SVA ready?

[Patrick]

Bloody 'ell!!! A different test centre maybe?

[craig]

Originally Posted by peterux

I got a letter today from VOSA at Swansea asking me to complete an "Amateur Built Declaration" (just two further questions about who built the car and a signature!

I've completed the form and sent it back with 21 photos (minatures) and 24 receipts.
Peter

Peter, where did you get this form from? I have completed q15 but there is no declaration visible? Is this a separate form?

Cheers
Craig

[peterux]

Originally Posted by craig

Peter, where did you get this form from? I have completed q15 but there is no declaration visible? Is this a separate form?

Cheers
Craig

Hi Craig,
the additional form was sent to me by Swansea after they had recieved my SVA1.
I'll post a scanned copy later this evening, but I think you have to wait for them to send it to you.

Peter

[peterux]

I 'phoned around this morning.
I first checked with Yeading (my nearest test station) who confirmed the date was correct and explained that for Kitcars they allow 4 hours and this is the first 4 hour slot in their diary.
I asked if I paid extra if they would do it on a Saturday morning - not keen on that. I asked if they could suggest anywhere else. Try Southampton.
This is 72 miles from home, so didn't fancy a 144 mile maiden voyage!

I then tried Edmonton (25 miles from home). "Is it a Kitcar" yes, I said.
They laughed! But when i told them about the 5th September at Yeading they said they could do the 23rd July.

Still another 6 weeks to wait but better than September.

Now I have to face a 25 mile journey on the A40 and A406 (North Circular Road - 3 lane dual carriage way through North London) right in the morning rush hour - amongst the lorries- with no windscreen-should be exciting

[Patrick]

Good that you got a date! Southampton as you know are quite niggly about a lot of stuff so you might be better off in Edmonton anyway

On the positive side 6 more weekends to fine tune everything

[craig]

Peter, I persuaded the woman to send me one out today (although it's not done that way) she admitted the process is wrong at the moment and they are looking to put form on the web

Cheers
Craig

[peterux]

I had a surprise call from the lady at the Yeading SVA test station this afternoon.

She said that if I paid the extra 'out of hours' fee, they could offer me a test appointment next Thursday at 7am !! Gulp

So I am now full comp insured and off to try and get an MOT tommorow or Sunday.

Now what's the weather forecast for next Thursday...............

[GreatOldOne]

I'll have my fingers crossed for you - But I'm guessing that we'll have two SVA'd cars come thursday!

[Patrick]

Awesome just when you thought you could relax for a few weeks! Good luck

[peterux]

Thanks, guys.
I'm getting really quite nervous now!

[peterux]

OK, so not a good start.
Got up this morning and booked an MOT at a local garage.
Got the car ready and calibrated the speedo. On my Autometer gauge you have to press a button, drive exactly 2 miles and press the button again. I had worked out a 2 mile round trip from home.
Set off, got back and pressed the button. Bingo, speedo now works. (We'll see at the SVA how accurate this method is!)

Next a quick trip down the local petrol station to fill up with petrol. It took 38 litres. Already getting admiring comments from other shoppers.

Then off to the MOT station. A nice 6 mile journey. Wow, this was serious fun!!!!! car ran fine but boy do thus front mudgaurds bounce around.

At the MOT station there was much scratching of heads about MOTing on the VIN. Then there was about 20 mins of trying to agree what the VIN is as it is so badly stamped, covered in powder coating and 18 digits long.

Eventually, they agreed to do it and ignore the last letter.

Everything was going fine until they found 3-4mm play in my lower front supension balljoints
They could see they were new and not worn but the balljoints are clearly faulty. (these were the cheap ones I bought off eBay

The good news was this was the only fail points (one headlight needed the smalllest tweak)

I've picked up a couple more balljoints from my local motor factor and hope to get them fitted tommorow.

Also, the mudgaurd stays have been hitting the edge of the alloys, so I will need slightly larger spacers.

Despite the failure, I really enjoyed driving the car back and couldn't resist racing a Honda Type R down the dual carriageway, he he..........

