Brake Broke

So today I was geared up to bleed the brakes. I went off to Halfords to get the bleeder, had everything layed out ready to go. Last thing was to run round and loosen off each of the bleed nipples to make sure they were free.

You can guess what is coming next can't you. Yup, the bleed nipple snapped off. Bum.

So its a quick trip to the East Sussex Minors website for the required parts - and a bunch of spare spares, for next time (oh and there will be a next time). As I was unwilling to waste the rest of the evening a couple of other things got sorted, and of course I found a few more things to do.

• sill trims
• tighten up the wing bolts
• finish the seatbelts
• a bit of a cleanup underneath and some underseal
• fit the towbar
• bleed the brakes
• tighten the seat bolts (a little easier said than done)
• sort the front light wiring (again)
  

The wiring is a bit of a sore point. I am going to get a new loom, but I was wanting to wait until after the MOT. I'll just need to have a fiddle under the bonnet before the test.

On a more positive note, it looks as though the brake fluid leak was just down to a loose bleed nipple (I didn't tighten it up when I swapped the cylinder).

Getting there!

And thanks to Ruairdh for the offer of the EZBleed adaptor!

progress

a bit more progress

• sill trims
• tighten up the wing bolts
• finish the seatbelts
• a bit of a cleanup underneath and some underseal
• fit the towbar
• bleed the brakes (and sort the rear nearside corner)

I got ready to bleed the brakes last night, but the EZ Bleed I have doesn't have an attachment for Mollys remote fluid reservoir, and I'm not going to bother with that manual bleeding, so it'll be off to Halfords for a one man bleed kit.

one up one down

Good progress here today. Jessica got some attention today and the engine got started! Yay! The exhaust/manifold combo seems to be gas tight, so after a little more fiddling we could be looking at a go at an MOT.


Molly got some attention too. All four wheels were put up in the air and the seatbelt bolts were tightened up. I also popped on the sill trims (but they're going to need some more tweeking)
the todo list is like this:

• sill trims
• finish tighten up the wing bolts
• finish the seatbelts
• a bit of a cleanup underneath and some underseal
• fit the towbar
• bleed the brakes (and sort the rear nearside corner)

then we could be looking at another MOT!

time to fit the towbar, so I can stop falling over it!

Oh and we have a new addition to the fleet ;o)

Happy place

Everyone has a happy place. A place (you may have more than one) where you feel at one with the world. I have one, its here...

Yes its under Molly. Its a little bit dark, quite cool and remarkably clean. I popped under there tonight to tighten up the shock absorber bolts.

Unfortunately there was a bit of a nasty surprise...

Yeah a little pool under the wheel and a soggy tyre - that's there is brake fluid and it shouldn't be doing that. Hopefully its a loose connection (its the corner where I replaced a brake cylinder a few months ago).

'twas a busy evening and I managed to get a little work done on Jessica too. A few months ago (again) I got a modified inlet manifold so I could fit an SU HIF 44 carb. These carbs are much more efficient that the existing Zenith, so should improve performance and reduce fuel consumption. As the manifolds are off (due to the failed gasket and cracked exhaust manifold) , I could think about fitting the new carb and manifold.

Looks nice doesn't it? There are a few things which need sorting before it can be properly fitted. Like how to fit the air filter. There ain't a lot of space, so a cheeky card patten was required to make up a plenum chamber thing to allow the filter to be fitted at a right angle to the carb.

I can't fit it yet as I have a bit of a problem with the exhaust manifold. The existing one needs some modification and I don't have the facilities to braze cast iron, to its going to have to wait. So the old manifold/carb combo is going back on. Its all pretty clean and works well so it should be OK for a bit.

Busy summer bees

I know its been a little quiet recently, but I have been busy - honest! In non-car related news, Megan can now ride her bike without stabalisers! It took quite a few hours of cajoleing but she has now got it and we went for a lovely bike ride today along the local cycle paths.

In car news, Molly has had some attention (the screen seal is still annoying me though!) and Jessica (as usual) has been hogging my time. I managed to finish off the step area - (don't look too closelly). And get the door back on, again it isn't pretty, but it does the job. There are a few things to finish off, like trimming back the door skin (its a little too long and has scraped some of the paint off) fitting new door seals and sorting out some door cards.

I also had a chunk of work to do at the back. It looks as through a chunk of this portion of the chassis has been cut out it may have happened when the rear step was being cut off...
Anyway its MOT able (it was last year too so I have know idea why it passed!) Problem was though the fuel tank and filler was in the way, so they had to come out.

fuel tank bay took a lick of paint.

as did the top of the fuel tank.

So what it left to do? Well there is something missing from the side of the engine...

And I'm sure the carb shouldn't go on the dashboard...

One step forwards and eight back...

I managed to get a few cheeky hours in on the van yesterday. The ongoing challenges which are between her and the MOT are:

• front step and drivers side door
• the inlet manifold
• some rust at the rear corner
• other things I'm sure I've not found yet

I've made a lot of progress on the first two. The door has been whittled to a rough shape and squirted with filler and a spodge of paint - and I can honestly say it is apalling... (you can't tell by the photos...)

I managed to get the manifolds off to sort the blowing exhaust manifold gasket. That was a bit of a pig to do. The carb, exhaust and starter had to come off too. Along with the starter motor. I finally managed it without snapping any studs/bolts (yay!), but I discovered that there was a small crack in one side of the exhaust manifold.

After dropping the whole assembly (the best way to test things I find) it snapped. It looks as though it was ready to go - and to be honest I'm rather it did it now than having to do it all over again.

The manifold of horrors also showed up this:

The studs are quite well mangled, this is what has been eating my 3/8" BSF manifold nuts....

Bank holidays,

British bank holidays are superb. They are an institution. As a nation we feel the need to toddle off round the country and do stuff....

Now we at littleyellow towers like to join in and keep this going. This weekend we went off to North Berwick for a random holiday.

Friday night was a quiet affair with the now traditional friday night fish and chips for tea - rather good.

On the Saturday morning we bagged North Berwick Law , the kids had us up at 5:30 so we were up and down the law by 10:00 am!

We were off to the seaside for kite flying in the late morning and the new kites seemed well suited to the west Lothian westerlies.

In the afternoon we met up with Megan's friend (and her parents) and Megan's friends dad showed off his 2 line stunt kite - a bit of a hand full, followed by a good few hours bothering the aquatic wildlife with 99p fishing nets.

We headed home on the Sunday, but decided to pop into Longniddry bents, which appears to be the place to be if you're a kite surfer. So we took the opportunity to crack out the box kite.






And of course, the wildlife got bothered by those 99p nets again...