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oprn

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Everything posted by oprn

  1. It took 4 hours alternating between the blower and the old David Brown to get a hole through big enough for Franklin. That stuff was packed like cement!
  2. Had a snow and a blow here that added to our driveway drift. Snow blower turns out to be a bit undersized for this one and won't even climb the hill. Rototiller did though.
  3. And - this cartoon showed up in the local rag...
  4. For those that like pictures, here is the drift I have been battling in the yard. The wind blows between the house and the garage and deposits the snow right across the driveway!
  5. It seems I have another issue with the door handle. On closer examination it is only coming out 1/2 as far as the one on the other side. I put a temporary fix on it for this week. The weather is supposed to take a turn for the better so maybe I can get out there and get parts before it gets cold again. Also I needed to get it out of the garage as we have a pig to butcher tomorrow.
  6. Yes we have a stick-on oil pan heater that we plug in at night.
  7. The experiment I enjoy the most in this weather is seeing how close I can get to the wood stove without burning something valuable! Our old dog and I arm wrestle for the best spot! 😄 When I have to go out for another load of wood he wins and when he has to go out to relieve himself I win!
  8. Yes I could. I also have a 2004 Jetta wagon for parts right here in the yard now that I think of it. I just assumed it would be different without checking. However we woke up to -37 again this morning with a wind chill factor of -48 so I will do my best to avoid going out there in a snow bank to work on wee things that require the gloves to be off until it warms a bit. Not that keen on freezing my old arthritic fingers anymore! The Missus can take the Dodge truck this morning and we will see how the weather goes...
  9. Ok, I think I know what happened but not why. It seems my DIY cable to connect the outer door handle to the latch was too short to let the mechanism re-set. Why now after working just fine for 2 weeks I have no idea but as soon as I disconnected it the door opened from the inside. The search is on for another cable...
  10. We have another problem. tried to get in the car to drive home and the driver's door will not open, had to crawl in from the left side. I was hoping the problem was ice but it has been in the heat now most of the day and no joy! The power lock seems to be working fine, makes all the right noises and the little button pops up and down but the door will not open from either the inside or outside. I have tried unlocking it with the key and the inside lock switch. Ideas?
  11. I did take a few photos but they are not very exciting. Dreary day, mostly flat country.
  12. Just an update on Franklin. Temperatures are staying between -30 and -40 C still except for a small break today but Franklin is performing flawlessly! Well ok, below -35 he leaves a little puddle of oil on the ground on start up but that is the fault of the idiot that chiselled off the oil filter and marked the sealing surface sometime in his past. It goes away almost immediately but I must do something to fix it. The seat delete fixed the package capacity issue too so all is good there. The studded tyres are awesome and well worth the money but I cringe when we hit dry road knowing that it shortens the life of the studs quickly. We are off to the big city for a break and a long overdue visit with some very special and close friends today. Seven hours round trip so it will give Franklin a chance to stretch his legs a bit.
  13. Welcome to ownership of an ex - Japanese car and this site! We have one too and are located in east central Alberta. Where in Canada are you? I know of one Lupo GTI in Calgary, one in Quebec and there are rumors of two in Chilliwack BC (if they didn't float away in the flood...) so at this point a Lupo meet is still a bit of a dream.
  14. Is that a pale green or is it the lighting/picture that making it a bit washed out looking? And does it have the matching seats and door pads?
  15. Well I almost didn't post a picture of it as it is not some of my better welding but it is a pretty confined space to try to weld in. I could not believe how heavy those little Lupo doors are! Or am I just getting old and weak... ? I wasn't sure if the little cable interchanged with other models. I will check that out. As for space, that is the reason Sandra quit using Franklin. With the Covid thing so many people are now shopping on line and the parcel volume has sky rocketed. She was having trouble getting it all into Franklin. Now the holiday rush is on so we will see if removing the seat is enough. -24 here this morning and with the wind it feels like -35, more of the same for the next week they say so winter is here. I have studded tyres on the Jetta and it makes a world of difference on icy highways at speed. Looking forward to our first set on Franklin! $10 more per tyre, well worth it in my view.
  16. The final problem up for a solution is the little pull cable for the outside door handle that I lost. So, an electrical crimp on connector, a bit of wire and a lead seal and I went to work making a new one. Put it in place, squeezed the lead seal into a shape that fitted the notch in the door handle and gave it a few twists to shorten it up to get the right action and... Voila! It works... a lot better than I had hoped for! We are back in business! Now for some new studded winter tyres... coming on Thursday... passenger seat is now removed to make more room for holiday parcels. Franklin is going back to work tomorrow!
  17. Now, I am of the opinion that the door check strap's action is too harsh. It needs either a lighter spring or smaller bumps or the same thing will happen again. Maybe I am wrong but this is what I did. I ground the bumps down to about 1/2 the original height. On installation of the door there is a huge difference, the notchy feel when opening the door is far less. In fact I might have gone a bit too far, 2/3 of original height might have been better. Ah well - no real harm done me thinks and I am sure it will go a long way to alleviating this ongoing problem.
  18. Today Franklin went under the knife. The door limit strap has failed again but on the door end this time not the anchor on the post. The door had to come off to fix it. Not a very easy place to work even with the door off! Dollied it out, welded it up, ground off the access and bolted it back together with extra flat washers for more support.
  19. Hello again! It's been a while, the Lupo has been sitting as the volume of mail my wife delivers is now more than will comfortably fit in it. Now by necessity (the Forester has issues) I need to get Franklin going again. When he was shut down the outside driver's door handle had quit working. I took it apart and could see nothing really wrong, it just didn't seem to pull the cable far enough to release the door. I suspect the problem to be a build up of road dirt on the latch mechanism that made it harder to pull and it ran out of cable "stretch". This used to happen with the old Rabbit/Gulf cars and giving the latch mechanism a bath in solvent and a re-lube fixed it. Well that is what I did and then got distracted and today I went to finish the job and some time, somewhere in the intervening months the little cable that connects the outer door handle to the latch mechanism went the way of the Dodo bird! No idea where I put it... Not having any luck locating a replacement. I looked on Autodoc but can't find it there. Maybe it has a special name? Ideas please!
  20. Got the door strap bolt and bushing put right just now. The threads on the bottom of the bolt cleaned up fine, the hole on the bottom is egged so we will see... The threads on the top of the bolt and the hole they thread in are a bit dodgy but I think they will last. I found a Toyota nut in my bits bin that fits and has a lovely big shoulder on it so that will help the egged out bit. Then I turned up a bushing from scrap brass. All together now and quiet as a mouse in the church pantry. In fact quieter than it was when we bought the car!
  21. Thanks! Yes that is exactly what I am looking at. The threads on the bolt are pretty bad and the bushing broken into little bits so I think the fix will be a bit different than his. Something cobbled up on my lathe as there are no Lupos at the wreckers to get a bolt from.
  22. No more phantom running issues! Franklin is performing well. There is however a small problem I should have investigated a while back. The driver's door limit strap has a loud snap noise. Getting worse so I pulled it apart. The bolt was loose and the bushing is past salvaging, Also it appears there should be a nut on the bottom. The threads on the bolt and in the little bracket on the door are in poor nick, not sure if I can save them. Is this a common problem?
  23. Our Lupo was imported from Japan. I am envious of you having parts available locally. We do not. I have been getting parts from Europe and am looking to get a new windscreen in the near future. Not sure how that will go. We have also been unable to get a second key for our Lupo. We were told that it would have to be ordered through the dealer the car was bought at originally. Does this make sense to you?
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