The past week in Car repair

[gull]

I drove my Cabriolet to work yesterday because it was running better than the Ford. The Seafoam was a temporary fix on that car, it's still bucking and misfiring. Changed the spark plugs, not much difference...and let me tell you, I'd rather do all the plugs on three VW 1.8L engines than one Ford modular V-8. Guess I'll try new wires, next. But at least the Cabriolet is running great...

[bLac K aBriOleT89]

Here's the tally:

Jetta - New veriable intake rod bushings and new cam positioning sensor

Actually I did this same exact thing two weeks ago....(for the second time) Don't you hate that rattling? Did you put the GruvenParts bushings too? How many miles in the Bun Warmer? I'm hitting 111,000 soon....

[Briano1234]

Here's the tally:

Jetta - New veriable intake rod bushings and new cam positioning sensor

Actually I did this same exact thing two weeks ago....(for the second time) Don't you hate that rattling? Did you put the GruvenParts bushings too? How many miles in the Bun Warmer? I'm hitting 111,000 soon....

I just rolled 119k on the blue and the Green one is at 137k But the best part, and I didn't have a camera, I had 5 full sized adults in the blue cabby last night........screeming down the highway at 70mph.............. it was really stable..

[Calimus]

Actually I did this same exact thing two weeks ago....(for the second time) Don't you hate that rattling? Did you put the GruvenParts bushings too? How many miles in the Bun Warmer? I'm hitting 111,000 soon....

Yup, got the bushings from Gruven, was nice to have the car quiet again, save for the fact that I can now tell that the damn serp belt tensioner bearings are in sad shape.

The CPS still has issues. It's 1 of three things. 1. I was shipped a bad one 2. Something in the wiring is bad 3. The shutter wheel on the cam is cracked.

Working on solutions for finding the answer.

Oh and the Jetta now has 108k and counting. Averages a little over 300 miles a week. An Juan, I thought you sold the Jetta and bought the Jeep?

[bLac K aBriOleT89]

And Juan, I thought you sold the Jetta and bought the Jeep?

Noooooo The Road Eater still the DD! I basically got that Jeep cause it was a good deal and coincided with BAP '06, sold it shortly after. (revenue helped with trip expenses!)

I run exactly the same 300 miles per week, how's your fuel consumption? That's a full tank for me depending on how I drive. Thinking now in upgrade the suspension, I thing the springs are getting tired. Have you herad about the H&R OE sport?

[Calimus]

we average about 320m per tank, sometimes more. However, it's not so good right now as I'm having problems with the cam positioning sensor.

Suspension is also getting tired, haven't put much thought into it though just yet. Want to get everything up and running right before rewarding the cars

[Briano1234]

we average about 320m per tank, sometimes more. However, it's not so good right now as I'm having problems with the cam positioning sensor.

Suspension is also getting tired, haven't put much thought into it though just yet. Want to get everything up and running right before rewarding the cars

Wait rewarding a child only after they behave? That isn't modern parenthood, you are supposed to gratify the child so that it will behave properly.

In my case my wee sainted mother beat the snot out of me if I wasn't behaving to the proper standards, that of course varied by the minute, reward, OH HELL NO, she cooked our dinner and washed our clothes.....wasn't that reward enough?

[Calimus]

Brian, I think we had the same mom

This weekends updates: Man, what a weekend. So last week the starter in the new beetle took a big crap. So that was on the list as well as digging into the cam positioning sensor issue with the Jetta.

My buddy Aaron came up with his black 01' VR jetta saturday and we got down to business. Replaced the starter in the beetle, so it was back up and running, changed the oil in his Jetta, totally rebuild a PC from parts I had laying around just to see if we could pull it off. We did. I now have a dedicated linux box for the first time in 5 years.

Sunday: Attacked the door hinges in the jetta as they sqeek like all hell and nothing I've tried previously has worked for more then a few days and that even includes adding graphite powder to some of the stuff I've used. Enough is enough, I broke out the big guns and slobbered it with some silver never seize. We'll see how that goes, but for now the doors don't make a sound and move like they are brand new.

Then I hit the CPS. Repmoved the new one and for total lack of anyting but pur curiosity, Slapped the original back in. Cleared the codes and went for a spin. No CEL. Started the car about 10 times with some revving in between, no CEL. Car was driven two more times today, still no CEL. I dunno what the deal is, but I'm no asking any questions.

We then fixed the hood notch filler on Aarons Jetta. Since he has an aftermarket grill, a hood notch filler is needed. The adhesive that came with it didn't hold for long and so he's had the filler sitting in the car for the last 2 years. I rummaged through my stuff and found some Dexcon plasting welding epoxy. This stuff has never failed me and still hasn't. 1 hour after application and yuu can open and close the hood by grabbing the notch filler rather than the hood. Mission accomplished.

So then the real fun. Aaron attacked the engine bay in the rocco and we found that after all the harsh chemicals I've sprayed, nylon brushed I've worn out and everything else.....that simple wax seems to take the crud off like a hot knife through butter. Well, maybe not that well, but with some good elbow grease, it comes off. Hard to believe. I'll have to take some pics, but the bay is about half clean.

Aside from all that, my buddy noel came over with his insanley turboed GTI (A2 version) and we took turns playing with that. It's a hearty taste of how my rocco will run when I'm finished and damn it is fun.

So thats been the weekend for me. Lots of stuff getting done finally and lots of fun being had while doing it.

[Briano1234]

Glad to see you are not busy... I got the paint in that I ordered and the splash guards to repair the rear clipper, got a complete set of bearings and seals for the blue one too, as long as I am in the back I am going to replace the rears.....

