Thursday, December 25, 2008

Happy Christmas! FAIL

Unfortunately, the MGF DIDN'T pass it's MOT yesterday.
After spending nearly 800 quid on parts (the latest of which were brand new rear calipers at 100 quid each), it failed on:
  • Lower arm mounting point on sill still corroded
  • Handbrake still under efficency
  • Steering arm ball joint had play
Including advisories on:

  • Tyre worn
  • Tyre worn
  • Rear disc scored
So, everything is cured, apart from the things I didn't fix! It's odd that they didn't pick up the advisories from the last MOT? It's a frustrating and random experience MOT's, the testers are either incompetent or just Hitlers. The handbrake should've been cured, I couldn't even push the car with it on (opposed to my dad's Fiat which could), and the sill being welded etc still needs attention? Must be somewhere else.
I have further ordered new parts and will get welding that sill again! Really wanted it ready by xmas, but never mind.

I'm going to try and put the Starion into a garage and get that sorted as well, or get the Astra sorted.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

7 day mission - fail!

Didn't get the car finished today, so won't be going into MOT tommorow!
Set about it today, with about 2 hours to do everything and the clutch master cylinder gave up. It literally didn't want to pump any fluid, after cleaning it out three times!
The flexi hose didn't work out either, it was too corroded on one end, so just used some solid brake pipe for now. It's a bit of a bodge!
Hopefully tommorow, I will get everything done for a Monday MOT. It's really, really, really pushing it now!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

MGF Ball Joints pt.2

Yay, it's time to do the other side!!!
I had a lot of difficulty removing the wheel nuts for starters. Why oh why oh why do tyre fitters use an air tool to tighten them up? I managed to to destroy the nut and had to sacrifice a socket by hammering a smaller size onto it AFTER applying a blow torch to it for 1/2 an hour. Ridiculous. The wheel then refused to budge and required a load of boots to it to shift it. This put me in the mood and I went straight for the angle grinder in preparation.


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!!!!!


DIE!


This only took half an hour with the added trouble of -putting it back together again-. I used new nuts and bolts in the process, destroyed two -somehow- as I went along.

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:
  1. You have a choice of going further and cutting the bolt in two,
  2. The heat an vibration will free the 'lock' that corrosion has on it.
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 used my MFKB tool to remove the top ball joint. This balljoint is screwed into the top of the hub, and it's a big, mean old bastard that doesn't want to budge. It's held in by a washer that is bent up to prevent it from unscrewing ... hahahaha, it's on so tight I don't think the collapse of a star will budge it. Here is the MFKB tool:


It's called a Stilson Grip and is a plumbers tool for releasing old nuts that have sat in water for decades. It is very old fashioned and refuses to take any nonsense from stupid, stubborn nuts and bolts and you can hear it calling them rude names as it unscrews them. If it could get anymore harder, I have attached an extension bar. I reckon it has more torque than any other tool available.

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.



As the lower arm passed the previous MOT, I left the old one on (even though I bought a new one). I don't have time to change it (one day left), and have a shed load of things to do still.

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).



^ Actual 24 carat gold connectors ^

Trying to get one of those clutch flexible pipes is proving to be hard and expensive. A single 8 inch bit of rubber pipe costs over 50 pounds. It's identical to brake hose (which costs under 5 pounds). Since when did British cars have such expensive parts? I went to the scrappers who have a green MGF in. I took the hose off that (and a load of unions :D ) and he didn't charge me anything for it (as is looked in a sorry state). Hopefully, I'll get the unions off and clean it up, otherwise this will be post-xmas completion. :( I will probably end up paying that 50 quid in the end though.

There is not a lot to do now. It's the clutch hose and the little tiny bits of metal needed to weld in. I can't believe I was going to get charged 350 quid ... yes, 350 quid for this?! It has taken me 1/2 an hour (including welding and filling). I'll give it spray of 1 quid primer and 5 quid Halfords 'Nightfire Red' rattle can. I'm aiming for a Saturday morning MOT, which means going back to the same place as before (the place that made up most of the faults - and the reason I'm faffing about here). Hopefully it'll sail through. If not, Sunday is there, and Monday will sort it. Fingers crossed it gets through Saturday though (which is one day away).

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

7 days and counting


Today really marked the final stretch for the MGF - there is not a lot left to do, and all the parts have arrived. New ball joints, new ARB links, new pipes, new cables, new welder, new compressor, etc. I'll begin by not listing all the bad things that have happened (like spending 4 hours trying to get the bonnet open again, etc).

I started work proper on Saturday. Removing that lower arm ball joint. There are three taper rivets, which are near molten when they are put in. I had to angle grind the tops off and I left it there while I checked the brake pipes. God damn it, they WERE corroded. Not only that, the clutch pipe was worse! I released it from it's clips (all of which broke) and it cracked right open. 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 actully 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. :( :(

While the MGF isn't nearly in the same league as the Starion for 'money spent on it', it's not far off. It's amazing how much I was working out when I had the MOT sheet - 60 quid max I think I said, and it's gone well over 10 times that now. Ball joints alone cost a bomb.

