for a while, little changed... some bolts were tightened, some things put together, but little meaningful progress
but, like some kind of cheesy disney film... just as all looked lost and i was about to break out the molotov cocktail and blame it on chavs with fireworks, something wierd happened. i only got a blurry picture... as best i can explain it, a small group of magic pixies just coming off the guy fawkes double shift heard my tortured wailing and decided on one final act of thaumaturgic wonder before hitting the sack
they left b33rz0r5 too - cheers pixies!
more seriously ... all i have to do is derust & protection, swap seats/clocks/sundries, and tax/insure it
a quick jaunt up & down the road (only getting about 25mph, it may have been 4am but i'm not suicidal on a no-tax, no-insurance venture) confirms all gears work and it has, at least, power enough to punt along at 1100rpm in top. it all feels decidedly high geared now though, even 3rd and 4th that are functionally identical to before; i can only blame this on the ECU being reset and making the engine a bit crotchety below 2000 (as it was for a while last time the battery was disconnected), and having now driven a deeply torquey 5-door beast for a good 9 months now
oh and there was a wierd whirry whining noise, which i shall try to fix with the puchase of yet another bottle of 80w90
cheers for your help everybody (and the pixies), i may need a further couple of pointers on this (such as have i got the bolts in the right place? what's that horrible clonking noise? etc), but after the box finally "slid" (gradually wriggled) into place it was all fairly straightforward. Annoying, irritating, knackering, frustrating, longwinded and occasionally baffling for a while (no not me, the tasks), but straightforward and mostly obvious
It is, in effect, pretty much the end of me tinkering with Poppy in any meaningful form
thank fü©k for thatfor once "refitting is the reverse of removal" was reasonably accurate
