# My Fox Project



## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Hey all, new here from ottawa-vdubbing. Not enough info on Foxes so it was time to move up. Found this little lady for sale and couldn't say no. 1989 2 door Fox. 93,800km on the odometer, body is in pretty great shape (a little hail damage unfortunately). Pretty much love at first sight. Towed it to its first home using an old Jetta TDI, then drove it to its second home, and had to pay someone to tow it to its third and current home. We were almost able to drive it that time lol.

Anyway, here she is at the link psyche! APPARENTLY they deleted my page, so you don't get a link.

Picked it up for an easy $500. I don't actually have a background in doing any more than basic maintenance on cars, so the learning curve is pretty huge. But everyone's got a first time, and I'm not useless with my hands. Basically the project is stalling right now though; a lot of things need to be done and being newly out of a job makes it pretty hard to spend money on the things that need replacing. I've heard food and rent are more important or something 

Hopefully we'll get back at it, and get the thing running properly. Right now it drives for about 2 minutes and then dies. Over the next few weeks I'll be doing almost all new gaskets on the engine, yet another oil change, probably new spark plugs again since these are saturated in oil now, then playing with intake bypass, throttle body, CIS-e stuff, and distributor cap until I can get it idling smoothly and high enough that I don't have to pump the gas to keep it running. Fortunately, I have the one with the MASSIVE clock where a tach should be, and everyone knows that when trying to stabilize your idle speed, it's a lot easier to have a clock instead of a tachometer.

Anyone else on this board in Ontario with a Fox?


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## 89wagen (Jun 26, 2012)

Welcome! 

Runs and dies out, check the in-tank fuel pump. 
Is your main pump whining really loud? 
Just a thought!


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

89wagen said:


> Welcome!
> 
> Runs and dies out, check the in-tank fuel pump.
> Is your main pump whining really loud?
> Just a thought!


Nah, it sounds ok. But that's actually a good point - PO had fuel tank replaced at a local tuning shop that I don't trust. I used to have work associations with them and they're totally useless (they shattered a wheel bearing while installing coilovers on an a4, among many other things). In fact they have a history of messing up fuel systems. And I never thought of it. I'll look into that! Thanks!


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*Welcome...!!*

Good to hear of another Canadian Foxer on the Vortex...!! Try not to feel at odds when you might be confronted with a projected operation; that will cost MORE than your original purchase price of the vehicle...some might contest, that it isn't worth it, to spend money on a car that only cost them "X" number of dollars......whatever you might spend.....just compare it to the cost of the operation, to what it would cost to do the same procedure to a NEWer car....pocket the projected difference...invest in some tools....and have some great fun deciding to do it yourself......because you will become VERY particular; about who you let touch your new found hobby...!!

I work at a Toyota dealership; and as a result, get to drive around in brand new cars all the time.....of course, this is just my opinion; but.....there IS something to the adage...."they don't build 'em like they used to..." all the cars built now have WAY too many computer controls for my liking.....a simple thing like a gas cap not tightened all the way could cost you a hundred bucks.....just to get it tightened...(wish that was a JOKE!)....and of course I am biased; in that, all I have ever owned and driven are '80s VWs....(just Sciroccos and Fox Wagons).....

There are so many ways to augment these cars....be thorough....read the threads on this Forum....pick a direction....and GO...!! There are so many talented and resourceful people on this Forum.....that, if you have a problem....post it (with pics!) and be as specific as you can....and more than likely, someone will reply with a response within the hour....!!! Perhaps that time frame is a bit exaggerated....but, many obstacles have been overcome by mutual experience.....for example....I took the dash off my car to replace a failed Heater Core: wouldn't have been able to change my heater core; with out the wonderful D.I.Y. posted by DubbinChris......you think you may not be able to do it....your support is HERE on the Forum....anything is possible......just a matter of time, perseverance, a willingness to get your hands (or gloves) dirty, and a few of those dollar things....

Parts are readily available if you have a credit card and a shipping address....some of the on-line prices for parts, BEAT the availability and prices that are available to you locally...

Post a couple pics of your Fox....your adventure awaits....!!!

Welcome to the Vortex...!!!


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Picture time*

I've set myself up a photobucket and uploaded the pictures that I have on my computer. Apparently I need to get some off my phone still. These are all from the day I got the car. I'll add some of the work I've done when I find those. Also, I'm absolutely horrible about taking pictures while I'm working. I never think to stop and document. So. Won't really get progress pics, but maybe before/after. Who knows. Anyways. Here ya go.

Some general outside pics:



























Engine bay. Nothing special... yet.










Inside:

Look at that odometer!

















These rims came with the car. They're somewhere around 13/14 pounds I think. Not too shabby.










My personal favorite - we decided to just tow the car ourselves when we got it. It was only going down the road, less than 5km. So I grabbed the old TDI from work, put the trailer hitch on and strung them together with a tow rope. This was much more economical and WAY more fun than paying a tow truck. People were waving at us and giving us thumbs up. We had walkie talkies so we could communicate stopping, turning, etc. I was in the Fox and I had a friend drive the TDI. This was the only picture I grabbed while being towed.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Hopes and dreams*

You're about to get an essay, so get comfy. Or, skip to the bottom for tl;dr version.

Right now the main goal is to get it running properly. When I got it, the PO said the air sensor plate was faulty and that they had it running when they lifted the sensor plate. When I tried starting it, it would crank but it wouldn't start. We charged up the battery, gave it some gas, and tried again. It would then get to the point where it would turn over but IMMEDIATELY stall. So, a friend and I towed it to the garage where I was working and got busy trying to make it work.

Through some tinkering I found that the fault was actually the control plunger in the fuel distributor (FD for short); it was stuck up inside the main body of the FD. I tried to rebuild the FD but learned partway through that you're supposed to measure a bunch of things with a micrometer before you take it apart, and you need a pile of new and tiny pieces, you need a really special gasket (what they call a diaphragm) and apparently you should clean it using an ultrasonic cleaner. Not surprisingly, I don't have those things. 

I'll try to get the video up on youtube of us trying to start it. Basically I was frustrated to the point of quitting, but we decided to try starting it up on the off chance that it worked. I had zero hope that it would improve things at all. Much to my surprise, it ran for a few seconds! Unfortunately, because of my hopeless attempt at rebuilding the FD, the control plunger shot all the way out and down into the bottom of the MAF. And apparently we failed to tighten the banjo fitting on the return line and fuel shot hilariously everywhere. Good times.

I managed to acquire a new FD from a 16v Passat. It wasn't perfect but it was better than the 400 dollars I was looking at to get one online. So I swapped the ECU from the side of the FD and, after shearing two banjo fittings while tightening them (apparently you should just replace those), we managed to start the car! It was seriously one of the best days of my life. I cant remember a time where I've felt so much joy and relief. Unfortunately the engine was unable to idle high enough to stop from stalling so I had to keep pressing the gas pedal, but god was it ever glorious to hear that thing actually working!

With renewed vigour, I changed the oil and the spark plugs, I soldered the wires onto the fuel pump (one of the plastic cap things on the fuel pump itself was damaged, and one of the connectors was severely fatigued). It seemed to be the cheapest solution. I used a pretty heavy gauge wire to extend the connection enough so I could remove the fuel pump and work outside the car and keep the soldering iron away from the gas tank. When time and money permit I'll establish a better solution, but this works and should last. I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron.

After I got things kind of together, I moved onto the next obvious issue - the low idle. Now, this is why I'd rather have a tach than a clock. It's pretty effing hard to tell just how bad your idle is and how far you need to adjust it when you have no numbers to work with. But regardless, I played around with the intake bypass valve until I could get it to the point where it would at least idle without me feeding it gas and I could actually turn the car off myself. It worked well enough, but there were a lot of issues still.

The old spark plugs had oil on the tips, but I didn't really think anything of it. I just assumed it was dirty. I was also excited to put in new ones! After getting the car to start and run, I decided to check out the spark plugs. The exhaust was pretty colorful, and it smelled like a two-stroke, so I was fairly certain it was getting oil in there. With the car not being driven anywhere and the spark plugs being in for less than a day, they were already covered in oil. So I'll be replacing a lot of gaskets in the very near future.

Things took a turn for the stationary when I had a pretty severe disagreement with my boss. I had to move my Fox off the office's property, which meant I had nowhere to work on it. It took me a couple weeks to source a garage where I could a) afford the damn thing and b) work on the car. FINALLY got a place, and then when I wanted to start working on the car again I got sick and a bunch of things came up and I couldn't do anything. Also at some point in here the e-brake cable went. I don't actually remember when that happened.

I'll get some pictures up pretty soon I hope, but basically I'm stuck at the e-brake because the drums won't come off. Some more things came up and I'm again unable to go at it a second time. Mainly I partially destroyed my finger on the heat shield that sits above the exhaust and had to go get a tetanus shot. Just so many swear words. So many.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back at it soon. I'm leaving for Virginia tomorrow so it won't be until next week. So for now I'll just plan. Here's some realistic prospects for the near future:

I want to debadge; then I want to rebadge using the current gen fox (the one that uses the standard VW font). I'm thinking that will go on the left side. Then on the right, I've ordered a 1.8 and an 8V badge. I will get my girlfriend to put those on so they go on straight 

At my previous job I was about to embark on severely modding one of our smart cars, but ended up quitting instead (which made me a little sad, that thing would've rocked). As a result, I have this leftover Brabus aluminium e-brake handle with a nice leather boot. That'll be going on when I get the e-brake cable sorted. I did a quick test fit though and it goes on better than it did in the smart. I can't find a small enough picture on google, but just search up brabus smart brake handle if you're curious and don't want to wait for my picture.

If I can find one, I'd love to replace the big clock with a more useful tachometer. I guess it isn't completely necessary, but neither is a huge clock.

I can't afford to do a full sand down and paint yet, but I insist on dealing with some of my rust spots now. So when they're prettied up, I'm thinking I'll plasti-dip the entire car (cheaper and easier than paint) and have a chance to play with colors before I actually paint it. The car also has a bit of hail damage, so the roof, hood, and trunk lid have some little dents in them. I'll just fill those in with body filler and paint over. They're far to small to justify a proper dent pulling.

The battery will be going to the trunk. The spare wasn't with the car when I got it, and I'm not going to try tracking down a 4x100 spare in decent shape. So battery will move into there. I've read that if you can track down the wiring harness from one of the similar Audi models, it's about the right size. Anyway, that's a ways out right now but I'll think of something. I want to clean up the engine bay a little bit. I feel that it's far too busy for how much space there is. Also changing the oil filter is so much more effort than it's worth.

I'd love to find a manifold/downpipe to replace the stock 4-1 setup. At the same time I want to improve the intake. From the sounds of it, there isn't that much I can actually do. But I'll get some research in there hopefully in the next week. I need to actually get under the car and measure the exhaust diameter but I think PO upgraded to a 2" exhaust and took out the restrictor.

I wanna swap the headlights for the H4 conversion - trying to buy the sealed halogen guys is nearly impossible unless I order them online.

Train horn? lol.

I'll be doing some more reading, and with the wealth of information here I'll be able to figure some more things out that I want to do and can realistically achieve.

Eventually I want to get the car up on a hoist and replace a lot of the rusty parts. There's some stuff that's pretty bad now. Some parts are so rusted you can't even see them. I'll try getting some undercarriage shots later to give y'all an idea.

***** TL;DR VERSION *****

I got a Fox, it didn't start. I messed about, and it works a little. I need to replace some things and I have lots of realistic plans for the future. Scroll back up for details


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## 90quattrocoupe (Feb 7, 2002)

germanpettingzoo said:


> The battery will be going to the trunk. The spare wasn't with the car when I got it, and I'm not going to try tracking down a 4x100 spare in decent shape. So battery will move into there. I've read that if you can track down the wiring harness from one of the similar Audi models, it's about the right size.
> 
> I wanna swap the headlights for the H4 conversion - trying to buy the sealed halogen guys is nearly impossible unless I order them online.


The battery cable from a 88/89/90 3 series BMW is longer than the Audi cables. Larger and if you pull it right, comes with a small distribution panel for under the hood. You can mount it near your old battery box.

Don't get sealed halogens. Worthless. Get the replaceable bulb ones. Hellas are the best. Relay the headlights, and put 80/100 watt bulbs in it. Something like this:

http://www.streetsideauto.com/p/hella-190x132mm-kit-003427861/

Greg W.


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

Nice writeup.  Sounds like you're on the right track. I haven't found a good solution for the fuel pump connectors either....


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

90quattrocoupe said:


> The battery cable from a 88/89/90 3 series BMW is longer than the Audi cables. Larger and if you pull it right, comes with a small distribution panel for under the hood. You can mount it near your old battery box.


Thanks Greg! That should be a helluva lot easier to find. We got this place near Ottawa called Europarts - it's a graveyard for European cars and they have a pretty good pile of old 3 series. They also have this amazing area of really old cars that normal people aren't allowed into. Were talking 50's era Mercs, there's a BMW 2002 Turbo in the pile somewhere. Fantastic.



90quattrocoupe said:


> Don't get sealed halogens. Worthless. Get the replaceable bulb ones. Hellas are the best. Relay the headlights, and put 80/100 watt bulbs in it.


Aye, those are pretty well what I meant. The H4 ones are replaceable bulbs. It would be kinda nice if they made one that takes H7's cause I have some brand new ones from my Rabbit, but ah well. Anything is better than those awful sealed ones.




> Sounds like you're on the right track. I haven't found a good solution for the fuel pump connectors either....


Yeah it seems to be a pretty flimsy stock setup they have. I used fairly heavy solder with a 60w soldering iron (as opposed to your standard 30w) and some heavy gauge wire. If you strip down a good 2, 2 1/2 inches of wire, pull the plastic off the connectors, and then wrap the wire around the posts you get a fairly strong connection. Once it's soldered on it feels solid. The only sad part is if you ever have to replace the fuel pump!


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## alaincopter (Oct 2, 2007)

Welcome to the forum :thumbup: you'll find lots of great info and helpful folks on here.

I used to live in Ontario, but recently moved to Montreal and have yet to transfer my Fox' registration to QC. 

I like where your project is headed; make sure to keep the rust at bay and your Fox will give you many years of joy :beer:


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*My stupid brakes. Or stupid me?*

If there were a known upper distance limit of the universe, I'd have had it up to there with drum brakes.

So, here's the scoop: I tried just taking off one lug nut and looking for the adjusting wedge. Couldn't find it so I took off the wheel. Still couldn't find it. Tried hammering the crap out of the drum, and only managed to liberate a LOT of rust. Tried removing the axle nut. It won't budge. I've tried putting a screwdriver into the holes in the bolts and whacking it with a hammer. It just makes a lot of noise. Everything seems to be stuck. I'm beginning to fear I may have to get someone to cut the drum.

This is the drum. It's full of asbestos, rust, and hatred.









And this is a close-up of one of the bolts. Don't be thrown off by that hole in the center, there's nothing inside of it. It just ends. Despite looking like a hex, it's not. None of them are the same shape, and in fact this is the best looking one. The rest of the holes are crooked and most of them are smaller.









Any ideas? Or is it time to just hack the drum apart?


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*I did more today than just fail*

Despite the failures described in my previous post, I have actually managed to get some use out of today.

Started looking at the wiper motor, which isn't moving at this point. I wanted to see if there were any obvious failures before doing anything else. Fuse is ok, and none of the wires look to be broken. In doing this, I realized that when the hood is up, the light in the garage is almost completely blocked. So I took the hood off, which was mercifully easy. I was about to start testing things with my multimeter, but it turns out I've temporarily misplaced that. So, another thing on hold.










That green ball that's somehow involved in interior climate control, I honestly have no idea what it's called or what it does, but it's the source of a burning smell when I have the power on in the car for any longish length of time. I removed it to see if I could do anything, but it's really just a ball with a vacuum line running to it. I've decided to come back to that later.

With a sad face, I cut the carpet around the e-brake lever to pull the four bolts and at least get the new cable hooked up on the lever end. Turns out when the cable snapped, the latching mechanism in the handle (the part that makes it click) kinda... I'm gonna say fell apart, but that's not quite correct. The gear and the lock were no longer connected. After a lot of fighting with all the different parts, I managed to get it back together and clicking again. But for some reason, now the button doesn't go out far enough, so it doesn't actually stick out of the handle. This isn't too bad though, because when I put the Brabus handle on, I previously had no way to attach the aluminium button on account of its incorrect threading. But this new problem has given me a solution. I'm going to just drill out the end of the old plastic button, and glue in my aluminium one. It'll be perfect. I'm working on that today and I'll take some pictures when I'm done. Unfortunately I didn't actually get the brake handle back in the car and thus didn't get the cable connected, because I needed some tools that I have at home in order to get the button drilled out right. And through an annoying set of requirements I need to take care of the button before I can do anything else with the handle. Because why would it be easy?

