Rear Brake Pipe dropping Tank

[T-Cut]

Well done.
I noticed the rear susension arm looks flaky. Is it OK?



TC

[Dragrad]

Originally Posted by Mg guy

I've dropped a tank on my last car as I thought the same thing use the old clips and same route. What a mistake it was the tank drop was a nightmare as the bolts on the brackets had rusted so more time spent there. Then most of the clips broke as they was very brittle after 10 years as they are only plastic.

In the end I just made my own route and cable tied it every foot or so which in the end took less time than dropping the tank. There was no problems with regards to MOT as long as they wont get caught on anything or drop down your all good.

Too true, no need to drop the tank to replace the rear brake pipes, simply re-route That is what I did

[Best_of_British]

Just to tie up thread.

MOT passed yesterday with only advisories being low tyre tread, unfortunatly it has taken me more than 10 days to do required work so it was a full Test again, at least I have piece of mind that it has had a thorough going over and has a fresh bill of health.

Wishbone replacement turned into a trauma due to the middle peg refusing to come free of subframe, ended up borrowing a garages lift for 10 minutes and huge ball joint splitter fork with sledge hammer to beat it.

The other problem I struggled with and had to sort on the garage lift was the larger M12 union under the drivers seat bulk head refused to come undone. The problem is trying to brace the union block while you employ enough torque without twisting the pipes, the solution was a small set of quality mole grips locked on the union and braced against the bulkhead while you get a small turn to crack it, space is very limited.

Few pics of work:



OSF brake pipe, yes its wonky and not neat but it will do the job. If you want it looking good on the eye you need a small pair of pipe bending pliers to work in close quarters under the arch, I did this by hand and it shows. It follows the original run and is quite easy to get it clipped in the original clips I took battery box and air filter cover off to aid access routing pipe and found it easier to clip into the clips from underneath near the steering rack.

Next job was the dreaded NS rear, for some reason I expected this to be a ****** and expected to admit defeat and route around the tank. I can safely say it is quite easy to thread it over the top of the tank along original route, no joins needed. The old pipe had to be cut to remove and the key is to remove rear seat squab and both tanks inspection covers so you can see what is going on, also the tank has to be dropped a little, not by much just so there is a bit of give and play in it. Thanks for advising that this is possible as I would not have attempted it otherwise

I threaded the pipe through the inspection covers 1st as getting it accross the top of the tank is the tricky bit. I cut the pipe oversize and once it is accross the tank a bit of to-ing and fro-ing is needed to manipulate it but it is quite possible with easy to bend copper.

I know Kuniffer is preffered but I was worried that my cheap flaring tool may not be up to the task so settled for copper. I connected wheel side first then cut the long run under car to lenght and connected to splitter union.

Next task was the Inner Tie rod failure. Polish import failed to arrive so I ordered this from ECP



£28 including P+P and arrived in 3 days.

A few pics of job, the part to be replaced is here:



Wheel of and undo track Rod end:



This makes life much easier, not recommended without:



Pops it off with ease:



Track Rod now unscrews, counting the turns to retain a rough tracking, the cable tie was on the rack end of the bellows and a pain to get off:



Left with this:



The fubared ball joint:



The bellows really hamper you and get in the way. I had to grind the nut off to allow the bellows to slip off and out of way:



So far very straight forward, now I hit the brick wall. I have read they just unscrew with mole grips or water pump pliers:



Could not get it to budge, the clever Rover design of a smooth rounded body with no flats and the spot weld made it tricky.

I had to resort to grinding flats onto it to get a large spanner on it:



It took quite a lot of force to crack it off, which contradicts what some people have said. I think mine might have had a larger welding tack than most:



It took a bit of the rack with it:



Not good but hopefully it wont cause a problem, the new Tie Rod was screwed tight on with threadlock. Job done and the steering feels alot tighter and more positive. Once I have chased up the missing Polish import I will do the other side.

All good 12 months ticket, in reply to T-Cut yes the arms are flaky but MOT man was happy with them and they are next on the list to do. Rome wasnt built in a day.