the handy thing about the late setup with tensioner pulley is MK4 golf alternators bolt straight on so easy to get spares, and if you need a beefy ones very easy to get even 120-150 pretty common in this shape. The early setup is a bit of a mare to even find 90a versions these days!
Bumpers , Flush, Tidy up. Upgraded the top hose... Everything seems to fit. Forgot where this went, worked it out this morning. Time to refresh the bumper, it has more lives than a cat. The rear to do... Take the window out, really?? I thought I posted this, I couldnt wait any longer for deutsche parts flange to arrive so I gooped it up and carefully put it on. Manifolds and brackets went on smoothly, I buy new stainless hexes every time I work back there, I think all the bolts are correct length and fresh, the heat shield was loose when I disassembled. Quite happy with the top hose change as the one piece old hose stessed me out, I could never find one like it anywhere. So the old one is in the spares box, just in case. It was rough when starting, but settled down after a while. I've been warming up and dumping coolant all morning, using fresh water until all residue of oil escapes. Im not keen to remove the thermostat housing and remove thermostat so Ill push on with several cycles and flushes before I use demineralised water and coolant. Now with battery back in, I can get on with the lower lights and bumpers, Im filler priming the bumper and then Ill be onto matt black my fav!!! Will cycle through the cooling systems through the day.
John, thanks for that info, I am going to swap things around and have just the return from the AC directly to the Brake Servo nipple. PS: Thanks for all the info for Alternators, you too Peter, Im going with what I have until I get to finding a few parts that might work. Either way Im going back in to change the front flange at some point and may revisit then. Need to salvage a few hoses to go the other way too.
Bumpers and Parkers. Several thin coats of Primer Filler with a thick mix and tweaking the pressure to give it a dry spray. Then built up and scuffed back, not too seriously I could spend the whole day on it alone and that's not the idea. Started with a thin mix and worked up the matt black to a thicker mix and switched between dry and wet shoots, came out ok and there's only so much you can polish a turd. Spent an hour hunting for the parking lights, found them and trod on the soldering iron bare foot!!! Ouch. Taking a break before I burn my other foot doing the other side. Also flushed the engine several times until it was clean. Added coolant and engine is good to go. Sad news is, yet another *^^*&^ water pump bearing has failed, I put the mechanics stethoscope on it and it was not a pretty sound of bearings rolling freely. Time to order the timing belt and pump. It's the second one in as many years and I wont be using another Repco pump! PS: My bumpers sit crooked and we would shim under the front hole in the chassis rail. Its tedous so now Ive shimmed the bracket and hope to get it aligned that way.
My hands hurt It was a long day with many loose ends to tidy. I reverted back to the Original Hella Lamp and it's odd H4 partner, the HALO clones were so cheap I couldn't bare to handle them and the light was rattling. Fortunately I'd picked up a set of lamp mounts from heritage and had to use them to replace the mangled existing ones. I know what I need for when I fit new ones. Im using two long bolts through my number plate to laminate the bumper skin to the bumper itself. Yet another part that relives like a phoenix. Coolant hoses seems to have held up several cycles. Wrapped the wiring looms and terminated bosch connectors for the lower lights. (Must get tools for these connectors)... Need to find radiator slide in mount, I lose things... Horn works... Hands really sore... back sore... so little left to do... happy sigh
LOL... Quite Saggy indeed!! Lost my cool when aligning the gearshifter, took three goes at it and I still couldnt get first without slipping under the Reversing plate, which for obvious reasons isnt what you want from 1st at the traffic lights. So while waiting for Luke at work I removed the console and the rubber bushing at the stick end is shagged too. So Im going to conjure something up and it will be all good. I pushed a piece of cardboard in to remove slop and I could get first easy! No other dramas, stinks of oil and coolant at the moment and it's to be expected. Temps are good and it's been a 30c day, no smoke, no flames.. all good.
Ok so I took a look at the bushing in the cabin and it was very sloppy. I tried slipping rubber hosing but it wouldnt wedge in, then I found a thick cardboard roll and sleeved it over the shaft and then used the gear lever to wedge it in and shim out the slop. Smother in grease and worked a treat, not as smooth as it should be, but no slop and easy shifts. I read RJ's FAQ guide on MK2 shifters, seems like a lot of work to replace the bushing in the shifter box.
Then I would suggest using a sleeve and the shifter to insert it. A split teflon sleeve with a 16mm ID and 2-3mm wall would have been perfect! What I used was a hard, 3mm thick cardboard spool, long enough to fit when in 2nd gear on the shaft. I sliced the split with a sharp blade and took off enough to get me to 16mm, so it was far from a perfect solution, but inserting a sleeve was the only option I had. Used a long screwdriver to prevent it kinking and drove it into the existing bush with the shifter, then trimmed off the excess with a stanley knife. If I'd made the front bush tighter, it would have been even better, with the way it is, in gear I have very little sideways play, what is there is at the front bush and I will revisit this another time. I found working the clamp from underneath a lot easier, specially with a warm engine.
