It's a bad sign when nearly every single bolt/nut has had to have an angle grinder to remove. If it didn't come off or even slightly rounded, I went at it with the grinder of doom, I wasn't wasting 1/2 an hour trying to tempt these bastards off. It's either comply or die and luckily, EVERY bolt on this side stayed put and I killed them. MWUHA. MWUHAHAHA. MWUHAHAHAHA. DIE!! DIE!!!!!
I removed the bolt off the steering arm (this will probably rotate so clamp it shut with a trolley jack on a breezeblock). Tap it with a hammer to release the taper. You can now move the hub around freely without having to use the steering wheel. I attacked the bolt on the bottom of the hub that connects to the lower arm. If, like me, you have little patience, you will cut a big chunk of the nut with an angle grinder - this has two advantages:
You should use new nuts/bolts anyway, so this is the way it should be done. The top bolt on the top balljoint is easily removed, it comes straight off. The bolts holding the ARB links, which are probably broken will be corroded, so cut straight through the middle with the grinder. MWUHAHAHAHAHAHA! I even cut straight through the rubber, sending plumes of black smoke out!!!
The top balljoint has a taper, and needs a bvalljoint removing tool to separate. I tried the first one - a fork type. This didn't work (as usual), so tried the screw type. This works, as usual. They separate with a crack, with the separater usually flying out, so it's best to cower away while you tighten it up. ;)
To remove the bottom, I hammered a screwdriver into the 'clamp' (you'll understand when you see it) and pulled the hub up. It came up first time, but the other side needed some pursuading (no, I didn't attack it with the angel grinder ;) ). Usually a bit of wiggling, and more hammering screwdriver. Putting on is a pain as you have to line the bolt up in the hole.
I've done this type of thing to release the top nut on McPherson struts - you put a big bolt through the hole in the desk and just undo the nut (as you can see in the above picture). It works on everything, but is tricky to seat the Stilson on the 2mm wide nut. Later nuts have a wider width, and tighten is just a reversal 
of removing (with less feelings of impending doom). Make sure you put the new washer on the ball joint and then tighten up to a similar amount of torque (just a bit less). Congratulations, you can now put it back in the car.
I put the ARB links on both sides, and bolted everything up (having to cut a bit of length off the bolts to prevent the steering from not moving). Look, they're nice and shiny!! But the bolts are too long, and will 'foul' the hub as it turns! (cue angle grinder).
It was totally gone. I connected the single pipe running from front to back, and thought about getting some clutch pipe - it looked thicker than the 3/8 brake pipe, and later investigating at the motor factors revealed 1/2 pipe which looked similar. But they didn't sell any unions for this pipe, so I'm going to have to be unbelievably gentle with the two that are on there and re-use them! Bloody hydraulic clutches!!
I bought some really decent Titanium drill bits to take care of those rivets. I hate the idea of drilling stuff out - I can't do wood drilling, never mind metal, but these make easy work of those rivets. 3 minutes max on each and they popped out with a few bangs of a hammer on a screwdriver. Phew! These were worrying me, I 
thought I'd be hear til January a la Starion, but no probs. I swapped the ball joints over (greasing everything up) and then put the hub back in place. As the ARB links had not yet arrived, I left this till later, it's an easy job anyway ... looking at the other side of the car, I noticed that link had gone as well ... good job I bought a pair.
I had to get into the bonnet, so I managed to damage (see destroyed) the mesh on
the bumper). I ended up taking the bumper off (an easy job - two big bolts behind the indicators, and four more on the inside of the wheel well) and getting in through there. As I had damaged the mesh, I thought I might go down to Halfords and buy some Ripspeed grille mesh. I also bought some Mig welding gas as well, so I didn't look like a chav. It was expensive at 30 quid for a small piece, but it had to be done, and it's a small amount compared to the rest I've spent on this thing.
And to be honest, it's made a massive difference. The chrome mesh looks millions
of time's better than the faded dull grey of the old! I've got enough rest for the lower grille and the side vents as well! The grille is easily cut using wire cutters (carefully, each snip is closer to another 30 quid to Halfords), and then it's just attached using screws. If this was GM, it'll have to have it's own ball joint and gasket. Good old British Leyland! Probably money well spent. Anyway, I got into the bonnet, and then to prevent any problems ...
I replaced the bonnet cable which was a 'no no' on the MOT sheet. I got it working again, but it was corroded inside and wasn't really moving anymore, and the moment I got locked out I went inside and ordered a new one. I took one look at this and thought 'This is going to be a bugger of a job on Starion proportions'. It looped from the radiator, through the bulkhead, down under the carpet, through a box section, out the other side, up behind the seats, 
through another bulkhead and onto the lever in the boot. It had a load of grommets, and I thought I'm going to be here til January etc etc, but five minutes later and I had it all through - I'm starting to like this car, thought I, everything is simple and in the right places. If it only takes ten minutes in total to do this and remove a bumper ... I also -hopefully- fixed the hood, as it was letting in water somewhere. Driver's seat was pretty damp and there was a ton of condensation inside. Hope this isn't the deal with convertible cars!
