What did you do to your car today?

[ORCoaster]

On the short drive home I noticed a bumping noise coming from somewhere.  I drove across some nice bumps and edges that were poking up in the road trying to figure out if the wheels were loose or maybe the exhaust banging around under there. 

Got home and put a lug wrench on all wheels, nope not that.   

Crawled under the front end and noticed grease on my K-rail suspension stiffener.  Hmm, stuck my head up a bit farther.  HOLY SMOKES!!!  the CV axle bolts are coming undone.  Spent the next 40 minutes putting the tight on them.  Hope that quiets it down.

Caught it just in time, two were about 6 mm out, that is just about gone in my opinion. 

[Rabbit79]

Good thing you caught it. I suspect an axle flopping around could create quite a bit of mischief.

[ORCoaster]

Thankfully I caught at the bumping stage.  Every once in a while I would hear something under the car go bump.  The axle was not the entire story, however.

I drove to work this morning and on a couple of places where the manholes are higher than the street level I got more bumping noises.  I pulled in the alley that accesses our back lot and in the confines of that narrow space the street is very rough and I could hear something on the passenger side again. 

Once I got home this evening I found the brake caliper was loose on the passenger side.  Two quick bolts to tighten and I am hoping for a quiet ride to work in the morning. 

Pays to pay attention when something just doesn't sound as it should. 

[ORCoaster]

Over the weekend I decided to set the timing on the IP to 105 mm and while I was at it I replaced one of the little hoses that was leaking where it went into the IP.  I was hoping for better mileage now that I am not running two 155 and two 130 bar injectors in the block.  PO did me no favors there. 

I had my truck up on a lift last week trying to replace the throw-out bearing but didn't have my small screwdriver set with me and couldn't get the C-clips off the shaft and make it all come apart.  I put a new fill of 90W in the axle and it seems to have made it quiet down a lot. 

I worked in the driveway where the slope has the rear of the truck lower than the nose.  I went to park it in the street where the slope is reversed and I barely got the truck in the spot and it stalled out.  Then I couldn't get it started again.  I attacked it the next day and what did I find?

I ran it out of fuel!  Haven't done something like that in at least 10 years now.  Time to use up the fuel and drop the tank I think.  I should have tried to drain the five gallons I put in that I had handy in the shed but I needed the truck running for work this week.  Now that I know that at 300 or so miles I am getting light on fuel I will just drop it then.  Which will probably be July the way I rack up the miles every month. 

[srgtlord]

Finished the MK3 steering knuckle and caliper swap on the old Golf. Prepared to exit the driveway and heard a loud pop and the steering wheel could spin to the right almost indefinitely. Checked the steering shaft and it was still attached. Guess the Chinese meyles manual steering rack called it quits after 150,000 miles..... Turns out Manual steering racks are back-ordered almost everywhere right now. Looks like I'm throwing in a used one until that wears out.

[rabbitman]

Ordered parts is what I did today. I bought an '80 Diesel Rabbit with a 1.5 and it runs and drives but needs some attention. The engine is floppy, injector pump leaks a bit, the dash is terribly cracked, it has surface rust all over and rust holes in the A pillars. The glass is not cracked though. My wife saw it on craigslist and decided she wanted to drive something that doesn't burn much fuel. I said "ok"

[ORCoaster]

Rabbitman, I have 1.5 L parts in the shed if you need anything.  PM and we can work it out. 

[rabbitman]

Rabbitman, I have 1.5 L parts in the shed if you need anything.  PM and we can work it out. 

Thanks, I'll keep it in mind!

[srgtlord]

After a 2 month backorder the steering rack finally showed up for my MK2 just in time for a week of rain

[ORCoaster]

Murphy's Law in action

[srgtlord]

It just keeps getting better... The FEBI new steering rack has a shaft that is machined too small and the steering shaft fits too loose.. Made my own sleeve and used JB Weld as a last resort...

[ORCoaster]

Bad Luck runs in groups of three.  So from now on, you should be good to go. 

[srgtlord]

Swapped in Passat B3 rear springs into the Mk2 Golf... It made a stupid high lift in the back and absolutely no suspension travel. I compared the stock coils, to the worn out moog cargo coils to the passat B3 coils. The Moog cargo coils were actually quite a bit shorter. Ill take an educated guess and cut somewhere in between the height of the cargo coils and the stock springs unless someone has a better solution

[ORCoaster]

Today it stopped raining long enough to let the driveway dry a little and I found the two leaks in my coolant system.  One at the radiator I put in a month or so back.  The other on the inside heater core I put in over a year ago.  Hose clamps needed a bit more of a twist to tighten. 

I decided after reading some on the adjustment of the turbopump to have another go at adjusting mine.  The first thing done was to take it apart and take a Sharpie and color the pin on all sides and put it back together.  Then I drove it a bit and took it apart again.  I could then see where the little pin was tracking against the cone.  Some talk about the dots on the washers on the diaphragm as a guide.  I had to take that apart too and line the washers up with the point on the cone that was the greatest angle.  One was 180 degrees off and the top one was like 90 degrees off.  Now I know the dots are the max slope of the cone.

I had about a 4-5 mm mark almost all the way up to the top of the cone.  So it was basically running in fuel dump mode from idle all the way up to 4500.  I decided to move the big spring screw up to the top of its travel and then did the screw at the top in a similar manner.  I was trying to get the pin to track from the bottom of the cone to the top.  I put it back together and took a short drive.

It ran but not as I expected.  Not a lot of kick at 10 lbs boost and that was much different before.  So I looked at the scratch mark again and at least I had more travel going on but still not much more than 10 mm worth and it was still up too high on the cone.  So more loosening of the top screw to get more travel.  Then for more fuel at boost, I turned down the big spring screw so it was not applying as much pressure against the air pressure of the boost. 

Another drive.  Hmm, now we seem to have good acceleration and it climbs a steady hill and the EGT's don't jump up 300 degrees.  So less wasted fuel and better response.  Tore it apart another time.  Marked the cone again and twisted the big spring down another half a turn.  Travel on the cone by the pin was nearly the full length this time.  Just a couple of mm's off the very bottom so I  gave one more turn less tension on the top screw. 

Test drive does more like I expect so I will try like this for a tank and see if I can load the bed with tools and crap and climb up the hill I live on and not have it stall out. 

Being able to see where the actual pin travel on the cone is an invaluable tool in deciding what direction the tension of the two screws needs to go.  If I was just going to guess at making a change I would have been all wrong as the initial setup was what was messed up on mine in the first place.  I bought the pump from someone that moved those settings around prior to me moving those settings around.  So anyone thinking about adjusting their turbopump needs to pull it apart and rub a blue or black Sharpie pen on the cone first. 


Once that was done I put the mudflaps I bought from another on this forum on the front wheels.  I have wider than stock tires on and they throw road grime up the sides way too much for my taste.  Causes me to wash it all the time. 

[ORCoaster]

Finally another day with no rain.  This is getting old and wet. 


I couldn't see my speedo and tach when driving at night.  No lights in the cluster box.  I took it all the way out and tested the bulbs and all were good.

I tried to get continuity from the plug-in tabs and came up with a zero.  I looked closely at the traces and found the negative run had a break in it.  Used a small piece of stiff wire across the break and soldered it on. Gotta be quick with the soldering pencil on that stuff.  I am back in business.

While I had the dash apart I put on a new black with red stripe cover as my wood look one had broken the tabs off at the bottom and was rattling all the time on the rough roads we have here. 

I also spent some time with the little speaker on the drivers' side.  It shouldn't short out against the frame anymore.     Gotta have tunes!