Joey spud

Looking forward to see what the dream car is for a man that has an AC Cobra.
 

In typical fashion today I have another blood letting at the hospital (I am being cremated in instalments to see if I like it before booking the main event) so today is also my new to me dream car is being delivered. As I sit awaiting my appointment in the oncology waiting room I have just had a text saying it has arrived at my friends in Perth. My friend is going to store it for me whilst I make room in the shed. 
 
I am going to ask for a big bore pipe to be installed so I can get out of here and head south ASAP. 
 
Excite!

I’ve ordered the tee-piece/y-piece for the rear - not from Chevronics, but at Chevronics prices. I sort of hope that’s the bit I need, yet at the same time I really hope it’s not as I’ve read horror stories of the subframe having to come off. I hold some hope in that I’ve seen ONE YouTube video where the chap manipulates it out off camera with the subframe still in place.  I cockily feel I’ve recently levelled up my blind-on-yer-back-three-elbow-dexterity from all the behind dash HVAC fun I’ve been having on some of my Focus’s. 
Anyway, during the meanwhilst, I got busy with the toothbrush, kitchen roll and period correct cleaner. 

I’ve finally finished this bottle off. Fairly sure it was older than me. 

[Will flipadip this photo later]
With as much cleaning as I had time, Gunk and  patience for done, I removed the twin return line bundle from the strut. It has served its time. New Vs old below:

It “locates” over this hole. I’m presuming this is factory and nothing is missing? It certainly is a curious bit of engineering, but obviously it’s good enough. I think* it only deals with returning LHM when going from high to low. I read (from research on the back leaks) that one is LHM one is for air vent if needed, but how it works is beyond me - from one hole out of the strut LHM could easily go down either hose. Unless it’s maybe like an LHM return ring main. I may be rambling here, but you’re reading it!

Shit attachment strategy aside, the new one is probably in the right enough place and it is strapped in.

New lines are on. Lovely. That’s definitely one Fail fixed, but possibly two as to me the strut seems fine and I think all the leakage was from here.

Nearside Front Shock absorbers has had a serious fluid leak or not (5.3.2 (b)) Nearside Front Suspension pipe  [was] damaged or deteriorated and function affected Pipe broken. (5.3.5 (b) (i)) Corrections submitted to the .gov MOT history website.
 

Switch to night, don a head torch and the trackrod end is now removed. 20.5 turns for reassembly reference - to hopefully maintain some level of tracking and prevent the front end from looking like it has rickets.

The old gaiter [fell apart] when removed. 

The new one went in trouble free and seated pleasingly. Especially pleasing as I thought this was going to be a pig of a job. But then again I do still need to crimp the inboard clamp and put the trackrod/ ball joint back, so opportunities to encounter some sort of battle still.

Nearside Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Split. (2.1.3 (g) (ii))  - The Man from the Ministry, March ‘24
Not any more, bitch . (2.1.3 (g) (ii)) - Me, April ‘24
 

I am hoping we are on the right track.
For the geeks among us I found the following:
Air filter housing wasn't fully clipped in meaning air getting in after the air filter.
Maf sensor was VERY dirty and could see no metal exposed. Black.
Maf cleaned, throttle blade cleaned as that was dirty too.
Was getting a too lean code on the ECU so checked for any vacuum leaks and pretty confident there is none.
As Eddy said we took it for a 30 min or so drive and all is good other than the air suspension light which I think took much longer to come on. The struts all seem to be holding air as they didn't sink on the drive after the light came on which with a leak it would normally do.
The tank holds no pressure after the pump stops but reaches 7/7.5 bar when it's on so the pump is kicking out enough pressure but as soon as it is off it goes to 0 within 10 seconds. I believe there is a shut off valve in the compressor which when the pump stops it closes to hold pressure. I don't think this valve is shutting causing the massive loss of pressure in the reservoir. My instinct is therefore a compressor unit failure. I am however not 100 % on this and have put the question to a forum I am on to see if anyone can weigh in on it. The only other thing I think it could be would an issue with the valve block but these rarely go wrong. Definitely want a second opinion though!

Pleasure to meet Eddy and glad I could help in some way. Always nice to meet up with fellow enthusiasts. I may be returning at some point with a new compressor but we shall see!

I once saw a Minor on a prefix B plate at Waitrose in Berkhamsted. I’ve literally no idea how that happened. 

Christ almighty was that a fight getting it back in. A helper would have been very useful in doing it. I really did not want it taking nearly two days to do. I had the weekend to myself and I really wanted to get on with my Midget. Right now I have a backlog of things left to do in the house and not going to get any more car time this evening.
Also these bastard clips kept falling apart. They go into the metal body work and the trim fixing screw goes through it. The threaded nut thing kept falling out and into awkward places. Usually as I just got one side in then the other side fell out. 