When I got the bonnet open, I changed the battery terminals for new ones that a
ctully fitted 99% of the batteries out there. There's nothing like terminals -leaning- on the battery poles. They could neither be tightened or loosened. Get out! They were from Halfords, and they also went on the Starion. Might even put some on my Astra, but he gets nothing, so to hell with him. Especially cars that won't stop leaking after the sump gasket has been replaced. :( :(
"Heat"
Every corner has upper and lower wishbones, consisting of a pair of ball joints. I'm replacing both on all corners, and all the links and bushes. You can feel how worn out they are driving the car. The whole lot are perished and dried out, like you'd get on a 50 year old boiler. I've never really working on a British Leyland car, and I'm hoping this isn't indicative of the quality on them. Rubber on a 10 year old car shouldn't looked this bad! I'm not looking forward to taking everything off in winter temperatures.
The MGF has now moved out of the garage and taken it's place on the driveway. I now have an aim of within two weeks to get the car on the road, it needs for the MOT:
screen, leather gearknob, and gaiters (all for 20 quid - screens are £80 second hand on ebay). These were put on quite easily (although the rear screen needed rivets removing and new ones put in). The sill is in a terrible mess, you can put your finger through it on the whole length. I have purchased two cut off sills on ebay for £30 (including £12 p&p). I need to retrieve an old ebay purchase of a wing, of which the seller just couldn't be bothered contacting me over courier. I am currently bidding on a Snap On Mig-welder, so I will be able to do a few patchwork on the underside and sills etc.
I was driving home t'other day from work feeling ill, and I exited my Astra to go in the shop, and my door departed from the body. One of the pins came out, and it didn't make me feel better as I wrestled with it to stop it ripping off under the weight. When I got home, I resorted to engine crane (these things weigh a tonne - I've done this by hand too many times), which made it a bit easier. It has been bumping the bottom of the sill when you close, and I realised the door shut wasn't positioned properly, so moving this had the door closing with a nice clunk.
wondering why fire was coming out of the air filter pipe). I corrected this, and it's running rough.
es and the filter (of which I have bought another of - over 100 pounds on fuel filters in three months). It's now sucking fuel out of a coke bottle. It sucks a lot. I'm not sure where it's going, but it glugs a whole 550ml bottle in seconds. Must be in the (short) fuel line ... until I went round the back, and saw it was pissing the whole lot out of the return pipe onto the floor! Wah!! The piccie to the left shows the coke bottle with rags around it (to stop it moving with the engine - and to create some kind of molotov-cocktail-esque blazing conflagration when it all goes wrong)
Tonight I greased up the correct areas on the fork and put it back in. Aligning the box and the engine this time was a synch, as was mounting the box onto the body. It needed a jack and a bit of muscle lifting it. It's one of the reasons a car is heavy, and it's not easy lifting it into position with one hand, and bolting it up with the other, while making sure the shaft sits correctly in the flywheel. A couple of takes, and I managed everything. No fuss this time around it all bolted up properly, and I even -finished- everything, apart from torqueing the necessary bolts.
Sunday. This meant arranging a van and an engine crane within three hours of getting out of bed. This was pre-arranged a few days before, but both were un-arranged such is life. This meant I had to get my engine and wheels in the boot of my Astra, which is already scraping on the arches. You can imagine what it was like on the unbelievably crappy un-kept poverty spec roads of Rock Ferry (where I picked it up).
So, I finally get my poor car back to my folk's house, which must now be feeling a bit worn out by now. I remove the wheels from the car and put them alongside the pile of wheels in the corner of the driveway. This was going to be tricky I thought. While I've lifted heavier engines, I've never had to figure out a way of removing an engine from a boot two foot off the floor. I considered taking the seats out, and moving it out of the front doors, but instead got some wood and a chain.
thanks to the stack of tyres I was levering the wood against. By now, the engine had puked the remaining oil out of the dipstick pipe, and had flooded the boot and the rear sear well with the remaining coolant. I swear I am never using this car for these types of job again. I miraculously gained some strange stamina and manouvred the engine around the boot in preparation to pull it out, and over the lip of the boot. I built a platform using tyres and a board of wood. I then pulled the engine from the car, and eased it onto the platform! It was out of the car! I then moved the car forward, to prevent the bugger engine from somehow easing itself back in the boot. Another platform was built further down and the engine was eased down onto this. It was now 1 foot off the floor! A bread crate was produced, and the engine dropped into this and dragged to the safety of the corner of the driveway! Success!
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