I took a break to come up with a reasonable to-do list so I can keep things on track and give myself a good distribution of pointless-but-fun-and-achievable things versus you-have-to-do-these-and-you'll-hate-everything tasks. Also made a shopping list. By the looks of it, I need a pretty high paying job. Maybe I'll dedicate part of the garage to making a meth lab, I hear that makes a good chunk of money. (this is a joke)










I've debadged the trunk lid, which I will be rebadging with the new Fox badge on the left, and a 1.8 badge on the right. I've also ordered a 8V badge, but I'm not sure if that's going before or after the 1.8 one. We'll see what looks better. In that picture the VW badge is still on, but I have plans for that. Basically my trunk lock is gone, and I'm using a screwdriver to open it. I have an awesome plan but I need to make it work before I can share it. I promise it will blow your mind though. It'll be absolutely unique. The old Fox badge is moving up to the front; the space in between the bars on the grille is the exact same high as the Fox badge, as it turns out. So I'll be gluing that up front to help the younger VW people identify the car from the front 

BONUS PICTURE








When I first put the car on stands it was fine. It's been up there for a few days now, and it seems to be sinking. :S oops.

BONUS STORY (because if you're even reading this far you clearly enjoy my rambling nature)
I have this red handled LED flashlight which stopped working one day long ago. I had figured it's just dead batteries. So I finally opened it up today (I've managed to lose all of my lights and now this is all I have besides the one on my phone) only to discover that, yes, it was the battery. Because the batteries exploded. No idea how that happened. I've never seen anything like it before. But I had to dig the battery out in chunks with a screwdriver, and whack the handle on the ground a lot. It was interesting, anyways.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Feeling really quite stupid. Those bolts do come off. But I guess you have to work on cars when you aren't super tired. Makes things make more sense.

Still, I haven't managed to get the drum off. I found and pushed on the adjusting wedge but it hasn't really helped - the brakes weren't engaged and the wheel rotated freely before hand. The Bentley manual says to pry off this grease cap next but I don't see how. I've tried a variety of screwdrivers, pliers, hammer, bare hands, and intense staring. None of them worked, though I think the last one got pretty close (joke).

I thought putting in my new brake handle would make me feel better but it didn't. I'll try going back to it later today maybe but I need time away from it. I don't want to bog myself down in multiple simultaneous projects, so getting these brakes done is priority at the moment. Any suggestions for getting those hate-filled caps off is appreciated!


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*...wilde pliers....slip joint...channel lock pliers...*

Hey there germanpettingzoo.....get a pair of slip-joint pliers...open the pliers wide enough to grab the cap at 6 and 12 o'clock; get a firm grip on it...gently, but with intent; wiggle the pliers in a north-south direction...the cap will eventually come off.......

I tried to find a pic of the pliers....


These pliers are my main tool for doing rear brakes....the pliers can pull the cap off....remove the retaining springs...help unseat the springs...undo the retaining nut....remove the cotter pin with them....VERY useful.....hope this helps...!!

Best of Success...!!

P.S. I think some one went out of their way to install those studs....do you have studs sticking out of the front discs too...? there should be holes with bolts....not studs with nuts....


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

KRAMMIT said:


> Hey there germanpettingzoo.....get a pair of slip-joint pliers...open the pliers wide enough to grab the cap at 6 and 12 o'clock; get a firm grip on it...gently, but with intent; wiggle the pliers in a north-south direction...the cap will eventually come off.......


I will give it a shot today! I'm hoping that'll be it for my brake troubles. I think I know better than to expect it to go smoothly but I can keep hoping lol. Thanks!




KRAMMIT said:


> P.S. I think some one went out of their way to install those studs....do you have studs sticking out of the front discs too...? there should be holes with bolts....not studs with nuts....


I'm thinking that too. I'm assuming it's due to the rims. They have the locking nuts on them instead of standard lugs, and I'd say the original lugs didn't fit right with the rims.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Progress*

KRAMMIT, I gotta give you some serious internet props here.

First thing this morning I grabbed my channel locks, gave a couple love taps with a mallet and the grease caps came off. Everything else came out just fine, spent a lot of time yelling and swearing at the cable ends that you need to feed into the brake drum. Getting it seating properly was a HUGE pain but I used the power of zip ties to hold everything out of the way so I could just put the cable in instead of messing about.

All that's left is to replace cotter pins, and then replace the adjusting nut on the actuating rod, because that was never actually there. I'll be visiting the scrap yard soon methinks, I'm assuming pretty much any VW in the 80's and early 90's will use the same part. Once those are done, just mount the cable up, adjust, and HUZZAH. I'll have handbrake! I'll post some pictures later but I'd much rather go to sleep instead.


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*...Nice...!!!*

Thanks Justin...!!! Glad it worked....and you could finally get those drums off...!! I have seen a similar set up with a Golf that my buddy stripped....he GAVE me the rims to put on my car.....but, what I didn't realize.....was that the hubs were incompatible...!! 

Rather than find studs to put in my drums and hubs.....I sought out the help of a wheel/rim shop.....they suggested a quick fix.....HUBCENTRIC RINGS...!!! I had to take my car to buddy....showed him the rim....(took it off my car)...so that he could measure the inside diameter of the hub of the rim......then he consulted his computer to reference what size ring would fit on the hub of a Fox.....and he sold me a set of rings to fit the rims specifically to fit my Fox... 









...Just drop the ring into the hub of the rim; and it will sit perfectly on the hub, so that you can spin the rim.....without having to balance it at the same time.....to easily line up the holes to put the wheel bolts in..... 









I realize this will cost a few dollars...the set of rings was about $20....the amount of time and aggravation saved....PRICELESS....but you will still have the issue of replacing the discs and drums.....if you are in a pinch...I know for a fact...that I can get drums for $50 each (new, 200 mm), and rotors for $20 each (new; 9.4 inch, stock).....then you will need 16 lug bolts....plus inner and outer bearings for the drums....(which need to be seated; and sealed on the back).....just a thought.......another thought....those rims look pretty SHARP...!!!


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

Probably the rims are cone seat vs the VW ball seat and the guy had some cone nuts and found it cheaper to go with studs then replace all the lug bolts. Lug bolts are damn expensive. No good reason to change it.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*I Need to Quit Stalling!*

I've had a lot of time off and spent very little of it working on the car. 

I've ordered new gaskets for mah engine - it's a pretty big set, but mainly I want the head gasket and valve cover gasket. It comes with a whole lot more but I figure I'll be ready in case other gaskets look like crap too. Anyways, they're supposed to be here by the 21st of June, so hopefully before then I can get my ebrake sorted out. As I mentioned before it's missing a couple parts, so I'll need to replace those first. 

Today I'm going to try to make a trip out to Europarts and see if they've got any ebrake setups lying around. I'll grab some pictures (I know I'm the worst about saying I'll post pictures but I honestly can't find the cable to connect my phone to my computer lol) for you non-Ottawa folks so you can see what I'm on about. This place is seriously awesome. The guy who runs it is a VW genius. When I went in to ask about the fuel distributor he knew the part number off the top of his head right away. Super cool guy. 

I guess other news is my 8V badge came in the mail yesterday. 1 out of 3 is in! 

Anyways... more updates later when I actually do something.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*...*

First I have to apologize for the enormous pictures. I normally resize them on my computer but the hinges holding up my monitor decided to break and now I have to do everything from my phone, or one handed typing holding my laptop screen in the other hand.

Made my trip out to Europarts as promised. But with no success. Turns out NO OTHER CAR EVER uses the same brake cable setup as the Fox. Instead of the actuating rod running under the car with the compensator at the end like on the Fox, every other VW model seems to be using a setup where the cable connects much closer to the actual brake handle, and using two cables instead of one. So, THAT bit is annoying. I'll come up with a solution later, I suppose. Maybe I can find similar nuts at Fastenal or something.

Meantime, here's some pictures of Europarts, so y'all know what I'm on about.




























Quite possibly the best part about that trip was this:










Late model Fox, I think a '93. It looks quite good, from what little I could see. I'm going to make another trip out just to check that car out, but the guy said he's going to try putting it on the road. I'm curious how the underside looks, because the interior and body (aside from badly needed paint job) look just fine. Maybe I can bring my Fox count up to two?   

I managed to acquire myself a new instrument cluster, one with a tach. YAY. $20 well spent. ALSO I FOUND A SWORD! Lol I was looking through an open trunk to find something to pry open a door and there was just this sword in there. So I snagged that because how often do you find a sword?










Other news, landlady is insane. Apparently my using one light is "burning her electricity" and I will have to pay extra if I use lights while working on the car. So. Moving again soon. Hopefully gaskets come in before then, and hopefully that'll be enough to get it moving under its own power.


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## alaincopter (Oct 2, 2007)

Good score on the cluster, every Fox deserves a tach cluster :thumbup:

The red Fox in the picture looks like a '87 - '90 (commonly referred to as a Fox I), you can tell by the early tail lights.

Do you already have the newer style Fox emblem you're planning on using? If not, I have a couple of those that I had brought from Brazil but never used, that I could let go for cheap.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

alaincopter said:


> Good score on the cluster, every Fox deserves a tach cluster :thumbup:
> 
> The red Fox in the picture looks like a '87 - '90 (commonly referred to as a Fox I), you can tell by the early tail lights.
> 
> Do you already have the newer style Fox emblem you're planning on using? If not, I have a couple of those that I had brought from Brazil but never used, that I could let go for cheap.


Hmm, the guy said it's 92 or 93, but now that you mention it those are definitely not later model lights. In his defense he hasn't looked at the car for like 4 years lol.

And yeah, my Fox badge is on it's way from Germany. Should be here in less than a week and I'll be ready to rock.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Finally getting somewhere*

Made it back into the shop today. Finally.
Connected up my ebrake cable. I'm missing a couple bits but for now I'd just like it to be together again. Did a quick push test to make sure it actually works with weight on the wheels, and it's kinda slow but it does work. I'm going to need to do new drums at some point ANYWAYS so I'll let it be for now.

Mounted the heat shield back up (ignore those zip ties. Just reminding me I need a screw there)









Got impatient and put my 2 of my 3 badges on.









While I was under the car I got a couple pictures of some sad bits:



















And realized my door is hiding rusty secrets from me










I also checked out my air filter, since I can get back to focusing on the engine now that the brakes are more or less taken care of. I'll be doing a not small amount of research and then set about replacing some gaskets to stop the oil from getting in there. But until said gaskets arrive I figured I'd check out some other things. Air filter was fine (but I'll still replace it with one of those reusable K&N's) but the box had some sludge in the bottom. I cleaned that out and put 'er all back together.

I decided to call it an early day on account of having pulled a muscle in my neck. But with the couple hours I spent with the car I'm pretty happy. The rest of the night is research, and MAYBE I'll make it back in there tomorrow, but probably not.


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## bagsonblue (Sep 20, 2012)

I want one


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## myboxyfox (Nov 27, 2011)

That is one awesome wrecking yard you visited there! I noticed that there is a red Passat in one of the photos, and it has the 15" Estorils. Those would fit the Fox, and look really sharp, imo. 

But not sure what direction you are going wheel wise with this car. Nice Fox you have there btw!


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

myboxyfox said:


> But not sure what direction you are going wheel wise with this car. Nice Fox you have there btw!


Thanks! I'm not sure what I wanna do either. That place is actually awesome because he's got a whole pile of rims there, but they're all really nicely organised so all the 4 bolts are together. Lots of really unique looking old VW and Audi rims up there.

So, my gaskets got held up at the border for a while and now they're chillin at the ups depot. Just have to make it out there to pick it up, and then I can start doing some fun stuff. In the meantime, I got my Fox badge on!

Sorry, I apparently couldn't be bothered to resize this one. Better luck next time.


















They're a little bit crooked. Actually they're quite crooked. I'll probably end up moving them around; I got quite good at it at my last job while moving smart car badges around. I was just excited and measured it by eye. Apparently that was not very smart. Oh well. I like making things harder than they have to be.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*off to work we go*

Well, it's been a busy few weeks since my last update. Ottawa has experienced some wretched heat, and many things have changed in my life. For reasons too complicated and lengthy to explain, my girlfriend is having to move away for a little while, and she's taking the Rabbit with her. That means I have until September 1st to get this car roadworthy or I shall have to endure the miseries of public transit. Yuck!

So, to work then!

First day back at it, the temperature hit 43 degrees celsius, which is about 109 I believe for the American foxers. So, I enlisted some help, and we made a very manly fridge using a couple bags of ice and an oil pan.










Then we set about trying to change the head gasket. I'm not convinced it was really dysfunctional, but the timing belt needed changing and a few other gaskets and rubber bits, so I figured, how hard can it be?

We busted out the Bentley and set to work. Everything was going well, especially when we drained the coolant:










I also noticed an interesting specification on the coolant overflow:










Yes. All of it went in the tray! That green stuff on the floor is just... car tears... No but seriously the pressure in that system is intense and I wasn't prepared for it to actually come out that quickly, or at my face. But oh well, at least it didn't actually get on my face. Just my shirt and arms and hands.

The book said to remove the intake hose at the manifold, which was very easy since it had decided to rust itself away anyways. I tried to get a picture, but it didn't turn out well. Anyways, the whole mounting bracket or whatever it is has just completely rusted away. It didn't look especially healthy.










Then we got to the crank pulley. You may have seen my thread about the bolts getting stuck. I still haven't had a day where I can go in to remedy that situation yet, so progress has been slowed again. This week I have some days free to head in and deal with it. And I will be making more of an effort to work on it, given that I'm going to be without a car fairly soon.

Over the next week, I expect I'll have the bumper off, the crank pulley off and onto whatever other terrific obstacle is next. Hopefully before August I can get the head gasket changed, the engine back together, the oil/spark plugs changed again, and then I can start looking at my in-tank fuel pump and my vacuum lines. Something between the two of them is prohibiting the car from running, and I've yet to find out which. Also my torque wrench has decided it would just like to be a very large socket wrench instead. Anywho, fingers crossed on the valve stem seals not being ruined, because I don't have the tools to replace those myself or the money to have someone else do it.


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

The part number begins in 171, indicating that it was originally designed for a Rabbit. That being said, I'm surprised they didn't just make copies in Brazil.

http://www.clubvw.org.au/vwpartnos
http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/VW-Audi-part-numbers-system-explained.htm


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Interesting. Also useful link!

I was mostly giggling about the West Germany bit. See I was born in between the wall coming down and them actually officially getting rid of the east/west thing, so for me it's always just been Germany. And my other veedub is new, so it doesn't have anything like that. Anyways, I had a laugh.

Sent with Tapatalk, which isn't really that good.


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## efritsch (Aug 21, 2002)

First thing first. Your ramblings are hilarious.

Second, if you ever want to sell that Fox, you message me first. Its in much better shape than mine.

Third, Lord Thundering Jesus. That yard is awesome. I have a feeling that you'll see a tall german and a fat newfie in Ottawa raiding that yard before too long. Is he open on weekends?

When I'm not dead tired, I'll make a better reply to some of your issues.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*I'm back! (caution, picture heavy post)*

Hello again friends/foxers! (I've included a tl:dr at the bottom)

I've been on a bit of a hiatus. Basically what happened is I broke up with my girlfriend of 8.5 years and have been living on a friend's couch. She took the car in our "divorce" which left my german petting zoo moniker in a bit of a sad state. And then my bills and low income caught up with me and I lost my garage. Add to that I was not in the highest of spirits, and I was pretty unable to work on the fox. It was to the point that I even stopped browsing the forums because it made me sad lol. But this story has a positive upturn!!!

I found myself a decent paying job (that I can do from home!) and am now employed in two places.
In early September I secured a house to rent with a couple good friends. A 3 bedroom house complete with washer and dryer, finished basement, wood stove, central air, central vacuum, and most importantly (this was originally my only search criteria) a rather large two car garage...










Complete with a corner to leave piles of stuff in...










A thing that could be considered some sort of work bench...










A corner with things that represent who I am as a person - a shredded Mcdonald's tray from the time we did tray drifting in my friends old mk4 golf, a piece from my rabbit's undertray that came off while driving through Amish country, and a cloth that VW sent me to clean the car but I never used because I didn't want it to get dirty.










