B*st*rd jobs on a Midas, No. 43

[Geoff Butcher]

Changing the steering rack gaiter, aaaarrgh! If it was just a tad more difficult, it'd be easier to take the rack off the car...

[Rich]

Is that on the Mini rack or the Metro rack?

B*st*rd job No.44 on the Gold is the steering flexible joint.....

[Geoff Butcher]

Metro. Ive got a new flexi joint standing by since my MoT man mentioned it once, but he seems to have lost interest in it again. It looked OK to me, so I won't be in a rush...

[Geoff Butcher]

Another one of those days...I was trial-fitting my MGF passenger seat, only to find the runner was on top of a bundy tube which is clipped to the floor near the sill. I undid the clips to shift it over a bit, then noticed a whiff of petrol. Looked under the car and under the bonnet, nothing obvious. I then discovered the bundy tube was not a brake line as I had always fondly imagined, but the fuel pipe, and a rubber joining piece at the back had perished and split. My driveway is on a steep slope, so I turned the car round, which stopped the flow. Naturally I didn't have a bit of quarter inch hose. After using up my stock of expletives I realised this had been quite lucky really, as it would have split before long anyway, which could have stranded me in the middle of nowhere with petrol lapping gently round my ankles. Always look on the bright side of life...

[Rich]

Mk3 Pedal box, not enjoying myself here........

[Hans Efde]

B*sr*rd job no. 44, top mountings of the front shock absorbers. Designed for people with baboon arms.

[manifold]

I'm with you on that one Hans. I did mine yesterday....both, ready for an MOT.

Thank goodness for nylons though. Back in the day the shockers used to come with 2 nuts you had to lock together.

I will say that the Rover and later Metro dash's are the worst of all for this though as the rectangular aperture is smaller, in particular the one over the glove box......so you can't have any upper arm muscles (or chicken wings) either, as these get in the way.

[max midas]

Thank goodness for nylons, I usually wear overalls, but whatever...

[manifold]

lol. auto spell doing a trick on me. Nylons = NYLOCS

[Moneypit]

Any body tried to replace the speedo cable on a gold convertible using the access panel in the bulkhead? Thought I'd save some time rather than taking the dash out. Eventually ,after a few choice expletives, I managed to squeeze round the wiper links and cables to get the thing on. At this point my hand decides to double in sizeand I can't get it out!! Bit of a panick, stuck there looking like James Herriot helping out a stubborn calf. Must have snagged my hand on every sharp edge in there.Still , at least it's working again now.