Isuzu Bighorn

[lewd lude lover]

yes, getting under it with a spnner holds none of the normal issues of getting the thing in the air. It does involve the removal of bloody great steel bash plates sometimes though so I am learning

That list is not so bad when you look at it. I bet the ful lines will just need a bloody good rub with steel wool and then treat. Unless its been an advisory before it will be at the stage you can attack it and prevent. Hopefully!

Clancy (thats the Surfs name) is going on the road this weekend I hope after some serious servicing this past few weeks. I cant wait to drive the damn thing. Like, I bought it something like 6-7 weeks ago now most of that is moving house and the wheels having to go through the oven twice as they didnt pass QC though so cant be helped.

I find MOTing to be the most arbitrary thing in the universe. Serious dangerous faults missed and minor issues blown up. Different people on the same day with the same vehicle will give you a totally different print out at the end. Things that appear on advisories one year at one place will never appear again in 4 years somewhere else.
Anything so subjective shouldn't be considered a 'standard'

[jjmartin349571]

yes, getting under it with a spanner holds none of the normal issues of getting the thing in the air. It does involve the removal of bloody great steel bash plates sometimes though so I am learning

The one downside to the height is that my back is now killing me from the angle I had to lean at to work in the engine bay Didn't have to jack the truck up once though Even better it looks like I won't have to remove the wheels to bleed the brakes which is a bonus

That list is not so bad when you look at it. I bet the ful lines will just need a bloody good rub with steel wool and then treat. Unless its been an advisory before it will be at the stage you can attack it and prevent. Hopefully

Yeah it's definitely not bad for a 22 year old 4x4. The lines were very ropey though, one snapped as I tried to undo the union I imagine they've probably been rotting through a few previous MOT's.

Clancy (thats the Surfs name) is going on the road this weekend I hope after some serious servicing this past few weeks. I cant wait to drive the damn thing. Like, I bought it something like 6-7 weeks ago now most of that is moving house and the wheels having to go through the oven twice as they didnt pass QC though so cant be helped.

I feel your pain mate, I've owned my 2nd gen lude almost 2 years and I've not driven it other than moving it on my drive I don't have any excuse either, I've just been lazy

I find MOTing to be the most arbitrary thing in the universe. Serious dangerous faults missed and minor issues blown up. Different people on the same day with the same vehicle will give you a totally different print out at the end. Things that appear on advisories one year at one place will never appear again in 4 years somewhere else.
Anything so subjective shouldn't be considered a 'standard'

Yeah it's a bit hit and miss, but it is an excuse to buy new tools

[jjmartin349571]

So this weekend I've been tackling my MOT failures.

First up was the suspension bushes. £20 odd sent to Milner Off Road and I had these the next day:



I went about fitting them yesterday:





I've never had so much rust in my eyes I bought some more safety specs this morning as I couldn't find my other ones. At some point I'm going to have to get under there with a sander and some under seal I think.

On to the brakes, here's the offending articles:






I couldn't find metric fine pitch bolts anywhere today so I made some of these so that I didn't have brake fluid pissing out the proportioning valve and caliper hoses:



In situ:



I was pleased with them, I don't know why

I started on the easiest line which was the one on the rear axle. Here's the finished article:



Happy days:



The unions don't leak, that fluid is just the unavoidable spillage caused by my clumsiness

Next up I needed to make up the front nearside line. The line going to the rear brakes runs alongside it and this was rusted too so I needed to make that one up also:



Scary stuff. Here goes:




I only took a photo of one finished line but I made up both (I promise ). The first one came out best, I made the second one quicker but I managed to put a couple of unnecessary bends in it so it wasn't as aesthetically pleasing.

Anyway, they both fitted to the OEM clips on the chassis so they must have been a good enough match. Here they are fitted:






All the unions tightened up fine bar the last one It was the end of the rear brake line that fitted into the proportioning valve. For some reason the shaft of the fastener rode over the flare and so it wouldn't seal. Luckily I happened to have bought a cutter and flare tool that could be used on lines in situ on the car, I had't intended to use them in that way today but it turned out for the best. I cut off the end of the line and put a new double flare on and it tightened up fine the second time. Checked everything for leaks and it looks like I'm good to go with bleeding the brakes tomorrow.

I've also removed the fog light from the offside reversing light, and I've fitted a separate fog light below the bumper. I'll sort the wiring tomorrow, and over the coming weeks I will source a UK Trooper fog light button to replace the wanky rocker switch that the importer fitted. It does my nut that somebody went to the length of importing a really nice motor from Japan, and then found the cheapest, ugliest 50p switch that they could mutilate the dash with. On the Legacy I imported I spent an extra £9.50 and got a switch from a UK Legacy so that I didn't have to hack up the dash of a 4k car...

At any rate, fingers crossed that I get the brakes bled tomorrow without any disasters occurring.

One thing that I'm kind of pleased with is that this MOT has forced my hand in to tackling making brake lines. It's something I need to do on a couple of project cars but I've been putting off because I thought it would be too difficult. It's surprising what you can manage when you have to, and provided everything works after the brakes have been bled I think I'd be confident tackling the hydraulic lines on my projects

[lewd lude lover]

Bloody great work there mate I too would shy away from that kinda stuff, even knowing that most of the fear is just actually getting into it.

Looks like a dirtblaster pressure wash would do wonders on the underside. I need to get into some dirt before clancy needs a wash

[wurlycorner]

Well done.
It's embarrassingly satisfying making up new brake lines that match the original ones, isn't it

[lewd lude lover]

i can imagine the feeling as you offer it up and it slips right in...... Ahhhhh, big sigh of contented hobbyist.

[mercutio]

i can imagine the feeling as you offer it up and it slips right in...... Ahhhhh, big sigh of 30 year old virgin

[jjmartin349571]

It's definitely more satisfying than it should be

I bled the brakes today, managed to do all 4 with the wheels on and the car on the ground after a quick test on the driveway I took a test drive around the block, a few emergency stops have left me content that all is good. The pedal feels better than it did before, I had actually been meaning to bleed the brakes and replace the fluid so it's probably for the best that I had to do so for the MOT.

After bleeding the brakes I sorted out the rear lights to my liking. I've fitted a fog lamp to the bumper, wired it to the feed the importer made (as well as the tow bar electrics) and then re-wired the reversing light.





Sorted. I might make a small shim to straighten the fog lamp, although that's not mission critical.

So all the work required for the MOT retest is now done, it's booked in at 1pm tomorrow so hopefully I'll be back on the road in no time.

[lewd lude lover]

I got one of these to bump the fog light up a bit.

trinkets

Makes for a totally obvious vehicle and no mistake. Not seen it with actual fog yet but just turned on its bloody bright

[jjmartin349571]

That's quite cool, are they road legal though? Imagine the irony of somebody with severed retinas stoving in to the back of your laser protected car