A board to keep my tools in a kind of organized fashion...










And some old timey looking jars...










...which are perfect for organizing and storing screws and things!










But before getting to any of that, I had to get the car to the garage. So in typical fashion, I got out the ol' tow rope and went for another terrifying journey. It looked something like this:










So with the car safely (and possibly illegally) delivered, all was looking well!










The next day (which, as it happens was yesterday) I set to work. I'd left off with the engine not wanting to come apart because I couldn't get any leverage on the crank pulley bolts so it wasn't going anywhere. I also have a botched front end; the bumper is kinda crooked and looking a bit strokey. Logically, I decided kill two birds with one bird killer and I'd remove as much of the front as possible in order to get some space to work in, and upon reassembly be able to fix this crooked weirdness.

The fender came off first. Now, my experience with it is a bit odd because this car had an accident years ago and the fender was replaced. Whoever did it didn't do a great job but I don't really blame them. VW decided to hold the wheel well lining in with these plugs that seem impossible to remove. These folks took it upon themselves to replace those plugs with a variety of screws. One was a 10mm bolt, one was a torx 25, and one was a different plastic plug that functions similar to a drywall plug. I think it may be called a rawl plug.

Anyway, lifted the car, removed the wheel. Took out the five 10mm bolts along the top of the fender, two in front of the wheel well, and one on the underside at the back of the fender. Mudflap came off with three philips head screws. Then the tricky bit. In the front of the wheel well there's a little rail that looks haphazardly bolted onto the frame and the bottom of the fender. I only unbolted it from the fender, which was for some reason a 6mm bolt. Then there are these two plastic plugs that connect the bumped on the side. These have to come out, which is either going to be really easy or a huge pain in the ass. I was able to get them out pretty quickly with needle nose pliers, then it's just a matter of popping out the clips.

Off came the fender, which was no party. When pulling it off, I had to do a lot of wiggling about because it wanted to keep clipping back onto the bumper or it wanted to get stuck on something else. Obviously I had to hang the fender on the wall like a trophy.










I spent for ****ing ever getting the bumper off because on the underside they put these plastic screw/plug things that are almost impossible to remove. I'd put so much time into it that I couldn't be bothered to take pictures. But, the bumper hooks into the front of the car with six 17mm bolts, two on either side accessible from the top, and another one each on the engine side of the square tubing. And then those four annoying plugs. I used needle nose pliers, a very small pry bar, and a very large wrecking bar. And safety goggles. For the love of god wear safety goggles.

In order to get to the bolts on the right side, I had to take the entire headlight housing out because it was in the way of one of those bolts I mentioned. If you wanted you could use a wrench instead of a socket but I figured I'd probably need it out of the way anyways so out it came. Four philips head screws accessible from in behind on weird angles. I had to unclip the air box so I could move the cold start valve for one of the screws.

At this point, I'd been working for a few hours, and decided if I'm going to have the car apart anyways, I might as well throw in some rust hunting. For example, this is where the fender bolts on with the two 10mm's at the front:










So, I'm continuing along. I decide it makes sense to take off the other fender. Well it turns out this mother****er is welded on. I don't have a plasma cutter. I also don't want to deal with it. So naturally I've ignored the problem for now.

Is a welded fender normal?









Bumper and right fender off, right headlight housing out, hood off, right wheel off, and this is what I was looking at










Critically, has it helped me at all? Can I access the crank pulley a little easier now?










No. Not really. I have a slight amount of access if I have something long enough to get through the front, but the problem is that's part of the frame, and it has an engine mount. It's not perfect, but it's pretty much what I expected, and at least...









I had to use that. Sorry. Creds to whoever posted that. Honestly I couldn't be bothered to find out who or where.

Earlier I had mentioned the plugs holding in the wheel well lining. I had to remove a couple on the left side to access those plugs that hold the bumper on at the side. So if you're trying to figure out what to do with yours, here's what I did:

I took some channel locks, and found the top of the plug on the engine bay side of the fender. Then I grabbed it and pulled really hard. This breaks the terrible rubber bit that the plug pops into. Then take a hammer and a screw driver, ballpoint pen, or in my case a railroad spike (no for real, I have one of those and it's brilliant) and proceed to smash the little bastard out. When it's time to reassemble, a nut/bolt/washer combo will do the trick. Or you can pick up some rawl plugs with the easy to remove pins. Those are exactly as useless as the ones that VW installed but at least they're, as the description implies, easy to remove.

I also removed the washer fluid reservoir. It was filthy and I want to make it cooler. I plan on putting a couple little white led's underneath it and wire it in so that when the hood is open, it lights up. I did a mockup and it looks pretty cool. And I like silly things. Taking that out was a matter of patience and prying. I used my handy wrecking bar and wiggled out the reservoir, clamped the tube and disconnected it at the t-junction, and then emptied the reservoir into my smart car because it was low on fluid. Sharing is caring.

I cleaned up, took my pictures, and then realized I really hate the state of my oil pan. I'm going to replace that. Gross.











TL;DR version!

Broke up with my girlfriend, lost the Rabbit, lost the garage, lost my home, lived on a couch, scored a pretty cool job, rented a house with a big garage, towed the fox home, took its face off.

I've missed you internet folk, and I promise I'll be more interesting now that my car isn't living outside behind a local tuning shop. Immediate goals on the fox are to clean up the engine bay (it's full of dirt and sadness), replace the oil pan, deal with some of my rust problems, and of course continue banging away at the engine.

P.S. it's worth mentioning, I pulled a box of books out of storage and found a pile of Haynes manuals. They never made one for the Fox, but they did make it for the Golf/Rabbit/Jetta/Pickup from 197X - 1992. It includes a bunch of helpful things about the 8V 1.8L, CIS-e, and some other really useful stuff. And their pictures are actually pictures of the car instead of the useless diagrams in the Bentley. So if you can find one, it may be useful.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

efritsch said:


> First thing first. Your ramblings are hilarious.


Thank you! I'm glad someone enjoys reading them as much as I enjoy rambling them.



efritsch said:


> Second, if you ever want to sell that Fox, you message me first. Its in much better shape than mine.


I don't think I could ever sell it. It was very romantically love at first sight. It's been my baby since I saw the kijiji advert.



efritsch said:


> Third, Lord Thundering Jesus. That yard is awesome. I have a feeling that you'll see a tall german and a fat newfie in Ottawa raiding that yard before too long. Is he open on weekends?


Haha go for it! The guy who runs it is super friendly and an easy going guy. Smart too. He knows the crap out of a v-dub. I think he's closed sundays but open saturday.



efritsch said:


> When I'm not dead tired, I'll make a better reply to some of your issues.


I await your replies! I'm actually back now so I'll actually be reading them lol. I have some catching up to do.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Got some more work done! Yay!

First things first though: My Fox has a mascot, and it's a snail. He lives on the tire and I've named him Jeffery.









So, after my last adventure, I decided that a good first step to removing the oil pan is to drain the oil. I let it all out, put the wheel back on (the one I removed to get the fender off), and took the car off its jack stands. Man, I gotta say, without the fender or bumper on, it looks like something outta Mad Max. It's pretty awesome.

When I drained the coolant a while back, I noticed a white powder coming out of my radiator, and it didn't matter now many times I hit it, more came out. I figured this was worth investigating, and I was also curious how things looked underneath. So, first of all, here's how it's looking right now:










Delightfully clean underneath, all things considered. The other side of the engine bay isn't fairing as well as this side, but I'll get there eventually. I was expecting horrid rust and bits falling apart but it's overall not too too bad. But here's the pile my radiator left after extracting it:










So I went back to trying to remove those bolts for the crank pulley, and what a disaster that's been lol. I managed to get two of them out, but the other two just stripped. Now I have no idea how to extract them. I tried smashing a socket over them, tried a screw extractor bit, and I tried a 12-point wrench (and it almost ****ing worked too!). I'm at the point where I'm thinking either grinding down the sides to make it more of a square shape and hoping I can break it loose with some long, long pliers, or cutting it apart and trying to use a screwdriver. Any thoughts anyone?

Here's the state I've left it in:









I had to leave for work so I was unable to get much further, but hopefully I'll get back at it soon enough.

If anyone has any thoughts on either my bolt predicament or what the hell that white dust from my rad could be, lemme know!


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## What the Fox (Aug 7, 2012)

If you can get a hammer swing into that area, I've used time and time again a simple cold chisel, angle it in the direction of loosening... Pound away sir (better than an impact wrench) 

Welcome to the Fox world sir, nice ride you have! Was that colour stock?


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

What the Fox said:


> If you can get a hammer swing into that area, I've used time and time again a simple cold chisel, angle it in the direction of loosening... Pound away sir (better than an impact wrench)


Hmm... I may be able to lift it up and go from underneath. I'll give that a go. I was looking at a $160 impact wrench set today, so I'm glad I may be able to do it a different way! 



What the Fox said:


> Welcome to the Fox world sir, nice ride you have! Was that colour stock?


Thanks! Colour is stock, but unfortunately it's being replaced down the road after I do some body work. It's got some unpleasant rusty bits that I've been sanding out whenever I'm stuck. I kinda like the colour though because I don't know if it's grey or tan, so it's mysterious lol.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

I didn't have a lot of time in the garage for this particular update. I think I was in there for a little over an hour, and I spent a good amount of that time reading. Anyways...

I tried What the Fox's suggestion of hammer/chisel but I don't think it'll work for me. I can't get a decent angle on it; the best I can get makes for an awkward and short hammer swing, which ends up not being helpful. If I had someone helping me I MIGHT be able to do that, but finding help right now may be difficult. I'll continue exploring options. I just got paid recently so maybe I'll go the route of air compressor/impact tools. Arg.

So, after giving up on that, I started to do other things related to dismantling the engine. Everything that was in the way of me getting the valve cover off, I removed. Throttle cable, a variety of vacuum lines, and a couple electrical bits and bobs. I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything until I get that pulley to come off but I figured it would be useful for seeing what's actually going on in there.

So far, so good. Looks like a cam to me









Hang on, looks a little oily in there... better take a closer look... OH DEAR JESUS









Filthy. Absolutely filthy. Oil and sludge everywhere. I honestly didn't expect it to be THAT bad. But oh well. I'm thinking I'm probably looking at some seriously ruined valve seals, which I just didn't want to believe was the problem, but I knew deep down that it was. So, we'll be doing a partial rebuild basically. Because I'm not going to do all this work just to find out that my piston rings are also toast. Blarg!

At this point I've just continued doing other things the Bentley tells me in order to get to the head gasket. So I started to disconnect the exhaust pipe from the manifold, when things got out of hand again. Three bolts, right? It's easy, they said, it'll only take a few seconds, they said!









I got one out so far. It was so badly corroded. I barely managed to squeeze the torque wrench in there, and with a lot of effort, swearing, maniacal laughter, and a sore left arm, I got that bastard out of there. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say maybe I need to replace those?

Hopefully I'll be able to throw in a couple more hours before work, but I'm starting to run out of things to do. I mean there's a TON of stuff I can do, but I don't want to get too much going all at once. I don't know how to end this post so I'll just do it now, awkwardly.


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*...for those Allan Bolts...*

Hey there germanpettingzoo...here is an alternative approach you could try (if you haven't already) to removing those bolts from the pulley...get a couple of pair of Large vise-grips...one for the pulley; to clamp at three o'clock, to butt up against the block, to keep the pulley from rotating while you exert force upon the bolts.... and the Second pair of vise-grips should be as large as you can fit into the area, as well as get a solid purchase on the head of the bolt....(before trying this; get some replacement bolts, these will be unusable after), clamp the grips on the head of the bolt as tight as you can possibly manage....you don't want it slipping...!! Then try to find a pipe/tube/lever that you can fit over the handle of the grips, but still be short enough to get into the area, and still have some room for throw....now, with Sharp; Abrupt Impacting hits...(I have found that if I try to slowly bring on the torque; I end up stripping the bolt further...or worse, twist the head off!!)...try and get the bolt to budge....perhaps try tightening it slightly first; just to break the seal, then loosen....if the grips have a firm enough bite; perhaps rap on the handle of the grips with a hammer, to coerce it to come free......soak the bolts in some penetrating oil maybe...? Torch...?

Just some unconventional approaches that I might try.... hope you find some thing here useful...Best of Success...!!!


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## What the Fox (Aug 7, 2012)

KRAMMIT said:


> Hey there germanpettingzoo...here is an alternative approach you could try (if you haven't already) to removing those bolts from the pulley...get a couple of pair of Large vise-grips...one for the pulley;
> 
> Just some unconventional approaches that I might try.... hope you find some thing here useful...Best of Success...!!!


Krammit is right on this, I thought you tried the conventional method already, mine is a last ditch... I've cut a 6mm long shank allan key and made a t type allan so I could hammer the hell out of it just for the alternator bolt which I'm sure we've all had fun with... oh, there was two of us...good thing nobody got hurt :screwy:

So sludge on the top eh... so wanna see the oil pan... that's why Sea Foam is my best friend before the day before an oil change Keep up the good work... more pics opcorn:


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Krammit, I'll try this tomorrow, hopefully in the AM before work. I lent out my only (yeah, I know, I'm ill-equipped) pair of vice grips to a friend, who I'm now conveniently living with. So I'll snag those back and give it a go. I had actually thought of vice grips early on, but with the effort I put into breaking the first one, I wasn't convinced it would work so I glossed it over. But I'm basically trying anything right now and if you believe it'll work, that's enough for me. I trust you guys 

As far as locking the pulley in place, I've actually been using my torque wrench for that. I just stick it on the cam sprocket bolt, put the handle on the frame where the fender mounts on, and bam, instant lock. That was my method while removing the other two bolts and it worked brilliantly. Of course, this is only effective as long as that belt is still in place, which HOPEFULLY won't be a whole lot longer.

Thanks gents. I'll try getting more pictures next time.


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*...Just a Thought...*

Hey there germanpettingzoo....just a thought...it might be a good idea to get yourself a breaker bar for the above mentioned application.....your torque wrench should be used SOLELY for torquing down bolts/nuts to their specified tightness......the spring inside your torque wrench will need calibrating from time to time....keeping it stored in the "0" position will keep tension off the spring when at rest; only set torque readings when about to use it....then return it to zero when not in use....not storing the wrench at "0"; could prematurely cause it to give faulty settings and tensions on your work....take care of your tools....and they will take care of you....and last a lifetime.....I picked up a ratcheting 22" breaker bar from Crappy Tire for $20; I use it for everything stuck....plus it makes for a formidable road side assistance implement.....hope you get those bolts loose...!!!


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Today's been a busy day! Before I elaborate, slight picture warning. Photobucket is being strange and some of the pictures are turning out to be enormous, despite resizing them all multiple times. And it never knows which ones it wants to be huge. Clearly their servers don't all like to be up to date and when it directs a link to an image it goes to one of a number of servers that may or may not be in the know. I laugh at their programming  Anyways...

I went shopping today, got a couple things that I've been wanting for a while. Here's the highlights!

I've been using regular soap for a while and it takes forever to wash my hands/arms/face... This ****'s the absolute best.









Gloves to keep my hands clean for a little while longer.









Most importantly! I got a great deal on this socket set. Regular 100 bucks, picked it up for 35. And my god it's been a lifesaver already.









My brother is a mechanic, but he lives in Kingston (2 hours away for those unfamiliar with Ontario geography). As a result, I don't really see him very much. Well, he came by the other day and took a quick look at the Fox. He suggested that maybe the engine timing was way off and I should probably get the cylinder head off and look at the pistons and the block and make sure things are actually still serviceable before even attempting anything else. So, I broke from the Bentley instructions and did what my brother said.

And I'll be a monkey's bare-assed uncle, he was right!

I started my day by pulling off the timing belt. I just loosened the tensioner, wiggled it out from under the belt (which I assure you would be easier if you follow the instructions and remove that damn plastic cover first). Then the cam came out. Easy peasy, took out the 8 bolts holding the brackets (is that what they're called?) and pulled out the cam along with the sprocket. I marked off their position on the belt, the crank, and the cylinder head so I could line up everything after if I had to. Then I disconnected the last few things I hadn't done earlier, mostly things going to the intake manifold. The main thing was the injectors. They were a pain but with some yelling and a little more force, the came out.

I bagged the ends so they wouldn't do whatever it is the manual told me would happen if I didn't.









And then it looked like this:









I pulled out the little blue semi-circular gasket at the back where the cam rotates, and it was pretty gnarly underneath.









