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Greetings from the Canada!


oprn
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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.

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Hi from England I had exactly the same problem the bush shattered into bits x I got a new bush with the same dimensions from ebay and used a set up of tightening a set up of bolts to push it down into place because it was a really tight fit since then have had no problem x

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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! 

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  • 6 months later...

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!

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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.

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Edited by oprn
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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.

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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!

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Edited by oprn
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Good work. Neat welding!

To be honest, I've never seen a Lupo door fail like that, unless it's been really yanked hard or slammed open by the wind. My guess is that the door is meant to fail before the 'A' pillar as it's an easier repair...? 

I'd've left the notches as they are, since when parked on a hill, you really want it to stay open. Lupos have big doors!

That little door pull cable thing (i originally thought you meant the internal long one), usually comes as part of the lock mech assembly. Same as golf and passat, if you find one being broken up somewhere. I bet it's fallen down into the door... :)

Also the hinges are the same as upper rear 4 door mk4 golf (and quite a few other vdubs). The lower hinge usually goes first for some reason. Happened to two of my Loops.

No studded tyres allowed here. It'd be so cool though.

True. It's quite remarkable how cavernous the tiny lupo is without its passenger seat 👍🏻

 

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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.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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.

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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?

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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...

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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...   

Edited by oprn
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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!

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On 1/5/2022 at 3:37 PM, oprn said:

Yes I could. I also have a 2004 Jetta wagon for parts right here in the yard now that I think of it.

The OEM part number is 1J3837069B and it is the same as Lupo. 

Again, thank You for great pictures! I like how truck bed in second picture is the same size as whole Lupo. Is your Lupo pre-heatable with electricity?

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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.

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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!

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