Finally made it to Raleigh!

I got to Raleigh this week and rented a two car garage. Has an attached house. Who else is in the area?

Side note: This is my fifth state, ninth dwelling and second country/continent since I started reading the board, not counting places I stayed in for less than a month.

Angus McFangus in Raleigh, eh? Tim's sister lives there, but unless you have teenagers interested in Lacrosse you're not going to have a lot in common. You coming to the Challenge this year? You're at least in the right hemisphere for that now.

Margie

I probably won't have a car ready. I could hang out, though. Is Markelangelo going to be there?

Prolly not--he's had an event that conflicted last year or two, and Tony Neste's been doing the honors.

Margie

I live 30 minutes south of Raleigh in Fuquay. Are you in Raleigh, Raleigh or a suburb?

In reply to Marjorie Suddard:

Too bad. He's a real charmer.

Let me know if you need some help this year.

Carson, North Raleigh, right on the city limit. What do you work on/play with? Is there an autox scene around here? Is that you rally-xing?

Yep that's me! Yep we've got a lot coming up. Head on over to Tar Heel Sports Car Club (www.thscc.com). There's an autocross this weekend in Sanford (about 45 min to an hour from you), a rallycross on 6 June in Rougemont (also about 45 min) and a HPDE & TT the Carolina Motorsports Park (about 3 hrs away in Kershaw, SC) the weekend of 19 June.

In reply to angusmf:

Welcome neighbor!!! I live in a "suburb" of Raleigh called Garner. I work in RTP and have a vw gti that hasn't run in 5yrs. You running from the law or something?? And is there a reward?

Thanks for the welcome! What year is the GTI? You want to try to get it running? I should have my Rabbit back on the road soon and I'm itching to take a ride.

I'm so many steps ahead of the law, they don't even know they're looking for me.

Howdy neighbor! I'm also down Garner/Fuquay way. Welcome

In reply to angusmf:

It's a 1987 8v gti, and right now I've got the head and most of the acc. off the car. Trying to get those last three bolts off the axles so I can pull the engine. My orig. goal was to drop in a aba short block that I have and use a solid lifter head I have. But, I've been leaning towards the 2L 16v swap lately. Between lack of time and money, I have it done just in time to let my grandkids drive it to the prom.

I maybe calling you though. Its nice to know a local dubber. Anyway, welcome to the area!!!! And watch out for the traffic cams!! They're everywhere now..

In reply to mrwillie:

I was at LKQ your way this morning and they have 2 2.0 16v cars on the lot. Didn't get a good look at them, I was in a hurry but might be worth checking out.

Carson wrote: In reply to mrwillie: I was at LKQ your way this morning and they have 2 2.0 16v cars on the lot. Didn't get a good look at them, I was in a hurry but might be worth checking out.

Thanks for the info. I'm not even gonna be mad that you didn't let me know you were going, though. I would have wanted to hang out, too. As much as I hate to do this, I may need to start buying things piece-meal. Harness here, head there, etc...

@angusmf.... When you did your swap, did u use a 2L harness w/ the orig. harness + the MS? Do you have a build page somewhere or some ideas of what I need for the wiring?

In reply to mrwillie:

The wiring in the '75 is pretty basic. I had to do all the FI wiring pretty much from scratch, although I did use wire from real VW harnesses--it's better quality than anything affordable and easy to find. You probably have an easier starting point. You can use at least some of the existing fuel pump, ignition and possibly sensor wiring and can maybe pick up the ground and power for the MS from the same harness your original computer uses. You'll definitely need to add an injector harness and TPS wiring. Hit me up when you're ready to start and I can give you a hand.

Where's the junkyard? I think I need a starter.

In reply to angusmf:

Thanks for the info. Wiring has always intimidated me. Is there an "easy" way to do it piece-meal( wiring-wise... )?

Depending on where you live and your schedule you have a few pick and pull options.

