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4 minute(s) of a 153 minute read
11-26-2013
Always fun to make a mini friend!
12-17-2013
Apologies for my recent silence but the GT's been behaving itself. I've been keeping myself busy welding in new inner sills to a friends 1995 Mini Sidewalk. back in june we had a little deal, he recovered my GT in exchange for me dealing with the mess he was calling floorpans. It's taken quite a while to get around to it!
Well I say it's been behaving, that was until last week. After finishing my friends mini we swapped cars and had a little fun, it was the first time i'd heard my own car on full chat as it sailed past the 1275 SPI Sidewalk, I tried my best to keep up but the GT is in another league performance wise, sounded bloody amazing! The next day the exhaust started to blow, barely noticeable at first, then i hit a bump and the link pipe split completely. Tractor GT. I welded the link pipe back together yesterday it was far from my best job though, I'd got the wrong setting on the welder so it didn't come out great. It's sealed again for now though! I think the exhaust is toast in the long run though.
So last weekend Minispares had a small sale, and I took the opportunity to purchase a new steering rack, the union joint was the only advisory on my MOT and has been bugging me ever since. The steering's always had quite a bit of play from straight ahead making driving on uneven roads and on the motorway a scary experience, so today I started a rack swap!
Following the service manual I axel stood the front of the car and dropped the rear of the subframe, supporting it on a jack.
Here's the old rack removed. It came out relatively easily, I'd heard it was always an awful job but so far it's been quite enjoyable! The end ball joints were very easy to move, although didn't have any play in them.
Here is one of the brand new track-rod ends I fitted, it's amazing how quickly they rust!
So I've painted them up, hopefully they should last a little longer!
Here's the old rack next to a brand-new unit. Much shinier!
Took a lot of deciding, but I've decided to paint the new rack, after seeing what happened to my trackrod ends if I want it to last it's the sensible decision. I've also painted the outer steering column, the U bolts and the bracket for the steering column. The old racks only only in there to make drying the trackrod ends easier! Making this decision also means I couldn't finish installing it today as the paint takes ages to dry! So I'll conclude tomorrow!