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oprn

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Everything posted by oprn

  1. Are they special in some way? Or is it a replacement suggestion that is easier to find?
  2. Another update. Sandra loving the way Franklin is running, got his old zip (well - as Lupos go) on the hills again but... got a call yesterday - she shut him off and no start! She had abandoned him in a farm yard and got a ride to get the Forester due to my cell phone not receiving calls through a double tinned shop wall. I went home, hooked up the truck and trailer and found Franklin. Turned on the key - nothing - no dash lights, no clock. Cold north wind, threatening snow, not fooling about here so winched him into the trailer. I opened the door to set the park brake... what the heck? Dash lights and clock so hit the key and he is alive and running! Back home and go to drive Franklin out of the trailer - dead! Has to be battery posts and clamps but no they are tight and look clean. What I did find on removing them was a thin white film on the contact area so a good cleaning and some anti seize and 6 starts later all seems well. Looks like he is at the age of chasing connection corrosion issues! First the HT leads/coil towers now this.
  3. The air cooled ones ran very well in the cold as long as the thermostat, carb heat riser and air cleaner pre heat is still in place and working. Franklin has a new coil pack and plug wires now. Running and idling like new now!
  4. Parts are in! Came directly from Germany! Franklin has been running just fine since the clean up with just a bit of a rough idle. Tomorrow the new coil and wires go in.
  5. While waiting for parts I will continue with putting a fresh engine in the sand rail. The old one was just a well used core that I used initially when I built the Buggy and it gave us 6 years of service well above and beyond what I expected from it so time for renewal. Out with the old and in with a fresh one I rebuilt last summer.
  6. Parts on the way from Autodoc. Cost more to ship than the parts are worth but that's the way it goes. The coil pack it turns out is common here and readily available but the HT leads are not so might as well get them all in the same shipment.
  7. Funny! it ran just fine on the way to the shop this morning, I put my OBDII reader on and no codes. Well I cleaned them up as best as I could with a nail, greased them up and it's running fine again but I know what I need now! The shopping starts...
  8. Might have found it. Pulled the spark plugs and they looked ok. Next was the wires into the coil pack - hoo boy! We have an issue! 3 out of 4 badly corroded and the 4th one the connecting pin broke off and came out with the wire. Looking for a coil pack now and a set of wires!
  9. The weather has warmed up a lot. We were off to the city today with Franklin and he bucked and misbehaved all the way there and back. It was only -9 in the city too so it's not the cold. Tomorrow I will lift the bonnet and start the investigations. When it was random it was hard to find but now that the problem is here to stay I should be able to find it... I hope!
  10. They used to roam this country by the millions and over thousands of years... ya it happens. Water can wear away stone too over time. It's hard to believe that a few foreigners could lay waste to such a huge natural resource in a couple generations too but there you go!
  11. Yes it is a stone that the buffalo rubbed until it was round. In the spring they get itchy with their winter coats still on and look for something to rub on to help shed the extra hair. In treed areas wildlife use the trees and with the process of time and life these trees die and disappear. On the prairie there are no trees so the next best thing is to find a big rock to rub on. These rocks then bare witness of this activity for thousands of years. There are no wild buffalo here anymore, some bright enterprising Europeans decided it was better to kill them all off and bring in cows that you have to feed and house all winter and help to calve in the spring or they will die. The buffalo were completely self sufficient and acclimatized. The natives here knew that but the white new comers were so much smarter... 😏 There are a few farmers here that have switched over to raising buffalo. They are zero maintenance and to tell you the truth, taste the same as cows to me, just a little less fatty. The downside for farmers is they are harder to fence in and harder to handle when it comes time to ship them for slaughter. When they do get away it is nearly impossible to get them back. A cow will tire out quickly but a Buffalo will settle into a 45 km/h lope and go for hours. They can easily be 150 km from home by morning! These are on a farm east of us. You can see the yellow ear tags.