The next part didn't get pictures until I was finished. Out of excitement and out of gratuitous oil on my fingers.

The reason I'd purchased that big set of sockets was to get the head bolts out. I didn't have a torx big enough, and I sure as hell didn't have a bit with that many teeth. But I knew the torx would work, and I was right. So all 10 of those came out, made an absolute mess of my gloves, and are now resting comfortably near the garbage that they will inevitably end up in. It's a bit sad though because they're in better shape than every other bolt haha.

I hadn't had room to disconnect the coolant hose that runs out the back of the cylinder head, so I had to do that with the head partially out. It was ultra comfortable. I also neglected to disconnect what I believe is the O2 sensor wire, which surprised me as I was trying to pull things out. After a few minutes faffing about, I got the (kind of heavy) cylinder head out!

And then it looked like this:









And the other half looked like this:









And also like this if you were standing on the other side of my shelf:









Well, so far so good. My block looks like it could use some TLC, but that'll have to wait I think. In the meantime I'll at least wire brush away the loose stuff. But I need to get a new wire brush, because my other 3 have been suffering pretty badly.

Importantly, how does the block look inside?









Not too shabby, is the answer. A bit of dirt where it wasn't supposed to end up, a bit of soot on top. But overall it looked alright to me.

The worst was cylinder 3:









It's not a great shot but you can see some little particles of some kind in there. To be honest I'm not sure the best way to extract those, but I'll be returning to the block later. Because the cylinder head is what needs the most love, and what will be occupying me for the next little while. One important bit before moving on, however. My brother was SO right. The timing was fudged. I set it to TDC before dismantling the cylinder head. Cool? Cool. So when I saw my #1 piston sitting about 3/4 of an inch from the top, I was a bit concerned. I checked the timing marks on the crank pulley, WAY off. So this tells me that my valve timing was all wrong. I adjusted the piston position by turning the crank pulley, and HEY, the distributor rotor lined up right, the crank pulley lined up right, and piston 1 was way up at the top! Perfect!

I didn't take pictures of the beginning of this process because I forgot that people like pictures. But I took the intake manifold off, which went swimmingly thanks to my new sockets! I used hex heads in the bolts that weren't ****ty, and torx in the ones that were. No problem! By the time I'd gotten everything removed for the head to come off, there wasn't a lot connected to the intake manifold. There was a hose and a bolt holding on a rusty shred of metal that looked like this:









So I removed the 6 hex bolts (3 longer, 3 shorter), and off it came! I taped up the intake holes so they wouldn't get full of crap. And man am I ever glad I did that! You'll see why later. Anyways, here's how she looked without intake:









The years haven't been kind to this car. There was some pretty wicked piles of junk in all the crevices that support that sort of build up.









I was about to do the same thing with the exhaust, but then I realized I have some work ahead of me... See, there USED to be nuts and bolts holding this fella on. Now there are bolts and rusty chunks of metal! A little hard for the sockets to grasp, you know?









Figuring that was way too much to deal with at this point, I decided to actually look at the valves, since I hadn't bothered to do that yet. So I made a little table for my cylinder head so that the coolant outlet on the side wasn't bearing the weight of the thing. Here she is on the side:









This picture may or may not decide to resize itself but here's the tape I mentioned earlier. When I put this thing on its side, all the rusty bits I showed you earlier fell down, and would have gone through the intake (which, really, is quite appropriate at least). But SOMETHING got in the way, and it's pronounced "My Superior Intellect" 









So aside from being colossally sooty, valves looked to be ok. Nothing looked bend or damaged in any way. Basically it looks like despite the timing being off pretty significantly, nothing was damaged. Which I'm SO thankful for! It's like a delayed Canadian thanksgiving miracle! 









Since I need to mess about with valve timing (yay.) and I still want to check out the valve stem seals, I figure I'll try and make this part of the engine as nice as I can. I'm going to replace all the bolts, for sure. I'm really strongly considering painting the intake manifold an obnoxious color but I haven't decided yet. I want to remove the rust. But I'm a bit concerned to start removing it and then not have a lot of engine left. Also it'll end up being a funny shape. Is there something I can use to build it back up maybe that'll withstand the temperatures?

Another question I have is I know that a lot of our engine parts are the same as the properly mounted 1.8s, but could I swap out the exhaust manifold for one that isn't a rusty hunk of crap? Or are they unique to the Fox?

Ok, last picture to leave y'all with. If you've been paying attention to this thread, you'll remember that I started all of this because I wanted to change the head gasket. WELL LOOK WHO'S JUST MOTHER-EFFING FINE!!!!









There's literally nothing wrong with it all.

Anyways, that was my day. I'll be spending a couple days I think working away at this cylinder head. I need to do some research on valve timing, since I know literally nothing about it. I also have to get the valves OUT, which I don't anticipate and also don't really know how to do. But we'll get there. I'll be mostly working on the rusty bits though. And I'm going to see what sort of wire tucking I can get away with in the engine bay. Clean it up a tad.


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## jim_c (Sep 22, 2013)

germanpettingzoo said:


> Hmm... I may be able to lift it up and go from underneath. I'll give that a go. I was looking at a $160 impact wrench set today, so I'm glad I may be able to do it a different way!
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks! Colour is stock, but unfortunately it's being replaced down the road after I do some body work. It's got some unpleasant rusty bits that I've been sanding out whenever I'm stuck. I kinda like the colour though because I don't know if it's grey or tan, so it's mysterious lol.


Sometimes a proper size 12 pint internal socket will drive in the hole and get it out. In these cases of large iron lumps, heat and cold can be you friend an acetaline with a heating tip on it or maybe a propane, I think torch will do for heat. Centuries ago we used freon R12 for the cold, probably illegal now but dry ice can work.
Keep wet towels and rags around for cooling things and watch out for fire.
Sometimes you have to do heat then cold, heat then cold more then a few times to work it lose.
You seem to be having some problems with stuck parts. A hammer is your friend but also if you have to hit it more than once your using to small a hammer. If you start with a small hammer and deform the parts you will regret it.

Good luck and be careful.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*a quick note*

This is a sorta quick update and very little to do with my car.

So, basically what happened is my license got suspended cause I had a ticket that I apparently forgot to pay? Oops. Well, I didn't know this, and I was driving someone else's car, which I later found out was uninsured. I knew the tags were expired but as far as I knew the car was still registered with a human being and insured.

None of those things were true. Turns out, the plate was off a VW that was registered to someone who's currently in jail, the car is owned by someone with warrants (yes, plural) out for their arrest, it was uninsured (as in about a year since it had insurance), and with my license being suspended, I was in a heap of trouble. So I had my court date today, and after an hour of watching people get out of hotter water than me, I had my date rescheduled to the 27th, and at some point I get to talk to the prosecutor and basically make a deal. It's like Law & Order: TVU (traffic violation unit)!

Anyways, because of what's going on with that and my apparently massive fines, I don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on Fox things. Which is unfortunate because I really can't proceed without money. So I'm at a stand-still. Unless my mechanic brother wants to visit me with some tools, I'm going to look at dealing with some of the rust spots. My body filler that I was going to use to smooth out the hail dents had a crack in the side so it all dried out, so I can't do that, and I won't be able to build back the rusty bits that I'm going to grind out. So it'll basically be grind, rust mort, couple coats of primer to keep the metal from oxidizing. Not sure if body filler adheres nicely to primer or if that's asking too much of the primer, but I'll find out.

As consolation for this fake update, here's a picture of something that showed up at my house today:









Brand new Mercedes CLA. Despite having an expired license, I'll admit that I DID in fact slightly drive it around the block a few times. It's absolutely fantastic. A little bit of a weird interior for a Merc, but very nice to drive.




jim.c said:


> You seem to be having some problems with stuck parts. A hammer is your friend but also if you have to hit it more than once your using to small a hammer. If you start with a small hammer and deform the parts you will regret it.
> 
> Good luck and be careful.


Thanks, Jim. I'd seen a few people using propane torches to heat bolts. I'm a bit concerned about access for the two holding on the pulley, though. It's a tight space. What I want is to have someone give a chisel a whack with a very large hammer, because it's a two person operation, but I need to find someone with really good aim lol.

But yes, lots of things are getting stuck. It's slightly irritating. All of the bolts holding my exhaust manifold on are rusted nearly into circles. There's another bolt holding on... something... but I can't remember what  that is another one of these 6mm hex guys that's all worn out in the center, but I can actually just drill that out because a) it doesn't matter and b) it's accessible. I'll get there... soon.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Back again, for now*

Hello all

Is anyone else having troubles getting into Vortex? I'm finding every time I try to sign in I have to refresh 5 or 6 times for it to work, and it doesn't seem to matter which computer I'm using. Hm. Anyways.

Since my last update, very little has happened. I've been financially unable to move forward, but my job is starting to become fantastic so come January I will have some extra cash hanging around. I've said this MANY times, but hopefully with a little luck I'll actually be able to move forward a bit. This is my style though - no matter what I do on a car, when it's my first time it takes WAY longer than it has any reason to. Like the first time I did an oil change, I used the garage at work and then got conned into doing some work on my day off and things didn't go as planned at all; when all was said and done I'd used up 9 hours of my life. For a 10 minute job. Ok I'm getting side tracked, let's move on.

For those of you who live in warm places, the following isn't an issue. For people that have substantial winters, you get where I'm coming from. Working on a car in the cold sucks, working on a car in winter is something else entirely. Because everything has been cold for a long time, and things are wet, frozen, snow covered, etc. Some of you (looking at you krammit) are more badass than I and will work on your car regardless. I, however, am a massive wimp and prefer to just stay inside where I can control the temperature. The other day I got pretty sad about not having anything done so I just went and messed around in the garage for a while. See I got this space heater for Christmas and I figured I should give it a try. It was only about -10 (celsius) so I figured it would be fine. And it was! 

Except when I was using the heat gun at the same time and it killed the power to the garage. I'd never really thought about how the garage was wired to the house. It's a separate structure, so it has its own breaker box. Well, turns out that just runs to a single 20 amp breaker in the house. I would have thought it would AT LEAST been on two. But no. So with the lights, stereo, space heater (mostly that one), and heat gun running at the same time, it couldn't cope. So I had to find my way out of the garage in the dark with no garage door opener. And by the time I did all that precious heat I'd been accumulating in the garage escaped through the open door while I went into the house to reset the breaker. Good times.









photo evidence of space heater

So I cleaned up the garage, since it was pretty messy after performing some maintenance on other people's cars (including a pretty cool exhaust repair on a friend's Accord that I'm immensely proud of; what are the odds that I had all the things I needed!?). Then I looked at my coolant pump pulley and realised that it just wouldn't do.









dome side down









inside









dome side up

That last one, I had already been sanding a bit and realised I needed a picture. Sorry.

Basically all I did was go to town with some 80p sandpaper for a long time. There were a couple spots I used a metal file because it was making my sandpaper into regular paper. I think I put about an hour and a half into sanding. It was AWFUL.









Got the rust off, but then it was ugly.









Jumped to 120, then 220









Went over it quickly with 400 to make it a little shinier and prettier.

I also forcibly and impatiently removed the auxiliary air valve (0 280 140 164, I believe) from the intake mani., which was held on by a stripped out screw. I used a hammer and slightly broke its mounting plate, but I saw it coming and accepted it. Would do again. If I got real creative I think I could securely mount it back up, but I'll probably just buy a replacement. Euro Parts will give 'em to me for about 20 bucks.









What's left of the screw head and mounting hardware, still hanging onto the side of the manifold









98% of the air valve. The cold sort of made it really brittle, methinks.

Not a massive update, I know. And I'm deeply sorry. I promise this WILL get interesting soon. But when I update on here I get inspired to go back out there and face the cold. So, we're in this together!

Stay classy, Vortex.

*coming soon: massive paycheque, and I will be going shopping. I have a list.


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*....Nice Work....*

WOW!! I don't think there is a pulley/piece on my car (either of them) that looks like that...!!! That also looks like a pretty serious heater too...!! I would LOVE to be able to bring my cars into the garage to work on them.....but; currently, the garage is being used as a mass storage device/my hangout.....I should have made use of the mild weather we had today (3 C or ~ 40 F) to swap the batteries in my Wagons...the batteries are registered to each car for warranty purposes.....but, there were too many things to get done.....shopping for groceries and supplies.....ever try to go to a Cosco just before closing on a Sunday...?!? Don't do it...!! .....unless you have LOTS of time....and now the temperature has plummeted, and the wind has picked up....

I can login to the Vortex without any trouble.....perhaps your Internet Service Provider is having troubles giving you a consistent signal; or maybe location to the router is obscured....my laptop gets a better signal if I have it on the edge of my worktable, away from the mass of metal that overhangs the table....6" makes a world of difference in reception....

May I recommend getting a heavy duty power bar; with a breaker/trip switch on it....plug the power bar into your garage outlet; plug your accessories into the power bar.....if the load gets too great, the switch in the bar will trip, allowing your to reset it right there, instead of having to navigate your way to the fuse panel in the dark.......just a thought to make things easier....

I am GLAD that work is going well for you....!!! It's nice to have a few bucks left over, after BEING ABLE to cover all your bases, to dispose of without having a guilty conscience.....just last November at my work; they fired the General Sales Manager (whom they hired one year earlier) that made my daily work life a living hell.....sooooo relieved that upper management finally came to their senses.....so, my work life has become a little easier too.....no more money, but, less grief during the earning process.....which is hard to put a price on....!! 

I am also glad to see that you have endured 'the departure' with graceful style.....not an easy thing, having to find out who YOU are again.....(when people are together for an extended period of time; they kind of become a separate entity.....when they split....they have to find out who they are all over again as individuals)....and you have also managed to get your licensing straightened out I am guessing.....you have had a lot of slop on your plate as of late.....so good to see you are getting back on the Fox track....!!!

.....and Thanks for the recognition on my frozen sidewalk mechanic efforts...!!! ...it's Nice to have a 500 watt work lamp by your side when doing such things....a source of heat AND light.....dressing in layers is also crucial......but, I guess it is the WILL to get it done that matters most....the preparations and accessories are to add to the comfort level..........but you NEVER get used to that biting wind.........I always appreciate nights that are calm and windless.....regardless of the season.......anxious to hear what Xmas presents you will get for your Fox.......CHEERS:beer:


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

At the risk of completely derailing this thread, the secret to a successful late Sunday afternoon Costco shop is not to use a cart. Grab a box on the way in, walk fast, fill it with stuff and head for the cash. Being able to out maneuver all the damn carts jamming up the aisles cuts your shopping time in half.

Nice pulleys btw.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Second update today!?!*

So following the last update, I moped around the house a bit, then decided to go outside. I wasn't out there for very long but I took a lot of pictures because why not. GET READY FOR PICTURES.

First things first, I had these handy little LED lights. They were kinda puck shaped with hooks and magnets on the back. Super handy. But just not bright enough!









The one on the left is the original, one on the right has had the 3 AAA batteries replaced with a 9-volt 









Can you spot the difference?

The one on the right will light up my bedroom by itself. It does get kinda hot after about 10 minutes so it's not ideal for constant work. But it still maintains its magnetic and hooking-onto-stuff functions, and can still be activated by a little button. It's probably my favorite thing ever. I made it like 4 weeks ago and I'm still excited about it.

Since day one, an issue my Fox has had is that the passenger door wouldn't close properly. You know some cars, you have to shove the door shut pretty hard or else it's just in that half-closed limbo? This did that all the time, no matter how hard you shoved. And sometimes it looked like you had it closed all the way, but then it would just sorta fall into that half-closed limbo. Well today I said NO MORE! lol also I didn't know what else to do. I started at the latching mechanism. I was closing the door very slowly and after playing with the latch independently, and it seemed to me that it was just filthy and needed some reconditioning. 









I had already taken one bolt out when I decided that I will take many pictures. Also, it was at this point I decided to actually look at the Bentley in case I needed to know something important.









Apparently there was a screw under this little plastic cover, so I listened to the Bentley and used my thinnest flathead to pry off said plastic bit. The point where my screwdriver is in the picture was a bit stuck for me. I ended up popped either end out first and did that part last. I sorta rocked it back and forth gently to get the little clips to let go.









OFF!









Handle = gone (hint, there was another screw above the latch mechanism

















Filthy, filthy thing.









Look at those unpleasant scratch marks in the paint 









Bentley said to unscrew the lock bolt fella, in hindsight I don't see the point in doing that seeing as mine is broken, but I followed instructions anyways.

























