Put te VVC head on the back burner, still not convinced I've built it right, anyway, Eric the Beetle went to his new home last week so as I need a runaround it was back to the GTM to fulfill that position, but as no MOT it couldn't be used, so booked it in for Thursday.
Set off to the MOT place, got about a mile from home & lost all power, engine just cut out, tried to restart it & nothing happened when I turned the switch, no lights on dashboard, no starter on the key. Ah has the battery somehow got disconnected, nope as all the lights, indicators, wipers all wrok. So phones the MOT place up to say I wasn't coming, phones a friend to come tow me back, it had a new starter the day before I bought it, so checked all the wiring the best I could in the engine bay but found nothing wrong, just thought I'd give it another try & it fired straight up. Rang & cancelled tow & then had to decide what to do about MOT, decided to press on, when I got there he hadn't finished the previous anyway ;D
Car was sat there running for 45 minutes or so whilst he did the test, had a discussion about how the emissions should be tested, its was registered in 1999, so the rules say it has to be tested on the numbers on the V5C, well like every kit I've ever had there are no numbers. He wanted to test it as a 1999, as it hasn't a cat it wouldn't have had a cat in hell's chance, so I argued that it should be tested on the age of the engine & as the Metro GTi stopped production in 1992 the engine had to be older, he accepted that. Rest of the test was straight forward, the rear brakes are a bit low on effort but as it's only light they were good enough, looks like they were new pads & discs many years ago but just been allowed to rust. I intended to see how it goes & see if they clean up, might push the pistons back a few times in case they are sticking slightly, hand brake again only just passed, but I noticed that it's right at beginning of it's adjustment as though it's been wound back.
Anyway the upshot is a Pass, but needs 4 tyres (advisory) discs (advisory)
Only big issue was that I put 15 litres of fuel in on the way back, UNDER £15!!! by the time I got home the petrol smell was quite bad & there was petrol on the floor under the passenger seat! It did come with a spare tank now I knew why, decided to remove the old tank only to find it wasn't exactly the same, the sender is in a different place so despite trying to modify it I doubt it will work properly. The new tank also had to be modified to fit, cut the pipes down etc.
Put it all back together only to find it won't start, spins over but won't start, first thing I found was that the fuel pump wiring had been swapped over previously live to earth & earth to live, took the pipe back off the pump, turned on the ignition, no fuel, rewired it back to live to live, earth to earth, switched on ignition I had fuel coming out Wahoo fixed, nope, still won't start, I have fuel all the way up the injection unit, pulled a plug I have spark but still won't start, it does try a little. That was last night just waiting for the weather to pick up so I can go out & have another look, I'm suspecting a bad earth, but who knows on a car that'snot been on the road for 15+ years.