Midas Cars Forum - www.midascarsforum.com

Some things just aren't meant to be are they?

Doing a final spanner check this morning I noticed a little moisture in the leading edge of the tank, petrol...... the slight weep from the sender seal turned into a sodding torrent when I tried tapping the locking ring a bit further round. One delayed MOT, a drained tank and some petrol resistant sealant later and the car was dropped off an hour late for it's test.

I live about a mile across the fields from the Garage, so I set off home in what suddenly became torrential rain. I love summer in Devon.

Two hours later and the dreaded call comes, it's a fail, which I expected as the head lamps need aiming yet. The role of dishonour consists of..

Fails

Headlamp aim out (expected that)
Rear offside fog lamp out (the one that was working this morning..)
Numberplate lamp too dim ( working, but dim)
Not enough brake pipe clips fitted throughout (fair enough, I'd no idea what the requirement was for fixings)

Advisory

Long brake pedal travel (Bit of a Midas Thang from what I read on here)
Exhaust too close to fuel tank (bit more tweaking required, already fitted with heatshield)

All in all not bad and with a following wind and less rainfall I should be back at the garage tomorrow if I don't have to spend the entire day shouting at the amoebas that have messed up both my step kids student loans this year. They honestly make the CSA look efficient..

Got some positive feedback on the car from the tester who is a kit man himself, he was most impressed with Adrians engine work too.

Rich

Good luck tomorrow.

Sounds like your MOT tester was a bit over zealous on one or two items. My tester adjusts the lights for me on the lamp tester. Number plate light dim? Thats a new one on me. Fair about the rest.

Your MOT man sounds like a right pr*t , good luck with the retest.

im intrigued as to what the number of p clips per metre it is for the MOT for brake hose. It has never even crossed my mind. I just put them on every few inches when I did my build.

On top of that the ends are flexible so that I can move the master cylinders out of the way. Never bothered my MOT tester did that.

manifold wrote:im intrigued as to what the number of p clips per metre it is for the MOT for brake hose. It has never even crossed my mind. I just put them on every few inches when I did my build.

On top of that the ends are flexible so that I can move the master cylinders out of the way. Never bothered my MOT tester did that.

He suggested every 18 inches would do the job, mine fell down on the front to back pipe, the two pipes from the rear T-piece to the flexis and all those carefully formed pipes along the front bulkhead. So the bulkhead ones are now retained with stick on retainers as there's no way I can drill the bulkhead with the engine in place. The exhaust has been off completely to sort out the front to back pipe which has also allowed me to re-hang the system so nothing is touching anything else and there's more clearance for the tank now. It was more or less like that when I originally hung it and just seems to have settled slightly crooked.

The headlamp adjusters turned out to be rusted up so he couldn't just twiddle the wing nuts, I've had them all apart and everything moves now. One of the odd things was that the offside lamp wasn't throwing a decent beam, the lamps are all new so I've replaced the bulb and crossed my fingers.

The non-functioning lights were just slightly corroded connections, all sorted in 5 minutes.

I don't have any problem with this stuff being picked up on, he knows there's nothing in it for him and I'd rather get the details right.

I'm heading off back for a re-test if he's got time in a few minutes. Fingers crossed again.

Rich

The beast lives!

As of today my Midas is MOT'd, unfortunately too late to catch the Post Office so I'll be down there in the morning to sort the tax out.

Happy, happy, happy......

Well done perhaps I was a bit harsh on your MOT man.

You can always tax it online tonight.

Grinning like an idiot here.....

For the sake of one evening I'm going to wait and get paper on the screen without risking a 'failure to display'.

Rich

great stuff. glad its all sorted. another midas on the road. pity its now not spring though. weather is crap.

for interest as a matter of course I changed the galvanised headlamp adjusters for stainless wingnuts and bolts. i never have to worry about seized adjusters again.

cheers,

david

manifold wrote:great stuff. glad its all sorted. another midas on the road. pity its now not spring though. weather is crap.

for interest as a matter of course I changed the galvanised headlamp adjusters for stainless wingnuts and bolts. i never have to worry about seized adjusters again.

cheers,

david

They're galvanised? It ain't obvious!

I was tempted to fit some stainless bolts today but I'd have never made the deadline for getting the car in. Another problem is the lamps I picked up at the Exeter show don't fit in the holders as well as the Cibie lamps so there's a bit of flop in the mounting, I'll have to get hold of the real thing as and when.

Rich