1) LKQ on 1301 S. Miami Blvd( in Durham, NC ) is the newest LKQ assimilation. Still relatively organized and clean. It's still listed as City Auto Salvage in the white pages, though; 2) LKQ on Hwy. 70 E.( in Clayton,NC ) -- relatively old and looks it. It seems to be a bigger lot and even have half off sales every now and then. 3) T&T Salvage (5505 Thornton Road, Raleigh, NC 27616 (919) 876-1331 ) -- always seem to have something interesting( found a fully caged vw golf race car in the back several years ago), but I haven't been there in years; 4) Nine's in Wake Forest,NC (3649 Bruce Garner Road WAKE FOREST, NC 27587 (800) 200-2844 just north of Hwy98) -- ok selection, not as clean as any of the previous ones, they will pull parts for you if you don't feel like it, and they seem to have a larger vw selection for some reason, YMMV. Haven't been there in years, either.

Lately, the LKQ's are the ones I most frequent, simply b/c of location. One is 10min from my job, one is 5min from my house. Let me know if you need any more info....

In reply to mrwillie:

Google says T&T is closed. I'd go check out Nine's, but they're only open M-F 8-5. My friend will probably give me one the next time I see him (he builds race cars and is a bit of a hoarder) but he lives about 150 miles from here. It's always something, isn't it?

I don't quite know what you mean about the wiring. It's not a difficult job, and you don't have to tear the car apart. But it would be tough for me to give you a 100% accurate blow-by-blow in writing. You don't live far away. We should just get together. It will be easier if I can point to something on the diagram and then point to it on your car.

My bad. I should have called T&T first. They had funny hours, anyway. Wait, you know what? If you're using the 9A alt, there is a passat w/ a complete(?) engine in it at the LQK on Miami. Completely slipped my mind untill just now. They even have a few other vw's there as well.

I think my wiring phobia is more from lack of experience than anything else. It may be easier to just call when I get closer to that point. I was mainly just asking was the wiring part of the swap as simple as pull the old harness, plug in the donor where needed, add sensors for the MS, shake and stir? I know its kinda hard to give a step by step, but I meant more in general than anything else.

I don't think there's really a suitable donor harness. Maybe an A3, but I don't think it's worth the trouble. Unless you need to keep the original intact, you can just modify the existing harness. You probably don't have to pull it from the car, although it might be cleaner if you did.

There's no need to fear wiring. If you mess up, you can just fix it. Unless you start a fire, but that mostly never happens. Mostly.

Thanks for the tip on the 9A. It might be worth paying junkyard prices to have a spare alternator and distributor.

Is 235K too many miles on a 9A not to have it rebuilt? I haven't pulled the head or anything, but that seems high to me. And I meant to say earlier, your rabbit looks real clean. You did a good job on it.

It's a gamble, but it's probably pretty beat. If you don't want to spend some time and money rebuilding it (or paying someone,) look for something else. But if you want to build a fresh motor and this is cheap and complete, go for it.

Welp, I've been preparing the Rabbit to have it registered for the first time in 3 years. While trying to start it, the timing belt pulley on the crank came loose. Bent intake valves on #4. So the Raleigh po-po will have to wait a little while longer to give me a noise violation ticket.

Meanwhile, I'll be moving the last of my stuff from MA this weekend, including my Challenge donor.

Dang. Sorry to hear that. I'll help out if you want to scrap the car...........I'm here for you. ;-)

Hey all,

I've been in town for a little while now and I'm getting settled in. Been to the LKQs, and I'm getting my autox car back together. All is right with the world. Anybody want to get together sometime and shoot the E36 M3 or cruise the junkyards?

Sounds cool. I've been meaning to email you anyway. My weekends are kinda iffy right now, but we can figure something out. Done anything w/ the scirocco lately?

If this isn't Grassroots, I don't know what is: "...rented a two car garage. Has a house attached." Car storage first; people stuff second.