Finally made it to the MOT station.....
where it failed.
After the initial attempt when it failed to make it into the MOT bay I replaced the handbrake cables, so handbrake wasn't an issue, which is nice.
Somehow when replacing the front subframe (the Golf3 subframe caused odd resonances - go figure) the ARB had been put on upside down. Explains a couple of 'that doesn't look/fit right' moments. Not sure whether the replacement subframe had an ARB on it, or not. Meh.
Anyhow, I dropped the subframe and swapped the ARB over, assembling with plenty of copper-ease. It also has new ARB links on it.
Brake forces passed, although the tracking is a mile out (no sh*t sherlock, it's not been lined up yet!), but I have three pipes to replace and one of the flexis that goes to the beam at the back. As I have a pair of the right braided hoses in stock I'll replace both at the same time.
The pipes to replace are the main front to back ones and the one that goes from the compensator to the OS rear flexi. Looking at the condition of the fourth hose going from the compensator, I'll probably do that one too.
The pipe that crosses the car to the OS side of the beam goes above the exhaust and heat shielding, so that's all released and eased down to give access, ready for the replacement to be made up.
There was also a nick out of the very end of the rack gaiter on the NS, so that needs to be swapped out. Unfortunately UniPrat only supply them with no balance pipe location hole, so that went back to them for a refund.
So, next session will be Friday, to do the brake pipes and fit the replacement gaiter, which should be with me from Vee W Services by then. I'm also going to be looking very carefully at the beam bushes, as although they didn't need doing for the MOT they'll probably be original and if I'm stripping off the brake pipes anyway, I might as well tighten up the rear end in the process.
