Project Plum - The Plan of Attack

[boost monkey 0]

Oh, and we've had 2 pages on a water pump swap. Could you imagine how long his thread would become if he did the head gasket? :lol:

:rofl: Can I take a guess at 1,420,490,367,238,908 pages?

 

You cut me deep back there! Besides, I'm the comic relief for this forum. If I wasn't here, you'd actually be doing your day jobs :shock: :shock: :shock:

[mrbeige 0]

Well, who else were you gonna get bent over your bonnet in that thong?

I hope that's not the one I gave him???

[boost monkey 0]

Well, who else were you gonna get bent over your bonnet in that thong? Lol

 

:luvlove: :luvlove: :luvlove: I've got a free evening and a tub of lithium grease :norty:

 

You're next Stu :camp:

[mrbeige 0]

You're next Stu :camp:

Sloppy seconds ???????? Frankly I'm hurt

[boost monkey 0]

*ahem*

 

Anyways, Mic_VR you worked it out yet?

 

It's the bottle in the hedgerow :nuts:

[mic_VR 3]

*ahem*

 

Anyways, Mic_VR you worked it out yet?

 

It's the bottle in the hedgerow :nuts:

 

Bottle? Damn! I thought it was the lack of Otters... :(

[boost monkey 0]

Love the avatar. If you know what I mean.

[mic_VR 3]

Love the avatar. If you know what I mean.

 

Weird thing is, I haven't aged a day since 1976.. :scratch:

[Toad 0]

You do look particularly sexy.

[boost monkey 0]

If my project thread could stop being the gay dogging capital of the universe that would be just grand :sad: :lol:

 

[Rolf]Can you guess what it is yet?[/Rolf]

[boost monkey 0]

 

It's the subframe, Captain 70s. I pulled the frame and it's connected parts yesterday, took about 3 hours all in. More pics up soon.

[Dec 1]

How have you got the engine supported with the subframe out? Have you got all the weight balanced on the front mount? :scratch:

 

Just curious, as I had a small army of jacks + supports under the engine when I removed the subframe on mine (twice :roll: )

[boost monkey 0]

Some people are theorising that I'm using the engine crane with load leveller....but this is not so.

 

Pics are deceiving! Prodigal thought it would freak some people out if he photoshopped the axle stands out. there's one under the box and one at the back of the sump ;) Here's the before and after...a brother's got skillz!

 

 

[Dec 1]

Darn you and your devious photoshop chicanery! :lol: :lol:

 

P.s. Nice work :salute:

[boost monkey 0]

The whole story in pictures

 

The Beginning

 

 

Stands just supporting car weight. They're quite far back on the chassis rails.

 

 

 

One day soon, I WILL have a nice rad support! Funnily enough, early spec Corrados don't have the PAS cooler bar on. I guess I must have just had the exact same system as the Mk2 Golf. PAS going back on is late spec with small cylinder fluid bottle.

 

 

 

Nice antique-y look anyone? Engine mount definitely seen better days. Shaft vibration mount still intact though.

 

 

 

 

Placing stands under the engine and box. I jacked it up a little to take the strain off the mounts and subsequently the bolts came right on out :)

 

 

 

 

Stand under dooberry on bottom of block. Strong enough to take the weight :salute:

 

 

 

Orange Orange Greys: The choice of champions.

 

 

The Removal

 

 

9 to go - frame to chassis bolt nearside

 

 

 

8 to go - wishbone bolt nearside

 

 

 

7 to go - rear frame mount bolt nearside

 

 

 

6 to go - frame to chassis bolt offside

 

 

 

5 to go - wishbone bolt offside

 

 

 

4 to go - rear frame mount bolt offside

 

 

 

3 to go - gearbox mount bolt

 

 

 

Done! Rear engine mount bolts (although technically there's 2 more on the steering U/J ;) no pics of those... oh yeah and the 2 bolts for the LBJs....and the other 2 bolts for the track rods... but then it's really done! :dorky: :cuckoo: :lol: )

 

 

 

Had to thread the PAS lines up and over the driveshaft to get them out, which wasn't too bad. They weren't seized into the rack or the pump which was a very nice change!

 

 

 

 

 

Manoeuvring the frame out was a little Wonky Donkey, mainly as I had left the second jack underneath it :nuts: Not quite sure what happened to the engine mount, hydraulic oil leak maybe? or perhaps it just died! rubber looked like it had melted and reset...

 

 

 

Took the U/J off of the rack which never really worked properly. I'm gonna use this rack's track length as a rough initial starting point for the fresh rack: hopefully it will be alright enough to drive it over to Captain Lazor's Align-So-Fine :lol:

 

 

 

You know you own a Corrado when you permanently lose half your driveway :cuckoo:

 

 

 

The old in the back yard. You can see the newer copper line on the PAS rack. Unfortunately it always leaked, not much I could do. Didn't want to sling a spare pipe on cos I'd lose motivation to do all this! Anyways, I tentatively attacked the wishbone bolts with an erwin from the off: not taking any chances! Unfortunately heard a *CRACK* on the second one...oh crap.... :pale:

 

 

 

PHEW. I'm getting better at this... :grin:

 

 

 

20 mins after my wishbone victory. Frame is ok, flaking in a few areas but still solid. Needs a good lick of POR me thinks.

 

 

 

Mount of doom. This thing really does seem to have failed spectacularly! :nuts:

 

 

Pics of the freshness up on the car when I get round to it :salute:

[boost monkey 0]

Didn't do anything today cos I ACHE LIKE A MOFO! :sad:

 

Glad I bent at the knees to move the subframe around, it saved my back from injury, but my thighs are burning like the sun and my arms are pretty achey too (and i'm not tiny, really).

 

Hopefully tomorrow will be fitting the new stuff: Stick it all on the jack. wiggle it a bit to line it up and then sling all the bolts on!

 

Robert is your father's brother :salute:

[pete_griff 0]

Didn't do anything today cos I ACHE LIKE A MOFO! :sad:

 

Glad I bent at the knees to move the subframe around, it saved my back from injury, but my thighs are burning like the sun and my arms are pretty achey too (and i'm not tiny, really).

 

Hopefully tomorrow will be fitting the new stuff: Stick it all on the jack. wiggle it a bit to line it up and then sling all the bolts on!

 

Robert is your father's brother :salute:

 

good luck my friend - hope you get it all sorted.

 

you might want to get a mate to help you (if available) with lining up the steering UJ with the rack and making sure the bolts recess is correctly lined up.

once mine was lined up, i had to tap the UJ down over the splines on the rack with a bar - only very lightly, but it didn't want to just slide all the way of it's own accord. i found it easiest with a trolley jack underneath when i did mine too.

 

as i said, good luck anyway :)

[boost monkey 0]

Cool, cheers for the advice Pete. Yeah UJs seem really reluctant to slide on and off even without bolts! :nuts:

[mic_VR 3]

Hats off to you Monkey Man, some good work there. I did my wishbones in situ and it was a PITA! You seem like you've tamed the beast now though. :grin:

 

The mount is a mess, bet the car felt shite out on the road before you started all this work?

[Jim 2]

Nice work - would really like to do this to mine at some point and refresh everything on there. The wishbones and balljoints are new on mine (well year or so old) but a new rack and associated bits would be sweet, and to tart up the subframe or replace it would be better... one day!

[boost monkey 0]

Hats off to you Monkey Man, some good work there. I did my wishbones in situ and it was a PITA! You seem like you've tamed the beast now though. :grin:

 

Yeah, changing bones in situ is :gag: had to do that on my Jetta a while back.

 

The mount is a mess, bet the car felt **** out on the road before you started all this work?

 

Well, I couldn't go WOT in first or above 4000 at POT cos the engine rocked too much so never done a fast 1st to 2nd change. I think if I could I wouldn't slate the corrado 16v _as_ much :lol: The ignition bits have allowed me to hit redline now, so maybe when it's all back together I will take it for another blast.

 

Handling wise, both top mounts are dead on the shocks and go "DNK" over big bumps, tons and tons of vagueness in the steering too, so yeah it handled like ass.

 

The boges are going on today too :norty:

[boost monkey 0]

Nice work - would really like to do this to mine at some point and refresh everything on there. The wishbones and balljoints are new on mine (well year or so old) but a new rack and associated bits would be sweet, and to tart up the subframe or replace it would be better... one day!

 

Firstly, pretty sure you were right about my bodged coolant draining that time buddy so cheers for the input :salute:

 

If you do what I did and buy everything seperately and build it up and then swap it out it's a lot less hassle than taking bits off, cleaning them up and painting them. I still have the parts lists for everything i've done (just filled out list #6 for rear beam) so let me know and I can send them over.

 

I've also just dropped £500 on the whole rear beam assembly. All the brakes, stoneshields, suspension, and 2 pages of fixings from VW. I must be loco... :cuckoo:

[boost monkey 0]

 

Ooops. That top mount is getting cut out then...

 

 

 

Completed subframe with steering rack too! This is what freshness looks like :nuts:

 

 

 

Gonna use the old rack to roughly sort the tracking out. Jim, you can have it when i'm finished ;)

[boost monkey 0]

Huh.

 

The U/J i got from the scrapper with the rack I've rebuilt is the wrong one, it needs to be the 22-spline but it's the 30something spline one instead.

 

I have 2 U/Js, one from The Burgundy and the other from the scrapper car...and they're the same :scratch:

[Supercharged 2]

Looks almost mint!

 

Nice work dude - I swapped a steering rack boot in situ this morning, looks a hell of a lot easier with it like above!