mk2

You do it cos you luv it.... Doing a few extra hours overtime at work, at a nice clean airconditioned desk could mean you earn a few extra quid to let a mechanic do it for you. That don't work for me either...! With me, it's a confidence thing. I've never found a mechanic that has faultless workmanship. If Rich were nearby, I'd let him work on my cars, but I can't say that about many other 'car people' I know. Maybe only a handful. Probably the techy people on this forum! That's sad I know.............

The 4b/2 is the +12v feed (via ign sw). You need that. 4b /1&3 are the signals to run the coil pack. Either pull down to fire or pull up (can't remember!), but not critical initially. Try just grounding with wire.

Ouch!

Jigsaw with metal blade is your friend for this job. Oh, and a big press... And what Rich said. Good info there. actually come to think of it, one of my SDIs has bushes that could do with replacing. I need to do something useful to the car... nothing else wrong at the mo. I'll order some standard bushes and do a 'how-to'.

OMG! I thought that i'd seen bad corrosion before, but that is way beyond. I mean way way beyond! Holy cow! yeah, what rich says... what are the rear arches like?

Someone's been spending some money...

Pics?

Your plenum tubes are really short, like 120mm from the pic. So my guess is that you're looking for power at really high revs (5000+)? You'll want to mess with cams (timing duration) for sure, or you'll not get much gain below 4000. But it'll be excellent fun when you cane it! You'll want to monitor the downstream mix temps too as you have no air ducting (to prevent icing up and carb overheating). nice shiny gearbox. Change the cam belts. & Copper exhaust nuts. i've never tuned one of those lumps. I'll be watching this thread closely

Are you going to use the standard ecu to run the ignition? You may run into knocking problems if the carbs lean out a bit... as the ignition systen is linked directly with the injector program. Get an ignition module that you can manually program... easy way out Ah, just had a thought, you may want to use the ecu to control the idle fuel shut off, so when you're on over-run, you don't get backfiring.

Sounds like an ignition problem... simple way to confirm it is check if you can smell raw fuel vapour from the exhaust while cranking. Check plugs and wires.

No struggling by the looks of things. I reckon @LR5V got a tad hungry and nibbled at what took his fancy... Makes me think how accurate they must make these... the three wishbone holes are normally pushed right back to end stop to get the wheel camber right. 1mm does make a difference, so the position of the three holes relative to the central spindle must be spot on every time so you don't need to check the camber.... same goes for wishbones i guess. pathetically small they are indeed!

Welcome! Personally, i'd just do an engine transplant. You need a lump out of a car that was crashed instead of scrapped.

Nice. I've got mine out at the mo too. Engine swap. Getting the pressure line off the power steering pump was fun... mine are slightly weepy, but not wet. I've figured out that you could reuse the old pipes, simply by cutting off the swaged joins. Then off to pirtek or someone to renew the flexi bits i reckon. Oh, and an audi 80 clutch plate fits nice! Back in tomorrow.

Yeah one of the strands of the clutch cable wire just went... Or, come to think of it, pedal box, but then the pedal won't return to the same place- a bit lower.

I know what it is.... common in almost all vdubs that have been repaired. Lower ball joints not installed correctly. Keep wheels on hubs, but off the ground. Loosen the three bolts (13mm) where the ball joint slots into the wishbone. Push the bottoms of the wheels back as far as they'll go to the stop while tightening up again. Then check your tracking. Should have a very small amount of toe out, but can't remember the numbers!

I agree. Trouble is that most people just see it as an old cheap car, perfect for new drivers and students. To get the price you're looking for means you'll be selling to a lupo enthusiast. And they're all on here reading this !

About £1000 too expensive.

I wouldn't buy anything till the box has been opened up. If the gears or pinion bearing casting has 'gone', you'll have no option other than to get a replacement box. I only had my box rebuilt as I know that even though it was running 100% fine, they don't last. Personally, if you don't know the history of the car and it's done over 100k miles, I'd spend the £130 and then relax that you have at least another five decent years of use from it. Good investment. I need to get my other box done too although it is running ok.

Could be that the lower clips/pegs that lock into the bumper have snapped off. It is made of cheapo abs or polystyrene plastic. Happened to me on one of my SDIs...

I'll have to get you a new one for christmas. Chinese of course...

Ebay for 85 quid. Just make absolutely sure that they are decent branded bearings like timken, skf, fag etc.

Don't drive it. Had my box rebuilt yesterday for £50 plus new bearing/seal kit. Sounds like your pinion bearing has probably gone out for lunch. Irrecoverable.

Nah... don't do it. Wont get you any more power. The only way is to gas flow the ram tubes. I've posted pics somewhere on here how to do it. Otherwise, just disconnect the vacuum pipe to the egr control solenoid (and block it).

Yeah, i thought he'd have to put new shims in, as all the bearings were replaced. The shims are really thin- like 0.2mm. Apparently if there's nothing wrong and all you're doing is replacing the bearings, you can just bung it all back in again exactly how you pulled it out. But what do i know?! He did keep feeling bits here and there as he was going. No measuring. Just a little wobble here or there. Tighten then losen until it felt 'right'. Bloomin' hocus pocus magic if you ask me.... give me an engine to rebuild any day. Much simpler.

I must be honest and say that just about the only thing i use a torque wrench for is head gasket. Most of the time, where there's metal to metal contact (with no squishy gasket inbetween), with experience you generally can feel when the bolt is torqued right. i know for sure cj1 having seen the work you've done, that you could do a better job than most mechanics without a torque wrench... But if you're a stickler to get everything perfect, I must agree, a torque wrench does give peace of mind. I do think that many times I have used a TW, the settings are a bit on the low side.