m.o.t. day :~

[stufoz]

evenin all! got the m.o.t. coming up on friday bit worried to say the least!
i have taken the cat replacement pipe off and put the cat back on ,,, due to put some wynns in with the petrol tomorrow and give her a good blast to try an help with emissions . i also know i need to change a steering gaiter tomorrow (is it a big job/specialist tools required ?) any help would be appreciated! cheers! any thing else to check for would be welcome (i think) lol

[kevinod]

Not a difficult job, you'll need to take off the track rod end to do it though, and when I did it last found it impossible to remove the old track rod end without squeezing all the grease out of it. Waste of a perfectly good track rod end, maybe a different tool would have worked better, but I had a replacement 'in stock' anyway.

There's a how to somewhere I think but from memory
- take off wheel
- get track rod end out of where it goes into
- the track rod end screws off the track rod (need to loosen the lock bolt first), count how many turns it takes to take it off (so your tracking is as close as possible after putting the new one on)
- undo the 2 clips on the old steering gaiter, and remove it
- make sure there's sufficient grease on the steering joint
- put the new gaiter on, and using clips secure it in place
- screw the new track rod end in place (or old one if you managed to remove it without squeezing out all the grease) the same number of turns you used to take it off earlier. Remember to tighten up the lock bolt again.
- put the track rod end back into the part connected to the wheel hub
- put back on the wheel


Using the method of counting the turns I was only slightly off track when I was finished.

[stufoz]

do you know if these are fto specific?... went to local motor factors and they told me it was a mitsubishi only part! surely some other car/model has the same track rod gaiter? (please!)

[kevinod]

Search is your friend.... according to this post, P/N is MB912076, the FTO track rod end is the same as the Mirage\Lancer\Carisma

So shouldn't be too bad to get hold of? I prob ordered the ones I got from Camskill/Ricerocket at the time though so haven't tried myself.

[stufoz]

failed m.o.t. today
changed the steering gaiter thanks to you lot only for it to fail on some welding needing doing to two bits of box section that run front to back on the car. it looks like there is a drain hole on them which has become bunged up with crap and has rusted through, just either side of the fuel tank.... i'm sure you lot all know the area i'm on about as it looks to me like it could easily happen to other fto's in the same place.
once again many thanks for the steering gaiter advice!