6-25-06
Well... took the cabriolet to work and checked the ignition timing and it was dead on.. didn't get much farther than that. I ran it pretty good on the way home.. it was about 95 out, drove around 4krpm for most of the interstate ride home and when I got off the ramp the oil was at 120 and the psi was at .3-.4 bar with the light flickering, which didn't suprise me much... the oil pressure hasn't been great, usually about 2.5 bar on the insterstate (around 3500) and when it was this hot it was a little less than that at 4k, so I'm parking it until I get a chance to replace the oil pump and check the intermediate shaft bearings, which I hope are all-right but I've already had this issue on 2 other vehicles and both had problems with the intermediate shaft bearing babbot coming off the shell. Oh, I clicked the MAF spring 2 clicks more rich, seems like it helped a little. I'm thinking it needs an 02 sensor to sort it all out.
6-24-06Finally.. got it all back together... I'm really annoyed b/c I saw in the pics I took that one of the intake valves got a little rust on it from sitting in my damp jetta trunk overnight.. I noticed the aluminum and cleand that all off prior to installation but not the valve... oh well, I'm sure it's been cleaned by combustion by now anyhow. So.. reassembly went pretty well, and it fired right up. The start-up and idle is way better than it ever was but it still lacks power when accelerating and it feels like something is holding it back a bit. head is sporting new exhaust valves and the seats were lightly cut and everything lapped in nicely. I reinstalled the stock exhaust for now, it sounds like crap... still leaks somewhere, not sure where. I finished the car up, added coolant and we took it to the movies... that was the test drive.
6-18-06
lapped the intake valves, they turned out nice... bought 4 new exhaust valves. wowie.
6-17-06
cabriolet is still apart...snowball looks like this:
cv axle noise occurs during 600 mile road trip- get cv joints rebuilt.
failure of joint caused by axle seal leaking, get new seals
decide to replace exhaust manifold with header due to cracks in manifold and axle removal necessary for operation (already removed)
remove intake to gain easier access to difficult manifold nut
clean carbon out of intake and throttle body
discover broken exhaust stud after removal of manifold
remove cylinder head to extract exhaust stud
clean and de-carbonize cylinder head and valves & injectors
break injector seats upon removal (brittle, old junk) order replacments, due in 1 week.
go to cut exhaust valves due to minor pitting.. discover all exhaust valves slightly warped (wobble evidant in valve lathe)
nec. to purchanse new valves.
drill exhaust stud off center, (doh) unable to extract with stud extractor.
nec. to drill stud out and heli-coil
decide to braze manifold and re-use stock exhaust due to modifications necessary for header implementation.
clean carbon from tops of pistons. (2 so far)
5-23-06
Well, a couple of weeks ago the wife and I took the cab up to Kings Island up in Ohio, it was about 600 miles round trip. We left friday evening after work and got in at midnight or 1am depending on what time zone we were using... anyhow, about 2 hours from the hotel I noticed a light clicking noise form the front end at hwy speed and I didn't think much of it until driving around in the parking lot at the hotel... long story short, we found out it is possible to drive at least 450 miles with an inner cv joint on the way out... I havn't removed the axle to get it re-done at the local axle shop but I have driven it around town a couple of times... I also found the source of the exhaust leak, a 3" crack in part of the manifold. I have a pacesetter type header for it but it needs a little work becuase the cat is slightly farther back on the later model chassis, but all I have to do is actually remove the manifold/downpipe and bring it to work and my coworker will fix it all up... just haven't been in the mood to work on it lately, maybe when it warms up a little more.
