Getting close to the MOT (Besiktning)

We have had a couple of beautiful sunny days, a sign of impending Spring. Complete blue skies and the almost forgotten warmth of the sun, it's my favourite time of the year. I was out last Sunday for the first drive of the year and the first drive since I took it off the road in October. A friend helped me with bleeding the brakes, putting in the passenger carpet and seat back in place and then it was time for a spin. "Oh what a feelin' " Temperature was around 0 degrees but very much bearable. 

Realised a few things needed fixing before the MOT. Steering wheel was not centred so indicator was not cancelling correctly. Brakes needed an extra bleed so Fredrik and I did that during the week. Windscreen wiper motor and spindles were in place but forgot the blades! 

During the week there was snow and chill that froze it to ice. No chance in driving so fixed the problems yesterday. But wasn't bad enough to stop me taking a drive to Rosenhill.

Took her for a car wash, always looks great afterwards.

Something was wrong though as no fuel gauge, rev counter, windscreen wipers were behaving eratically and no reversing light. Turned out that I had blown a fuse while putting on the wiper blades; they got stuck while testing them. Quick change of fuse and all was back working again.

Also put the winter tyres on as it was zero. Had a great coffee and sandwich at Rosenhill but no motorbikes, cylists or other enthusiast cars there yet. Another month or so perhaps.

Now it's all ready for the MOT, hopefully in the next couple of weeks and hopefully there won't be any problems.

A few more fixes

I've taken things slow and easy since the last update. The offside rear caliper had to be cleaned up and opened to be able to get the new disk between the brakes shoes.

The piston had to be screwed out to be able to clean it up.

Finally out

When putting the piston back put the sealing ring on first

Then push the skirt of the seal into the groove of the piston housing, while the main part of the seal is still around the piston.

Once it's located onto the bolt, gradually turn it clockwise.

Almost in

New pads in place ready to put back. Handbrake arm on the right.

Trying to tidy up some of the spagetti wiring. Maybe I mentioned this before but if I had my time again, I'd redo the whole lot!

Spagetti from another angle

Wanted to have a way of checking the oil temperature so decided to add a Y-Adapter-M12x15-x-M12x15-x-18-NPT to allow the original pressure sensor along side the temp sensor.

The first stage of putting in an oil temperature gauge. The brass Y-adapter goes in place of the oil pressure sensor.

The temperature sensor was quite long so had to drill out the adapter a little to accomodate it.

Pressure sensor goes back in. Had to remove the inlet manifold and SC to be able to reach the outlet for the pressure gauge.

Very little space for the adapter so it had to be put in place before the sensors were screwed in. Had to add two brass washers so the adapter when tightened, ended up facing the right way.

Temperature sensor in and wired up. Now have to put the SC etc back on - for the 10th time!

The oil temperature gauge is not great but better than the Prosport gauges. They were quite expensive for all of them and now after only a few years the plastic covering the displays is scratched so all difficult to read. It's not like I haven't taken care of them. Maybe next winter I'll invest in real glass gauges. 

Front offside steering and new brake disk and caliper in place.

I finally removed the MAF and replaced with a straight pipe to the airfilter. MAF not needed anymore because of the new setup, temp sensor and vacuum sensor on the inlet manifold as well as the after market ECU.

Added plugs and sockets so the console can be removed easily

Gradually putting bits back.