Project Plum - The Plan of Attack

[boost monkey 0]

Current job ends tomorrow

 

Current job has just been extended by a week :grin: :dance:

 

Money is beyond tight at the mo, so this is a massive relief.

[boost monkey 0]

Spoke to Kidlington Tye & Exhaust Centre today about pushing a new bearing into my spare hub. They quoted 0.5 hours work to remove the old bearing and push the new one in, which is £12.50 + VAT (~£14.70). That's cheaper than I could get the tools alone for and will be nice to build up a relationship with a garage seeing as I do all my own labour. Spoke to steve and he was a nice bloke, happy to help etc. I'm thinking I might ask them for a quote on plating up my rotten battery tray too.

 

They can't do it today as they're a bit short-staffed but can do it Monday, so I will likely take it over in my lunch break and then pick it up on tuesday perhaps :salute:

 

I guess I will take the C to them when the MOT is due too so that will be cool.

[boost monkey 0]

So.... seeing as I got some new window looms from Mr.Beige and paid for as a present from Prodigal ( :clap: :grin: :salute: :cheers: 8)) I popped over to P's on saturday and thought we might give them a go.

 

After removing the doorcards and fusebox trim (and working out that the wiring diagrams we had were for a US spec car - basically wiring sides were swapped!) we attacked the loom. The dendrils of thick red spaghetti wire and the importance of the block of 4 relays became quickly apparent: those relays were working the windows :shock: (or not working the windows, to put it more accurately).

 

Prodigal proceeded to cut all the crap out of the loom as it obviously wasn't working. There were at least 3 inline fuses on the same line (why?) which was pointless so we got rid of it all. Tracing the wiring back towards the fusebox, we quickly realised that something was wrong. The wiring to the control module (behind rear doorcard) was being superceded by these relays - they were a bodge replacement!

 

Ok, we thought, maybe it just needs this wiring removing and a new control module found. Simple enough. We pull back the rear doorcard to see what the problem is:

 

 

Oh. I don't even have a Window Control Module.... Awesome! :brickwall: :bad-words: :mad2: There are so many shortcuts in this car it's beyond funny.

 

So, my windows still don't work and the only spare Control Module I had got sold about 2 months ago.... you couldn't write this :cuckoo:

 

Under the glovebox, there are more relays (obviously controlling the up/down motion of passenger window) and also the Quartz Ultrasonics alarm with tons of wires butchered around it - doubt it even works :nuts:

 

So yeah, I love electronics :pale:

 

If I can find a cheap runabout, this car is going off the road big style.

[vwdeviant 0]

No wonder you sounded a little stressed when I spoke to you Saturday!

 

Least you didn't have a 5hr trip to cover 70 miles! :nuts:

[boost monkey 0]

Ha ha yeah! Sorry mate, didn't mean to be short! :nuts: Glad you got yours home though, will have to read up on your other issues sometime soon.

[boost monkey 0]

Well, I attempted to go to the garage this lunch, but the northern hemisphere of the ring road was pretty chocka and as I was on my lunchbreak and had other things to do I turned back :sad:

 

On a plus point, I picked up my second febi bilstein wheel bearing from the depot afterwards. I don't need a second one, but I'm going to put it on whilst the front end is apart :salute:

 

Now i'm just waiting on new POR starter kit (Last kit went so far I thought it pointless to buy litres of the stuff - it costs the same per litre this way anyways! :shrug: ) which will be used on hubs and the rear beam (sprayed, but starting to flash a little) at some point. Maybe this weekend if it arrives in time.

 

Still not got the proper outlay for some new shocks. Maybe after my next job :|

[boost monkey 0]

Managed to get the hub and bearing to garage today. John asked me about the bearing too, so I guess they have strict rules on that aswell. I told him I just needed it back for the weekend so that's cool.

 

another Black POR kit came last night, so I'll get that on the rear beam. Thinking I might strip the current paint off it so that I can zinc plate the beam itself - makes sense to do it properly.

 

bit worried about marine cleaning the hub when it's got the new bearing in, won't it dissolve all the grease inside? :ignore: :shrug:

 

Maybe I should just brush hammerite the hubs instead and mask off any bearing bits :salute:

[boost monkey 0]

Garage called to say they had done the bearing at 3pm! Awesome.

 

Prodigal Son has offered to pick it up to save my poverty petrol, so I will recompense him on receipt (cheers bro!) :salute: :cheers:

[boost monkey 0]

Got the bearing last night and it's really tight. Way less play axially and side to side, plus it doesn't spin freely and makes a nice shhh noise if you push it round :clap:

 

Garage charged £25+vat which is double what I expected, but maybe I misunderstood their labour charges :| Oh well, it's done now.

 

Also, I went fishing pretty hard on a wet roundabout last night, tried to catch it but ended up doing a little wiggle and then saw the traffic behind shrink back! :shock:

 

Must remember the Loud Pedal Straightening technique for L.O.O. moments (ah, what an apt acronym)

[boost monkey 0]

Off to B&Q today for some NitroMors, Goggles and thick gloves. Going to strip the base paint off the new rear beam and then POR it from bare metal.

 

I'll be doing the hubs in brush hammerite: The danger of getting some degreaser into the bearing is too high now, so I'll be taking it carefully with the satin black :salute:

[boost monkey 0]

Done the hub (first coat), and stripped the beam now - chemical burns are not fun :sad: Paint came off within a fewe seconds which was cool. Now I need to rinse all the paint/nitromors off without the beam flash rusting :confused4:

 

Edit: Page 35 - all in 6 months :grin:

[Supercharged 2]

Nice one - got any pics of the beam?

 

I need to get a spare and do similar...

[boost monkey 0]

Yeah I'll get some stripped pics up tomorrow :camp:

 

You can have the beam off the 70k breaker if you like? I've stripped it of parts, and it has some light flash rust but I don't want anything for it. Might be able to take it down to Toad's if that's any use to you. I'll get some pics of that aswell.

[boost monkey 0]

So I finally got round to digging these off my phone.

 

 

The wheel hub with the new bearing in :clap: zoom into bottom left corner

 

 

 

Re-drilled hole for new stone guard (yet to purchase) as the old bolt snapped. Titanium tipped drills OWN.

 

 

 

Rear beam the day after I Nitromors'd all the old paint off it. Unfortunately it flash rusted kinda bad. I had Marine Clean'd it here too.

 

 

 

Subsequent Metal Ready zinc phosphate coatings from the POR Starter kit...

 

 

 

 

 

Didn't work it's way all through the inside of the beam: A Metal Ready dip would be awesome for that. Needs to be kinda big though.

 

 

 

The family :lol: Shame the rad support is Non-PAS and the subframe is from a Mk2 Golf... any takers? :nuts:

 

No close-up shots of the Beam post-painting: it seems to have some trapped air bubbles in it. I think maybe the zinc phosphate releases a gas as it cures on the metal and that subsequently got trapped in the paint. The topcoat of POR is purely cosmetic though: the leaflet says one coat is enough, the topcoat is to stop sun fade :salute:

[mrbeige 0]

Good work Jon! Need to get some nitromorse and some POR myself ;)

[boost monkey 0]

After spotting some differences between the refurb'd beam and an old beam I have spare, I found out from previous owner that the one I bought is potentially from a Mk2 Golf :brickwall:

 

So, I pretty much have a whole chassis refurb kit for a mk2 (rear beam, cross member, subframe and rad support)... Not quite sure how I feel about that at the moment. :|

 

Anyways, seeing as I had a spare alternator kicking around, I decided to swap the voltage regulators over to see if it would fix my flickering lights.

 

 

The spare alternator

 

 

Pic of my ciurrent voltage reg (hand craned under top rad hose and narrowly avoiding dipstick!) obviously a pattern part.

 

 

contacts on Bosch one seem more worn, but they also sit closer inside the alternator.

 

 

other side of the regs. As you can see, major corrosion on terminals of the pattern (current) voltage reg.

 

I stuck the Bosch one in, and started the car up. Instant red battery light, so that one is dead or perhaps the carbon contacts don't connect. So, for the sake of being a clean freak ( :nuts: ) I wirebrushed the contacts on the pattern one and put it back in. The battery light flickered for a bit but went away, so I took it for a drive round the ring road to check it was still charging. It seemed fine and I got back in good time.

