SO THEN. IT'S BEEN A WHILE.

I've been back through some photos to try and remember where I was, don't think I've missed anything out. The new bracket thing arrived, soaked in Deox-C and wire brushed:



Hammerite it up, bracket looks a little better than the old one:



Got the ARB sprayed up with some rubberised paint. Most of it got scraped off in the refit of course, but then that's to be expected. Again, found any ol' colour for the brackets to liven them up a little, and refitted to a pressure-washed subframe:



Getting the subframe and rack back on was one of those jobs I dread the most - the ones where you need a friend. After *much* swearing and bleeding (us and the steering), got everything lined up properly and attached with shiny new bolts. Annoyingly one of the pipes going to the ram was dripping, so ripped that out and bodged it with some 3/8" brake line. Completely the wrong size and leaked in a different way, but seems to have sealed up (read: ran out of fluid) so not too fussed about that. I have some ¼" pipe (as it's meant to be) now, just haven't had the inclination to replace it. Bolty:



Shiny:



I also took the opportunity to replace the ARB bushes, old ones looked okay but for a few quid it's just not worth the bother. All loosely lined up ready for the wishbones:



The amount of gearbox oil I'd managed to spill over the drive removing the wishbones made it a decent enough excuse to finally get around to changing the gearbox oil, which I'd been meaning to get around to for a while. Nice simple job, carefully unscrew the plastic screw by the battery:



...remove the bleed screw in the nearside arch...



...empty the gearbox via the sump plug below, replace and refill from the top. Simple.



By the colour of the stuff that came out, it was due a change. Only £20 for genuine Pug stuff too, so really no excuse not to.



Then came MOT time. I had to hope nothing major went wrong as someone pretended we were getting a new forum and took down the current one for a fortnight *right* when I needed it. On one hand, there's not much left on the car to go wrong. On the other hand, there's simply *no way* it can pass, it just seems ridiculous.

It does not pass. Fails on four things (well, three. The first is pretty weak):

1) Windscreen sticker encroaches into the passenger's side
2) Windscreen sticker encroaches into the driver's side
3) Knocking from nearside wishbone
4) Handbrake, but that goes without saying

The first two were annoying, but more or less expected. Peeled off the sunstrip, done. The wishbone was a *really* annoying one; it'd been absolutely fine until that morning on my way there - van flew round the corner in the middle of the road, I had to bump up and kerb and oh joy. It's now knocking when I change direction. Fantastic. Ball joint? Probably.

So take the car home, see what we can do. Under the front and no - not the balljoint at all. Actually just the three bolts which attach the balljoint to the wishbone have been knocked loose. Tighten up, fixed. Pow, three out of four.

However, handbrake?! That's not something I can test. I already have new cables, not that. Both sides are equal but poor, which seems odd to me. Have a look at each one, all becomes clear. Siezed handbrake arm thing on the nearside. It only appeared even as that metal bracket that attaches the cables to the handbrake was pulling to one side.

Tried my best to free up the caliper, nothing. Bugger. Pretty sure I don't have a spare, but might as well have a look in the garage.

Oh hullo.

Dunno where it came from, but it's going on. Swap them over, seems a bit more even now. Still won't know until the retest, so time for dinner.

Next day, retest time. Somehow, to my absolute disbelief, it passes. "Ooh, but we must warn you your handbrake's on the absolute legal limit". I'll take that, pretty sure that's better than when it left the factory.

Green piece of paper = here's to another year of pain and misery.

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What, you mean *drive* the car? Don't be silly, that's not what it's for. Na, not doing FCS. Got Snetterton 300 tomorrow to see how it's doing though. Annoyingly busy at work for the next couple of months while we move datacentres, but after that it's game on.

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I dunno really, just never been my thing. I prefer getting to a track and driving all day

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Naa, turned out okay

Very good day at Snett, no issues whatsoever apart from the increasingly drippy power steering ram that needs sorting.

Just need to rip out the old heater matrix so I can route the air inlet directly to the fans. The connection at the bottom kept coming off and couldn't pull nearly enough air for the fan so the host kept collapsing.

One for next week maybe.

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Ha, I was wondering what that tumble dryer ducting nailed to the dash was pointing to your mush for. Good effort. Didn't really have a chance to catch up much today unfortunately. Was a good day though.

Yeah mate was it your car I saw with the trailer? Not quite as easy as Woodbridge to see where you were!

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Ah shame I didn't know you weren't working, could've taken you out for a ride in the Sweaty Beast!

Everyone's timings seemed odd, some times the track was rammed and others it was empty. Still, the ol' trusty Pug was one of only about five cars that made the chequered flag!

Although note to self: don't crash on the last lap at Snett, I was still going round the final time and all the marshalled got up and buggered off!

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I don't know what you mean, I think it looks pretty factory standard.

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I know, I got a call from Ferrari yesterday asking if it was okay to copy my designs.

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Naaaaa

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I got stuff on! Wouldn't mind, can't see me clearing that with the missus though.

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