Last minute preparation

Well we are nearly there!! I have a few last minute things to bolt down, fit on or adjust and then it's off for the MOT test- for the Americans reading this blog, this is the annual road-worthiness assessment that every car over 3 years old must undergo in order to be driven legally in the UK. Its a very useful check on the general deterioration of a vehicle in the UK climate and also on the safety of any repairs. Its both useful and feared at the same time. If I could find a virgin I would sacrifice her (or her virginity?) to the almighty Gods of the MOT... but as I can't (they are rarer than hen's teeth round here) I am simply having to trust to luck.

Obviously its daft to fail on simple things so a last minute pre-test check is advisable, and of all the jobs I have to do most are very simple I need to:
1.  Adjust the clutch pedal for smooth disengagement.
Checked- I think its OK and won't change it until I have tried it in use on the road.
2. Secure the battery using the battery clamps, but don't refit the battery cover as the tester will need to check battery security, and also I don't want to damage the flimsy cover because I also have to...

Battery clamped in terminals reattached- wooden spacer required in front.

3. Assemble the new exhaust system and fitting kit and put them in the boot ready for the garage to fit.
I have assembled a collection of stainless steel nyloc nuts, washers, and bolts of the correct length (6 x 40mm M8 and 12 x 30mm M8) plus rubber hangers of the correct types (4 each), so that the exhaust can be fitted securely. I have also supplied a manifold-to-downpipe gasket although this might not be needed.
4 Re-route throttle cable and fit a new (or extra) spring to the throttle return arm to stop it sticking slightly on.

I shortened the spring and refitted it- the throttle now no longer sticks and the pedal has a good positive pressure when pressed. 
6. Refit air filter and induction system.
I refitted the box but not the filter as the carbs were setup without it and I want to give them the best possible opportunity to breathe and thus meet the emissions standard specified in the test.
7. Fit the locking wheel nuts as there are currently only 3 nuts per wheel!
I bought a new Krooklock set years ago but have never needed to fit them- had entirely forgotten that I have had only 3 nuts per wheel for the last 2 years!

I also discovered that one wire on the driver's door mirror had broken. There are 4 wires to each door mirror and each terminates in a male mini spade connector which just pushes into the back of the mirror. This arrangement takes up very little room fits under the cover smoothly. I didn't have anything suitable to replace these connectors so I reused the old terminal, carefully unpicking the crimp and soldering on a short extension wire, covering the join with heat shrink.

Removing the 4 Phillips screws releases the mirror and motor unit

Separating the mirror unit- Only 3 wires are attached to the mirror. Blue wire has broken, the old contact is seen still stuck in the motor unit below the brown wire. 

Refitting the old spade connector to a short fly lead

Joining extension to mirror wire; heat shrink over join

Mirror reconnected and cover replaced.

Assuming the car actually makes the trip to the MOT station OK (in my case about a mile and a half), then I am also asking the garage to do some work for me.

Firstly, I want them to fit the second hand stainless steel exhaust system I have assembled from a variety of sources. I could do this myself, but without a decent ramp it will be difficult and unpleasant. Plus I am only asking the garage to change those parts of the system that need to be changed. Although I am supplying a complete system, I think some parts such as the down pipe from the exhaust manifold, may be in good enough condition to leave. Leaving this will make the job both quicker for them and hopefully cheaper for me. I need the Garage with its eye to the MOT to make that judgement call.

Secondly, I have changed the steering rack and track rod ends (as avid readers of my blog may recall). This means that the tracking now needs to be adjusted -especially as I have new tyres front and rear and don't want excessive wear on them so early in their life.

These things then are what I can control, but even so I do not expect the car to pass the test. I can't think of anything specific that it will certainly fail on, but on the other hand I don't know for certain that even those jobs I have done will pass. I am also worried about those parts of the car that I haven't touched - and really this means all of the suspension with the exception of the forward upper arm bushes and upper ball joints. I.E. ARB bushes, rear supension bushes, lower arm bushes and ball joint, all springs and shock absorbers. The car has only done 45,000 odd miles so I am hoping that some of these at least will still be roadworthy despite their age, and the shocks in particular are so expensive to change (coil-over replacements required) that I don't want to do such a job unnecessarily. For comparison I can change nearly all the shock absorbers on the MGB for the price of one Lotus shock! However, although I expect a fail, the MOT should result in a shortlist of jobs and I have a two week window (whilst my MGB is having its body work repairs) in which I can get on with trying to finalize the Lotus for its return to the road.

Note added after car sent for test...

