MOT Time

It was that time of year again.   I had checked the car over and all the obvious stuff was OK, lights all worked, brakes looked good.....  However, the usual spectre of the emissions test loomed over it, although I repeated the procedure from last year in that I ran a bottle of injector cleaner through the system and then did a reasonably long run staying in 3rd gear to get the RPM up to 4-5000 rpm.   Also there were the advisories for last year regarding the wishbone bushes.

So put her in with some trepidation.   Result:  A clear pass with no advisories 😅

Not bad for a 13 yr old car, particularly as she took 5 years to build so is actually 18 yrs old, and the engine and transmission date from 1995, 25 years ago.

Breakdown Number Three

Nice day today as 6 of us met up at Foxton Locks for a picnic.  Lovely drive, didn't touch a single A Road, all country lanes.  It was a comfortable 1:05 hr each way (40 miles) and great weather. 
I think I had been through the locks in a boat but had never wandered round.  


Unfortunately while I was driving there I had breakdown number 3  (First was when the water hose blew off the pipe and the second was when I holed the sump.   Still not bad for 7 years of driving).   I was just coming out of Oakham when I found I couldn't change gear easily.   It got worse until suddenly the clutch pedal just dropped to the floor.   As luck would have it I was passing a housing estate and just inside was a row of garages with plenty of tarmac in front,  So I stopped there to check.   I has assumed the clutch cable had snapped, a regular occurrence on these cars.   But I was wrong.   Some of you might remember I modified the clutch cable/pedal a few months after I bought the car.    The diagram shows what I did.

The original fit is the top diagram and you can see the clutch cable is bent so has a lot of strain put on it,  So I used a couple of pieces of stainless steel to make a joint that allowed the cable to be perfectly aligned.  

And this is what I saw when I took the top of the pedal box off:

After 7 years of constant flexing the stainless steel had given up and parted in the middle.   Luckily the fix was fairly easy, I just removed all the bits and bolted the cable directly to the pedal as it used to be when I bought the car.   Total time was 30 mins.  I had been running 20 mins ahead of schedule so was actually only 10 mins late at the locks.

So I can keep my 100% record of never calling the rescue services to get me home, and I didn't have to use the spare clutch cable I always keep in the boot. :-)

I will rebuild it tomorrow but use thicker steel, even though the normal steel lasted 7 years.

Drinks Holder

I have got into the habit of carrying a bottle of water around.  Up to now it has just been left in the passenger seat.   Not any more.😆