The tester was Ian Bylett - really nice bloke who explained everything that he was doing, what he was looking for, etc.
Notes in no particular order:
Having set up my ETB electronic speedo at home I noticed that on the motorway I was going a bit slower than most other people but the speedo was indicating 35mph - oops! I stopped at a shopping centre near the SVA centre to get some petrol and halved the pulses per mile. In the event, it did the trick - an indicated 70mph was 64 real mph... I might tweak it a bit closer.
After about 2 minutes he pointed out that the front brake flexis were not tight (though not leaking) and let me get my spanners out to fix them.
The contraption used to measure the seat base in relation to the upper harness mounts (a problem on Stuart Taylors) showed that I had 1mm to spare! That's after bolting the seats directly to the floor and replacing the seat cushion with camping mat, so there wasn't much more I could have done. Needless to say the proper cushion went back in straight after the test
Weights with a few tools in the boot box but no bodies were: 270kg front axle, 288kg rear, so about 560kg total. I'm not saying what the weights were with me in...
He did a visual check for sharp edges and ran his hand over the obvious places, e.g. dash edge, cockpit sides, but didn't get his stick and ball out (oo-er!). He did use the cone thingy to check for projections on the outside.
On the ramps I had to pump the brake pedal and he lowered the ramp and got me to look at "quite a major brake fluid leak"... a couple of the unions were slightly loose, so he let me tighten them up.
Lights were all OK, including my rear hamburgers (I had been a bit worried about the angle). The headlamp aim was slightly out but again I was allowed to adjust them.
Emissions, noise, brake effectiveness and balance were all within limits.
A couple of things he pointed out but did not write up were:
- cable tie holding fuel filter to the chassis - as it was only about 6" from the fuel pump which is held on with an ali bracket, and about 2" from the tank outlet I didn't think it was an issue. I will probably make up an ali strap.
- speedo sensor is mounted on the chassis rather than the diff, with the magnets on the prop flange. The needle is steady, so I am not going to change anything for the time being.
- on full lock the front brake discs almost touch the rear of the lower wishbone - must be a ST "design feature". anyway, something to watch.
I had done a pre-test list of things I was worried about which were not noted or failed, including:
- non-marked hose from brake fluid reservoir
- non-visibly marked braided front brake flexis
- side repeaters not E marked
- brake bias setting
A final little weird note was that he went off to do the paperwork, and came back half way through to question "Stuart Taylor" as the Make. I think he hadn't heard of them, so I had to phone my brother to get the full name, address and phone number.
All in all, almost an enjoyable experience (well, the outcome, anyway). It made the journey back feel a lot better!
btw, I have no screen (will be fitting a Mac#1 miniscreen soon) and my goggles were definitely required.
Off to Maidstone DVLA tomorrow morning to get the registration sorted out, then I have a feeling there will be lots of errands needing to be run, children to be taken places, etc.
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pics in my archive of various bits and pieces - I will add some new ones with the post-SVA look.
[Edited on 18/10/05 by Humbug]
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