Well the Lotus is clearly going to fail. I took it down this morning... It was pushed onto my drive two years ago by a hefty, heavily tattooed, ex naval Scotsman as a very sick car. Now some two years later and after many trials and tribulations (see blog!) I have been able to drive it off again under its own power:  The first time I've driven it, and I think the first time its been driven in 10 years... and YES(!) we made it to the testing station!

On the credit side the motor was smooth and even and pulled really well. On the mildly irritating side I was wrong about the clutch... it does still need adjusting; and on the highly irritating side, a couple of the things I had already "fixed" broke again on the way down. I think I have said before that this car just doesn't seem to want to be rescued!

• The wipers no longer self-park- they did so happily yesterday but today its just too much trouble for them! 
• The power steering has become lazy. Its weak-to-non-existent and doesn't feel particularly motivated to help me to turn the wheel. 
• One headlamp main beam decided not to come on! 

These are all things I have previously sorted and checked- wiper self cancellation was one of the first jobs I did on the car and its been fine from June 2014 right up to yesterday. I think its just possible that the heavy steering is caused by really awful wheel alignment which will be checked at the garage. I think that will improve matters but I doubt its going to fix the problem. Although I did get the rack reconditioned I did nothing to the pump except refit it so at the moment I'm guessing I really need a recon pump too. Still I will see what else the garage say and what light if any they can shed on the problem! Could just be a bleeding or belt problem Although it has to fail (headlamp alone would do it), the extent (and cost) of the jobs-to-do list remains in the lap of the Gods...

To Be Continued!

Well, I finally heard back from the garage... As expected the result was a fail. Surprisingly and gratifyingly practically everything I had done passed... I was notified of 7 fail items... But they made surprising reading.

1. N/s headlamp main beam inoperative
2. Headlight aim too high
3. N/s front tyre incorrectly fitted
4. O/s front tyre incorrectly fitted
5. Speedometer not capable of illumination
6. Track rod end locking nut loose
7. Emissions not tested due to poor state of exhaust.

Surprisingly the wipers seem to have parked themselves and the tester had sufficiently well-developed biceps that any deficiencies in the PAS went unnoticed! The damaged jacking points were not a failure item. All in all very good news.

Surprisingly though because...
Headlight failure is new, I had noted it as I drove down. The dip beam is still working so a new bulb should sort that out. I've never checked beam alignment... They have a gauge for that and I'd expected it to need doing.
Both my tyres are new and fitted on my drive by Etyres. This was a very good service. I think I must have swapped l and r wheels at some point and this probably accounts for in incorrect rotational direction. I think that's a more likely explanation than the fitter fitted them wrongly. Its not something I'd ever really considered as swapping tyre positions was formerly a normal part of service to equalize wear "in the old days" and I had never considered that wheels weren't interchangeable! If they aren't, where does this leave the role of the spare wheel?  I need to get my head around this because the garage think that the tyres need to be removed and refitted which is a bit more expensive... I think just swapping the front wheels might sort them out. Well I have now checked my tyres... they are Nexen CP6450... Cheapish and mixed reviews... main problem seems to be road noise... (that would be novel for me as you need to be driving the car for that to be a problem!!). Anyway the point is that these are directional  but they are not assymmetric so the arrow markings have to face the direction of rotation but inside and outside edges are not different. Consequently just swapping the wheels left for right should solve the problem without needing to remove and refit! This seems to have arisen from my error and I will know better in future.

I am  bit concerned about the speedo light - might it not simply be a low setting on the panel light control? ... I didn't check that but I think the light worked when I last had the speedo out and its possible that the garage don't realize that such an early car even has a panel light control!

I'm not worried about the track rod nuts. I hadn't bothered to crank these up really tight because the car only had to make it to the garage and wheel alignment needs adjusting anyway. This was booked with the MOT and should put that right.

Well I'm probably being over cautious. I had initially decided to do these repairs myself, but that means removing the car from their premises and if the car has been moved then its always possible that they could find something "new". I know that in theory if you return the car in short order (7 days I think) they need only retest the fail items... but who knows? I don"t want to snatch failure from the jaws of success and have them find additional faults... I decided on balance to leave it with them and have them repair the fail items and trust that it then passes the emissions test. However having spent so much time prepping and repairing stuff myself, I am a little worried at having the garage do the repairs. After all its not a common car and they can't be familiar with it. For instance, if its not a panel light control issue, then getting the dashpod out to fit a new speedo bulb (BA9s) isn't straightforward, and I really don't want my carefully repainted instrument trim panel snapped. Similarly I'm a little worried in case they don't know how to remove the headlights without damaging the bezels or mounting pins... Neither of these were obvious to me at first and I had the manual and the forum to ask! I clearly have trust issues.

Well, they have now kept the car for a couple of days whilst they swap the exhaust, align wheels and attend to the fail items before repeating the MOT.