  12. You might enjoy a bit of local natural history. I didn't drive closer because I am not stupid enough to want to shovel my way back out at -25 C especially since I just ran into town quick for a jug of milk for the grandsons. You can see where the horns of the buffalo rubbed a ring in the stone. These stones are actually fairly common on the prairie.
  13. Does it in the summer too. What is a vcds? I have a OBDII reader if that works.
  14. Yes plastic does not do so well in the cold. This is why I chose to wait rather than force the issue because the hood release handle is plastic and last winter it snapped off. Things get stiff and I could tell It was going to brake if I pushed my luck. I could have boosted the car and got it going but this way I am not trying to get another release handle shipped across the pond. Every couple of months Franklin idles rough and has no power. I think this is some sort of "limp home" mode. We just shut him off and restart again and all is good. Happened again yesterday in the middle of Sandra's mail run. Not sure the cause but it goes away on it's own... so far. Still -30 this morning but the forecast is for more moderate temperatures in 4 more days.
  15. Good news! Franklin is back in circulation! Warmed up to -26 with a -36 wind chill and away he went!
  16. Ya tried lifting and tried pushing down but neither one works right now. Back down to -38 again this morning so - rather than get rough and brake something I will just wait a bit more...
  17. No it did not go. It attempted, made a few promising fires and then quit trying. I'm not sure if it is because of low battery voltage that it quit firing or flooded with fuel. The problem with fuel injection sometimes is that when flooded you can't just hold it to the floor to clear it out like carbureted cars. The system keeps flogging the fuel in anyway. The bonnet release is so stiff that if I force it we will have a broken plastic release lever again just like last winter so boosting it right now is not an option. Just be patient I guess until we get a break in this cold. The old Dodge is still starting. I need to find room to keep these cars out of the wind. That is what is sucking the heat out of the block heaters. Even though the temperature is better today the wind is still strong making it feel like -46.
  18. All service lines are buried a minimum of 8' underground. That is normally deep enough to be below the frost level but occasionally an extended cold snap without enough snow cover and even that is not good enough. My problem though is that my water line comes up in the root cellar and the pressure tank and filter are in there before it goes into the house. Over the last 20 years the wood structure of the root cellar has shifted opening up some cracks so that when the wind blows from the North West it gets draughty in there and it is hard to keep the temperature up. We only got down to -4 in there but that when left overnight with no water flow is all it takes to freeze the system off. All good now, I put an electric heater in there and a fan to stir the air around so in about 3 hours we are back in business. A touch of frost like that by the way really sweetens up the potatoes but we will have to watch out for spoilt ones now! It warmed up to -30 overnight so I'm thinking Franklin should be in the mood to run now.
  19. Temp went up to -30 today but we have a 50 km/h wind so that makes the wind chill factor to be the same as -49. Not a pretty day! having trouble with the water freezing off coming into the house.
  20. Ya, I was trying to make a joke. It's the cold. Turns over but just barely. The Jetta and Forester would not start either and they were all plugged in but the old Dodge Cummins fired right up. It must have some big brute of a block heater! At this temperature lots of cars don't start.
  21. Franklin let us down for the first time this morning! Turned over but no fire. Maybe it's time for new spark plugs again?
  22. No injury but very disappointing as the older VWs with the ALH engines are getting very hard to find with a good rust free body. This one was good! The drive trains on these cars way outlast the bodies. No not free delivery, I am making a trade for shop time in his heated facility with a lift to do some work on my cars.
  23. This post has nothing to do with Franklin, my son rolled his Golf TDI and sold it for parts to a school friend so being the gullible Dad I am I made the 980Km one way trip to bring it back for his Buddy. Some here seem to like our mountain scenery and there was lots of that on this trip. First, the unfortunate victim. Then some of the scenery. It was quite mild for this time of year, coldest encountered was -26C at the top of one of the passes. -45C is not uncommon there. And one of the snow sheds built built to let the avalanches pass over the road without shutting the traffic down.
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