As the title says, well it was Mini Man Sam’s actually, and am well happy (would have been even happier if she had passed)
Examiner didn’t like the green halo’s
Headlight aim too high on both
N/S CV boot needs reattaching to hub
N/S steering gaiter split (how easy to change?)
We missed the body on a bit of welding on a new sill put on yesterday (happened to be the bit by the jacking point so classed as within 30 cm of structuaral mount)
Which jacking point ( I hope you don’t mean the the flat bit on the floor pan ) - If you do then remind your MOT tester that this is not a jacking point, but the bracket use to locate the shell on the jig when it was created, and you should not jack the car up on that, as you will probably damage the floor pan and sill ( which is probably what he has done ! )
If you mean the hole in the sill adjacent with the scross member then this is the ONLY jacking point on the body of the mini…
The rest are under the subframes…
Steering gators, on the end of the rack are fairly easy, you need to remove the tie rod end, and bolt, then they just slip off..
Halos… ( non white lights… tut tut, and aim needs to be low as you are relying on the bulb to provide the pattern and not a lense )
I changed it pretty quickly, id never done it before. The old gator was like really poor quality (they felt more like hard plastic than rubber!) the ones i put on were much better!
Front wheel bearings don’t just “nip” up !!! There are a couple of possibilities hear:-
The nut was fitted incorrectly.
The bearings failing.
A simple test is to take the wheel off (don’t forget to chock the wheels and remove the battery earth cable) remove the split pin and see if you can “retorque” the nut.
any slack will mean most probably that the CV has not been pulled through properely 90% of all problems. go on to next…
If it moves then you may need to place a very large washer were the taper washer sits but on top of the drive flange this allows the CV joint to “pull” through the bearings, so torque up and check for free play and also ease of rotation, any nasty noises will probably mean a new bearing kit, any slack will more than likely mean a new CV - once stripped down it’s a simple check, by looking at the CV and comparing an inner race on the CV at the points where the inner bearing race would fit - it should slide on nicely not loose and sloppy. Hope this helps
I have found that the cheaper they are the nastier they are !!! Get the originals from your local dealer NOT the fake ones in a bag, as these never fit nicely and always need more work to get them right. i.e. Good ones will with a bit of loving care take about 30 mins to get them right BEFORE fitment, baaad ones will take 2hrs + to get any where near good.
Why do I say this ? Well ask any machinist a perfect sphere on the end of a rod is rarer than hens teeth, the more expensive ones are those that are nearly round, the final prep work is for hand lapping to fit - this means that they will last a lot longer before you or MOT man can find fault
