The past week in Car repair

[Briano1234]

Thats no joke. I still have a good memory of winters in New York. So the theme for this trip is "layers"

Honk as you go through Central Illinois, as I have a plethora of relation and friends there.

Oh, tell Cristine not to eat the yellow snow.

I-75 north to Chattanooga
I-24 north at Chattanooga
I-24 north to I-57 North
I-57 north to Chi-town

On I-24 the State troopers in Illinois hang at the Ky border ( a welcoming party), Stop by Metropolis, and take a Picture of Superman on the square. (my Home-town)...or visit the many River Boat Casinos.

Also on I-24 in Illinois about 15 miles from I-57 merge the troopers tend to gather in a flock, as there are no exits, and it is the upgrade to the plateau of Illinois from the river, and there are over passes that they shoot laser from for up to 2 miles in both directions and flag you over. When we flew up last year to pick up the Olds, I counted 13 troopers on both sides of the road.

Mattoon Ill, take a visit to the Original Burger King Resturant... They serve a great burger, and have different flavors of soft serve ice cream, the Maple and Lemon were my favorite.

Now quaint stops along the way? Arcola, the home of the illinois Amish and Rockhome Gardens (touristy trap of a working Amish farm).
Home of the broom festival in the fall.

In Rantoul, famous for Chanute AFB (defunct), and the Vetter Fairing Company (also defunt) they made the first motorcycle fairing that turned with the wheel.

After that it pretty much sucks till you get to Chi-town.

They have a Road-Hog law on the books that means Stay in the right lane except to pass.. which co-inky dentally is why I-24's right lane is rough and bumpity so that you want to stay in the left lane, and thereby increasing the chance of getting a road hog ticket.

Honk in Metropolis, Marion, Mt Vernon, Effingham, Matton, Charleston (same exit), Champaign, and then Chi-town, as I have relations in each....

Now if you come back on 55 then Bloomington (home of Steak and Shake, and State Farm Insurance)Honk there, Lincoln (only town in the world named for Lincoln while he was still alive, and Lincoln Christened the Town with a watermelon.) Springfield, (Lincoln Tomb, and Train Station), Decatur (Original home of the Chicago Bears, and Bako-bits, and TVP), Morrisonville, Hillsborough, and Litchfield round out the other relations area. Matter of fact my Grandparents owned the Litchfield Motel on US Route 66 in the 60's....

Enjoy the trip.

[gull]

My understanding is that only in extreme cold weather is it generally a problem.

When I blew mine the weather was only extreme by Seattle standards. It was in the high 20s. I guess they're perishable like any rubber part, given enough years and enough exposure to heat.

[sixsracing]

As always...any part can fail at any time. I'm doing a waterpump in a 4 year old Toyota that only has 77,0000 on it tonight.

[Calimus]

Brian, thanks for all the info. Unfortunately we are taking a slightly different route.

We will be taking 75n-24n-65n.

It's a route that the wife is already familiar with and appears to also be the shortest distance. There won't be much site seeing either as we are leaving out at about 10-11pm Tuesday night. The idea is to travel while traffic is light and not be in a hurry. This will help to prolong fuel mileage as well as keep the cops from giving us yellow gift certificates.

However, I may be making a solo trip back up in the spring on the bike. If I do so, I may just take that route and check some of that out.

[Briano1234]

4 tires, an alignment (which pointed out that the Differential output seal has to be replaced), and a set of Hawk Brake Pads.....

On the interceptor note, I got the passenger squirrel cage and the radios out, along with removing the wiring harness. Got the old Decals off. It is starting to look like a Crown Vic......

[Calimus]

Very cool brian. That diff seal shouldn't be too bad to replace, but it's a real PITA to get the output flange back on while everything is still in the car unless you have a compressor rig. That spring in there is super strong.

We made the trip back from Chicago in one piece. Hit the snow storm all the way from just south of Gary In, all the way to just sound of Louisville Ky. Was slow going, but very mangeable. The beetle did very well.

Now I have to tinker with the jetta again as somehow, either the timing slipped (god I hop not) or something is up with the cam positioning sensor. It's threw a CPS code the other day and I have to admit, I'm getting really sick of this damn car.