I travelled to Liverpool to purchase an ebay welder and compressor. After losing bid after bid in the dying seconds, I saw this as a 'Buy It Now' for pence so immediately clicked away. A good price seeing as if you bought them new, they'd cost just under 600 quid. I think I'll get on with the welding near the end of the week. The things that are left are (including jobs I've made for myself while repairing other things):

  • Replace O/S ball joint(s) (upper joint needs replacing - might do lower if I can be bothered)
  • Replace both ARB links (I had to use an angle grinder on one side ... )
  • Replace clutch pipe and be carful with one end - the hose metal is corroded!
  • Remove rotten metal and weld in new and use zinc primer
  • Waterproof/seal hood with waterproof sealing stuff
  • Buy handbrake cable and install
Probably a few other things I forgot to add. ;)

Sunday, November 16, 2008

MGF Ball Joints Pt. 1

As expected, the Yanks have made me (and 34 other people) redundant, over fears of maybe losing 1/999th of their previous year's profits. Apart from desperately attempting to get another job in an industry that is unaffected by financial trends - yet is shedding jobs all over the place.

The rest has been sort of trying to get the MGF ready for an MOT.

I've been going over the car, and checking against the MOT list. Most are -made up-. There is no play in the ball joints, the corrosion to the seat belt anchors point is untrue, as the mounts are on the seats. Plus, there is no corrosion on the suspension top mounts at all. What was this tester looking at exactly? I haven't checked the brake pipes, but I'd guess they're fine. Maybe he saw the lacey sill skin and just thought 'what the hell', and went ahead with a quick test full of crap while he had a cuppa tea.


Anyway, I have bought everything, and know changing all the bushes and ball joints = hugely improved ride! The bushes are in such a state, the ARB links are knackered. Getting everything apart was a pain in the arse, and once again, needed a sledgehammer, the MF-Stilson Grips and a blow torch. I used experience to know how to get rounded off bolts off and it didn't take longer than 2 hours like it used to! I hammered a smaller sized socket onto these, and carefully turned them with fire applied for about 10 minutes, and they came away no problem!

"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.




I then got the rust off everything, primed the metal, and then painted the lot in strong outdoor paint (in 'Bitter Chocolate'), and assembled everything. There is a bit of surface rust which will all be banished. :)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Goodbye Starion

I finally said goodbye to my much detested Starion today, as it was pushed off the driveway and towed off down the road.
Here is it's new home!

It is snuggled up next to the space frame of my kit car, which I had to reposition, on my own, after measurements revealed the Starion wouldn't fit in where it was. I'll have to push it in and out to work on it, and I have to put the fuel tank back in.

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:

  • Two new balljoints (lower/upper)
  • Offside sill totally replacing
  • Handbrake cable sorting
  • Bonnet cable replacing (jams open bonnet, and can't open well enough)
  • Brake pipes replacing
It needs purely because it needs it:

  • Rear vinyl screen replacing
  • Seized and corroded nuts removing, and red oxide/general rust prevention
  • Oil change
  • Wing
However, I got lucky and found a green MGF in a scrappy near me, and plundered for a rear 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.

Back to the Starion, I have a new AFM unit (with pipes and surround etc)., that might cure it, but once again, it probably won't (although it was the only thing that was left on when I changed the engine). I have an image of sticking it in (with everything connected up), and then starting it and it purring like a kitten. I'll kick myself (literally), but I doubt it will.


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.

I will update the blog more regularly as I do up the MGF and have a better place for the Starion. However, the nights are finally in (clocks gone forward, and it's dark by 5pm now :¬( ), so I can't do any work in the week at all.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Slow Progress

Here's a compressed 10 second video summary of my month's activities on the Starion!

I haven't been looking at the car much, apart from 'looking' at it with a face of complete disgust and rage, every time I drive or walk past, with grinding teeth, etc. Fortunately, I haven't put a match to it - I did, however, smack the oil cap with a pair of mole grips. The cap disintegrated, and I spent 1/2 an hour getting the bits from inside. I also scratched the wing, as a semi accident. I didn't attempt to -avoid- scratching it, it just happened. It's not deep anyway. I can't help but think if I'd just bought that ECU from a bloke in Ireland on ebay and a new injector, I'd be driving this car. Having it running and -driving it- feels like a vague dream ... It's a very different car now, I don't look at it as a mode of transportation, more as some kind of disease, like a tumour or something. At least tumours don't take £1,500 of you, and lacerate your hands to shreds!

As a strange contradiction, I have put my Starion keys, BACK ON MY KEYRING. I keep losing them, and this adds to my fury, prior to wondering what the hell is (still) wrong with the stupid thing. Four months later, and it still sits on my parent's drive.

The past month has been spent occasionally starting the car and to be honest, getting the same results.
I have had a few interesting incidents, where I put the spark plugs on the wrong way (I was wondering why fire was coming out of the air filter pipe). I corrected this, and it's running rough.
I think a good mechanic with a bit of time could sort this out now. I'm not sure at all what is wrong with it. I changed the Knock Sensor when I received a load of bits from Australia, and haven't changed it back, maybe I should. I'm 99% certain it has nothing to do with that, but I've run out of ideas. I have set the whole thing back to standard. No dump valve or boost gauge. It's -how it was- when I bought it (only in worse condition).

