Things have gone from bad to worse concerning poor old Myrtle. So the story really starts with a simple horn malfunction. I mean going from not having a working horn, and spending £6.99, waiting weeks for it to arrive from China (I didn't realise it was coming from China, obviously when I ordered it from Amazon) then go on to discover that your suspension is basically all to pot, as the track rod end is catching your shocker. Removal of the fuel tank showed
up why the shocker is being hit by the track rod end. Omg someone has bolted the shockers to the body of the car, my front beam doesn't actually have any shock mounts.
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| Ern has tried to strengthen where shockers have been mounted, a temp fix |
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| Oh Dear Quick Streer Kit, Not Good |
We thought strengthening the body where the shockers were placed and fitting a quick steer kit may help resolve the problem until such time as I could afford to get a new front beam and possible Air Ride setup...Well after poor Ern slaved away whilst I was at work and thinking he had Myrtle sorted. When I got in from work he asked did I fancy a tootle out in her . Of course, I jumped at the opportunity and even grabbed my camera to take some shots.
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| Just not right |
Anyhoo needless to say we got over the first two speed humps in our back lane with the most dreadful scraping noise. The car is way too low, even more so with 2 people in it...Hey, don't call me Fat! As we turned to go out onto Durham Road and set off down the road, there was the most awful "screeching noise". Ern had to pull in at the end of our street and we made our way back up the back lane. "Oh no more sleeping Policemen", don't ask me why they are called that, it's just what Ern calls them. We managed to get over the first one near Carol's shop with metal to road noise and me gritting my teeth my head pitched to one side and my shoulders all hunched. As we got to the next one, Ern driving at a snail's pace, in fact, I think a snail passed us, also gritting his little teeth. Anyhoo we got beached. I figured one side of the hump was lower than the other, so poor Ern had to back up, with more metal to road noise....not good. We eventually got over the lower side of the hump and made it back home.
The car's steering is absolutely terrible. Put it this way in order to get out of our back yard Ern had 3 attempts as each time he was heading for the pavement on the opposite side of the road. The front wheels appear to be catching the inner headlight cowls under the wings. I am still not sure what the god awful screeching noise is. Wor Kyle had come out by this point and he identified that one wheel was turned inwards more than the other, so maybe a tracking issue.
Ern has again taken Myrtle to bits, so fuel tank out and adjusted the track rod ends. He fastened 2 sections of 90-degree angle to the wheel drums, these where then sticking out the front of the car and he was able to track both wheels a little more accurately and adjust the track rod ends. I know the tracking will not be perfect, but it has to be a little better than before. As for Myrtle catching, not sure what is up as the shockers are in the same place.
So trying to sort Myrtle out as cheaply and efficiently as possible has not exactly worked out as planned. Yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and spend almost £4,000 on a full air ride system which includes 3p Airlift I then have to get it fitted so have approached LVH Engines and Resto's who are happy to carry out the work. So that is new beams back and front. I have opted for a 4 inch narrowed beam, and not this horrendous 6 inch which is currently on. Bit gutted as discovered the new heat exchanges we have just put on will have to be replaced with J Tubes, so there is another £300 wasted.
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| Limebug complete Air ride Setup |
Oh and guess what tops everything off... The bloody horn is still not working properly, it either "Beeps" all the time or not at all, depending on whether I have the earth wire on LoL
Things that have gone well....Loving the Rear Led lights I invested in
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| Led rear Lights Now |
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| Super Bright and Funky |
Moral of the story, know what you are getting yourself into and do your research before buying bits n bobs. I have no regrets about buying my little car, her body is sound and I always planned to air ride her, just I thought I may have got to have had a little ride around in her first. I still haven't got the semi-auto clutch fitted yet.