[Bugly]

Last friday I had the finished Red, (mk IV jetta) to the garage for the "enhanced inspection" it passed on saturday got all the paperwork finished, salvage title to regular title and car is registered and has plates, can drive it on the road now on sunday did the timing belt and water pump took car out to drive it around to test everything and to reset ecm for emission inspection, car started to get loud got car back to barn, jacked it up and plugs came out of cat OK, buy new cat and install it on tuesday, pipe installed wrong on cat (at the manufacturer) can't get o2 sensor in, drill out pipe and get o2 in .
On friday morning drive it to work for final test drive, nice and quiet, rides great, stop and fill tank with gas, leave station and punch the pedal, check engine light starts blinking at me..... now what looking at light........ look up from dash to see skunk in road, OH S*#T, to late to avoid it now have exhaust leak After work, put it back in the garage, jack it up, and......... cat is defective, (inside and outside of car still stink from earlier) Take cat out and take it back to parts store, manager had ordered another one when I had called him the previous day about problem, just in case..... warehouse sent the wrong one
Now Red is still on jack stands in the barn and new cat will be here on tuesday
What will be next

[Calimus]

Never ask what will be next when it comes to a VW. It will always answer you and you won't like it.

[gull]

The unseasonably warm weather, which has provoked plants to bud early, also triggered my Spring Maintenance Instinct. To sate it, I oiled all the hinge points on the convertible top and then washed the car for the first time since September.

[CalAltaDubber]

Finally I have something to report!

I've finally decided to lower the project car, so I bought a 60/40 lowering kit for it.

I have all the needed parts. The kit utilizes part of the old suspension, so I am going to refinish the strut holder, just to make it look good.

Next I got a call that the engine guy is finally ready to start my engine (I dropped it off last August). So yesterday, I was at his house stripping down the engine. To my suprise, the only screw/stud that broke was one of the less important ones on the exaust manifold. everything else came off nicely. Even the gaskets.

It had signs it was running rich, but no big problems were evident. Well except we couldn't get the distributor out.

In short, I am on the way to having it move under its own power in the next few weeks.

[Bugly]

finally delivered Red to the daughter in Watkins Glen today. aAs you can see, the Cabby hasn't been moved in a while, ( they got 21 inches of snow in the last few days) After digging out the cabby, started to move her and the cv joints let loose. Had to get some of the farm hands to push her up onto the trailer for the ride home.
And NO I will not ask what else can go wrong again, Thank You Very Much!

[CalAltaDubber]

Well it's not that all the snow is gone, but I have been running around crazy all week collecting parts.

I got a call that the engine for the project car is almost ready (and to have my credit card ready). So i figured out really fast that I had better collect the parts I was in need of to reinstall it (just some small things like a new clutch).

I also have to find some time to clean the grime and crud off the engine parts I have in my garage.

On the same note I am also nearly ready to assemble the suspension kit I bought and install that on the car too!

With those two tasks completer, I will be able to move the car under it's own power. I can hardly wait!

[Briano1234]

Wash the top on daughters cabby, then cleaned the rims and waxed it.
My cab, got the engine power washed, the body got a wash, and today I took out the seat and cleaned the carpet with a steam cleaner, Steam cleaned the parcel shelf, and the trunk carpet.

Need to remove the alternator and paint the pulley.
At this moment I have the wiper arms off and they are getting a coat of paint.

[bbrown]

Bled the clutch on my Ranger and changed the oil on it. Also helped a friend change the oil in her Freestar. It was her first time ever doing an oil change and she couldn't believe how simple is was and how a little dirt under the fingernails saves about $20.

[bbrown]

Well I guess I will bring this thread back from the dead. I have been a busy boy upon my return home to Maine for the summer. I have gotten the Cabby out of storage and its been interesting. I spent some time diagnosing a charging issue that originally was thought to be a short circuit drawing current, but actually it was corroded battery terminals and a battery on its last limb (I will be getting a new one within a week or so once I am back into money). I changed out my alternator belt for one from a non-A/C car as I deleted my AC last year and wanted a belt that would run a little deeper in the alt pulley. However, upon firing the car up I heard a heck of a squeal and I thought it was water pump as I took pressure off from it and then put pressure back on it (also it has an untold amount of miles on it). Thanks to Steve and a little further inspection from myself I was able to diagnose what I thought was a dead water pump was actually the alternator fan grinding on the alternator support bracket. With a little grinding on the bench grinder of the bracket and some lock washers I had the alternator back into proper placement and squeal free.

Cosmetically I have waxed, added a boot cover, the car and repainted my bumpers. The boot cover was a good eBay find over the winter and all I had to do was fix some snaps. For the bumpers I stripped the bumpers down past the PO's black paint on top of factory paint (best seller edition color keyed bumpers), past the factory primmer, past the chrome plating, and all the way down to the aluminum. I then masked of the center sections of the bumpers and primed and painted the bumpers. I used some neat Rust-Oleum "Hammered Finish" Black Paint. It looks pretty cool and I will have to take some good pics of them, but for now the cellphone pics will have to do.





Looking forward to finishing my bumpers (more on that to come), installing some new trim clips from NAPA (mine are no longer holding the back pieces of trim from both the driver's and passenger's side of the car on), and cruising around with the top down.