boost monkey

Well, I had a nice turn up for the books this avo! I phoned FJ to take out the new policy for us both, unlimited mileage for £800. All went through fine, and then the lady transferred me to cancel the original policy. Ok cool, everything is getting sorted. So I cancel all of that then she tells me: "I'm just goiung to pop you on hold whilst I calculate your refund". Ok..... what refund? I'vew done like 5999 miles of a 6000 policy. I hald expected her to come back and say she will refund me 2p or something. Anyways, she comes back and says I'm owed £215 refund....uh what! I've almost maxed out the mileage on a limited policy. How can I be owed so much? She said it's calculated pro rata for the 7months left remaining on the policy, and because I haven't actually passed the limited mileage then I am owed all that money back. She also said it's partly a loyalty scheme as I took my new policy out with them too. But how awesome is that? I do about 99% of the miles i'm allowed to do, and still get 45% of the premium refunded! :D So that's the new deposit paid for and a little bit of cash in hand too :)

That happened to my mum in Reading. She hit a big one in her Mk2 Jetta and it ripped the LBJ out and then when the wheel landed again the driveshaft outer CV tore off the shaft. She took pics and took them to the council but by the time she took them in they had repaved the whole road!! I ended up inheriting the Jetta as she had lost all faith in it. Real shame. Get as many pics as you can ASAVP and harass your local council. They should pay for everyone's repairs.

tbh, our situation isn't great. Even though Jo has 10+ years Int'l driving under her belt, not many people recognise it and only see her as owning a Full UK for 14 months. Also, all my NCB lapsed in January this year due to being abroad for a long period and never reinsuring a car. Brentacre wanted £965 FC with a £500(!) excess, HIC wanted £1700 just TPFT alone... I phoned FJ back and they said on a new unlimited policy they could put us both on with a £75 excess Fully Comp for £810. It's easily the cheapest one, although the 20% deposit + 3 hefty monthly payments are going to dent the wallet kinda hard...! I would like to have a normal policy but with Jo looking like a "new driver" and me with zero NCB it's ridiculously hard just to get something in 3 figures. She'll happily not go on as a named driver, but actually the premiums don't change much so i'd rather pay a few more quid and just let her use the car than ferry her about! ---------- Post added at 01:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:33 PM ---------- Yeah tony, she is warming to it a bit despite wanting a Nissan Figaro aka Noddy Car! I just wonder if saving the money by taking her off the policy is going to be worth all the moaning I get.... Is it ever?!

Now now, before you all go mental I've asked VR6 if this is ok to post and he says yes. I bought this ages ago on eBay for parts as it was sold as non-working. After opening it up to get the parts I wanted I noticed that it has a chip on the board with little spaghetti wires going all over. So I put t back together and fired it up. The casing says NTSC-J on the back, the BIOS says NTSC (USA and Canada one) and it plays all my PAL games (PS1 and PS2) and has played a genuine NTSC import game I bought previously too in full colour and everything. I haven't tested with copied games because I don't own any and they are wrong. It requires you to push Power once for PS2 games, and twice for PS1 games. Else it will load the red screen which says the disc isn't compatible. From my research on the printed details on the chip it seems to be one of the old Mars chips so quite a basic mod. Anyways, just trying to free up a little cashola so if anyone is interested please let me know and I'll go into more detail and also list games etc etc. J-unit.

Ah no that's fine then. I thought you had pulled the pump off cos you mangled it in your MacDonald's Carpark Friday Funtime Fest.

Yeah I have. I drove mine without any lines going into the PAS rack at all, but you're asking for dirt and grime to enter if you do that. Also when you turn the wheel the PAS lines will squirt PAS fluid out if you don't have them going to a tank or something (and if you leave them on!) Driving with no PAS builds the pythons. The guns. The destroyers. Check out this guy. He drives a Corrado with no PAS: I know i've got my tickets....

Yeah, I have heard stories of their bulletproof nature! Despite my back box being a bit rumbly, it does give a nice *boof* when you change up whilst on the beans. ---------- Post added at 01:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 PM ---------- Also, I have managed to cover almost all of my 6000 miles on the Footman James policy for the Golf in just 5 months. When I took out the policy in April, I hadn't finished uni yet and wasn't using the car much at all. After I graduated I got a job 25 miles away in Newbury, so am currently doing 50miles a day or 250 miles per working week. This is obviously more than 1000 per calendar month, so we have been eating up the mileage. Om nom nom! I spoke to FJ just now and to extend the policy to unlimited would be an extra £700(!!). A little steep considering the limited premium was about £400 for both me and my little south african wifey. They said that I could adjust it to unlimited with just me on there for £450 for the last 7 months that the policy runs for. Otherwise, we could take out an identical policy for another 6000 miles running for another 12 months with both of us covered for £350 FC. I don't think we will lose anything as no NCB is taken into account or even racked up on classic car policies. I just wonder whether I will be in the same position in another 5 months, having used up all 6000 miles. Again. Perhaps paying an extra £100 to gain the unlimited mileage, and just telling wifey she can't drive it is the way forward. I'm hoping that I'm not always going to be doing 50 miles a day for work but I guess in the current job market you just don't know. Sometimes you have to go where the money is :-/

I need to know your secret DBP panel supplier.... :/

Sounds useful CheeseFish. I'm sure with some accurate modelling and stress analysis a component could be designed that would be able to cope withe the rigorous forces.

