Today is a good day!
I finally got vin 814 back on its own wheels and a little spin round the block just to test it out.
I bought the car in summer 2011, and sorted a few bits and pieces around the front end before laying it up when my son was born in november 2011. I live in London, but laid the car up in my mum's garage in Glasgow.
At this point the fuel pump was getting noisy, the boot was a mess, and the front fuel lines pretty rough. The drivers door strut had also torn out the fibreglass. The clutch had always been terrible,
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2433and the master had started leaking. So I started a slow fettle I also replaced the brake master which was also wet. Bleeding the brakes shared off a nipple, so when I had the caliper off, I decided to rebuild it properly. Meaning of course you do all 4 with stainless pistons, flexis etc. I opted for redstuff pads.
I put spax and eds springs on the front, and the dpnw sway bar kit, and replaced tabs and ta bushes. After this work, I got an mot on it in June 2013.
On the way back from the mot the clutch started slipping. I took it for alignment, and they said 2 wheel bearings were past it, so no point trying to get alignment done. Great!
So I decided to drop the box to do the clutch. Flywheel was past it, so this needed ground.
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4043New clutch from dave h. With release and pilot bearings and rear crank seal. I also took the rear cover off the box to sort a leak from the oil seal. New clutch slave and cross gate cable too.
I changed 4x wheel bearings, all poly bushes up front (apart from sway bar). New rubber bushes in the lateral arms,
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4438new spax in the rear.
When I had the driveshafts out, I stripped the cv joints, which were of course gubbed, so 4 new ones.
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4505viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4044when I had the front end apart, I took the opportunity to replace the leaking radiator, so also did all hoses with silicone and stainless clamps. dpnw coolant bleeder seemed like a good idea too.
Fuck, that sounds like quite a lot!!
So this was good!
- 20150426_170956.jpg (1.49 MiB) Viewed 14141 times
Still looks rough, and is utterly filthy, but drives a whole lot better. The clutch is a revelation. Not only much lighter but smooth and progressive. The ride has no clunks or bangs which is a bit of a novelty too. Gear shift is really nice too with a new correctly adjusted x-gate cable and pivot bolt. Grease on the linkage and new oil in the box probably helps too.
The front looks high here, but I had just had the jack up derived the front to seat that wheel properly.
So there is still a pretty big list to do, but it's probably just about mot-able. I've refitted the fog light and am looking at my lada front indicators as the mot guy didn't really like the yellow running lights. But it's close!
See you in the summer!! Thanks to all those who have helped me out, beer on me, I promise!
Cheers. Now, time for a large malt
Andy