I have removed the fuel tank and have put the fuel pump in the engine bay, bypassing the fuel lines 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)
I'm not sure I want to put the tank back, so might actually put a 20l race tank in there, or a custom one made from aluminium with a Bosch pump.

At the moment the car isn't idling at all.

The car is actually for sale! If you want a nice clean Starion that doesn't work!


Can you see the wire running from the fuel pump to the connector in the back along the side?

My Astra sucessfully made another journey to London and back. I think the pump is on it's way out, as it's not doing well under load - or it could be spark plugs, as we have violent popping and flames from the exhaust over 4000 rpm - not good. Typically, it doesn't seem to bother it either way. :) I have so far completed over 70k miles in it!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Tramp's pee

After everything is all bolted up, I am left with a bag of bolts and nuts (maybe from the old engine?), and a single pipe sticking out from the fuel tank ... where does this go? I haven't got a clue! I'm hoping it's just a vent pipe, but I don't fancy having this spurting petrol in case I roll it in some crazy situation! It has to go somewhere!
I also bound the old clutch slave cylinder, so put the new one in. The fork repair paid off, and the clutch is now HOW IT SHOULD BE. That's one job crossed out for definite.

The car is still running like shite. I believe the yellow petrol has something to do with it ... I will get the lot out and put new stuff in there. I can't remember how it got in there - it has a yellowish tinge, and I believe it's what is making it run like poo. High octane cars might not like slightly contaminated petrol. :)

All that needs to be done now is:

  1. Flush petrol out and put new in
  2. Repair front wing
  3. Put brass washers on slave cylinder pipe (it's leaking)
:)

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Fork out, gearbox back in


Spent the past three late afternoons getting to the bottom of the bent fork problem.

The fulcrum on it is made of a separate metal element, which has just had enough. I removed the bolts on the gearbox on Sunday night; removed the propshaft (tightest bolts ever - and turning them meant applying torque to the rear wheels ... :( ), exhaust downpipe and separated the box and retrieved the fork. At last it's out!!!

The little bugger did indeed have a totally perished fulcrum, it was totally bent inside the cavity. I carefully pulled it out, and set it up right so it wouldn't be doing this again in a hurry. I'm glad I did this, bodge jobs would've failed with the metal I was using. The fulcrum is very strong metal! It's another case of 'throttle body gasket' again. I was using tin (from a tin can) which knackered the first pedal application. The pics aren't the correct adjustment, I did that after:



  • Pulled out,
  • As it should be,
  • Attached to the release bearing.
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.

As with every job on the car, everything that is fixed, something else breaks. The old clutch slave cylinder bound on the housing - how it did this? Funk knows!


Saturday, August 30, 2008

The car that doesn't want to be driven

I won my ebay engine crane, and managed to drive out and pick it up on a Tuesday afternoon. It's incredible I thought I'd be driving this car round on a Sunday evening and then be going on a short holiday during the week. Neither of which happened, because,
  1. My car is a cunt
That's it, no further points. It has got to a stage where it's just making problems to piss me off - I'm totally sure I don't even want to drive it anymore, there is not an ounce in me that is eager to drive it to and from work everyday, or even go to the shop to buy some KY Jelly for it to rape me up the arse again.
I changed the engines over in two hours. I then spent two days getting the gearbox lined up and bolted up (which has to come out again due to somehow damaging the clutch fork in the gearbox). Another day connecting everything and realising the same problems existed as previous, it can't idle and can't take any load. It's a fuelling problem (yawn). The slave cylinder on the gearbox for the clutch has also imploded. I change the filter and it runs until I decide to change the cylinder for a new (expensive) one, which doesn't work, and then I presume the filter gets blocked again and I have to spend more of my life working to pay to replace parts that last 15 minutes in this fucking wretched heap. It would piss me off to see someone getting their hands on this car and getting it driving thanks to putting a pipe on somewhere, which is why it's not dismissed from my life, and I don't have space to dismantle and sell the parts, so I am stuck with it. The two things that scare me is the time taken on car (99% of day/evenings free) and money spent - just over £1500 so far.

Monday, August 25, 2008

New engine arrives

In keeping with the theme of this 'restoration' of the Starion, the retrieval of the engine went about as smoothly as a graph of my blood pressure/anger level throughout the day.


I was meant to pick it up on Monday, however, ended up picking it up at noon on a Bank Holiday 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).
I shredded a tyre, the cabin stank of rubber. I now have the space saver on the back, and the car looks muscular and impressive (yet, strangely, handles better than the widey spare???).

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.
Levering the engine out resulted in a snapped plank, and nearly breaking my neck 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!

In the mini-hiatus' of desperately trying to remove the engine, I changed the wheels over. I am pleased with the girth of the wheels at the back. There are two 1mm spacers on the back, but they're going to scrape on the arches (probably), but they're wide enough without. :)





I removed all my old wheels to my garage and tidied up. Tommorow I will pick up my ebay win engine crane and continue with the transplant!