Stayed in bed ’til 10:30 today because the weather girl told me it’d be raining all day. As usual, she was completely wrong and I ended up outside all day getting The Duke back up and running. Here are some pics…

Found that the Britpart exhaust manifold wasn’t the best. A couple of “seams” interfere with the original inlet manifold, so I had to get the grinder out!

Not hard to fix, but slightly annoying. Still, I suppose you get what you pay for!

Two manifolds become one.

Fitting the studs for the exhaust down-pipe. One needed a bit of help from the jaws of destruction.

Took a while to find all the bits - and I had to re-use a couple of the old studs and bolts - but managed to get it all bolted back together again.

Assorted gubbins back together. Started the engine without the exhaust and marvelled at the amazing noise! Took a little while to get going, but when it did I suspect they heard the roar in Windsor. Exhaust is now on and it purrs like a kitten.

Next job was to fix the rubbers on a few steering ball joints and fit the new steering tube. Dead easy when you have the right tools. Got a ball joint splitter from eBay which did the job perfectly.

Looking nice with a new boot.

Here’s a before picture of a split boot.

And an after pic with the steering tube going on.

Very productive day, all in all. I am back on track with the original MOT list of minor jobs. Still no sign of the Heritage Certificate…