn't surprise me really as I know the original return line had a restriction in it to act as a crude pressure regulator. I have picked up a cheap regulator, though I don't have huge hopes for that (because...well...cheap parts). If it doesn't work I've an idea to make my own crude version using an adjustable clamp on the line. Doesn't really make sense paying good money for a quality regulator though, especially as I don't imagine the actual pressure here is all that critical either, we just need enough of a restriction to ensure that the carb bowls fill properly. I have however ensured it's installed in the boot rather than the engine bay just in case it does leak. Yes, because I trust it about as far as I can throw it. Guess what happened after I'd been driving around for about 20 minutes? The engine cut out and wouldn't restart. Guess why...no fuel being delivered. I called the car some really unpleasant things about then. Albeit slightly tempered by the fact that it died on the drive this time rather than at a junction. Initial suspicion fell on that cheap regulator...which when removed revealed no fuel coming down the return line. Cue much poking and prodding and swearing at everything I'd done yesterday as I assumed I must have crimped a line or something somewhere. That fuel pump, which I bought from a marque specialist...yep, it's dead. Well it's kind of dead...it pumps just fine until you present it with anything resembling a pressure head to pump against, at which point it stops pumping until it's power cycled an indeterminate number of times. It has always been horrifically noisy so I'm not hugely surprised, but it's disappointing as it wasn't cheap. Tried to switch over to the spare Hardi pump I've been kindly provided with by a reader of my blogs. That apparently needs a service. More fuel came peeing out from around failed seals on that under gravity than I was getting out of the previous pump outlet when it was running. Guess I'll need to order a service kit for that then. I don't begrudge the pump that, it's entirely likely as old as I am and I really ought to have just serviced it when it landed here. For now I've borrowed TPA's pump again as I know that works properly. Sure enough, turning the dial on the regulator now does alter the speed at which the pump clicks, so we are correctly modulating the fuel return flow. Haven't had the opportunity to investigate whether this has improved things though as today I have been busy all day. Will it actually work for more than 20 minutes now? I guess we'll find out sometime in the next few days. I'll need to get stuck into the wheel bearing job on the Trabant I guess and see if I can get it ready for the weekend. Have to admit being slightly apprehensive given that this isn't a job I've done on this car before. Especially not being sure how much of a war to expect getting things apart or any oddball tools I may need. If I run into a brick wall which means we're not ready by Saturday I guess I'll just be having to attend Rustival as a spectator. I really can't see me trusting the Rover on that run given the track record of that car so far! TPA hasn't had her pre-season inspection and shakedown run yet so I'd rather not take her - it's not a massive trek for the car, but further than I'd really like to be going on the first drive of the year.
  24. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy9zp078vzqo
  25. Sitrep: Trabant is meant to be going to Rustival at the weekend. Trabant: Wheel bearing has progressed from occasional slight rubbing noise to making a horrible gronking noise with each wheel rotation. Was meant to be going for a test on Thursday, but I think that will be getting cancelled now. I really don't think I'm going to have time to get that bearing done tomorrow (and change a steering rack gaiter), especially as someone has booked an appointment that's going to take up a huge chunk of my afternoon. Test isn't actually out until the 14th, so the weekend is the real deadline. Rover: Wasted well over three hours today pissing around with it before establishing that the £70 fuel pump from J R Wadhams was faulty out of the box, and that my fuel return system actually works bloody fine. Oh, and that the seals in the second Hardi pump I've since been given need to be replaced as more fuel peed out of that through the seals than was coming out of the previous pump when it was running. Really wish I'd not touched that car now and had just cracked on with the Trabant work. Utterly sick of new parts being dead right out of the box too. Especially when they kinda sorta work but misbehave in really hard to understand ways. Peugeot: Has a wheel bearing on the way out somewhere, not entirely sure which one yet - but has been regularly needed by others over the last week so haven't really had a chance to look at it. Rear axle really is getting bad too. Renault: Hasn't been touched for months, noticed when walking past that one of the fuel lines under the car has decomposed to the point that it's detached itself from the fuel filter - that will be the one remaining one I didn't change last time I was under there because I didn't have enough on hand. Invacar: Well and truly buried in the garage, and hasn't been started since the end of September I think. Can't actually remember if I reconnected the wiring to the fuel pump after I borrowed it to get the Rover home when its original fuel pump failed (for the second time) a while back...Kinda hope not as it looks like I'll be nicking that again for the Rover again shortly! Just had one of those days where I really question why I have this hobby.
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