Saturday, October 30, 2010

The Bodger strikes

So, a major spot of "bodging has been found on the LH suspension parts.
Half of the stuff was removed a couple of weeks ago without too much trauma. Except the top "A" arms bolt was loose, (Kingpin top) ( Nay...not enough thread actually).
Removal of the castleted nuts and lowering the spring pan was easy enough. I even managed to undo the drop link from the anti roll bar to the spring pan. It was a struggle on the other ( RH) side as the ratchet head was a little too large to allow the socket to sit on correctly and get enough purchase.
So how did I acheive it on the LH side then ?  Simples....I used the universal joint thingy in my ( sorry wifey's) Kamasa socket set, doh ! Its a lot narrower.
So where was the bodging then ?
Since I had free access to the spring pan and the drop link was off I undid the nuts holding on the lower "A" arm. During wire brushing I noticed a large blob of weld ( I first thought it was grease, as one end of everything was covered in 30 year old "stuff") but no. It was weld. I was annoyed and a bit in pain since I was using the scary grinder with the flat wire brush disc in. I managed to "wave it gently" accross my lightly surgical gloved finger, and it stung a bit.
I flipped said arm over to see the full extent of why the weld was there.


Weld ???
Ovality bodge












So, some heathen had welded on a bog standard washer over the oval hole. What a cheapskate. This even makes me look positively generous.
A quick check with MG hive see the arms a a couple of quid each.
More weld was to follow. Whilst engulfed in a cloud of rust tackling the spring pan orifice I noticed a partucularly difficult patch of rust/old grease which the wire brush did its best to worry.
Once the dust cloud cleared and fufferfour had a good look, this is what I found.



Looks like rusty metal in the base was replaced with 3 tons of weld. No wonder the wire brush struggled a bit.
Anyways, I did'nt bother to paint the two "A" arms since I decided to buy new ones. I did paint the pan though, together with all the other stuff removed. Since the weather was good I also removed the anti roll bar ( sway bar for US readers) and had to find a novel way to hang it to dry.


So, there's nothing like showing your undies and smalls in public then, Ha . Hope wifey dont read this.
Mefinks this may be the last of my efforts till springtime, as the feet were freezing as the light faded.

One last point, will the tw*ts who keeps offering me medical "products" via this blog please f**k off, thankyou.

Late addition. The t***s who keep sending me the offers for financial and medical crap have hopefully been thwarted.
Aparrently its the title of the blog post that thier meta-phisers search for. So I've changed it. Lets hope thats an end to it all.
Since not much will happen in Lostsock land MG wise here's wishing you all a merry Christmas and happy new year. If you don't believe in either sorry, your missing a good holiday. 

Friday, October 15, 2010

My cover is broken

That about sums up the weatherproofness ( such a word ?) of the cars cover.
I remember when I bought it and had high hopes for it. One long year ( or is it two) the elements and ruby the cat + other vagrant cat Colin have had their toll on the then excellent Argos cover.
At £15 though I can't complain. Other than it could be better spent on the long list of items I'm likely to need hopefully before winter really sets in.
All I've done since the last post is re-paint the RH  side suspension parts a little, more like touch up. Then managed to remove the LH brake caliper, pads, pins &  back plate. Hopefully on a sunny weekend soon I'll removed the rest of the LH suspension, then pray for cash and more mild weekends so as to assemble both corners and make it moveable again.
       Right now placement at hospital and academic work seems to be taking up all of my time. That and fretting about a sudden inward leak of the elements. In fact, I remember now,  during an odd moment I actually taped up the rear window with black plastic which should stop the annoying dribble of water right into my toolbox. What prompted me to do this was a Saturday intended to be devoted to the RH suspension cleanup/touch-up. On peeling back the cover I was met with the trusty plastic tray toolbox about 2" deep in water. it took a good 2 hours to dry up the boot puddle, tools and tray.
So, next on the must do is another trip to Argos for said giant elasticated silver cover. Hope they still sell it.
More soon peeps with photos..........donations or even comments of encouragement gratefully accepted.