 

Popped out last night to get a film and I turned my lights on and no flickers! I'm guessing it must have been the dodgy contacts considering all I did was clean the pattern reg and put it back in. More money saved :clap:

 

Have ZERO spending money for a while now, as I have to save up £700 before I move house in early september for my deposit and months rent up front. Hoping to get the shocks soon though and get all the subframe setup put on :salute:

[boost monkey 0]

Battery light flickered a lot on the way to work this morning, on permanently at idle and inversely proportional to rpm.

 

sat on the dual at 60 in 3rd just to try and keep the battery charged.

 

On a plus note, my old golf 16v E405 MAD is now a full-blown (not like that) track car at the 'Ring! There's a 13-page build thread over on www.northloop.co.uk :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

Currently chatting to owners about it, looks like they've done a lot so far.

[ProdigalSon 1]

Battery update? :wink:

[boost monkey 0]

Had a major breakdown (well, not major major) on the A34 south last night.

 

Car ran to a stop after using all it's electricities! For a bit of background, I hate electronics. It's the one thing I can't do at uni. Testing polymers in the Matlab - fine. Stripping engines - easy. Passing a basic electronics module- uhhh..... :blink:

 

I'd been playing with the voltage regulator on the alternator on saturday as the battery light had been flickering and I won't let my nemesis beat me :angry:

 

I took the reg out, tried a bosch one from a spare alt but that was fooked, and so I cleaned up the old one and put it back. The lights on the dash no longer flickered when the headlights were on and the idle had steadied so I was happy.

 

Then yesterday (in the rain and cloudyness) I drove to work with wipers, lights and blower on and the battery light came on again....ffs... Played with it again last night and thought it was resolved. Went to put some petrol in followed by the obligatory blat around the ring road B) and it chuntered to a halt just as I came up to Peartree... why Corrado? why do you hate me so much? :(

 

Anyways, I called big bro out (local, had a spare battery and you could hear the G60 from half a county away) and we limped it home (on a 110Ah caravan battery - long story!)

 

This morning, I went and picked up another battery which cost £55 from a local business (when Halfords wanted £90 :nono: ) and all is well again. Alternator is fine, charging the battery with electricals to 14V and the engine is transformed! Let me explain...

 

The car never used to rev past 5000rpm. I thought it was a fuel pump issue cos I knew it was a bit dodgy, but during the drive in this morning the needle passed 6000! After being a massive nooblet and asking big bro, he said that the battery probably wasn't passing enough current to the coil and subsequently my car had the feel of an eletronic limiter...at 5000 :huh:

 

anyways, it is a lot better now. Still need shocks on the front and to swap my spare hub out but it's getting there :D

[ProdigalSon 1]

:clap: We're getting there, one fix at a time :nuts:

[boost monkey 0]

To be fair, it's pretty rough as Corrados go and it's only broken down once in 6 months which I don't think is too bad :lol: :nuts:

[ProdigalSon 1]

Once is 6 months is good considering how shocking some of the cowboy wiring is!

 

Just had a thought - if you want to swap your ignition switch out too, I have an extendable screwdriver that has a flexi end, so could be used like a U-shaped screwdriver to get the switch retaining screw out... :grin:

[dirtytorque 0]

To be fair, it's pretty rough as Corrados go and it's only broken down once in 6 months which I don't think is too bad :lol: :nuts:

 

 

I'd be worried after six months if mine had not broken down once.

I'd go to the doctors for a full check up or something.

[ProdigalSon 1]

To be fair, it's pretty rough as Corrados go and it's only broken down once in 6 months which I don't think is too bad :lol: :nuts:

I'd be worried after six months if mine had not broken down once.

I'd go to the doctors for a full check up or something.

:lol: Hypochondriac? :wink:

[boost monkey 0]

Once is 6 months is good considering how shocking some of the cowboy wiring is!

 

Just had a thought - if you want to swap your ignition switch out too, I have an extendable screwdriver that has a flexi end, so could be used like a U-shaped screwdriver to get the switch retaining screw out... :grin:

 

:shock: :clap: I'll leave you the keys and you can do that next weekend? Switch is in the glove box :grin: