Matildas MOT....
Well, Matilda finally has the much coveted green ticket!
We put her in for a checkover back end of the summer, and it revealed the following:
Steering rack gaiters, Teardrop Mounts, Track rod end, CV gaiter, NS Sill, OS Floorpan, and OS Sill.
We spent last weekend welding, I managed to plate the NS sill with 2 small plates, I whacked a new sill on the OS (purely as we had one in the shed that we got given!), and the cow of a job, was a 9x9 plate needed under the pedals, as it has rotted where the floorpan meets the bulkhead, as it had to be cut in various places, to shape it round the ridges in the floorpan etc. I decided to weld it from inside, for ease of access more than anything, as Id got enough spatter burns on my arms and chest through doing the sills already!. So, I had Clair underneath, lying on a creeper, armed with a dry powder, fire watching. a couple of times, the underseal caught, and died out, as is the norm. I was on a longish run, and was halted by the shout of FIRE! At which point, I lifted my mask, and looked underneath, to be greeted with a whoosh, and a face full of dry powder! Apparently the flames were shooting rapidly toward the fuel pipe!
With the welding done, it was time to turn our attention to the other bits.... Clair spent most of Wednesday changing the track rod ends, teardrop mounts and steering rack gaiters, while I was at work, leaving me to do the CV gaiter when I got home, as she has carpal tunnel in her right hand, and by that time was struggling to grip spanners etc.
In for test on Thursday, and failed on: Horn not working (despite it coming to life halfway through the test), CO 3.89% (despite it being a 10H A series from the 70s - and he knew about that) and front brake imbalance (39%).
So, Clair spent Friday freeing off a piston on the NSF caliper, degreasing the discs, and fitting new pads.
Back for retest on Saturday (I took it this time), and wound the jet in before the test. The pads still werent up to full friction, as they had only done 19 miles since installation, so I wazzed up and down the industrial estate a few times, stamping on the pedal, to get a bit of heat into them, and make them bite better. I got a lock on the OS but not the NS, which was slightly worrying.
But, she scraped a pass on the front brakes (23% this time), and as I drove into the MOT bay, I was hanging on the horn, to give him no illusions that it was not operating!
The front brakes still need further work, so when the better weather gets here, Ill strip the calipers down, and see what I can do, and maybe bleed the whole system through and replace the fluid.
Im slightly peed off about the emissions thing, and it now means that I have a car with a CO content of 0.61%, that I have to turn up to a more acceptable level again, with no device to be able to measure it!!
Thats it for another year..... lets hope we have less to do before the next one!
Oh, and a word of warning.....
With the new computerised MOT system, if you have any test remaining, and it fails, the remaining test is automatically wiped.... thats why we put her in a few days early, so we had time to do any repairs, and could still keep her on the road. Not so these days apparently!!
Cheers,
James
Posted: Feb 11, 2007 11:32 AM