Yep - there's no weight on that jack. It's back in!!
Yep - there's no weight on that jack. It's back in!!
Made some good progress. All (most) of the connectors are back in place, intake on, exhaust connected, subframe back in....
Progress was slow and steady, with life and business trips extending the time line. Then this week my wife was gone for work so I had free nights with no commitments.
I bled on it, therefore it's now mine
Got it "assembled enough" - subframe bolts not completely tight (one time stretch bolts, don't want to torque them until I know it runs), hood latch missing, axles not final torqued, battery not in the box just set in place, air intake not connected. Fired over and at least three gears function! Clutch still needs some more bleeding but it 80% works which is 84% more than when I picked it up. Got a little heat into it to get coolant flowing and to burn off some of the residual Kroil and crud.
This was a huge milestone for me. First time I pulled an engine. I started to make a mental list of all of the small details left to finish up, plus time to mount tires, shake down, address the hatch latch, refresh the brakes, troubleshoot the brake lights.... and realized I'm going to run out of time. And I'm ok with that. My vision statement, from the title, is "have fun with cars." Thrashing around commitments for the next couple of weeks isn't going to be fun. I would have to roll it right off the trailer and into competition, and that leaves too many variables for a bad and expensive weekend. I'll take a couple of weeks off, clean the shop again and reset to check off the final details and get it to where it can see sunlight again and put a couple miles on it.
Hopefully over the next year I'll be able to keep the budget under the $2k "cash in the envelope" cap, if not I'll compete in regular class. I'll buy a new set of tires for this summer and fall and save the cheap Azenis in case I can still make the total budget work.
I hit another goal - the day before the Challenge the car drove under it's own power. Just not very well. The engine was fine but the clutch action wasn't right. I figured there was more air in the system and it would take some more bleeding. In hindsight I'm glad I waved off the Challenge this year. There was no spare time for complications.
I got some time today to set up to do a serious clutch bleed session - and immediately realized there was a leak at the clutch master cylinder. Off to buy a part.
51 weeks in. Yep, that's my working pace. Yesterday was the milestone day. To recap, I had it all "back together" V.1 three weeks before the challenge. I realized that there was going to be too much thrashing and no room for error, so I made the painful decision to skip 2024. Turned out to be a good thing. Once I started to bleed the clutch I discovered that the clutch master cylinder under the dash was leaking. Got the replacement, installed it ("back together" V.2) ----- and then it wouldn't start. I chased figuring it had to be something I did since it ran fine, I touched it, and then it didn't run. Turns out that the fuel pump died, so that got a new one. Not helping to stay within the challenge budget when parts keep failing but I still have some space.
Yesterday was "Back together" V.3
Off the jack and in the doorway ready for a first drive
And it runs!!! First time to make a 1-2 shift and get it above 5 mph. Drove it up and down the driveway, got the coolant up to temp, let all the repair work crud burn off.
Gave the clutch about 0.5 miles of break in and then this
Granted they are nine year old Primewells but it was still pretty satisfying.
Now the detail work begins. Getting the bumper back on, getting the lights connected, and starting on the long list of little things it needs. I know it's no big deal to a lot of the talented folks here, but I went to sleep last night with a huge sense of accomplishment.
In reply to glueguy (Forum Supporter) :
Don't sell yourself short, this is a big deal! One of the hardest things I had to learn about this hobby was that little steps were ok, and that any progress at all is good, no matter how "insignificant"
Thats AWESOME.
glad to see fun being had!
Sounds like excellent progress to me! I love me some GTI, cool little car!
Now that it is reliably functioning, it's time to start tackling the long list to get it finished.
Hatch and hood day - when I bought it the hatch handle was a pull loop. I took some time to stare at the latch to see what I could come up with. The rod was disconnected so I put that back in its slot, and then repositioned the cam to actuate the release. It works! $0 spent. Maybe time will tell there is a reason that the handle actuator broke, but so far, so good.
Replaced the dead hatch struts but kept the old ones just in case I need the $10.96 in the budget. I found a Golf at LKQ with decent struts and figured I could save a couple dollars. Nope, they were more expensive than new Rock Auto units shipped. Go figure.
The plastic window was hazy, so I did a little work with the buffer. Much better. It still needs more but that's a way down the line item now.
When I put the front end back together, the hood didn't want to latch the second latch. I fiddled with it and a little better but not quite. I added some force and it latched. Joke was on me when the release inside the car didn't and now I had a hood that wouldn't open. Luckily the grille was still off so I could reach in and grab the cable and force it to pop. I decided it wasn't going to win, so $9.66 later I have the finest Amazon generic hood pins. Started the process and then ran out of time so we'll finish this up in the next session.
Days with visual progress are very appealing. Bumper back in place! Hood pins also done. Starting to work through the list. Making the headlights function again and troubleshooting the taillights to make sure we're ready to meet that requirement.