The green one needs new pads, those organic sonsofbeatches don't hold up.. no one local has the ceramic....
arrrrgh...............

[Briano1234]

So far, I have got the pads replaced and the tires rotated on the green one. Today, I will start adding the 2nd oil cooler set up that I was talking about, I do have a camera for this one and will snap pics.... Great news is that one of my local hardware stores are starting to carry Large o-rings, like the ones you need for gas tanks and oil coolers, and such.... That was way cool, and beats the 4 dollar one from the Volvo dealer....I got 3 for 4 dollars..

[Briano1234]

Well the oil cooler is installed and tested (see thread). I wanted to check the rear brakes as I haven't done that yet on the blue one, I heard a noise from the rear, and I figured change the brakes and bearings and be done with it....

Well the brakes were dirty but still had good life on them.


Gratuitous Brake shot, for those that think the Bentley Pics of the brake springs sux...

The bearing castle nut was on, I remove the broken cotter pin... and took off he nut and it was less than loose it wasn't even finger tight.

So get out the old and put in the new,,,, but the drum didn't sound right.. I placed a wood screwdriver in the large hole and smacked it, and it thunked... The DRUM was CRACKED.... damn, I wonder how long.... so run get a new one, had to order the other side cause they only had one in stock......should be here in about 30 minutes...........tap in the new races, pack the bearings, and pack the bearings.. wow what a difference....

So Installed the Grille back in the car after cleaning the hi's, waiting to see if another tornado hits the down town.....

[Calimus]

ok, so here is what I've been up to this week thus far.

Engine bay in the rocco is cleaned up. So now I'm working on getting the engine and wiring ready to go back in. Still lots to do, but here's some pics of the progress.

Fun with solder.




I was wanting something a bit different for the intake and valve cover so I went with some Krylon wrinkle coat.








My buddy Karl stopped back by this morning and we did some more harness work




I finally got a daytime shot of the engine bay - Pollen sucks.




Finished up the intake mani



Tossed the valve cover on the engine after polishing up the bolt heads. Kinda hard to see them since they reflected so much light.





Also have had lots of help from another friend (Aaron) who today helped with the paint & polishing. Fun times.

[Oneabsolute]

I like that wrinkle coat on the intake mani., etc.
Lookin' good.

[Briano1234]

Dang looking nice there William................

For me this bast week

Drop an Air Cooled engine, my first.....why because to change the alternator that is the only way to do it. Broke my 1/2 breaker bar trying to get the nut off the fan.....took it to my muffler guy 3 seconds with a air impact.....gotta get one of them things....
Repaired fried/charred wiring to the backup lights.

Jacked the car up, First thing was getting the fuel lines disconnected, one came off the hose, and it was the direct feed to the fuel rail, talk about getting douched in Gas, its running down my arm sprayed into my eyes and no one was there to help.. so I finally got it diverted to a bucket, but had about a half a gal of raw gas on my garage floor .....We had dropped the engine, then I needed 1/2 inch more to clear the engine, started to jack the frame, and the front tire chock moved, the car rolled forward started to fall off the jack stands it did fall off of one....but my saftey worked... my son grabbed the car by the bumper and held it there long enough for me to get the stands back under it..That was an exciting 2 minutes. We ended up jacking the car up at the front and onto jack stands...

Hanging the engine was a process of getting the jack back under the engine, then jacking it (note to self next time I will but a low profile 3 tone jack....that goes 1/2 inch from the floor) and lowering the car... it went rather well tho, and all I got left today is to redo the wiring... I think I will clean it up a bit as it really looks hay-wired.....

Before



Who in their right mind would of placed the Alternator, and the cooling fan on the same shaft....Dr. Porsche wasn't as brilliant as they come....I am a thinking, but then again he never had to work on them....did he.

So no matter how bad a job is on my Cabby.......I don't have to pull the engine to change the alternator..........or water pump, or steering rack..........

[Oneabsolute]

I hate to tell you this now, but you don't exactly have to drop the engine to change a generator/alternator on a Beetle or Super Beetle. My father-in-law changed one on my wife Super with the engine still in and I changed my generator on the '65 that way. Sorry I couldn't tell you how we did it sooner.


1. Start by disconnecting the battery.
2. Then remove the decklid and lay it beside the car since the license plate light wire is still attached and remove air filter.
3. Grab a 19mm and screwdriver to remove the gen/alt belt. After removing the belt put the pulley and shims back on just so it doesn't get misplaced.
4. Disconnect wiring to gen/alt(you did disconnect the battery didn't you).
5. Disconnect voltage regulator if you have a generator.
6. Disconnect the accelerator cable from carb.
7. Remove the fuel line to the carb and plug it off, which I did with a screwdriver.
8. Remove the carb.
9. Loosen coil bracket so you can take out the coil and lay it somewhere in the engine bay so you don't have to disconnect the wiring.
10. Loosen the gen/alt strap and remove it.
11. Now unscrew the tin screws that are holding the fan shroud to the other tin pieces.
12. Remove ducts coming from the fan shroud to the lower tin.
13. Now make sure no wiring is still attached to the fan shroud via clips.
14. Pull accelerator cable through the back of the fan shroud.
15. Now you should be able to pull the fan shroud and gen/alt up as one piece and out of the engine bay through the top.
16. Remove four bolts holding gen/alt to the fan shroud.
17. Then proceed to replace gen/alt as necessary (I got to stop here since my replacement already had a fan attached )

Then just repeat the process in reverse to get it back it. Then you might, if you are using a gen., to polarize the gen. to make it actually start charging.

I posted this so next time you won't have to drop the engine if you really not want to. Once again I'm sorry I didn't know that you were need to change one otherwise I would have offered this up sooner.