For some reason it had me removing the whole panel inside. I later found out it was entirely unnecessary.









There were three of these screws on the bottom of the inner door handle. The one closes to the back unscrewed into the foam of the handle, which made it rather annoying to remove. I couldn't get a picture because my camera sucks. But I did manage to get it off.









See? Told you so.









I realised as I was removing the top piece of trim that it wasn't a total waste of time. The fleather (read: fake leather) had been forcibly moved about at some point, and has spend what I'm assuming is many years bulging out. Now its shaped with this bump. I'll take a pic of that later, but it's a mini project for the future. Anyways, I had used my little pry bar to pop the little plastic tab (Bentley calls it a spring screw) on the side that isn't this one.









So I was gonna do it here, like so. But that didn't work. Instead I got my fingers under the top portion and pulled and wiggled in every direction...









...and this fell out.

















"spring screw" replaced









The large trim panel was the same sort of spring screw set up. I just followed around (clockwise, if that makes a difference) with my little pry guy and popped them free. I do recommend NOT doing it that way if you find yourself in this situation. I did mess up the moisture shield on the other side a little, just in one spot near the window lever cause you have to go kinda far in. Anyway, halfway off!









OFF!









Finally this little guy can come out. There's no nice way to illustrate how it comes out specifically, but there's a metal hook that runs to the inner door handle, which latches around a thing on the bottom. Release that and the whole thing comes free...









...and leaves a mess behind.









Filthy.









Not filthy.









So, I spent a good while playing with this, understanding how it worked, and seeing if I could do anything for it. I cleaned all the old grease out because it had dirt and hair for some reason in it, and it didn't really seem to have a big effect on the opening and closing of the latch. Finally, I decided to change the shape of the big latch mechanism that's in the middle of the picture. I VERY LIGHTLY filed down the corner that contacts the rest of the thing and it became substantially easier to close the latch (but not so easy that it will just pop out). So this is it being all greased back up.









Cleaned and regreased the business end of the door handle (this picture is before greasing, however)









Aaand then it turned out just to be this little thing. I mean, my work wasn't entirely in vain. I got to learn about the latching mechanism, which I was pretty curious about before. And I certainly didn't hurt it by making it clean. Also I totally neglected to take a picture of the finished product. Because I was mad that it was just this thing. All I had to do was loosen it and move it around, because apparently it does that. And at least I got to use my 15mm wrench from my set of wrenches that I got for Christmas.

So. That was a fun time.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

KRAMMIT said:


> I can login to the Vortex without any trouble.....


Turns out it's DNS related. I switched to Google Public DNS and now it's just fine. Very bizarre though as it happens regardless of the network I'm on or what device I'm using. Very strange but I'll take it!



KRAMMIT said:


> May I recommend getting a heavy duty power bar; with a breaker/trip switch on it....plug the power bar into your garage outlet; plug your accessories into the power bar.....if the load gets too great, the switch in the bar will trip, allowing your to reset it right there, instead of having to navigate your way to the fuse panel in the dark.......


I wish, but the wiring actually goes underground. It's ALMOST really cool.



KRAMMIT said:


> and you have also managed to get your licensing straightened out I am guessing....


Yep. I owe the province a bit of money but they were extremely nice to me, as it was a first offence.



KRAMMIT said:


> .....and Thanks for the recognition on my frozen sidewalk mechanic efforts...!!!


You got it!! Having done a complete winter tire change in the middle of an intersection on a first snowfall, I can certainly appreciate how amazingly horrific it is working on a car in the cold. At least mine is inside all winter so it's dry!



bluetoes591 said:


> At the risk of completely derailing this thread, the secret to a successful late Sunday afternoon Costco shop is not to use a cart. Grab a box on the way in, walk fast, fill it with stuff and head for the cash. Being able to out maneuver all the damn carts jamming up the aisles cuts your shopping time in half.
> 
> Nice pulleys btw.


It's ok, it derails itself as a result of my lack of commitment lol. But that's also some good advice, because the cart situation there is bananas.

And thanks


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

It's been pretty cold lately.









See?

So I haven't been able to do too much. I did manage to go shopping though!

Among other things, I got this new drill (yay!) and electric impact wrench (double yay!)









And I'm not doing nothing. Just very little.

I brought in a piece of door trim so I could work on it indoors. What happened is the fleather that covers the plastic was peeling back from the edges, and it had been doing this a long time, so it was folded up and kinda got stuck that way.









Should not be that wavy.



















So, I bought some of this...










...in the hopes that it would be good enough. I would normally have used super glue but I find it to be way too thin. Because I would have to be messing around with it trying to get clamps on it, I figured I would be better off with something a little thicker. We'll see what happens.

I ended up doing it in sections, so that I could flatten out the creases properly.

It takes a









really.









long.









time.









Things weren't going so well toward the end, so I removed the notepad that was being used to distribute pressure. It's a bit hard to see.









The clamp on the left, it's got a bit lumpy underneath. The fleather was really bad here and this seems to be the best I can get.









Moving on.









So that's where that mini project is at. I currently have it drying a new patch of glue, and then I should be able to work on the ends. That'll be fun. It almost looks like it has undergone some shrinkage because it just doesn't reach the edges. At all. I'll make it work though.

While that was going on, I'd also picked up a propane torch, so that I can take cool pictures like this one:










Anyways, trying to get these rusty guys off









Using the torch and some vise grips I managed to remove a few of them, but there are two in particular that I can't seem to evict. I'm getting the feeling I just have to cut them off and hope for the best. My vise grips are just chewing through them and it won't spin. I'll give it another go tomorrow, but we'll see what happens. Also, I'll be ordering one of these Black Forest Industries dual downpipe manifolds and then soonish visiting a local exhaust guy (who is supposed to be really good) to fabricate a new downpipe that will bolt up to the new manifold. All in due time.

That's it for now. It's supposed to warm up tomorrow so hopefully I'll be able finish with that exhaust manifold and finish cleaning up the cylinder head. We shall see.


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## mike in SC (Apr 29, 2004)

I've had good luck with PB blaster with nuts like the one in the picture. SC doesn't use salt, but when I swapped exhaust manifolds I saw the same problem. I used a six-point socket with those 12mm nuts.

Good luck


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*working in short bursts*

Things have been busy with my job, so I only get to go out for a little bit at a time to do the fun stuff. It's been pretty mild lately (hanging around the -10 to -16 range... which is the most Canadian thing I have ever said lol) so I've been able to go outside and not hate myself. I think that's a plus. Anyway, this update has two parts.

Part 1.

So, I guess first good news is I got the exhaust manifold free. Slightly ruined some nuts in the process, but oh well.









The sad thing is this isn't even the worst one. It was the first one though and I was excited.









And off it comes!









It's certainly had some cowboys in there...









Some of the pegs came out, some of them didn't. No matter, just use my handy vise grips and p...









Eff.

All of them came out fine except that one. I think I heated it up too much and when I went to turn it, it snapped. Because things were going too easy. So obviously I gave up on trying to remove that for now. It's not really important until things are ready to go back together. It was at this point that I (of course failed to get pictures) decided to pull the valves. I've been back and forth on the issue because I really just didn't want to deal with it, and after finding that all my valve seals were ok I was just going to leave it. But then I looked at the valves and they're just way too dirty. I couldn't, in good conscience, come this far and just put everything back together knowing it looked like that inside. There will be pictures when I get the valves out this weekend.









Decided I would clean the top. I'd been putting it off because it was just bad.









This was about as far as I made it before giving up.

Next I thought I'd try to pretty up the exhaust manifold since apparently it's really expensive to replace it.









Believe it or not it was looking worse than this rather poor picture. I had already knocked some of the rust off.









Sprayed it down with some cleaner just to help break down the junk, and this little puddle formed. I was playing with the settings to try to get the red to look right but it's hard being red/green color deficient - I'm telling you though, it looked like there was blood all over my manifold.









Trying real hard to figure out why I took this picture. But I did. And it's here. Tell me if something looks interesting.


ANYWAYS. Part 2.

I have to wait for the weekend to get mah valves out, so while passing the time I decided to mess about with brakes. I had been wanting to do this since the last Fox move. When we arrived all I could smell was boiling break fluid. I assume it (the fluid) hasn't been changed in at least 300 years so that pretty much means time to change it. Also, as I had mentioned in the "What Did You Do To Your Fox Today" thread, nothing was really the same after I did my e-brake cable replacement. I still think it's because I'm missing the adjusting nut. But I do accept the possibility that I just cocked it up.

Anywho, pulled off the back right wheel, drum, look inside, and there's a dangling spring. Well that explains one or two things doesn't it. Failed to get a picture, sorry.

So, everybody (the springs are apparently people) came out. Now I'm in my element. Dismantled drum brakes - my first car related project ever! Pulled apart and reassembled one of these bad boys in my Grade 11 auto tech class as an assignment.









Nothin' but goodness.









Disconnected the brake line at the back, bagged it to keep the junk out. At the bottom of the bag I did end up cutting a very small hole to let it keep dripping out. No dust or anything is getting in there though. Hands down.









And BOY am I ever glad I did that!









Only one of two bolts holding the cylinder onto the plate. That can't be good.









I figured, oh, just stick a hex bit in there, and smash it loose. But what I didn't realise was the wheel cylinder still has brake fluid, and when I hit the ratchet, the brake fluid shot everywhere hilariously.









You. Have. To. Be. F***ing. Kidding!!! WILL NOT COME OUT. One bolt, won't come out. And it HAS to come out because...









Issue #31, the damn thing doesn't actually work. That's me squeezing as hard as I can - the top is compressed, the bottom won't budge. Might have something to do with things.

So I pretty much gave up for the evening. Which is not the worst idea I've ever had cause I'm dead tired. But this weekend I'm heading to Kingston to visit my brother who is going to show me the ways of the force (that is, the force required to remove valve springs). I'll have more pictures for that adventure. I hope. I really, really hope.


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## alaincopter (Oct 2, 2007)

Glad to see you're making good progress! It's nice to know someone not too far away from me is giving a Fox some TLC as well.

As you deal with rust issues, I'd highly recommend you get an angle grinder and both a wire-wheel and cut-off wheels for it. It will make each rust removal job a couple minutes long instead of hours long, and it will allow you to carefully cut off stubborn seized bolts off with ease too. Just remember to wear protective stuff when you're working with it!

And as for the broken exhaust manifold stud, I'd say take the head to a machine shop to get it inspected and they will have no problem removing the broken stud too - it's relatively inexpensive, and it's money well spent!

Cheers!


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

alaincopter said:


> Glad to see you're making good progress! It's nice to know someone not too far away from me is giving a Fox some TLC as well.
> 
> As you deal with rust issues, I'd highly recommend you get an angle grinder and both a wire-wheel and cut-off wheels for it. It will make each rust removal job a couple minutes long instead of hours long, and it will allow you to carefully cut off stubborn seized bolts off with ease too. Just remember to wear protective stuff when you're working with it!
> 
> And as for the broken exhaust manifold stud, I'd say take the head to a machine shop to get it inspected and they will have no problem removing the broken stud too - it's relatively inexpensive, and it's money well spent!


Thanks! I'm giving it as much love as I have time and money for. I actually cut into my grocery money to buy things for it today lol :S

I do have an angle grinder, but I only seem to have one cutting wheel for it. I need to expand my selection. I do find that it's a bit massive for the task though. I mean the more I use it the better I'll get with it (and having proper attachments for it helps lol) but for now I'm less afraid using hand tools. Also I find sanding a very relaxing task with room for much philosophizing and pondering. So I don't mind too much. It's like today, I bought a valve lapping tool to do it by hand instead of being quick and using a drill. Because it's just better.

For the manifold stud I'll just have to find me a machine shop that I trust with my one and only cylinder head


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Significant Progress Part 1*

Hello and welcome to Part One of a two part series! Lots of activity lately and it looks like I'm moving away from dismantling stuff and starting to put things back together again. Which is gonna be WAY harder because so many little things need replacing. But I will manage. Here's what's happening so far:

I've got a lovely bunch of chemicals, deedledee... There they are standing in a row!









Left to right: Seafoam spray, (I forgot to turn this to the English side) motor degreaser, Honda-branded brake cleaner (much stronger than store bought stuff), Honda-branded carb cleaner and general ass kicker, Honda-branded rust penetrant, muffler cement, there's a can of primer back there with the gray lid, rust converter (more on that later), and blue caliper paint. I know I said the drums would be an obnoxious colour, but I just really liked this one. Anyway, I acquired all these over a period of a few days. Pretty fantastically flammable garage I have now 

On Saturday I went up to (or down to?) Kingston to visit my brother. Despite it being his birthday, I put him to work. I wanted to pull my valves out because on the other side, it looked like this (this is with valves out because I couldn't get a good picture with them in):









exhaust









intake

I was going to take care of it myself, and I did try, but I was caught somewhere between inexperience and fear of damaging my cylinder head. Lacking the proper tools, I opted for the hammer-and-socket method, but when I hit the socket, the spring compressed and then nothing happened. My brother employed the use of a wrench and also hits way harder than me and also rebuilds engines every day. So, he rocked that one. And provided me with chemicals!

Alright, you already saw a picture of this but I need to illustrate an important safety advisory. This stuff:










...will ruin your evening! Don't get me wrong, it's magnificent. It does a lovely job. But it absolutely pillages your brain cells. I have since improved my safety standards, but seriously, more ventilation for that stuff. It's insane.

Anyways, I used it to fill a shallow container to leave my valves to soak in overnight.










Note the zip tie labels on each of them so I didn't mess up which one went where. I'm paranoid about messing up my engine.

Today I got back in there after a good 36 hour soaking and investigated. They were still dirty but a lot of the loose crap had come off. I failed to get pictures before soaking them unfortunately, so there's really no reference. Just trust me though. They were gross.









Now they're gross AND wet!

So I stopped faffing about, and put on my protective stuff to prevent my face from being ruined.









Get ready for the most disappointing episode of Breaking Bad.

I dried them all off with a shop towel and lined them up. I marked my towely table with the valve numbers because, again, paranoid. Then I decided to focus my images on this one valve because I'm bad enough at pictures as it is.









Surprisingly filthy intake valve.

I was genuinely not expecting this. The exhaust valves, where everything related to exhaust is incredibly dirty, cleaned up just fine by soaking. But for some reason the intake valves were all like that one - covered in solid deposits of... something. So I soaked it again for about a minute mostly to see if it would make any difference.









It didn't.

So I started scraping away at the junk REALLY CAREFULLY with a razor, making sure not to touch the edges where it contacts the cylinder head.










Getting better...










Still getting better!










And that's as far as I got that one. I'd like them to be even better looking but I'm not convinced I can really do anything for them with the materials I have so they'll have to do. I'm fairly disappointed, to be honest. Ah well...

So while those valves were soaking, I was working on my brake drums. As a reminder, here's what they looked like:










First I removed the bolts, then I took my palm sander with 80 grit and went to town on it.









Halfway through.

It was actually going quite well.



















I spent a good 20 minutes or so power sanding this thing and it was actually looking pretty good. I picked up some 'rust converter', and here's where I pick up from that first image. That stuff has the worst smell in the world. I can't stress enough how much you want a mask and serious ventilation. And maybe you wanna wait until you have a cold or allergies so your nose doesn't work. The smell is somewhere between harsh cleaning chemicals and rotten eggs. It's horrendous. Anyways, it's supposed to convert the rust into a paintable primer and then seal everything in. I don't know if it'll actually work, but it's worth a shot. I don't expect to get more than a year or so out of these drums but I can't justify replacing them yet. They're still ok on the inside.

I crammed some ear plugs into the lug holes and a rolled up shop towel into the center and went to town applying this stuff.










While it's still wet, it makes all the rusty bits black, and when you dry it, it does stay black but it looks a little better. Here it is next to my other drum that I had just sprayed down with rust penetrant.



















So... now I'm just waiting for a warm enough day to throw on a coat of primer to keep this baby nice and fresh so when it's time to paint it I can just go nuts. Waiting on new brake hardware to come in, and new valve seals, and then this puppy is going back together. Now I'm off to get lapping compound and my next update will have this thing on the up and up.

I am excited and for the first time feeling really confident about this thing.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*A little tip for Canadians!*

So, I'd gone out to get lapping compound for mah valves. On my last shopping trip, the store I'd gone to was out. They said go to this great place, Princess Auto. I love that place - they have so much cool stuff and pretty good prices on a lot of it. But unfortunately, they don't sell that stuff anymore. But they said go check out this place across the street, Benson Auto.

