My 1982 TD

[burn_your_money]

Digits are fine thanks, palm is ugly
see. 3 stitches
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/burnyourmoney/32c67cca.jpg
I haven't touched that rabbit yet, its next after the jetta.. plus I need to get the engine which is in Hamilton, and the exhast which is in TO

[BlackTieTD]

i'm in toronto right now and the shop is in hamilton. let me know if i can help you out, i'll only have the rabbit (hauler) on the road for about another week.

nice hand  :lol:

my buddy almost sheared the tip of his middle finger off when we dropped a GTI engine/trans on it. not pretty!! never heard someone yell so loud in my life.  :lol:

[BlackTieTD]

its been a half a year, time for an update...

-------------------------
THE STORY
sometime in december i was driving about 5 km from my house and noticed a whirring sound from what i guessed was the transmission. bad deal i thought, noise is getting louder... hopefully i can make it back home. louder, louder... cars shuts off about 3 km from home. pop the hood, melted negative battery terminal connector. awesome.

got it home, checked electrical quick. seems fine so i put in a new terminal connector, try to start the car and it becomes apparent that the starter is damaged. it turned over but sounded completely wrong, and slow. of course i tried and tried until the starter roasted completely and wouldn't make a sound. drop the hood... deal with this tomorrow.

next day pop the hood, negative connector melted again. i came to the conclusion that it was caused by a neglected fusebox below windshield leak. drove a mkIII into february and then opted to get the rabbit back on the road.
-------------------------



i think it was burn your money who suggested that it may just be the ignition switch, and the bells and whistles went off. i really appreciate the help some of you have given me. i replaced the ignition switch with a $10 one from altrom and burn sent me a used starter. redid the negative terminal connection again. my little brother helped me do the starter, first time working on cars, he's 14. was damn cold too. once those went in and i remembered i needed to power the stop solenoid, car fired up. blew a ton of smoke, then quickly settled back into the good ol' rabbit i know and love.

VIDEO you will want to turn your sound down.

there were still a ton of nagging electrical issues most of which i solved thanks to help from you guys: http://vwdiesel.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6832




the car still isn't starting quite as smoothly in the mornings as i would like... so i still need to change to 0w40 oil for remainder of cold weather and test glow plug resistance to see if any (or all) are bad

the windshield has always leaked a little bit, and by now i've had enough. i should have fix it years ago. does anyone know if an '82 US-built has a glue-in type windshield?? need to remove old windshield, grind off surface rust and paint. then buy correct seal and install new windshield.

[burn_your_money]

the windshield has always leaked a little bit, and by now i've had enough. i should have fix it years ago. does anyone know if an '82 US-built has a glue-in type windshield??
-remove old windshield
-grind off surface rust and paint
-buy correct seal and install new windshield

A 82 US built will have a glue in. You can switch to the seal type and do it all yourself, I did. You just need the seal and glass from a car with a seal, like any German car. I did this to my rabbit, sprayed it with a hose until I was positive it didn't leak. Not too bad of a job at all.

[BlackTieTD]

tyler: is the glass from a seal car different than a glue in car? i could search this but i know you know. is either seal still available new?



spent a brief time on the car over the weekend and replaced all the components on the steering column, except the column itself (turn signal stalk, wiper stalk, ignition lock cylinder and switch, wheel), with the parts from a 1984 GLI. they were in better shape, the lock cylinder had been replaced, looks recent, so it feels like brand new now. worthwhile job for any old VW. FYI the german-builts and US-builts can directly swap these components. 84 jetta and 82 rabbit anyway. fits right up, elec connectors are the same.

ok try it now


i did the change for the better lock cylinder, but trying a different wiper stalk (tried one from an 81 cabby too, it fit) didn't get the wipers working correctly. wiper motor is working when jumped, must be the relay. need to find a spare and will probably set it up to have some delay settings if i can manage.

the car starts better in this warm weather now so i won't bother testing the glow plugs until later... cooled off again this morning but i don't think it will last like this.

beginning to turn my attention now to brake work (had a blown booster since last winter - great braking!). i want to switch to a boosterless system to see how i like it but its tough to find the parts. if anyone knows where i can get a manual brake setup for a mkI please let me know. 17mm master cylinder i believe.

i hope this thread is giving some insight into owning a diesel rabbit. i can't think of a better car to drive daily.  :mrgreen:

[burn_your_money]

lanny: the glass from a glue in car is bigger then a seal type. I've heard that they are both still available new. German, US and pickups all have the same style glass, all will fit each other with the correct type of seal. I'd imagine cabbys are the same.