[MartinClan]

Originally Posted by peterux

I had a surprise call from the lady at the Yeading SVA test station this afternoon.

She said that if I paid the extra 'out of hours' fee, they could offer me a test appointment next Thursday at 7am !! Gulp

So I am now full comp insured and off to try and get an MOT tommorow or Sunday.

Now what's the weather forecast for next Thursday...............

Fantastic. Your out of hours fee must be paying for someone's overtime if they are starting at 7am! I guess it also has the advantage that you can get there before the rush hour starts. Good luck!

Robin

[MartinClan]

Originally Posted by peterux

On my Autometer gauge you have to press a button, drive exactly 2 miles and press the button again. I had worked out a 2 mile round trip from home.
Set off, got back and pressed the button. Bingo, speedo now works. (We'll see at the SVA how accurate this method is!)

Sounds like an interesting way to do it. I guess it could be quite accurate if you use a Sat Nav as well.

So who won then, you or the Honda

Robin

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by MartinClan

So who won then, you or the Honda

Robin

Silly questions

That's good news that nothing to major was up at the MOT, shame about the ball joints!!

I had one of my original with 2mm play that I've replaced recently. Quality seems to be lacking a little with those parts

[peterux]

My video making skills are very basic, but if your bored you can see me on my speedo calibration run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh7lmXGL-tw

the camera is a FlyCamOne2 and was mounted on the roll bar. I need to improve the mounting a little, but gives an interesting perspective. If you look carefully you can see me grinning from ear to ear!

[peterux]

Originally Posted by peterux

OK, so not a good start.
At the MOT station there was much scratching of heads about MOTing on the VIN. Then there was about 20 mins of trying to agree what the VIN is as it is so badly stamped, covered in powder coating and 18 digits long.

Eventually, they agreed to do it and ignore the last letter.

Everything was going fine until they found 3-4mm play in my lower front supension balljoints
They could see they were new and not worn but the balljoints are clearly faulty. (these were the cheap ones I bought off eBay

.........

With all the excitment of the SVA test, I hadn't updated you all on my ball joints (ooh er, misses)
Well I swapped them over last Sunday morning, after breaking my 1/2" extension bar (I was heaving on a 6 foot length of scafold pole trying to undo the first ball joint which unfortunately I had loctited in as advised by Haynes manual for metro's)
I eventually applied a little heat which melted the loctite and out it came.
The ball joints were clearly knackered but what was interesting was that I think I had overtightened the locking nut on the top of the ball joint and 'crushed' the ball housing.
Now this rasies the question whether the taper on the metro ball joints is the correct size for the BMW uprights?
If you can pull the ball joints taper through the tappered hole in the upright this suggests to me that the metro taper is too small.
I think i've seen on BMW Sportster with BMW ball joints that are pressed into the wishbone.

The new joints were carefully fitted and just nipped up tight.

They passed at the MOT re-test this morning.

Has anyone still got their original BMW lower supension arm so that we could measure up the taper on a BMW lower ball joint??

Peter

Oh, and another thing was the MOT tester managed to type in the VIN number incorrectly so I had to pay him a full fee to get him to do the whole test again with the correct number. When you get your MOT done on the VIN number, check the number is correct before leaving the test station!

[Stuart]

I found this the metro tapper is smaller by 1mm.
If you measure the widest part of the tapper the metro is 15mm and the Marlin supplied ball joints are 16mm.

Stuart

[peterux]

Ah, interesting, so I wonder what type of balljoint Marlin buy in?

Peter

[peterux]

Originally Posted by Stuart

I found this the metro tapper is smaller by 1mm.
If you measure the widest part of the tapper the metro is 15mm and the Marlin supplied ball joints are 16mm.

Stuart

Here is the two balljoints that I removed.



One measures 15.75mm and the other 15.67mm at the widest point of the taper.
Both are 14.20mm at the narrowest.

I wonder what the holes in the BMW strut are?

Peter

[MartinClan]

I have the part number of the Marlin supplied ball joints. They were Quinten Hazel QSJ10605 or QSJ1060S (Can't read my own writing...)

Robin