I have never been there before but oh my, I'm going back. I don't think they operate at all in the States - I think they're only Ontario and Quebec. BUT, they seem to have pretty much everything OE-equivalent for the Fox. My three main places that I look at are rockauto.com, techtonicstuning.com, and germanautoparts.com, and I think that's probably fairly common among all of us. Benson has everything that all three of them have, but you're not paying shipping. I ordered my set of valve stem seals today and it cost me less than $12 all in, compared to the internet's $10 plus shipping, tax, and possibly brokerage. AND I'm picking them up tomorrow. WHAT! No shipping, no border shenanigans. Not sure if any of you have dealt with these people before but I can definitely recommend them as a pretty solid place to go for parts.

So far though, no tail lights


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*is everybody else crazy, or am I crazy?!*

Hello all

For the potentially 10's of you out there who actually pay attention to my progress, I have a minor update. For anyone just looking for car stuff, nothing really to be found in this update so you're welcome to just skip it.

I had promised you guys a big two part update, and I got half of it done. But then I failed. I feel like I owe an explanation.








(thanks Reddit for that one)

So basically here's the scoop, you may remember that I moved and had this great place etc, etc. Well. Crap. Turns out one of my roommates thinks I'm "the most selfish person in the world" (actual quote, I could show you the text if I still had the phone she took from me) because I do my own dishes instead of doing everybody's dishes, among many other similarly asinine complaints. So after she threatened to have me evicted (even though she has literally zero ability to do that) I decided it's best to move on. As a result, I've been busy trying to secure a new home while simultaneously living in places that aren't my house that I pay for because every time I'm there she wants to argue. Because the forum doesn't allow curse words, there's nothing else I can say on the matter lol. It does have me wondering though, with all the troubles I've had, am I the crazy one, or do I really just keep running into people like this?

I have that place up until the end of April, but my car WILL be running by the middle of March. I've got my brother coming up from Kingston in March and he's convinced we'll get it at least driveable by the first weekend. My new place (assuming I secure it - I find out today) is only about 6km away, has a driveway (not quite a garage but at least I can work on a car there) and most importantly, nobody else lives there. No more living with people.

As you may have seen in the What Did You Do To Your Fox Today bit, I have purchased some things at least. Other than some brake fluid, a solution for getting the wheel cylinder off my right-hand backing plate, and a couple little odds and ends that I'll determine as I encounter them, I'm pretty much ready to go. We have some warm weather coming our way here (6 degrees, woooo!) so hopefully I'll be able to use that time to get my brakes back on. If I do manage to get that done, I'll have a real update.

Anyways, thanks everyone for your patience (to all two of you reading this  ) while I sort out my life. Hopefully this is going to be the last move for a while and I can actually just get things done without having to put up with drama. I swear I don't ask for this stuff.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Little bit of work done... lots of disappointment though.*

Well, ****.

I don't have a lot in the way of pictures, and what I do have I'll upload later. So it's just story time for now.

Basically it's been a bit of a mad rush to get this thing going, so my brother has been helping me out and we haven't been stopping for luxuries like pictures. First thing we did was get the cylinder head back together. That was unpleasant. At first it was really awesome. Using the wood shop in my parents' condo building, because it's warm there, we started putting the valves back in. Not having a valve spring compressor made it a lot harder than it had to be, but by using a big clamp (the kind where there's a piece that slides up and down a metal beam and is held in place by the pressure of it pressing on whatever you're clamping), and a U shaped piece of metal that we found lying around, we got the springs compressed down enough to put the little wedges back in. As we were putting the 7th one back in, it occurred to me that I had completely forgotten to put the valve seals in. It was not a brilliant moment. So we took them all out, put the seals in, and put it back together again.

We went to put the drum brakes back on and everything was going well until we tried removing the line from the driver side brake. The wheel cylinder had to be replaced, which was fine and all since I had the part for it, but the line was seized right on, and we had no choice but to cut it. So I bought a new section of brake like and all the appropriate fittings. My brother had a flange kit but it just so happened that the size we needed was missing. So, went to CT, got their only flange kit, went back and got everything hooked up. Aaaand the line leaked at the flange because it was a crappy tool and didn't work properly. Naturally we gave up on that one for now.

In between these various adventures I've bought a new timing belt, accessory belt, a variety of screws and bolts, a big jug of oil, some more bolts that I forgot, and probably some other things that I'm forgetting.

Oh also in there somewhere we did manage to get that crank pulley off. I say we, but I mean my brother. I had nothing to do with it. But it's off, and we've got the cylinder head back on the block. It isn't torqued down yet because none of my tools are in the garage anymore and we didn't think to bring a torx. In case you're wondering why my tools are in a storage locker instead of my garage with my car, it's because one of my room mates stole my wrench set and I decided that since they've proven to have zero respect for my things that I should keep as little there as possible. And what a huge pain in the ass that's been.

Yeah. So. That's where I'm at. Car won't be running by the weekend I guess. Oh well. Life goes on.


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## MillerAPF92Fox (Feb 24, 2014)

Keep your head up, 'zoo. Wow. Had the day off work due to weather and wanted to devote some time to reading your entire thread. Your life seems to have more downs than anybody deserves. Hope things get better (and more stable) for you soon, and that the Fox provides you some therapy and fulfillment in the meantime. I believe you are among friends in more ways than one on this forum - we've all seen the highs and lows you've experienced (personal life AND with the car!), and both grieve and celebrate with you My '92 has some of the same problems you've encountered - your pics of body rust made me sad because I know I'll be addressing that issue sooner or later. But what you've accomplished with the car and learned in the process show so much promise. You don't seem to be afraid to take on anything. That will serve you well!
I couldn't help but notice in one of your pics of the front of the car (in the garage), looks like it has fog lights in the front bumper. Mine has plastic filler plugs in those openings. Are those factory lights or aftermarket? I'd like to set driving lights there, but aftermarket units in an appropriate-looking size are going to be difficult to find, I'm betting. Of course, the same can probably be said of the factory units - NOS running out and such limited production and market penetration. If you have the time, any information you can provide would be awesome.
I have to agree with efritsch - love reading your posts. Your ramblings ARE good for a laugh, but watching your progress is encouraging as well. As you, though, I don't see ever parting with my Fox - too much fun looking for parts, trying to extract more performance with so little aftermarket support, etc. Plus so fun to drive! I also probably won't be driving to Ottawa from the geographic middle of the US of A to shop a yard, as cool as it does look. Your winters are just too long! Keep up the good work and keep us posted. 
BTW, for your headlight conversion - look at Parts Place Inc. I just replaced my broken driver's side headlight (replaceable bulb, not sealed beam) for about $50 US, plus $10 for shipping. They included a paper catalog (for the bathroom!) and a neat little maintenance/modification log book. Plus a discount on your next purchase! Just another source to consider. Chris


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Well, had a small amount of progress.

No pictures because I'm at work and my phone is at home.

Got the new brake line fitted properly. Brakes now work, I just have to re-adjust the handbrake cable and she'll be ready to stop! Probably! Makes a big difference when you have the right parts. Unfortunately I wasn't able to check out the proportioning valve so... oh well. I'll just hope it's fine.

Cylinder head is bolted back on and torqued accordingly. Engine is timed correctly, and a mystery is solved.

When I got the car, the PO informed me that they had changed the distributor cap just before the car stopped working properly. So we took a look at that because with all the sprockets and pulleys sitting appropriately with their respective timing marks, the distributor rotor was off by about 10 degrees from its timing mark. This is obviously pretty bad. We loosened the bolt that holds it all together and with a surprising amount of ease, we were able to give it a turn. So now the distributor is aligned properly, so it will be sparking when it should instead of whenever it feels like it.

I'm now feeling cautiously confident that this is going to work. The cylinder head is in good shape and everything is clean, the timing is fixed... it should all be good. Should be.

Today after work I'll be popping over to the dealer to order new injector sleeves (mine fell apart), and then over to the Fox to start putting things back in. My goal is to at least get the rad back in and reassemble the intake manifold (not put it back on until injectors are back in though). I'm still sad that I have been unable to paint it an obnoxious colour, but that'll come eventually. Almost there. Almost.

Thank y'all for bearing with me.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Well, I had some success this most recent shop adventure.

I was a bit late getting started because I was busy having a massive allergic reaction to something (still no idea what). So I took a few hours off, then got my ass in gear and worked from about 10pm to around 3am. Good times. Went to bed at around 5, then up at 10am to start again.

Excluding differences of lighting, this is what I started with:










I started by reassembling the intake manifold (or rather, putting things back on it). My first problem was this part that I slightly broke a while ago:









auxiliary air regulator.

One of the bolts had gotten stuck, and I thought I could knock it loose by turning the whole unit. I couldn't get in there with vise grips because it was a tight space, so this seemed to be a valid solution. Gave it a couple love taps (read: substantial hits) with a rubber mallet and, well, it broke. Fortunately, it doesn't actually have to be mounted super securely. The pressure running through it isn't depending on this thing having a tight seal against the manifold. So I did this:









Turned the triangular piece sideways; worked like a charm.

Everything else went on just fine. Got new bolts for most of it so the next time I need to take it apart I actually can.









That is one complete intake manifold. Sadly not bright red though 

So here's a question. This fella:










Is it supposed to have a gasket? I'd think so because coolant runs through it, but there didn't seem to be one in my kit. For now I've fashioned a terrible cardboard one in case I'm supposed to have one there. Does anyone have thoughts on this?









A little closer, so you can truly appreciate the depths of my vehicular depravity.

The crank pulley, which comprises like 80% of my anger in this build thread, went on next, with lovely new shiny bolts.










Unfortunately the pulley didn't get the nice shiny treatment that the coolant pump one did. To make up for it, I gave it dirty old bolts 










It was shortly after this point that I realised I'd neglected to put the timing belt cover back on. So I had to take the pulley's BACK off and put the damn cover on. Son of a... At least it wasn't the worst thing I did. I had to go back and re-time the engine because I forgot to put on the upper mounting bracket for the alternator. Because it bolts on from the front, the timing belt was in the way of moving the plastic cover over so I could actually get the bolts through. So. That was a good half hour of crying... I mean work. Manly, manly work.









Done.

When I was removing the exhaust manifold during the Great Disassembly of 2014, pretty much all of the little posts to which it is mounted had to be replaced. The nuts were so badly corroded that most of them came off with fire and a sprinkling of hatred. But mostly fire. Which I cooled with my hateful tears. Anyways. Because they had to be replaced anyways, I figured I'd do all of them and make things pretty. At first I was concerned because I wasn't sure how I'd get them seated properly, being that there is no real way to screw them in. At first I thought it was going to be done with pliers by grabbing the middle of the posts and spending all day turning. But then I remember that I'm very clever, and that my engineering genius knows no bounds. (I swear to god I'm not actually that full of myself)

I started by hand tightening them as far as I could (which, I'll admit, wasn't very far) like so:










Then I threaded on a nut that I didn't plan on needing (I'll show you why later):










For some reason I didn't get a picture of this in action, but hey, I said I'm an engineering genius, not a photographer. So. Sorry. Anyways, grabbed my lovely electric impact gun, and within a few minutes I had all of them right where they needed to be. It actually worked way better than I thought it would. This next picture coming up is right between me stopping and me removing the nut. Notice how far the nut DIDN'T travel:










That's me using vice grips to hold the post in place while I remove the nut. I made sure not to grip it too tight because it was over the threads a bit, but obviously it had to be enough to stop it from spinning. It worked rather well. The only issue is that there was this bit I'd never actually removed:









because lazy.

It wouldn't budge, no matter what I tried. But I was concerned about damaging the surface too much where the gasket sits, so I called it quits. I figure, it's the 3rd one in, all the other ones are on. It *should* seal just fine, but if it doesn't I'll make a mess of it with some muffler cement. Because that stuff is ridiculous.

At this point I decided to get out of the engine bay and start putting body panels back on. This was something I'd been wanting to do for a while because the first time we removed the fender, it had all this pasty crap all over the place that was holding moisture like nobody's business. It was corroding everything pretty significantly, so it had to go. Problem is, by removing that it changed where the fender sits. So it wasn't lining up properly anymore. I'm reluctant to just put more putty stuff in there because it doesn't solve the original problem. So what I did was a bit quicker and easier than figuring out a real solution.









Not pictured: real solution.

Originally my plan was to have more time to work on this, and actually do it right. So instead, I half-assed my original plan. Let me lay out the original first, and then I'll tell you what I did.

First I was going to strip down the underside of the fender, and the part that it bolts to up top. Right down to the metal. Then repaint the surfaces using some serious anti-rust stuff that I once used to paint a wrought-iron fence. It's black and thick and terrible smelling, but it definitely works. Then I would painstakingly add, remove, re-add, shuffle, and generally mess around with a variety of washers until everything was perfect. "But Justin!" you might be thinking. "What about galvanic corrosion!?" Might I say Dear Reader that your concern and observational skills are noted, but accounted for. By painting each of the washers as well, we avoid having the different metals touching, and create a nice neutral environment. After that, I would have to seal the gap - so, fill it with body filler, prime it, paint it, and we're in business.

Well. I didn't have time for all of that. So I took one of the washers from my former head bolts, and used that instead. I've left a gigantic space, and I'm really not much further ahead. But I can fix it later, because my temporary solution is superbly easy to reverse.

It was around that time that I determined yet another glaring issue.









Yeah, it's crooked and sticking out.

The bumper (not the cover, the actual functional part) seems to have suffered some damage at some point. Its two top bolts that hold it into the square tubing won't go in. They just won't. The one in the picture refuses to go in at any other angle, and that's as far as I can make it go. Here's the other one:









Bit less crooked.

Now, I know this car had an accident. They replaced the fender and such. But I think the bumper was damaged as well, and nobody replaced it. I think the minute that bolt came out the first time, it was done for. Anyone know if the bumper is a part shared with other VW's? Or know of one in a scrap yard?

Speaking of bumper troubles, the cover is ALSO ruined. Sort of. For anyone that's taken the bumper cover off, you know those little plugs that go in the sides just ahead of the wheel wells. For some reason, both of the plugs on the driver side were missing pieces. It's four "walls" that push out when you put the pin in the center, mine only had three each. As a result, that side just wouldn't stay in. It flapped about horribly. So it was time for engineering solution number 3.

I took off the little panel onto which the plugs are attached, and ran a couple zip ties through it, like this:


















It goes back on there.










I never even thought to do "after" pictures. But I promise you, it worked. And it was way better than messing around with those damn little plastic plugs.

So at the end of the day, here's how she looked:




























A few other bits and bobs went back in, including the radiator and several hoses, headlight housings, and some other stuff. It was a busy day. Also got the parking brake adjusted pretty perfectly. It felt great to get back to work on it. I was even just in a t-shirt for a while because I had the sun on my back. It was terrific.

Anyways, won't have a chance to get back in there until some time next week. Until then, I will be lurking.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Almost there!*

Hello Foxers

Getting closer!! (also, there's a part down there where I need help, if anyone has thoughts)

Picked up my fuel injector lower inserts (I've been calling them sleeves because that's what a similar part is called on other cars, Bentley calls it upper and lower inserts) from Benson yesterday, which meant I could go in and start doing things. First I had to bus to the closest point to Benson, and then walk for like 20 minutes, and then walk back 20 minutes, and then another 15 minutes because buses suck. And then had to bus with about 45 pounds of tools to my car. Was already sore by the time I got there, and then worked for a few hours, mostly standing, mostly hunched over the front of the car. Anyways, rant over. Point is, I was sore. But I was in a great mood!

So, because my main issue that was holding me back was not having these lower inserts, it made sense to start with those. I didn't grab pictures, and I really wanted to because there doesn't seem to be a lot of information out there about this particular procedure. But oh well. Basically, you've got a red plastic cap, it pops onto the (copper?) upper insert where the injector sits. And then there's a little o-ring that goes on the lower insert. Then that goes into the cyl head, torqued to something like 18 or maybe 22 ft-lbs. I did what Bentley told me to, anyways. It seems a bit low to me, but hey, who am I to judge. It uses a 12mm internal hex socket. Also of note, these guys (at least mine) seem to be REALLY easy to crossthread. So if, like me, you have wobble extensions, be super careful. They only hand tighten a little, and on my first one I felt it starting to go a bit sideways. You're fine if you've got regular extensions though. Or just don't use extensions, just don't punch stuff. Finally, Bentley says to put thread lock on these - I didn't, mainly because I forgot to bring it with me. I doubt it'll be the end of the world - even with the intake manifold on it doesn't actually seem to be that hard to get them out. So some time down the road I will, just because I worry about constant engine vibration shaking them loose. That may be unfounded though, who knows...

