Hi John,
So what was it like to drive on the roads. Did you have a big grin all the time...:D
Was the handling ok or is there something you would change?
Seeing as my car is virtually the same as yours I'm curious to know what you would do different.
You said the clutch was heavy so that's something I need to look at for a start.

It's a bit early to say yet. For the most part I was driving to IVA and back like a granny, and to be perfectly honest it's not a particularly pleasant or comfortable place to be when you're just cruising along.
When I did have a bit of a play I wasn't exactly performing a critical assessment of its handling abilities...
I was however grinning from ear to ear and shouting wooooooo quite a bit :D

The clutch was a fricken nightmare though, so much so that I didn't want to drive it again before I sorted it. It was rediculously heavy and hard to control smoothly, which got a bit tiresome in traffic.

I've got a 50 mile round trip to my local friendly garage tomorrow, so I might have some more to report after that.

Is the pressed Steel UJ the same length as the one you took out?

Thanks

David

Yes, the one I got off ebay is :D

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=121134330162

Arrrrgghhh!
Fixed everything for IVA... booked my re-test for Thursday morning... broke a wingstay on the way home from the garage :mad:

Well Done! You don't hang around do you! How was the drive?:)

How was the brake balance without the mondeo valve in?

David

The rears are much stronger now and should have got my overall braking efficiency high enough to pass.

I tried replicating the IVA dynamic braking test several times and couldn't get the rears to lock before the fronts so I think it should be fine.

Westfield SDV builds seem to get through IVA without any kind of bias valve too.

Passed my IVA re-test this morning :D
I'm a very happy bunny indeed :D

Stopped by the DVLA on the way home, submitted the forms, handed over the cash, and they did the inspection while I was there.
Should get my reg and tax disc in the poast sometime next week, can't wait!

Good timing for the nice weather dude:D :D

Well Done! And....relax! :)

Can I check what bolts you are using on the joint. I had m8 bolts in the old version but now the seem too small. I also cannot get the spanners to fit as the casing is in the way.

Cheers

David

p.s well envious yours is on the road!!

Thanks Chris and Kev!

David, I did use M8 bolts, they were a bit of a tight fit, but went in with a some persuasion.
The spanner clearance issue did have me swearing a bit...
I ended up packing the nuts out with a handful of thick washers so I could get a socket on them. Had to grind a bit off the washers to get them to fit too :rolleyes:
Still, it's better than having a UJ that fails IVA!

I got a replacement uj (free) from rally design and it's just the same! Except both ends don't clamp up on this one! WTF!! :mad:

Got my Reg number and tax disc through this morning!
Just about to knock up some temporary plates so I can have a play tonight :D

I think I will be slitting the opposite side and using 2 bolts each end to secure like this. You can slit it with an angry grinder just try and emulate the original slit.



The extra bolt hole doesnt need to be exactly in the spline recess, just gives you extra pinch and the original bolt provides the positive location.

Cheers
Stot

Dang you beat me. :p :D

Cheers
Stot

Only just! Have you got your IVA booked yet? :D

Hottest day if the year too! Have you got a Q plate?

I think I'll get the one off eBay, all for making stuff work but not that bit!

Actually looking at the original cut it looks like it's not been cut deep enough. Might have a go at filing it a little deeper on the original and see if that solves it.

Nope, J-reg :)

Yep this worked for me!:D

How was it Legal Eagle?

Fooooooooking AWESOME!

Good news, ill give it a go on mine too.

Cheers
Stot

If you need any bits of bodywork let me know! I know you where admiring my nosecone a while back.:p

http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=12782

If you had a full set the same colour as your nosecone I might have been interested!

Nevermind, provisionally sold now just tryiing to sort courier. :-) I bet you can't believe your luck with this weather. Are you driving to end from work in it each day?

Well done, didn't think they'd hang around for long at that price!

I had to drive the tin top yesterday (which now feels like a soft slow soggy old sofa!), but I've commuted in the Haynes every other day this week :cool:

Speaking of commuting in the Haynes, I strapped an £8 ebay camera to my front grill for the drive home last night to see how good/bad it was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-r9J...ature=youtu.be

Not the most exciting video I know!

It looks like it goes fast enough!

Has you mx5 steering wheel dropped off and been replaced by something fancy yet?

How about stripes on the bonnet

David

Two things to say....

Looks and sounds awesome.

Have you written a will?:D

Not too bad for 8 quid I reckon.

Wish that was my commute home, mine is lots and lots of M5 every day :rolleyes:

Wow looks like fun.......:D :D
Looking at the vid I guess the she handles very well?
Sounds awesome to, guess the wire wool fell out somewhere along the line:rolleyes:
All I've got to say is Lucky Bugger... can't wait to get mine on the road now.

Nice to see that the cars 55 years from now will look exactly the same as they do now :D

She certainly feels nippy enough!
I thought it looked a bit pedestrian in the video - it feels loads faster when you're actually in the car. Could have sworn I driving twice that speed!

I haven't sorted out the stripes or wheel yet, but they're both on my growing list of things to do.
I'm a bit skint after IVA/Insurance/Tax and trying not to spend any more on her for a while :rolleyes:

Ha ha, cheers Chris. I thought you'd enjoy the exhaust note!

I suppose it's not too bad a commute really.
To be fair I did edit out the 15 minutes of queuing at either end, and a load of long boring bits.

Not the best quality, and does some odd things at times, but I certainly can't complain for 8 quid - it even came with a load of different mounting brackets!

She is quite entertaining as it happens :D
I was surprised just how well she does handle, particularly considering I haven't really done any suspension set up yet!
Seems to have tons of grip too, even on the donor tyres.

My first lot of wire wool did actually fall out all by itself on the way home from IVA! Had to re-pack it for the re-test, and when I checked it afterwards it had pretty much turned to dust and crumbled away.
I've currently got the dB killer in, and it's possibly a tad antisocial. Tried briefly without and I thought my ears were going to bleed :eek:


lol, must be getting old, as I can't seem to figure out how to change the date! Might have to ask one of the kids to do it for me. If I still had a VCR I recon it'd be flashing 00:00 :D

My lovely shiny solid diff mounts turned up today - thanks Stot!

No pic, but my repaired propshaft just turned up.
Hopefully pick a new diff up tonight and I can start putting her back together over the weekend.

Cracking! :D Excuse the pun!;)