Day 10
I had an 'easy' day today which involved doing some schoolwork with my daughter.
I've turned the corner - no more filthy jobs, on the clean run so to speak.
Now, I wrestled with the bellows on the steering rack. If anyone plans to replace these, I recommend do the following:
I spent 1 hour in vain trying to get the small end on to the rubber bung. The pair was £9.95 from 9 Apart - they're solid, good construction.
After a cup pf tea, 23 biscuits and some head scratching, I came up with a plan.
I placed the bung on to a 3/8th's drive extension and pushed it up to the neck of the extension.
Then slid the bellows up to the bung, then put the extension in the vice.


I pulled the bellow taught against the bung and used an old ('blunt') screwdriver to lever it on to the bung. Bingo, done in less than a minute.

Then slid the bellow with bung, on to the steering rod.
The other end is relatively easy to put on to the groove on the Aluminium steering box.
Most of the rest of the day was spent cleaning up the engine bay for the final time. Damn tedious, removed a lot of things to get access.
First, I used clean petrol and a soft paint brush to dissolve grease, grime and remnants of Dinitrol. 3 passes.
Then I used detergent, hot water and a brush - all the while keeping volumes of liquid to a minimum. I did this again and again.
Then I used T cut. Surprising how much more grime came off at this stage.
After that I used a touch up brush on the worst scratches.
Then I used Sonax colour wax once the touch up was dry.
I'm chuffed at the outcome. It's not concourse and not really worthy of pics but it's cleaner and presentable. The heat shield is a big improvement. Complete Spire nuts went on to the self tapping threaded studs without hitches using a spanner.
I'll picture the heat shield tomorrow.
Day off tomorrow, bar a couple of silly jobs. Engine has still not been delivered from storage but I haven't received the clutch alignment tool or a few other bits yet including high tensile bolts for the cross member and wishbones, so I can't do much anyway.
Ordered proper SS hose clips. I will have to revisit fuel lines and some pipes in the engine bay once they arrive.