I think I have a set of rear suspension from one of my parts cars, it seemed good before I cut it up. I have the brake setup you need as well but they are used parts, kinda scary. You should come up and ransack my 2 77s for parts, mind you I've already done this so there isn't a whole lot left.

So you don't need a wiper motor anymore eh?

BTW because of you I figured out my car has intermittent wipers, that's exciting news . So yes, I do have the relay you need

[BlackTieTD]

the temperatures dropped way off last night. its still -22C as i type this...

and the rabbit won't start! damn i should have checked the glow plugs and changed to the light oil. or at least plugged in the block heater! now i'm late for work due to rabbit neglect.

[BlackTieTD]

made it in to work......
tyler i PMed you about that stuff.

[BlackTieTD]

it warmed up to about -10C (should be easy to start at that temp) but the car still doesn't want to start. i think the starter is tired. going to probably pull the one out of the mkIII and install it tonight to see.

[BlackTieTD]

got the car started with the help of a battery boost.

recorded with the camera phone while i warmed it up before an oil change. tyler edited it down, thanks man VIDEO

got the heavy oil out and got the 0w40 rotella synthetic in. this oil is great for cold starts and canadian tire carries it.

[BlackTieTD]

it was colder this morning than yesterday (about -13C), but the car started. only thing different is the 0w40 oil and perhaps a little more juice in the battery.

i haven't been able to get my electrical tester to tell me how many amps the glow plugs are drawing, or how many ohms of resistance across each one. i'm sure i'm just doing it wrong or have it on the wrong setting. when i figure it out i'll post the procedure  :lol: the only completely reliable method of checking glow plugs that works every time for me is to observe them physically warming up. either with the injector out (if messing with injectors anyway) or by removing the glow plug itself. they should glow orange when hot if good. if uncertain, put the tip near some snow.

[BlackTieTD]

got some good weather yesterday -- good time to do wiring. i began eliminating circuits that i don't use, things such as the rear wiper motor and washer fluid... a bunch of other stuff that went no where like the blower motor wiring (i've replaced the motor 4 times, trying something else now).

more of the camera phone:







the 17mm manual brake master cylinder is still available new. i found it through altrom ( http://altrom.com/cdn/partscatalog/partsDetails.aspx?CarMakeCode=VW&CarMakeName=VOLKSWAGEN&CarModel=RAB01&CarModelName=RABBIT&CarComp=BRAKES&CarCompValue=1500 ) - costs more than the power MC! 99% sure the brakes lines will have to be redone for the new MC. not looking forward to this job. i have a spare booster i could put in, that's all that is wrong currently, but i'd like to try the manual brakes.

[BlackTieTD]

car has been starting smoothly, no issues since oil change.



i took some of the above videos out to free up server space.

tail lights - the grey connector that runs to the rear of the car typically has 10 wires in it. the 5 important wires:



black w/ green: right turn
black w/ white: left turn
black w/ red: brake lights
grey: tail lights


purple: fuel level sender


that does not include reverse lights. the taillights on this car don't have reverse lights.

i've found that a lot of rabbits rust out where the factory wires are routed, the floor on the driver side of the car. pull up the carpet in your mkI and check to make sure it hasn't started. sometimes the first indication of rust here is when it has poked through the rocker and then its a bit of work to fix.



pin #13 on the gauge cluster connector (purple wire) is critical to the gauge cluster functioning. the purple wire runs directly to the radio fuse. so if you don't have a radio, don't just go pulling that fuse out, or you won't have power to the cluster (LED indicators, coolant temp, fuel level).

if you're going to remove wiring from your VW, do it the reverse of the way that it was installed. all the connectors have little clips that allow you to remove wires without cutting them. if you do this, you will be able to go into your junk wiring pile and retrieve items that you may want to reinstall in the future. the pin #13 problem took minutes to fix because of this approach.

its a pain having to put everything back and make it all functional again when i'm done working for the day so that i can get to work in the morning -- but it gives an opportunity to test the new configuration in a daily situation to ensure proper operation.

if you need any help with rabbit diesel wiring, especially US-built, send me a PM.

[BlackTieTD]

Here is a photo of the inside.


The past couple times I drove the car it got hotter than normal. At a couple ticks before red I shut it down. Did that twice but its a bad idea to drive it like that. Lower rad hose was cool so I guessed thermostat. (sorry the phone got set to black and white)

That elbow on the bottom there has two bolts take them out and yank the old thermostat out.


Compare old and new. In this case they were identical.


People say to boil water and test the thermo first but I didn't do that. Maybe its a good idea that you do. Put it in the water and it should pop open at 87 deg celsius, I guess thats what this 87 is for.


Clean up all the shiny parts for a good seal.




Stack up the new o-ring and thermostat.


Shove in hole. bolt it up.


Some other parts from the cooling system that I removed while the coolant was out.


I changed the rad. Most hoses were replaced, a couple inspected and put back.


Between mkI and mkII turbo diesel, there are two main differences in the water pipe. They are more or less interchangeable but its always nice to use the correct parts.


This is what i've found in my experience, there are probably variations:
mkI (left)
has one inlet on the waterpump side, and a 2-to-1 hose is used to transfer coolant between the waterpump / heat exchanger and the pipe. The mounting tab on the waterpump side is pointed toward the engine, and meets up with the long starter bolt. This hose was taken from Rabbit GTI engine. The pipe from a 1.5 rabbit diesel.


mkII
has two inlets on the waterpump side and uses two normal hoses to transfer coolant between WP / heat exchanger and pipe. The mounting tab points forward to meet up with who knows? I have never used that tab. Pipe and hoses 1990 Jetta TD dealer replacements. This pipe is flattened out in one section to clear the oil filter. It seems like it would reduce flow. The mkI pipe is full diameter all the way through and works fine on the 1990 1.6TD engine.


Cut up and painted.


Changing the thermostat didn't fix the overheating or the small leak that has developed recently at the waterpump. Next I will try changing the water pump.

[BlackTieTD]

Today I changed the waterpump. Took out the alternator and its bracket. When the 3 bracket bolts are out, there is 1 remaining bolt holding the WP. You might want to pull off the thermostat housing and thermostat to drain the coolant or it will run down the front of the block.


Here you can see the alternator bracket. There are two bolts at the top tucked underneither the injection pump, and the one shown in the photo. All 13mm.


This one is leaking and it could be the cause of overheating. Notice the build-up on the hose connection area of the housing.


Disassembled and cleaned up the housing. Its cheaper to buy the pulley side of the unit and reuse the old housing. Clean up the hose connections, o-ring and gasket mating surfaces at least. I spent a while cleaning up the housing so it is similar to new in all but appearance. Its a metal casting with no moving components.


Pulley has three 6mm allen-head bolts. New gasket and 2 new o-rings for this job.


New v-belt, 38", and re-installed tensioned to about 2mm of deflection when the belt is depressed on the top face shown.


I parked facing uphill and refilled the coolant through the upper rad hose, then through the rad. Squeezed the upper and lower rad hoses and worked out any bubbles from the system. I changed to a reservoirless rad, my old rad had a pinhole.

Took the car for a spin and it still gets within a tick of red within about 10-15 minutes. Tried it a few times bleeding out any bubbles between each run, and it still gets hot. There are no more bubbles in the system that I can detect. The lower rad hose remains cold even as the temperature gauge is almost in the red. No rad fan coming on. At this point I am going to try another thermostat from the dealer. I might have to wait until Thursday when parts is open until 8pm. It seems likely that its the thermostat :?: and the dealer is a good place for those.