SRowells Black Rallye

[Eeyore]

So an unexpectedly large update as I hadnt planned to be working on the car today only cleaning at a friends. Packed the car to leave and noticed a small coolant leak. Decided I could probably make it there. No fuel so went to the petrol station and coolant was pretty much pouring out and rad was empty in no time. Filled it up and pumped up the tyres and then headed home. Called Tom to see if he wanted to play cars...

Whilst tom was on his way i had already found the source of the leak. Seems to be a completely crap fitting in the rad. The rad was brand new and fitted less than a month ago and its done under 400 miles in that amount of time. I cant see how the fitting ever did hold itself in!





Anyway I decided the best thing to do was to get the rad out as it was going to need replacing. Thought i may as well try supergluing the fitting in minus the oring and see if it holds the water which at least means i get to go for a hoon this weekend whilst looking for a new one! Whilst the glue was setting we found some other things to do.

I had loosened a lot of the bolts with my manly strength and Tom finished off removing the bolts and swapping the struts. We then bolted them up and had a quick discussion about how they had always been fitted the wrong way round. We were unable to remove the top mounts so fitted them anyway. The drop link is near vertical when steering is straight and doesnt foul on anything lock to lock so seems to be okay. Need to get some new bolts for the top mounts so measured those up. We then dropped the whole thing down and set the ride height. These were taken off the 1.8 which was pretty slammed so i expected it to sit really low but actually it didnt drop too much. I raised the coils up 10mm which should give more travel and stop the bottoming out i had with the 1.8. Not road tested yet but fingers crossed!





Next up was to swap the worn top glove box for one where the flocking hadnt come off the inside. All of the alarm wiring is mashed in here and its a mess. Ive left that well alone for now and will tackle when the heater matrix needs replacing. I have no idea what anyone was thinking as theres probably about 15ft of cables just bundled up and a random 20 pin plug where all wires have been cut apart from 4. Really weird stuff.



I then removed the steering wheel coweling and the speedo surround. it looked like it had been touched up by someone in the past and i thought it looked better with a phase 3 surround. Left the orange needles and black speedo trim so its still pretty much as it should be. Whilst the surround was out I also replaced some of the bulbs that had blown. Now I have a dipped beam bulb which I stole from the airbag light which will flash once the OMP wheel is fitted.




Next up battery disconnected, airbag removed, wheel off, omp wheel on what i hope to be straight! I think it looks pretty good and car looks a bit more racy. The OEM wheel is a plastic squidgy dire object. Im keeping everything that I remove and putting it in a special rallye parts box so it can always be put back to standard.



Wandering round the car also noticed that the nearside light had filled up with water. First time ive seen this happen on one of my cars however tom thinks it happened to the 1.8 before. Anyway quick 20 second walk to the shed and a new lamp fitted!



By this time i deemed the glue dry and got it all over my hands... fitted the rad anyway and then spent a good time mincing trying to get the lower pipe on. O ring was stopping it fitting so pushed this in all the way around with a small flat head and it slipped in no issues. Hoses connected and rad cabled tied to the fan coweling and we are good to go and test whether the glue will hold for a few hours driving. I havent filled it up yet as i want to give it more time to dry but ill have to pick up some coolant soon. Bash believes he has a replacement radiator for me. Its the early type with the plastic fit lower hose.

I think thats pretty much it. I also stock piled all the plastic interior bits that are needed to complete the inside which I will fit once ive vacuumed it out. Big thanks to tom for coming over and spending hours fiddling with rad lower pipes and seized drop link bolts. Helpful as always!