You'd think I'd learn my lesson, I just spent 3 hours of my life trying to get the left lower light working and it was a poor quality connector from the manufacturer. Here I am installing more cheap quality rubbish just so I can remove it later on. Oh well, we live and learn, the originals are mighty expensive. Time to head back to wreckers and harvest more genuine bosch connectors. On a good note, she's purrring along nicely and the shifter is sweeeeet! PS: Note to self to round off the sharp edge at the base of the hood support. My arm is shredded
Someone cleared the voice box Ok, so the sun and planets aligned and pointed me in the direction of Rob Bliss, cool business name! He's been there 30 years, called him on the phone and told me to pop in. I asked him if he catered for custom stainless work and by browsing the Jetex systems at VWH, it seemed 2.5" was the way to go. It was full "as you wish" service, the muffler had to be tucked tight and parallel to ground, I asked about the Beveled flanges, he said they were painful and could do much easier with simple flanges, so I didnt want to go against a 30 yr veteran's advice. Did I mention I would like a quiet system.. Anyway, they had the young guy doing it with the mech watching over every move. They seemed to like the car, the apprentice was stoked to get a chance to install a nice system. I told him to take his time and do a nice job worthy of a few beers later, we had our hoist side consultation on how I'd like the tips built and he proceeded with the fabrication. It took him around 5-6 hours. Now I did mention that I distinctly told them I care for my neighbours and would like a quiet system, so we upgraded the center muffler/resonator to a longer one one and we set it back to work quieter (apparently)!! The old system was off, it resembled a street post connected to a narrowed hot do into an old crooked genuine MK2 stainless. It's amazing how exhaust systems look skinny when you're looking at 2.5" systems in the showroom. So I told them, all the way to the CAT please. Many hours of marching the streets between my sons shop, McDonalds and a EURO Supplier where I found a cheap SKF water pump with housing for the ABF, 50 quid, in the box. Anyway, we had a final chat about the exhaust tips and I gave him latitude to work with, it's a slightly skewed, but I can live with it, he did a good job and there's room for small errors in my world. Two big eyes peering up and out the side, NICE! Anyway, as the young fella was wiping things down, the owner and I went to sort out the $$ and I heard this awesome roar, sounded familiar too. The boss and I walked into the shop floor where the lead mech was at the rear of the car with a huge grin on his face, the boss was laughing, I was laughing and the apprentice was like OMG, I thought it had a turbo, at which point Rob says.. "It's ok, when you put the turbo it, it will quieten down. DAMN IT"S LOUD... TOO LOUD...OMG IT SOUNDS SO GOOD and THE ENGINE SINGS, still purrs too. It has such a wicked note, four motorheads in a muffler garage couldn't help but chuckle even when we were trying to tone it down. Im not sure what my next move will be, it certainly slows you down, everyone knows when you do give it the pedal. I think there's something common to all our reactions. We all say "it's loud", and end the sentence with "but it sounds real good!" You can hear the ABF without being choked by a hot dog. WE TRIED!!! [youtube]9VVmifcT9h4[/youtube] (To get a quiet sport system and slipped into bliss.)
I guess you are hoping that`ll quieten down a bit after some use !! As a customer who expressly asked for a quiet system, I`d be unhappy with that if I`m honest. Not that it`s a bad system or sound, but it`s not really what you asked for is it ?
You're right, while boys will be boys and it's lovely to hear the ABF that loudly, I think we may go for another muffler. The Jetex come in three mufflers, I gathered there's reason to it. It does sound very nice though, just a wee too loud for my aged neighbours and I spent that latter years listening to the idiot across the road with the Harley Davidson and straight through pipes, pointing at my home and it's not nice however much you like engines.
You are right it will need another muffler to damp it down some more. In the end it will drive you around the bend as well. (There will be giggles before you reach that point though..)
[video]https://youtu.be/-_J6GYUiO4E[/video] So I went into Rob Bliss exhaust today and booked in for another muffler, appointment was at two and when I arrived a little earlier, Rob was already onto it. He upgraded the rear muffler to a larger one and installed another resonator on the way to the kink over the trailing arm. No charges for removal or change, just the cost of additional muffler, so the experience from the service was more than worth it, having had a good listen to the ABF was well worth the extra few coins. It's definitely toned down the volume, the note is much the same and to be honest I wouldn't want it restricted any more. Sure there's still a grumble to it but once I had a taste of tuned exhaust, de-tuning it too much and I'll be miserable. So it's happy days
Niggling issues. Left CV or Wheel bearings are rumbling 2nd new repco replacement waterpump bearing fail. Still seeking reversing switch Other than that, running nicely.
The builders just as good as many on here and probably got more patience than most lol Well done mate looking and sounding great on the internet never mind in reality lol