Anyways.










Put the exhaust manifold back on. Immediately I realised it should have been done before putting the cylinder head back on. Hindsight is kind of a mood killer. No matter! I have decent manual dexterity, I can bend around stuff awkwardly. Besides, everything on this car always has to take longer than is really necessary. So, why not? Alright so being serious for a second, I highly highly recommend not trying to put this stuff on with the cylinder head attached, and I also highly recommend the thinnest sockets you can find. Mine are pretty standard, but I have a couple thicker deep sockets that I couldn't use because the nut sits very close to the manifold. Even the lighter sockets had trouble in there. Not on all of the nuts, but on enough of them to make it worth mentioning.

I thought I would be clever and put this shiny new bolt on:










...turns out you do that after the intake manifold is on. You need that space to put in the bolts. Not a huge deal, but one of those hang-your-head-in-general-annoyance moments.

I brilliantly stopped taking pictures around this point. I have a couple, but they're bad and not super helpful. But I'll show them anyways. Put the intake manifold back on, fought with the bolts. I'm honestly not sure how I'm going to be able to torque them. Even with my tiniest ratchet, I could barely get in there because 3 of the 6 bolts holding it on are recessed pretty far in. You can't see them, and with the air flow sensor in there's very little room to navigate. Again, should have done this separately. I'll find a way. Or do non-spec torquing. Here's the only picture I got where the manifold is on, it just happens to be of another **** up of mine.










I put it on upside down, which I will happily and shamelessly blame on the fact that it doesn't have any markers to tell you where to put it. Even though I should have totally just looked and been like "yeah you can't close the hood if it's this way". Shh. Also, the bolts that came out of there were pretty rough, so I replaced them with these nice new external hex bolts. I thought, brilliant, I prefer these to those internal hex guys. I guess there's a reason they used the internal hex, the reason being there's NO clearance to get a socket around them. So I had to use a wrench like a sucker. But whatever. That's what happens when you don't pay attention, or something.

By this point, I'd remembered that I have a camera, and started taking a couple more pictures.










Injector with new o-rings. Holy sweet mother of god. I had no idea it was going to be that crazy hard to put those things on. I ended up spreading it out over the course of my day there because of how hate-filled I was with each one. After some reading around, I found out that you can in fact coat the chunky green ones with oil and it won't damage them. That helped a little, but it also made me drop them, or fire them hilariously across the garage because they were slippery. What I ended up doing to get them over the preposterously huge ends was I grabbed a 10mm internal hex, put the o-ring on a table, and I forced the hex into the o-ring. I let it sit for a few minutes so it wouldn't snap back right away, and then I put the hex/o-ring thing against the end of the injector, and pushed the o-ring from the larger hex bit to the slightly smaller injector. That was only part of the struggle, because once you get it on, you're fighting an uphill battle (it's a tapered end, so it get's wider before it gets smaller). So, what I did was grab a 14mm box wrench and pushed hard enough to deliver a particularly fat baby. This gets it right to the first lip. See they decided you need to have o-rings on both ends, so the one on the bottom sits in a little groove. And rather than set the groove in the injector, they made a thing on the outside for it. For this obstacle, I put an imperial socket of some size (maybe 7/16?) on it and pushed even harder than I did with the wrench. It helps if you swear a lot.

So I did that four times, and success! Injectors are ready to go.

I then set about connecting up hoses and electrical bits. New hose clamps:









Nice and shiny!

I think I've got everything pretty much right but I'm stuck on two things. And I've taken no pictures passed this point so, you're kinda gonna have to deal with my poor wording.

*****THIS IS WHERE I NEED HELP*****

First, there's this wire that's running between the MAF and the intake manifold. It's bundled with the connectors for the o2 sensor. It's a wire with a metal loop on the end, what you would expect to be screwed onto something. I have NO idea where it goes. I've looked around a bit and I can't for the life of me figure it out. If this sounds like something about which you're familiar, gimme a shout. I've never used a wiring diagram and I'm a bit unsure what I'm looking at, but I'll spend some more time with it. If I figure it out I'll post info, but in the meantime I wouldn't mind some guidance!!

EDIT: I've gone on photobucket and modified the first picture. Not sure when it'll be reflected here, but you can actually see the wire in question. There's a pretty obvious red arrow, you can't miss it. Picture isn't great but maybe somebody knows?

Second, there's a vacuum line. Runs from the master cylinder. I don't know what it goes to. I *think* it's going on the MAF or the intake mani somewhere, possibly in the back. But I don't know. I really wish I had more of a description for this one.

*****THAT'S PRETTY WELL IT FOR HELP*****

Here's the short list for what's left to do (generally in order) before I can make things be exciting:

* obviously need to sort the above issues
* distributor cap needs to go back on - and I guess I should probably figure out how. I looked at it yesterday, and it wasn't immediately obvious so I postponed it :S
* spark plugs need to go in
* double check torque on manifolds, cyl head cover, radiator, pulleys, and whatever else is in the last major update
* exhaust needs to go back on; for now I'll be running a short exhaust with no muffler because **** everybody and their stupid ears and other sensibilities. No I just need to grab a small length of pipe to add in the middle and then the muffler will actually work. But for the purposes of making sure everything works first, this will do.
* oil and coolant need to go in
* grille, headlights, headlight outer brackets, and right wheel well liner all need to go back on... and I guess the hood too but I'll wait until I know it's running
* wheels need to go back on in the rear

I actually think that's it. A day's work, and then it's time to start burning some liquefied dinosaurs. Following that I need to get it plated, insured, new windshield, moved, and then the REAL fun begins. In that order.

Aiming to get in there Friday to do what I can on these other bits and bobs, and provided that all goes well, have her start on Monday. There will be a video.



**BONUS PICTURE**










Walking back to the bus from the Fox, I found this car. Behold, the Skoda Roomster. It's actually the second time I've seen it around Ottawa. The first time I got a pretty hasty picture in traffic and it was just generally not a good shot. I was blown away to find it again (you know, among the plethora of other Euro-market cars we have), especially around the corner from my Fox. I'd really like to get a picture of the Mk3 Scirocco that we have around here though. That's the best part of living in the capital - all the fun diplo cars. There's also a Ford Galaxy diesel around here. And an Alfa 159. Ok I'm done.


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## doppelfaust (Aug 15, 2007)

What part is the arrow suppose to be pointing to?

It appears to be pointing to the ground for the O2 sensor, but maybe I am seeing the picture incorrectly...


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

doppelfaust said:


> What part is the arrow suppose to be pointing to?
> 
> It appears to be pointing to the ground for the O2 sensor, but maybe I am seeing the picture incorrectly...



That's what I've been trying to find out! I couldn't find where it goes, because my labeling system failed me (i.e. it fell off [and really I failed it]) but yes, it is supposed to be pointing at that wire.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Happy Buyday!*

Ok I know I said in the "what did you do to your fox today" thread that my next update would be either a start or a tow, but I lied because my memory sucks.

I pulled out the ownership the other day cause I'm looking at insurance and thought I may need the VIN on hand, and I happened to notice that the Fox became mine April 13th last year. So. Happy belated buyday to me and the Fox!

Seriously though, I'm going to finish putting on the exhaust tomorrow and feeding it some delicious oil, double/triple/quadruple check that everything is where it's supposed to be and torqued correctly, and then Friday I will be starting it. Or trying to start it. There will be video.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Big update!*

Hello hello - this is a long one, so I've given you guys a TL;DR at the bottom.

So today was the big day. Let's see if we can start 'er up!

First, watch my video (in glorious HD)!





Time to Tarantino this thing and jump back in time.

This all started a few days ago. I unexpectedly had a chance to get in and work on the car, so I did. It was delicious.

My first order of business was to torque everything. I went around, painstakingly making sure everything was as tight as it should be. There was, of course, a snag. The first issue I ran into was the lower exhaust manifold bolts - there was just one that I couldn't get to with my torque wrench, but I could get to it with a regular ratchet. So it's not torqued to spec. It's torqued to "this is as tight as I feel like making it". Because why the hell not. The second snag was the exhaust pipe to the manifold. One of the bolts just never came out. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make it happen. A few days previous, I thought, sure, I'll just cut it off. No such luck. See:









That shiny bit is where I tried to cut off the head.

Much to my surprise, the issue hadn't resolved itself upon my return, so I had to come up with another plan. It wasn't a good plan, and I know I will regret it in the future. But it's better than nothing. Muffler cement. *sigh* I'll have to go back and touch up a couple spots. From today's activities it's become apparent that I have a bit of a leak there still. But that will be for another time.

So with its face all back together, and insides all back where they should be in the engine bay (minus the distributor cap), I could work on the exhaust.









Looking good!

You may recall, I cut my exhaust in half. I thought I would be doing a dual-downpipe thang but money, circumstance, time, and money again have prevented this from being a reality. So. I had to put that back together. Life would have been better if this had NOT been the case. At the end of my video you'll notice I shove the camera under the car. From the outside you could tell where I had rejoined the pipes, so I had to try to illustrate that. So here's what happened...










I bought a little length of pipe and two clamps. Climbed under the car with the back half of exhaust pipe on my chest, and slipped the new piece of pipe over top. I was going to cement it on, but it doesn't actually fit properly. So I thought, whatever, I'll figure it out later and just clamp it on for now. Well, that would have been just fine, but I left my deep sockets at home and didn't have a big enough wrench to do the rest by hand (THIEVING ROOMMATES!). So as a result, I couldn't get it clamped down all the way, and now it sucks. It sorta works, but not really. It's something I can very easily fix, but that's just another thing I'll have to do. So. Dammit.









I have no way to put this into the story, so I'll just awkwardly shove it here.

***no pictures for the next bit***

After that was done, I said hey, maybe I should the horn back in. Cool. So I dig out the horn, go through my box of screws and bolts and realise I don't seem to have one particular to the horn. Ok, fine. Let's just see where the thing goes and figure it out from there. Now, I'm not completely stupid. I mean, I'm a moron for sure, but I have basic functionality. I **cannot** for the life of me figure out where this thing mounts. I can't. I have no idea. I spent forever looking. Then I'm like, ok, I'll just put it wherever the hell I want. Well, I can't really find a place for that either. Jesus. Does it just go on one of those bolts that holds the bumper in? That's the only thing I could think of. I'll probably just put it there anyways, because I can.

So, fine, whatever. No horn, that's cool. Next I put some oil in, and none fell out. That was good. Gave me hope. At that point I had to go catch a bus, so that was all I could do. That left me with putting wheels on, putting the distributor cap on, and putting in coolant. No problem.

That takes us to present day. Seriously, I should be a director. This is what all the cool ones do - throw you around on the timeline.

We show up, and get cracking. The car sat on jack stands for so long that the stands actually started sinking into the floor. So I lifted it up, put the wheels on, took out the jack stands, and let her down on her own feet for the first time in months. It was great. While I did that, my brother put the distributor cap back on. It was some fine teamwork. Everything was looking good, so we pulled the fuel pump relay to give the oil a chance to get around the engine before putting explosions in it.

Brought up my brother's car (new Mazda 6), tossed on the jumper cables, and let it crank a bit. Crank crank crank, then this is where the video started. We forgot to put the relay back in so it was like hm, there's no fuel going in there. So we ran around for a couple seconds and then were like, duh, relay. So we get it back in, crank crank crank crank, nothing; play with the throttle cable, nothing. My brother pops the boot off the throttle body, and sprays in some brake cleaner. And holy ****, it started! From the power of alcohol! Hooray!

But man did it ever run rough. And it wasn't really keen on running on its own. So we kept it running by the power of general awesomeness and let the coolant lines bleed for a bit before popping out to buy some gas. We threw in some premium because we figured it would help make more firey goodness. It didn't. With the boot off and brake cleaner in, it would start just fine. With the boot on and trying to start normally, nothing. It almost seemed like a fuel delivery problem because, as you heard, it just cranks and cranks and cranks and nothing happens. So, let's knock out some problems.

First we checked the spark plugs were all working. Aside from the wires being a bit ****ty, they were just fine. So next we checked injectors. Grabbed some water bottles, gave 'er a couple cranks - beautiful injectors. Gorgeous, even. Put everything back, tried turning it over again to see if we could learn anything else. We could hear both fuel pumps going, I know for a fact that this fuel dizzy works, the injectors are working. Well, that doesn't leave much. So, at this point, the engine is flooded. Too much petrol gone unburned. So, pulled the fuel pump relay again, and gave it the beans. And you know what? The damn thing started. Not for long, because it was so very literally running on fumes. But it started.

Well, that narrows it down pretty quick. Air. Check the air sensor plate and... jesus man. What happened? it used to sit in there so perfectly. But for some odd reason it's sitting way lower than it's supposed to. All the way down. There's no springyness to it at all. It just awful and dead. With that issue kind of ignored for now, we decided to check out the rough rough engine. It shakes a lot, it's crazy noisy and bizarre sounding... Not cool. Previous owner had replaced the distributor when he had the car, right around when it died. I had marked down on the cap where each spark plug wire was, and that's the state in which I left them. My brother is looking at this and going "this is wrong" and starts just swapping them about. Oh my gentle jesus what a difference that made. It wasn't perfect, but it was SO much better, and quieter (although honestly I thought it sounded like a badass rally car before).

So here's where we sit: It's pretty obvious that an issue is the air plate, but we don't know if there is more. My brother is reading the manual to see if he can learn more about it. We're going to pick up a timing light, some new spark plug wires, compression tester (rent one, anyway), and maybe a couple other things. Then we'll set this thing right once and for all. This weekend (hopefully) I'll be towing it here (pictures will be included) and I'll at least have it close by again. I miss having it around. Also, that smoke? It got a lot better - that was largely due to chemicals and things burning off. It stopped doing that, now the only thing is the exhaust leak that I mentioned earlier. Also also, as promised:

************TL;DR VERSION*************

Watch the video. Nah, it's cool, I'll wait. Ok. Got it? Cool. So, that happened, we messed around, learned it won't run because of an air related issue *probably* and we're working to resolve it. Looks like air sensor plate is the culprit. Towing the car this weekend, will sort it out next week.


And that's that. I will continue to update as I learn more things.


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

It makes noise! I'd call that a win even if it's not quite right yet.


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*...It Is Alive...*

I'm with bluetoes591.....getting it lit is a start.....any progress is still progress....once she stays lit; then it's just a matter of tuning to suit.....WELL DONE....J....!!! (nice presentation on the Tube!!!opcorn


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## alaincopter (Oct 2, 2007)

Good progress man, you're almost there. I'd say check and make sure your cold start valve is spraying fuel while cranking as that may be the reason it's not firing up.

You can unbolt it and point it to a bottle while cranking to check. If it doesn't spray, try putting 12v directly to the valve's connector to test the valve itself. If that works, then the problem would be either a bad thermo time switch, or wiring.

Good luck!


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Moved!*

Well, got her moved today. Had to put the hood on first, and obviously take a bunch of pictures.














































The hood didn't quite go on right, but I can worry about that later, I think. It's not going to any shows any time soon.









Sits a bit low.









Loaded up and ready to go.









What a Fox looks like when being towed by a Neon from the mirror of a Fiat.









We made it!









Nestled in.

One problem did arise. As we were loading it onto the dolly I noticed some drops on the driveway and the road. I noticed there was a drop of oil threatening to fall from the plug on the oil pan, so when we got it delivered safely I went and tightened it. And that's when I saw that it was actually a brake line dripping.









Gotta catch 'em all.









This was the best picture I could get. It's under the passenger side door. It doesn't look like a factory joint - I think the line may have been reconnected there at some point and they didn't do a stellar job. But I'll know more when I can actually get under the car.

Also, I didn't grab any pictures (because it looks awful) but there were a couple spots of bare metal that I quickly sprayed with primer. While it was in the garage it was fine, it didn't seem to be in a hurry to rust. But now that she's out in the open, I figured better safe than sorry. And it's not like it matters that much how it looks right now. Later this week my brother should be popping over armed with knowledge and we should be able to solve the running problem.



> alaincopter
> Good progress man, you're almost there. I'd say check and make sure your cold start valve is spraying fuel while cranking as that may be the reason it's not firing up.


Thanks! Yeah, I'll give that a look for sure!

@KRAMMIT and @bluetoes - Yes! It's definitely good to have it to the point where I feel safe cranking it! Progress is progress, even if it isn't zipping around the neighborhood yet.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*What?! Double update!?*

That's right folks, the saga continues!

