xenton

Just to update you all - since my intro post here I managed to get the fookin crankshaft pulley off, gentle tap to top, then bottom got it wiggling slightly, 1000 gentle taps later and slid it off. Everything else went fine, moved the PAS pump out the way and the water pump came out and new one in easily, belt on, all back together. Suspect timing is slightly out, as lost a bit of top end power and is a little thirstier, but has been driving fine for 100s of miles now

A nice policeman stopped me whilst driving to York for a wedding and pointed out my MOT expired 4 days previous .

I did a lot of work when I got this car over winter which led to me convincing myself that the MOT was due in winter, ops. Anyways just a £60 fine, officer was quite understanding, could of been worse.

The brilliant £9.99 lower arms I fitted were shagged, one of the bushed had gone completely on the n/s.

I invested in some lemforder ones this time. The n/s was a battle last time, everything just a bit to tight, by comparison the o/s went a piece o' pish, so I though do the difficult side first. Battled the old one out, major struggle to get new one in and loosely bolted to subframe. Came to pop the ball joint into bottom of hub and after battling for a while I realise its too short, check with the old one, same size? It's now like the drive shaft is too long?!?!

I'm thinking I must've pulled the inner CV joint apart, though I've had the track rod end and ARB strut link undone the last twice (I tend to do the whole lot in one go) and never managed to pull the CV joint apart before. This time the track rod end was still bolted on, so seems even less likely.

I'm thinking the tripod must've just slid out the cup, tried tempting it back with wiggling, kicking and swearing, to no avail. The drive shaft definitely seems too long both in terms of position to the lower arm ball joint and the steering compared to other side. Also the outer CV joint is held on by a snap ring, so can't be that, and it's still bolted securely in the hub and hasn't come out the transmission, so either I've lost the plot of it's the inner CV joint.

I'm thinking of grabbing a new CV boot kit, take the old one off so I can see what I'm doing properly, pop the new one on and reassemble. I was hoping just giving it'd a good shove would work, but it's not having it.

Feel free to offer reassurance, point out a simple fact I have overlooked and generally offer advice.