Also discovered the screw cover on the jesus handles acts as a prop when open to stop them closing up. Neat little bit of design there.

 
Anyway it's now in and fully tightened up. Definitely not a job I'd be in a rush to do again.
Colour is obvious different but it's a million times nicer than it was. The headliner is more ivory (even though it was supposed to be beige) and the standard type you usually get in lighter coloured interiors. I'm sure the other trim pieces could be had (or redone) in ivory to make match as it looks like standard VAG light coloured interior. Beige in the Golf I think was a one year option and very rare anyway.
As is, is certainly not horrendous though and a million times nicer than it was. At the very least it's nice not to have it raining foam into your hair every time you close the door. 
 

Stopped off at Esso, managed to squeeze in 18.2 litres of unleaded. On the basis that I’ve clocked up 157 miles since I brimmed the tank last Sunday, that means the Sierra has averaged 39MPG. Bloody amazing but bear in mind that 99% of the distance was driven in zero traffic conditions and between 30-65MPH.

With the tank full, the fuel gauge has made a welcome return.

 

Finished the headlining and now ready to put back in the car after lunch. 
First attempt last night was going well until I spent a bit too long with the heat gun and burnt the fabric. Oof.
.

Nothing for it except ripping it all off and doing it again. Thankfully I bought double the amount of fabric. 
I didn't buy double the amount of glue so I had to carry on as this lot hadn't fully set. Didn't finish till 2am last night.

 
This morning I trimmed up all the edges and folded it over. Had some other spray glue which I used for these bits. Isn't high temperature resistant (at least the can has no mention of heat resistance levels) but actually was much sticker. Tbh that made it more difficult to work with. 

Then reattached the trim.


What did I learn?
 - It's not hard to do. However it's hard to do well. Experts on videos make it look easy. It's the curved sections that are the hardest parts and trying to avoid bubbles or creases. 
 - Buy spare fabric and glue 
 - 2 meters was enough for one go. I bought 4 metres and still had some spare
 - Heat gun is useful for reshaping the fabric and keeping the glue tacky. 
 - Your cat will want to jump all over it and try scratching it when you're not looking. I'm still removing cat hair from it.
 - While not perfect, I think it turned out pretty well and a million times better than the droopy mess before. Much better than thumb tacks or other bodges.
Now I just need to get it back in without damaging it. 😬
 

I had a visitor today.  Regular readers will remember @DirtyDaily offering to come and rebuild the suspension pump for me.  Today it happened.

Here we are, all set up at my back gate.  Listening for leaks...

And the techy stuff begins...




New housing that was part of the rebuild kit is at the top, in his left hand.

What you can't see here is how the lovely new housing broke as DD was tightening the bolts.  We had to re-use the old one.  Fortunately it cleaned up well enough.



And then he reattached this front undertray that had somehow come adrift.  So we went for a test drive.

Oh-oh... and that was only the beginning of the error messages.
So we came home...

...and DD found that the battery voltage was reading low.  Apparently this is something these cars are sensitive to, so ok, we whipped it off and brought it in to put on charge.

Once he'd finished laughing at the tiny battery that was fitted!  It's little more than half the size of what should be there.  And it's on charge now, as you see above.  We'll refit it over the weekend and see what difference it makes, if any.
DD now totally understands what I mean about this car fighting me at every turn!  He is, in many respects, mystified.  And this is a man who has the correct tools, the correct JLR diagnostics, and the experience.  I am immensely grateful that he took the trouble to come up here for the weekend from Stockport in order to help out a frustrated old bloke.
DirtyDaily, thank you so much.

I’m not  
Destination achieved, nice cup of tea with @jonathan_dyane and then headed south. Stopped at my old university friends place in St Helens to top up with LPG and now waiting for another shiter to finish work so I can make my second collection after which I can start heading north. Only as far as Preston tonight
Picture near the next shifters place

Dont quite know why but the pics above make me want a mini again, i hated the one i owned previously, so im also confused as to why

Bloody hell. Progress! 
He says I’ll have it back in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed. 

That’s why we’re going down the tax exempt route….

On  my way in to Tonbridge I notice a temporary sign by the side of the road warning that a team is going to blitz the potholes. 
Obviously written by somebody who has no idea the effect the blitz had, making large holes across England in the war.
Not funny enough for the grin thread so I thought I would place it here.

Sorting out 2 years of backlog of spotting photos.
Some time in early 2022 my eldest decided sleeping beyond 5am was not an option. We took to pounding the mean streets of Cardiff in the early morning.


























 
 
These were in Chepstow, near a friend's place:


 
And these were spotted on repeated visits to a friend in Godalming: