It might be time to rename the car from Projekt Fahrfromcruzin to The Smilemaker. No idea where the red stuff came from, but I pressure tested the entire cooling system for 3 days and nothing is going where it shouldn't be. Which means, after also finding the cause of the surging at idle, we got a runner! Got the 16 year old tires replaced and have been able to cruise around town a couple of times. It's currently almost impossible to not spin the tires (I have a progressive linkage to install to maybe help), but it's hard to not giggle and laugh every time the rear end breaks loose. An alignment is the next step and then we are on to body mounts and maybe into the interior.
The Volkswagen's journey
- Thread starter Podagrower
- Start date
Project creep? What project creep. I stuck to the game plan completely. I certainly didn't decide that while I was working on the alignment and getting the steering wheel centered it would be a good idea to dive into the dash.
In unrelated news, both front turn signal holders were worn out and the ground strap broke so they have been replaced. I've sourced a set of gauges and a tach to replace the factory idiot lights. I broke the speedometer needle. I replaced the speedometer cable. And I got all the bolts for the body bushings broken loose.
In unrelated news, both front turn signal holders were worn out and the ground strap broke so they have been replaced. I've sourced a set of gauges and a tach to replace the factory idiot lights. I broke the speedometer needle. I replaced the speedometer cable. And I got all the bolts for the body bushings broken loose.
Gauges are done. The factory needle was broken on the volt meter, but I pulled the needle off our factory gas gauge and replaced the volt meter one. But somehow I also managed to break the needle on the gear indicator (superglue). And when I was replacing the last burnt out dash light I broke the needle off the volt meter again, fortunately(?) the gauge set I bought had a bad temp gauge so I had to replace it, giving me another spare needle to put on the volt meter. I also managed to rip out the computer that was from one of the vehicles previous engines.
And on yesterday's game of "F$$$ the next guy" it was time to change the starter. I had been ignoring how much it sounded like the starter was dying and hoping it was just corrosion or lack of use that would come back around with some time. It did actually sound a lot better for a couple of days, but last weekend there were a couple of times that it was really questionable, and when I went looking online and found it was the ebay $25 starter I went looking for a new one. In my quest to do things as good as I can, I needed to pull the inspection cover to check the gear mesh and pinion clearance. Turns out all 4 bolts holding the inspection cover on are different size heads, lengths, and number of washers. And then, the inspection cover doesn't come off anyway because of how somebody installed the exhaust.
Well, the fu$$ery continues. I've been putting off changing the oil ever since I saw how much clearance they left between the filter and exhaust.
So I finally girded my loins and assembled the warriors to tackle the job.
None of those filter wrenches fit, but I was able to get the filter off by hand.
And to my astonishment, once I unbolted the inspection cover with all of it's different size bolts I was able to get the filter out. So I just put another filter the same size back in place and put all the mismatched bolts back in the inspection cover. Kidding. I installed a remote oil filter setup to move the filter up to the driver's side fender and changed the inspection cover bolts to a matching set. I did take an oil sample to send to Blackstone to get a baseline of engine health since I don't know anything about it. Oil capacity is now 7.5 quarts.
So I finally girded my loins and assembled the warriors to tackle the job.
None of those filter wrenches fit, but I was able to get the filter off by hand.
And to my astonishment, once I unbolted the inspection cover with all of it's different size bolts I was able to get the filter out. So I just put another filter the same size back in place and put all the mismatched bolts back in the inspection cover. Kidding. I installed a remote oil filter setup to move the filter up to the driver's side fender and changed the inspection cover bolts to a matching set. I did take an oil sample to send to Blackstone to get a baseline of engine health since I don't know anything about it. Oil capacity is now 7.5 quarts.
