Passed MOT!!! :D (Was Failed MOT)

[teamster1975]

Took it in yesterday, failed on cracked front brake hoses, rear stabiliser rods (which have only been on a year ) and wipers.

And I'm in a spot of sh1t. I started doing the hoses yesterday evening, 3 of the hose bolts undid fine but the offside one which bolts to the metal pipe is seized solid and I've rounded it off
Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom to get me out of the brown stuff short of cutting off and replacing the metal pipe?

Thanks for any advice guys

[steve_earwig]

Sorry to hear that Sounds like a right pain, how about soaking it with WD and using moles? I'd say shine a blowlamp on it but .4 is flammabubble

[teamster1975]

I did give it a damn good soaking with WD last night before I started getting annoyed with it
I'm just off out now to give it another go with the moles, failing that I'll try hammer & chisel to get it started off.
Bloody PITA, we're off camping in Dorset at the weekend so I've got to get it fixed!

[Bailes1992]

Could you cut the pipe so you can get a socket over the nut? Use a socked smaller than the original bolt you've rounded off and smack it on. Saying that I'm not sure how strong break pipes are

[steve_earwig]

That's just the problem, cutting the pipe off would rather involve chucking the whole thing in the bin and buying a new one

[swiss]

Hammer + chisel + swearing. At sea, where all our kit is manufactured from bargain-basement mild steel and then immersed in salt water for ten years, you use a hammer and chisel more than you use spanners...

[mjb]

pipe wrench and swearing?

[teamster1975]

Well the hammer & chisel did the job (accompanied my a lot of swearing of course! )
Both front brake hoses replaced & system bled.

Now onto the stabiliser rods (which were a piece of p1ss the first time round )
N/S was a doddle, removed & swapped in 10 mins.
O/S... the shank on the ball-joint end is seized in the hub and won't budge for love nor money
I ended up using a hack saw blade to cut off the ball joint flush so I can get some WD40 soaking in; there is a smidgin of movement with the moles clamped on the threaded part but not much. Time to call it a night and attack again in the morning. As if it were an omen it has started raining

Talk about cutting it fine, we're supposed to be off camping in dorset on Saturday!

[Doggy]

Well done getting as far as you have Teamy - stick at it, you'll win in the end.

(After all, by mjb's standards, you've got ages yet).

[Welly]

(After all, by mjb's standards, you've got ages yet).

Indeed, there's still time to change the cambelt

[puggy]

Keep at it teamy you will succeed !!! just think on saturday you will be driving
down south with a feeling of satisfaction

got my mot next month

[mjb]

(After all, by mjb's standards, you've got ages yet).

Indeed, there's still time to change the cambelt

Change? You mean rebuild the engine following a snapped one don't you?


Teamy: buy an angle grinder for the drop link. I could have walked the 15 mile round-trip to the 24hr Tescos to buy one and still saved hours when I was faffing around blunting blades and snapping drills trying to remove mine

I've noticed my (~5000 mile) drop links are horribly corroded too. Maybe we should recommend people only use dealer parts for this? (how much are they in comparison?)

[steve_earwig]

Or just recommend buying a small tin of paint with some of the money they saved not going to the dealer

[mjb]

Or just recommend buying a small tin of paint with some of the money they saved not going to the dealer

Paint ain't going to do it... but covering the end and filling the allen key hole with hot glue?

[steve_earwig]

Well paint was the only difference between the ones the dealer fitted to mine and the ones I replaced them with. Not sure about the glue, I wouldn't have thought it would bond enough, what about a shed load of grease?