86 Jetta build

[92EcoDiesel Jetta]

It looks like a VW air filter except flatter and made with different filter media. There is a separate cabin air filter holder (that can be removed with one bolt) on the B4 that I had. If that holder fits or can be made to fit a MK2 then you can use the TDI filter.

What did you replace the foam seals on the doors with? I wonder what Mercedes used for the doors? Don't remember hearing of any issues with the old Mercedes.

I used stair treading for the center climate control box doors with holes in them, and for the fresh air door which was a solid piece of metal, I just scraped off the foam and left it as is.  There seems to be some leakage from this idea, there is definitely a draft in the passenger footwell from somewhere, which is most likely from the lack of a full seal on that door.  However, with the heat on, it does compensate for any draft issue with redirected heat to the footwell.  For now it will stay as is.  If I took it apart again though, I would definitely recover that fresh air door with something that would give a better seal.  Leaving it uncovered has produced passenger complaints.  

A low durometer Silicone sheet may work well since it stays soft at low temps. Why are there big round holes in the doors? Makes no sense. I am having heat issues this winter which may have something to do with the blend door, one of about 4 issues in the last month that needs attention. http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php?topic=32752.0

Luckily I took the complete HVAC box from the 91 Eco parts car. I'll have to dig it out, take it apart and see how it works.

[8v-of-fury]

 

What are you running for a suspension on your 4x4?

[JBG3]

What are you running for a suspension on your 4x4?

lol, stock, with all the glorious ground clearance that involves.  

Im never going to change it once I discovered this-



I timed myself, nothing like getting a full oil change done in 5 minutes or less on any surface that is flat under the front tires.  Too convenient for me to consider altering the height.  Plus, I kinda like ground clearance, lets me get more places in this car

[TylerDurden]

Hahaha... I kinda liked the look when I had the engine out of my 86. I have the ghettofab rear lift so it was sittin proud on all four.

(Loaded back down now with sand in the trunk for ballast/emergency.)

[scrounger]

Emergency.... like in case you need to make some sand bags for a berm! My VW was set down by a PO with Koni struts. I wish it was more stock but I guess I could adjust them back up.

Hahaha... I kinda liked the look when I had the engine out of my 86. I have the ghettofab rear lift so it was sittin proud on all four.

(Loaded back down now with sand in the trunk for ballast/emergency.)

[TylerDurden]

Emergency.... like in case you need to make some sand bags for a berm!

Luckily, I haven't needed it for myself - but almost every winter, I help some amateur out of a snowdrift.

[JBG3]

couple small updates-

its been running like a champ, ive been piling the miles on it.  Some maintenance items on the horizon are that the stub axle seal on the driver side is now leaking, waiting on a kit to repair it,

So this issue is more complex.  Actually both stub axle seals are now leaking, ive ripped a passenger side inner CV boot, and the other 3 are cracked nightmares.   

Parked the car in order not to trash the axles, and am waiting for 4 new boots, and my second transmission seal, then we should be right as rain again. 

I have 4 spare axles, two for each side, but after looking them over, I don't see any benefit to putting another worn boot on, might as well go with new boots all around.  The GF wants to go to ME on sunday, so its gotta get done

[JBG3]

A low durometer Silicone sheet may work well since it stays soft at low temps. Why are there big round holes in the doors? Makes no sense. I am having heat issues this winter which may have something to do with the blend door, one of about 4 issues in the last month that needs attention. http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php?topic=32752.0

Luckily I took the complete HVAC box from the 91 Eco parts car. I'll have to dig it out, take it apart and see how it works.

that silicone sheet is a good idea.  its a solid metal that lies against a large plastic mesh, even a little bit of cushion could seal any air leaks nice I think. 

Saw your thread, makes no sense to me either.  Im sure they did it to save material and cost, but my curiosity is that the whole rest of the airbox is solid plastic, why not make solid plastic doors as well originally?  Instead, VW made perforated metal doors and boom, years later theres an issue with the material falling apart they used to cover the weaknesses.

Im wondering if that alloy metal the doors are made of was a real deal for VW, like way cheaper to stamp out recycled sheet metal and use that, BUT, only if they also remove some material from the doors in the form of holes and reuse that for something else.  What we are all dealing with later on is an early 80s bean counting cost analysis of how to build a cheap econo-box.   
Id be amazed if any of the designers thought that these cars would still be around 30 years later in large numbers being daily driven.   

[JBG3]

boy, im glad I took care of this.  There turned out to be more wrong than I expected, and from the fact that the only thing noticeable was a leak, otherwise the car drove fine. 

So this was my leaking issue-

driver side axle seal-


passenger side axle seal-



and as a bonus, this wrecked boot-  (is there a heat shield on the later mk2s?  im wondering if the proximity to the exhaust is what cooked this boot prematurely, was extremely hard and tough, and I remember it being pliable as recently as last year)



Removed the axles, and on the driver side axle, I found almost no lubrication on the outer CV joint-



you can see some of the heat marks here, the whole thing was riddled with heat marks-



On the passenger side inner CV, I found that the bearing race was broken!-



What I ended up doing is taking the good inner CV joint from the original driver side axle, moving it to the inner side of a spare passenger axle that had a bad inner CV joint, and re booting and greasing all 4 CV joints.  Im glad I had a few spares, its turned out that the heat marks were common to a couple of them.

next I moved to the seals, there was an excellent thread over on the vortex that linked to a DIY article that was useful.  I popped out the center cover with a punch through the middle exposing the snap ring-




pulled out the snap ring and the whole stub pops out on a spring-




the trashed seal, looked like this on both sides-



removed and cleaned for new seal-



The worst part of the job was this brass thrust washer/ring that is behind the spring cup on the inside.  I had read that they are frequently broken into bits, but as long as still fitted where they are supposed to go, will work fine.  The driver side was 3 pieces, passenger as 5.  The most time spent was trying to get these dam things to stay in place without falling off the shaft and mucking things up. 



once those were back in place and the seals installed, recompressing the spring to fit the snap ring is a bit of a chore.  On the DIYs I read, they were talking about using clamps, and other items, but I didn't have a big enough clamp, so I ended up using a ratchet strap and soft mallet which worked great.



I would increase the tension by one notch on the strap, which put off center force on the stub axle and it wouldn't move, but then by tapping the stub with the soft mallet on all sides, it would compress in on the spines.  I did this notch by notch until it was fully compressed, and I could put in the spring washer, and snap ring fairly easily. 

All done!



put about 500 miles on it since the repair with no leaks so far, holding up well.  I need to get some kind of heat shield on the exhaust though

[srgtlord]

On my gasser 1992 golf gl there is indeed a heat sheild over the axle. On my 87 golf diesel however, there was no heatsheild and there were no issues.

[TylerDurden]

Wow... dodged a few bullets on those axles.

The ratchet strap is a novel solution.

[srgtlord]

Yeah the manual gearboxes do not seem to have issues unless there is literally no oil left.....

[92EcoDiesel Jetta]

Nice improvising with the strap. I made a special flange install tool out of junk I had laying around that worked great. I'll dig up a pic of it later. I had a lousy c-clip pliers which did not hold the c clip well (keeps popping off and over expanding the clip). Car was on jack stands, laying on my back, the tool made the job a breeze.

[92EcoDiesel Jetta]

This is the tool on a test run on the bench. The gear wrench is used to push the flange in till it bottom out. The C clip is on a taper and the socket is hammered on (with an adjustable spanner held against it) as it rides up the taper and seats in the flange groove.

[CrazyAndy]

A good way to keep those broken thrust washers in is to use some small dots of grease on them and that will hold them to the shaft a little better.  The grease will just wash into the trans fluid and do no harm.  I've used small amounts of grease to hold small or difficult parts in their place before securing them and it works 90% of the time.