Ah yes, it's making sense. Cheers for that clarification! I'd need some basic dims off both LBJ and hub, like: inner diameter of hub hole, outer diameter of LBJ shaft (M10/12 etc), length of LBJ shaft, required offset/extension, other dimensions (i.e. does it need to clear anything through the suspension travel) Grabbing an old VR hub and an LBJ would be a good start! but that still doesn't clarify whether it would interfere with suspension between bump and droop. You could probably make a small part which had an interference fit from LBJ > extender, and also extender > hub, but it might be a total ballache to remove. Using the pic above, perhaps something a little more complex with tabs that reach down to the most outboard LBJ mounting holes (not the slot) but this would increase manufacturing costs. I think a simple cylindrical design which can be lathed from a solid billet would be the best idea.

Firstly, best sig ever. Is he a relative? Let us know how you get on with the rebuilding.

Unless a VR is a thousand miles different to a 4cylinder, I'm sure you'll be fine with just having the car down on the ground. With all that weight on the front end, I'd be surprised if the wheel turned when undoing a hub nut (unless your tyres are bald). Use a long breaker bar like a 2ft one to increase the torque you can apply. General method is standing on the end of it...!

really? that sounds like some odd logic. If the vertical distance is reduced (std to -20, -40, -60 etc) then the angle the bone is at will be different each time. Perhaps I should indeed try to look at a vr hub to see what is going on. Should be a simple affair to do though, finding a machine shop which will run of a low quantity amount may be harder.... potential GB? ---------- Post added at 01:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 PM ---------- I think i can see some of the differences betwee the 4cyl and 6cyl LBJs. This is the VR item I think: so instead if having a recessed groove all the way around which a bolt sits in to hold the LBJ in place, it torques up into the bottom of the hub and I guess that tapered shoulder provides an interference fit?

Not bad thanks. The Plum strip is going well, although it'll be on backburner for 3 weeks as it's at my bro's house and he has guests until mid october. Gives me time to work out exactly what I'm gonna do - budget is telling me same old KR! I'm focussing all my spare cash on clearing debt atm, then i'm hopinh to have some more fun later with the C but i'm not getting my hopes up. Using a 22y/o golf as a daily is also something which requires a fair bit of maintenance...!

omg, deffo don't want to get a "nomal" one! do you know what vertical distance the wishbones need to be adjusted to then sit flat, is it deffo 15mm? I'm sure it would be possible for some CAD monkey to do a little design and then give a basic schematic to a machine shop.

That's kinda special.

Agree with quicky. It's a losing battle trying to undo the hub nut whilst the car is in the air, esp without any brakes!

Why not drop the car and drop the roll centre too? Is there any reason why you would like to keep the roll centre the same height? I definitely don't know everything about suspension, but I just finished Motorsport Engineering degree at Oxford Brookes so would be happy to help if I can. I'll have a hunt for some pics of VR hubs so I can see how your ball joints mount.

Sorry to hear that Louis. Hows things anyways?

Perhaps 27th in the title is the correct date then. He must be out buffing up the Fiat with some italiano boys. No doubt he'll come to his senses and return here soon :D

27th and 29th? I has a confuse.

I finally got the engine out today! Well the block and gearbox :D It took me ages to get the bumper off. I finally realised that the inner wing liners were in the way and the worst thing happened - rusted crosshead screws. How in the name of all that is holy do you ever get them off? They're like the ninjas of the VW fastener world. Impossible to beat. I managed to squeeze he bumper edges off past them and then I realised it weights about 7.3 tons. Are you kidding me? Its like a full I-beam in there. After that the front panel was easy peasy, and I quickly remembered that the clutch slave (slave, not gimp) was still attached. I started to ndo the 2 13mm bolts that hold it onto the bellhousing and quickly realised some bumtard decided that you have to remove the box turret to get the cylinder out. Cut to some heaving on the spirally hard line to flexi hose join (technical term)and then the slave is now free. Ironic. Shortly after that I reeeaallly regretted not separating the block from the gearbox, because they were soon on the floor together, rolling about like two stupid heavy things joined at the hip like non-identical siamese twins. Where one twin is an engine block and the other is a gearbox. Ummm... Anyways so I got them apart and stored the gearbox. The block was too heavy to haul by myself so I left it on the floor in the engine bay area, reattached the front panel and bumper loosely with minimal bolts and then retarped the wagon. Not bad for a couple of hours. Looking forward to cleaning up the bay. Oh yeah, the tray rot on the NS goes through to the chassis rail, but I still think it's salvagable. I swept all the crud up on that side and most of it is solid. No I haven't been drinking tonight. Unfortunately.

Ok, so I decided to investigate a bit more last night before I drove home. I pulled the rubber bung off the top of the yellow wire to the sensor on the oil filter housing...and the wire came off in my hand leaving the spade attached to the sensor! :lol: A little rummaging around, and after I managed to snap about 2" out of the loom(!) I got it recrimped and all was well. I am SO relieved I don't need a new block!

I would think t's just for the drivehome yeah.

Yeah I wasn't ragging it at all. Too much traffic and was feeling bit tired. The thing with the oil starvation theory is that the light went off around both left and right hand bends, and we all know the pump is only on the offside....I think! I don't mind pulling the sump off and having a look. I only have spare 16v pumps so no chance of using those as they're spline drive from aux shaft and IIRC digi is notch drive. It is due for an oil change soon, so i'll get some Synta and do that at the same time. Perhaps there are some little bits in the gauze which are throwing it off.... but I REALLY REALLY hope it's a sensor/wiring issue! I like that idea, get a few more cc's too! I'll see how it goes. Unfortunately I won't be able to check it until after work now. I'll scrape the connectors back to good metal on the block and head, that should get me home. The fact that my KR died pretty quick after the buzzer came on (it was around 170k too) gave me some hope as it still starts, runs and sounds like it always has. I'll keep you updated....Will I need a new block for BOTH my cars?! :-/