Shirley Knott

Strut braces on MX5's do offer enhancements, but not for the car. They provide something to lean on meaning you can spend more time deciding whether the oil spots on your drive are coming from the rocker gasket or the CAS o-ring. You can also balance small cups of tea on them during OC meets at Barnard Castle allowing free hands to detach your picnic hamper from your obligatory chrome boot rack. Joking aside, this looks like a nice one. Mariner Blue is by far and away the best colour for a MK1 IMO- Very jealous

Always liked this one, I've already admired it from afar via TooSavy's thread. You know a car is 'of a certain age' when the manufacturers felt it necessary to SHOUT from the rooftops that it had 16 valves... How many!? Loving the fact that they actually embossed it on the centre console too just to avoid you potentially forgetting.

Good work man, Bosch leads FTW! When I set about changing the dif oil on my old 940 I was *thrilled to find it didn't actually have a drain plug... I think the earlier cars do though? I ended up using a Pela to vacuum the old stuff out- not ideal.

It's the selector seal that goes on the gearbox, it effects all models including the derv 1.7, they all use the 085 gearbox... The only exception to the rule is the 1.4TDi. It's a bit of a tricky job to get right as the seal is sunken into the box and difficult to get at, it's often bonded to the metal through heat, also, if you scratch the selector or damage the casing trying to lever the seal out to replace it you're fucked. I changed the one on my old SDI and after about 4 hours trying to unpick the old seal and having punctured it making the leak worse, I ended up at the VW dealershi

^Well that clearly didn't work^ Hmmm, has anything changed in the way the site interacts with Flickr?

Another brief update to show what's been going down at Cassa Knott.. The V70 got an oil change... And then new handbrake shoes, it didn't need them but they're known for shitting themselves and destroying the hub if left to get dry/crumbly- I think these were original and likely 20 years old... Mintex shoes and even a new fitting kit because I care... Meanwhile Mrs Knot came home in her C1 complaining that it was noisy. A brief inspection showed the rear section of the silencer to be utterly fucked....

Congrats on the MOT pass fella! You're a braver man than me tackling an exhaust replacement at home, it's one of the few jobs I wouldn't even attempt these days. The last one I did was on an MX5 and it was such a miserable experience I swore off ever doing another without access to a ramp.

Taste is subjective but I'm not a fan of the Lockwood dials. Back when I had an 89 Eunos I used to lust after the KG Works jobbies from Japan, proper hens teeth jobs though! A close second best would be some of Revlimiter's dials from the states, pricey, but very nice indeed...

Just spent half an hour catching up on things here, halcyon days eh? Top work on the welding, might not be the prettiest but if it was good enough for the tester then that's what matters!

Loving this thread! As @Shep Shepherd once explained to me, RWD Volvo's get under your skin... I still genuinely regret selling my old 940, there's just something special/wholesome about them. Props for changing the clutch on your drive, impressive stuff.

Good craic re resolving the misfire , nice when things are simple/quick to sort. This doesn't seem to have caused too much trouble for a vehicle of that age so far... Just about every car I've ever bought has spent the first few months metaphorically shooting me with shit- I see it like taking on a rescue dog, they may have had troubled lives and suffered unknown abuse in previous homes, with love and care they come right in the end.

Back after four months of radio silence with an un-remarkable update about fitting new brakes to the Golf over the weekend. First rate tools assembled, and also Comline discs and pads for a bargain price of £40 delivered from Ebay! They're actually made in the UK and are decent quality IME, every bit as good as the Pagid set that ECP wanted £85 for... I fitted a set of their (Comline's) brakes to my brother's Corsa last year as an experiment- He's still alive and the brakes still work well and look good, Comline braking equipment is now officially Shirley Knot approved.

Neatly a month sans updates. Wagwan?

^If it's down the back of things then that's almost certainly the CAS o-ring (The part the learned chap above has linked) Feel the wiring that comes from the back of the cam angle sensor, if it's wet with oil then that's definitely what that's all about.

Oily plugs on these is almost always indicative of a leaking can cover gasket IME- Very common and can result in pronounced missfiring. Footnote: Only use genuine Mazda gaskets here unless you fancy doing it again in short order.