5-2-06
Well, I havn't updated this in a long time b/c I was too busy working on the car all last month. I replaced the front crank seal, timing belt, roller, water pump, thermostat, plugs, cap, rotor, air filter, fuel filter, convertible top, sild molding clips, front and rear badges, and the left A piller trim. I've taken all the trim and such off the car, buffed it out, waxed it up, dyed the front spoiler, side trim, door handles and some other tidbits with forever black, I stripped and polished all of the wheels and remounted and rebalanced the tires on them (and rotated them) and I've just replaced the plastic coolant flange on the front of the engine this evening. I took the vehicle to bug-a-paluza 8 and placed 2nd place out of about 5 cars in cabriolet and rabbit convertible stock and non-stock... Oh, last saturday I replaced the tie-rod ends and did an alignment.. only front toe was out. (yay) The exhaust manifold has a pretty good sized crack in it but it seals up almost all the way when the manifold get hot.. I have to have an extension pipe made up for my header in order to install it, hopefully next week. Otherwise this project is pretty much wrapped up for now and my focus has shifted to the westy.
3-28-06
things are coming along pretty smoothly... I have all the top pad removed and the frame prepped and ready for installation of the new pad and top. I resecured the spots of the headliner that glue to the top bows this evening and I have material to make new cloth tubes for the rear side straps to run though since the old ones were messed up... I also figured out that although the top cable guide bushings for where the cable runs through the top frame are now unavailable, you can swap them from side to side and you have a new wear surface ready to go... I just need to get some JB weld to epoxy them in place because they had worn all the way though and don't snap in very well. I have the driver's door panel all glued back together, and I made a lot of progress one one of the wheels while I was at work. I stripped the clear and paint off using aircraft remover. I still have a little work to do on the painted sections but they are going to turn out pretty nice without too much effort. I would have left them alone but the clearcoat was very cracked and ugly looking so something needed to be done. After the paint is all stripped I'll zip over the face of them with a buffer and some polish and they will be good to go... just have 3 more to strip. yay.
3-22-06
I replaced the light bulbs in the 3 gauges in the center console and removed the outter skin of the convertible top except for the part around the rear cable... I have to bring some vise grips home to pull out all the staples. I received my new top from cabrioworld.com today. The pad kit is synthetic horsehair which I haven't worked with before... the pad I put on my '84 was made from foam rubber stuff. I also took off the rear wheels, one is acting as a spare on my Jetta and the other I am going to try to buff off the clearcoat and see what happens...
2-5-06
not much progress on this lately... was busy with the website and other stuff. I took the rear parcel tray inside and straightened it out (support tubes were rather bent) and re-stapled the carpet where it had loosened from a little water-damage and cleaned the carpet a bit. I am going to do the side sections that are in the car when I replace the top since access will be greatly enhanced while the top is removed.
(1-28-06
I've been working on the left front door panel all week, regluing the vinly back onto the door panel card. It's all done except for the lower rear portion which I am trying to find some staples for in order to assist in holding it in position.
(1-22-06)
This weekend I spent many many hours cleaning the interior upholstery and interior trim panels this weekend... basically went over every millimeter of it using some cleaner and a tooth brush, (twice) then massaged in some conditioner and buffed it out. I re-glued the rear door panel vinyl. I have the front door panels at work; its taking a bit more effort to get those sorted out. I need to find some short 3/8" staples to assist in securing the vinyl. I'm also using some 3m trim adhesive spray for the low-demand areas, and 3m super weatherstrip/trim adhesive for the other parts. I also cleaned out the area under/behind the rear seat and threw a bit of wax on the bar that goes across the strut towers. I tried some oxy booster on the carpet spots but it didn't work out.. you won't be able to notice w/ the seat and floor mats reinstalled anyhow.
(1-20-06)
I cleaned out the driver's side carpet, it didn't turn out as nice as the passenger side.. going to try some oxy booster stuff on the 2 stains that are bugging me. Otherwise its nice.
(1-17-06)
I removed the front seats and cleaned the passenger side carpet w/ the bissel little green machine I got for x-mas (with this project in mind) Looks pretty nice.
(1-15-06)
I drove back from the Atlanta area in the car, about 250 miles... it was a nice drive, feels good to be driving a convertible again (even if it was too cold to have the top down)