Updates:
Front brakes definitely needed a refresh. Many sad cobwebs met their demise.
In with the new.
The rears are ok enough to save some challenge budget. These will get a bit of sanding and cleanup. Once past the event I'll change the rears for regular autox events.
The rear shock bump stops were non-existant.
Thanks to the fun Amazon part names, I now have XtremeAmazing upper shock mounts and Hihaha bump stops
This makes my morning. Glad to see you having fun, and looking forward to seeing you at the challenge this year!
It's been a while. A couple of hurricanes and end-of-year work, plus SEMA and a vacation week stalled progress. Got back at it with a good day today. How does March seem so far away and then become so close??? Not a lot of pictures, today was all about knocking the little items off the list.
Finished the rear shock mounts and reinstalled the inner fenders
Got rid of most of the off-idle stumble by rotating the MAF a little bit. Thanks to a great suggestion in a different post here by Pete (l33t FS).
Got the high beams working. Low beams were an aftermarket HID of some sort. Not going to stress about making these work, I have two forward lights
Finished the bolstered seat mounts. Not sure if these will stay for the Challenge or if I'll put the stock one back in for budget but they'll be nicer for local autocrosses. The car only came with a driver's seat so now there is room for a passenger for fun runs.
Spliced 3 inches of vacuum line onto the one hose that broke in engine removal
Cut down a wood shim and shoved in between the right mirror glass and housing to keep the glass from flopping half out of the mirror housing. Challenge fix.
Fiddled with the sway bar mount. I used the provided TT control arms which should provide more camber, but they mount the sway bar slightly different so I had to make some end links. All well and good except I did a bozo move and measured/ installed with the car in the air hence the control arms at near full droop. At ride height the bar hits the axle while turning. Got one side shortened up, the other side is hanging free for the moment but at least the awful grinding noise while turning is gone.
Actually drove it 2.1 miles in the industrial park (not registered/insured, so that limits the ability to make sure it functions). Got the brakes hot enough to sort of bed them in. That makes about 3 miles I've driven this since purchase.
A funny finding - the front bumper is missing the lower lip. Without this the lower part of the radiator is exposed and doesn't look right. I had a spare rear bumper - the one that was badly torn from the original accident. I noticed this too has a black lower piece. No way it will fit on the front. Way!! Slides right into the slot on the front bumper. A couple of zip ties to hold it. The curvature on the ends isn't the same radius (but in the right locations) so the edges stick out. I'll either heat and shape or figure out something else. Charming exhaust cutout on the front bumper LOL
Started to strip the graphics. I have an idea for a new theme.
Things left to do
Front strut upper mounts
Finish sway bar mounts
Brake lights
Figure out the door latches - this could have been bad. I had a note from early on that said "fix the door handles." I couldn't remember what that meant. Today I rediscovered it. When you lock the doors from outside the car and then unlock them, the little door buttons pop up but the outside handles don't work. You have to open the door with the inside handle first. Couple this with a hatch that was changed from previous impact and the hatch lock is different than the car key. If the windows were up, I would be severely locked out of the car, even though the inside door knobs looked to be unlocked. I'll need to figure this out. In the meantime I disconnected the hatch power so the hatch will never lock. I'd rather not have to climb in to get to the door handle, but at least there is a temporary fix.
Get out the string for a Challenge friendly alignment, and then make an appointment for the week after the Challenge to get a real alignment done
Get the plotter out and cut some numbers
Test session!!!!!
Today it's purpose is "learn the son's gf how to drive a manual trans"
Hey Glueguy
What kind of stand is this blue device? Looks kinda like a Quickjack
It's an EZ Car Lift (all one word with a dotcom). I have both this and a Quick Jack. They both have benefits. This one was designed by a European engineer living in California. Super tech support and a passionate entrepreneur. Two long platforms similar to QJ but this one has cross bars to tie it together and to synch the two sides. Uses a drill to raise lower so no fluids/pump. Worm gears so it's infinite position and naturally anti-reversing so there is no secondary lock mechanism. Nice to be able to raise and lower the car for times when you are going from underneath to the engine bay to work on something.
Another really nice aspect is that the platforms raise up to create a bridge so you can actually slide underneath from the side. The QJ platforms interfere on the sides and you have to get under the car from the front or back.
The QJ you can move to the center of the car to drive over and store them under the car out of the way. This one you can take the casters off and then drive over it (with wood on both sides to level to the platforms) to prevent disassembling for storage. When disassembling, the weight of the platforms is close to the same as the QJ, just without the wheels to help move them like QJ.
In reply to glueguy (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks!
One thing I didn't realize (and isn't well known) is QJ can also be used perpendicular to the car length if side access is a problem. It seems like that would still be problematic for a lot of work but it seemed interesting to consider.
Yeah, it seems like that would really restrict movement underneath but I'll try it next time I use the QJ.
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