I unexpectedly got the night off, and the weather is great. So I figured I'd fix up a couple little things.

First I had to figure out EXACTLY what was dripping. It smelled and looked like brake fluid, but I had to know where it was coming from. So, lifted the car, climbed underneath.









There.

That black hose on the right (not really sure what it does, honestly) was soaked in brake fluid. I'm really hoping it's ok with that. I sprayed brake cleaner all over it and moved it out of the way though to protect it, just in case. As for the brake line itself... I don't know exactly which one is leaking, but looking at them they're both quite corroded. I'm sort of considering replacing the whole length of it because if I replace this section, how long until the next part gives out? I think it'll just be cheaper in the long run and one less thing to be worried about.

So for the next bit, I didn't get pictures, but that's ok. It's not that exciting. My bad exhaust joining job needed attention, pretty seriously. When I measured the pipe, I only measure the one side. I figured it was the same diameter throughout. Well. I was wrong. So instead of getting one of those tapered ones that would have been perfect. I grabbed the one that worked on what happened to be the larger side. It could be worse though, at least this is saveable. When I first put the clamps on, I didn't have a deep socket with me so I couldn't torque the bolts down all the way, but now I have all my tools so that was easy enough. Then, using muffler cement, I filled in the gaps. It's not the greatest, but at least it's not shooting exhaust (and noise!) out the side anymore. I mean, probably, it's not like I can test lol.

I also went and touched up the spots where the pipe meets the manifold that I said 2 posts ago that I was going to have to touch up. It was easy to spot though, because where there's a gap, there's also a bunch of soot now lol. I'll go back over it tomorrow when it's dry and make sure I got everything this time. Same with the joint underneath, I'm going to have to double check that one.

At this point, the sun had started to go down, and I was packing up my things. Rather than bring all my tools inside, I just left them all in the trunk. Because I'm lazy, mostly. By the time I had everything in the trunk, I decided I would make a new radiator shroud. So, using only my pocket knife, zip ties, and this corrugated plastic used for signs, I made myself a shroud.




























Not too shabby.

Anyways, until next time...


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Stumble again*

Well, I spent a bunch of money today, hoping to make a difference.

It didn't.

I'll post a couple pictures later, but for now it'll just be story time. I may come back and edit this later to add jokes. I feel like it needs more of that.

We were looking at electricals, because there were some obvious problems. Busted out the multimeter and ran it over a couple things. First, one of the spark plug wires' resistance was WAY off. Then we actually checked out the distributor cap and rotor, and it looked like something was actually rubbing pretty seriously inside the distributor cap - the plastic around the metal contacts was worn/shredded. And, well, there's only one thing that moves in there. Testing the distributor rotor itself, it was pretty obvious that it's no good. I don't actually know what test was done (because I didn't do it) but I was assured it was garbage. So, started a shopping list. Distributor cap and rotor. And hell, spark plug wires because we might as well.

Cool. So, started looking at the ignition coil. The contacts on top weren't the prettiest. Looking a bit closer, the wires are actually turning green, which isn't a color you want your wires to be. Add ring contacts to the list.

The spark plugs were also pretty gnarly. From so much abuse, despite being new, they were very much replaceable. And at 5 bucks a pop, whatever. I can afford that. Add it to the list.

Moving on, it seemed important to look into the vacuum lines. One of them was taped up and I never really thought much of it, because it's all still new to me. My brother pointed out that no matter how you tape it, it'll never be as good as it should be. Vacuum line made it on the list.

By this point it was time to make some phone calls and see who had the parts I needed. Turns out someone actually had everything I needed. So, great. Went and spent 130 bucks and came home with new stuff! Yay! Started putting it all in, things were going great, until they weren't anymore.

The first issue was the ignition coil wire was so badly corroded inside that when we pulled it out, the connector broke off inside. Tried pulling it out with pliers, but it wouldn't budge. Eventually we accidentally broke the plastic (is that called a plenum maybe?) enough to just say "**** IT" and rip the whole thing off. It was actually so hard to break that piece of contact off. Finally got it off, and built a new (calling it plenum still) out of a lot of electrical tape so we could test without frying everything. It actually worked pretty well, all things considered.

So we redid all this electrical stuff. It was pretty solid. Fired up the car... and it died almost right away. Ok. Well, we know the air plate was causing trouble. But we know it isn't a sparking issue. Rode the starter for a few seconds to fill the engine with gas, pulled the relay, and it started brilliantly. Of course, with no fuel going to it, it didn't last long. Let's look at the fuel distributor/air plate fella.

Son.

Of.

A.

Bitch.

Unclipped the air box to get at the underside of the air plate, and it STUNK of gas. The filter (which, I didn't realise before, is actually a K&N!) was actually wet. It wasn't looking good. Unbolted the fuel distributor, and the FIRST thing I noticed was the air plate sitting EXACTLY where it should be. Crap. The control plunger, when you push up on it, was very slow to come back down. Oh, and there was the matter of all the gas that poured out of it. If I remember the anatomy of that thing correctly, there are little rubber O rings on the side of the control plunger guide, and if they're worn I would assume that's what's causing this thing to leak. Tried running the car while manually controlling the plunger by hand, and as soon as you start to give 'er, it just DUMPS fuel. Like crazy. Engine floods almost right away.

******************THIS IS WHERE I NEED HELP******************

What this means is either the fuel distributor is done for and needs replacing, or it means that I need to fix that control plunger. Does anyone know if it's possible to do that without disassembling the whole thing? Further, does anyone have an extra one kicking around? 

Here's where it's at:

-Brake line is leaking. My brother is leaving me his flaring kit and I'm going to replace the line. Which isn't ideal. This part I've got though.

-That fuel distributor needs replacing or very unlikely-to-happen repairs.

-I need to seriously re-examine my electricals at some point - a lot of wires are corroded pretty terribly.

-Also, not sure how I missed this. There's a sensor of some sort that goes in the top of the coolant outlet on the side of the cylinder head. It's that junction sticking out the side. Anyways, there's a yellow wire w/ red stripe that goes to a sensor that I don't actually have. I don't know for sure what that is or what it's supposed to be. Anybody know? And is it something replaceable?


I was feeling cautiously optimistic, now significantly less so. Although I'm disappointed it isn't running, I'm not as let down as I could have been. So, that's something. But I'm so invested in this car, I need to get it to do something. It needs to happen. I could really use some help here. What are the odds of repairing this fuel distributor? And what does the single yellow w/ red stripe wire go to on the coolant outlet?

Also, I checked the cold start valve, as was suggested by alaincopter. It works very beautifully. It has a very very nice spray and is able to get the engine to turn over on its own just fine. It's just the damn distributor comes in and ruins everything by drowning the poor engine.


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

germanpettingzoo said:


> -Also, not sure how I missed this. There's a sensor of some sort that goes in the top of the coolant outlet on the side of the cylinder head. It's that junction sticking out the side. Anyways, there's a yellow wire w/ red stripe that goes to a sensor that I don't actually have. I don't know for sure what that is or what it's supposed to be. Anybody know? And is it something replaceable?
> 
> 
> I was feeling cautiously optimistic, now significantly less so. Although I'm disappointed it isn't running, I'm not as let down as I could have been. So, that's something. But I'm so invested in this car, I need to get it to do something. It needs to happen. I could really use some help here. What are the odds of repairing this fuel distributor? And what does the single yellow w/ red stripe wire go to on the coolant outlet?
> ...


Single yellow wire with red stripe sounds like the wire for the temperature gauge. I do have a spare fuel distributor but it's currently being used by somebody else for troubleshooting purposes. Also the distributor is the same as CIS Golfs and Jettas, so it's not unobtanium.

Edit: Just checked the Bentley and I am correct about the temperature gauge wire. Current temperature gauge sender number is 049 919 501. But if your sender is missing, there would be a hole in the head flange that coolant would pour out of?


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

bluetoes591 said:


> But if your sender is missing, there would be a hole in the head flange that coolant would pour out of?


I'll have to get a picture up. Basically there's a broken... thing. It's like a bolt head with a plastic chunk that totally used to have more stuff on it. And then there's a wire floating around. It's really strange. I'm really quickly losing respect for the PO lol.

edit: checked that part number, and yeah that's totally it! Mine is basically that but with the metal top missing and the plastic/rubber part horribly disfigured. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



bluetoes591 said:


> I do have a spare fuel distributor but it's currently being used by somebody else for troubleshooting purposes. Also the distributor is the same as CIS Golfs and Jettas, so it's not unobtanium.


Yeah I'll have to have a look around here, but my last trip to the junkyard (which is harder now that I don't have regular access to a car) I happened to look in the old Jettas/Golfs and all the distributors were already gone. Except a couple of TERRIBLY rusted ones. But, that was quite a while ago, so maybe they've got some more kickin' around. I'll have to investigate.

If you don't hear about me getting one (and believe me, you'll know the day I get it lol) by the time you get yours back, I will throw so much money in your direction for it.


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## doppelfaust (Aug 15, 2007)

I have a distributor I just took out of my Fox I am trying to part with, if it would get you running I would give you a screaming deal on it.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

doppelfaust said:


> I have a distributor I just took out of my Fox I am trying to part with, if it would get you running I would give you a screaming deal on it.


PM'ing you in two minutes.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Many many many thanks to the above FORUM CHAMPIONS who've helped me out!!!

I've got the temp gauge sender on its way - 12 bucks on ebay, I can certainly live with that. And working out the details on the fuel distributor. God I love this place. You guys are seriously the best people on the internet. I've always loved this board (well, for the year or so I've been here).

So, as promised, here are the pictures from yesterday. Not as many as I thought though.









Ermahgerd, SHERPING!









New distributor cap. Not bright red anymore, unfortunately. Bright red adds 10 horsepower, you know.









New spark plugs. Nice n clean. And sparky.









So this is the ignition coil, post-op. Gross connectors, serious breakage, and a general sense of impending replacement.


Unable to really do anything serious today due to rain, lack of parts, and overall sadness, I took on a *very* important project.

Improving the old badges to stick them arbitrarily on the car.









Taped up for painting.









Primed. Two coats because the first one kinda went on gross.









Chromed. I did about 6 coats of this. I think I want to jam this guy in the grill. It actually fits perfectly. So, lots of coats to protect its glory.









Almost finished. Tape is off. I'm just waiting for the paint to cure properly and then I'm going to clean the gunk off the sides and then it should be ready to go.

Here's my favorite part of today's activities.









You know where this is headed.









I did do a layer of primer first but forgot to take a picture.

I'm going to do another coat on that guy now, then a layer of clear. People will only take me seriously as a motorist if I have the word "swag" highlighted in blue on my car. I've also intentionally taped it up badly because I want the edges to be kinda rough and terrible looking. Because NOBODY that uses that word is possessed of any skill, I'm guessing. Have to live up to the hype, right?

Anyways, that's all for now. Friday there shall be investigations into various matters. Probably won't be hearing too much from me until then. It's ok, you'll make it. I believe in you.


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

I seem to have multiple spare coils, so if you want I can send you one. Might be a day or two before I have a chance to test to make sure they're functional.


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*...Nice Job...*

Nice work on the rad shroud.....looks kind of familiar.....:laugh: ...:thumbup:


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

KRAMMIT said:


> Nice work on the rad shroud.....looks kind of familiar.....:laugh: ...:thumbup:


HAH didn't even realise that!! I guess it *is* a workable solution!


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Bit of a snag*

Hello all

So we're at a bit of snag right now - I can't really proceed without new bits. Was going to have my brother over yesterday to help out with a couple things including checking the fuel pressure, but I couldn't find anyone who could rent out a pressure gauge and I don't have the money atm to just buy one. So. Oh well.

I did knock a couple things off the list on my own, though I didn't get any pictures. Mostly I've been covering up some rust spots and doing electrical stuff.

The first thing I did was attend to my lights. All the lights on the entire right side of the car, save for the front and rear turn signals. The front one is the one in the bumper, which i didn't realise would be the turn signal, but bluetoes confirmed that it is indeed supposed to be. So thank you for that! lol. Before actually doing anything I checked all my fuses. Only one was blown, the one for the lights on the right in the back. Which made sense. So I pulled that fuse and just replaced it with the reading light fuse - they're the same amperage and cars are for driving, not for reading.

The reverse light (all lights mentioned here on out are on the right side) has always been missing the cover, and the original bulb wasn't thrilled about being alive. I can't replace the cover just yet (I do have a plan though) but I had a replacement bulb. So, popped the bank of lights out and cleaned up the contacts in and about, and huzzah, it worked. Then onto the brake light. This one was weird because I'd swapped out the bulb when I got the car and it worked, but then it stopped working. This had me worried because with electrical you have so many possibilities for where the problem is. Popped out the bulb to have a look, and the problem was readily apparent. This would have made a great picture. When you put the bulb in, you push and turn the bulb to seat it. There are two pins on either side of the bulb that land neatly in two semi-circular tabs. One of those tabs is missing. So you can get the bulb in and get it to work, but a slight shake and it comes unseated. I had a low-tech solution. I put the bulb in, had it sitting where it should, and then jammed a piece of Q-tip in there (it's what I had cause I was cleaning contacts, don't judge). I'm not sure if that'll collect moisture and eventually stop working, but it at least holds for now, so what the hell.

Turn signal was fine, so side marker was next. I had to use a rust penetrant to get the screws out, cause they were corroded somethin' fierce. After I got them out I let them soak for a bit and after cleaning the gunk out of them I was lucky enough to be able to make perfectly usable screws of them. As for the light itself, that took some doing. I cleaned up its contacts and they looked ok to me, but there was still no action on the bulb. So I grabbed my multimeter, put it on the setting that makes it go beep, positive against a contact, negative on the brake drum. We have ground. Other contact and brake drum, nothing, wiggle it around, we have ground. So it was a bad connection at the contact, which was comforting. I then spent the next half hour trying to clean the thing up and I could not get it working. I clipped the wires and removed the light housing so I could get a better look at it, and using needle-nose pliers I manipulated the living crap out of the two sides of the contact until I felt satisfied that it would work. Reconnected the wires and shazam, success! Taped up the newly opened ends and reassembled the light. NEXT!

The headlight was weird. The highbeam worked but the low didn't. So I figured hey I'll just change the bulb - which is a generous term when you're replacing the entire light. I figured first it would make sense to clean out the socket though because it looked, well, orange. I sprayed some brake cleaner in it (it occurs to me that's my go-to cleaning agent) and for a good couple seconds it was consistently coming back out orange and brown. Did that for all three holes and popped in the new light, and it connected way easier than the old one. High five, that works. Last light to fix was what I assumed was the turn signal, because that's totally what it should be because you can see it from the side and I think that's important. Again, just a messy contact. Cleaned, dried, plugged back in, profit.

So my next electrical task was the wipers. The only time these ever worked, I flicked it on, the wipers moved an inch or so, and then stopped. That was all they ever did. I figured the first place to start was the wiper relay, and then I realised I have no idea how to actually check the relay. I check with Bentley and it said to check the connection to the relay panel first, so I'm like cool, I can do that. It says the relay gets its power at 53a, so I figure I'll find 53a. No 53a anywhere that I could see. Great. I decided I'll skip that step because everything else on the relay panel works, so let's move onto the next step. Plugged the relay back in, turned the key to on, and went to check the connection to the motor. Reading the instructions, I had no idea what they were asking. So I ditched the manual altogether. I flicked the wipers on and listened for noise at the motor. When putting it on low, you get a little click, medium, little click, high, nothing. There's definitely power going to the motor, but it doesn't seem to do anything with it. I thought MAYBE it could still be the relay, so I pulled that back out and noticed that it was REALLY warm, like 40-50 degrees (celsius) warm. Hm. Odd. I wonder if the wiper motor is warm too. Why yes, yes it is. I think the motor is just stuck.

The next logical step then, is to take the motor out. So I disconnect the... whatever they're called... the ones that are connected to the motor and make the wipers wipe. They've got a name. Anyways, disconnected those, and then looked at how the motor is attached and went back inside for the day.

Well that's where I'm at now. It's raining at the moment, which isn't really ideal for electrical work. One of these days I'll actually get that wiper motor out and see if I can make it work outside of the car. If I can, then I'll go back to looking at the relay, if not, replace the motor. I'd like to think it's a fairly standard part.


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

germanpettingzoo said:


> The front one is the one in the bumper, which i didn't realise would be the turn signal, but bluetoes confirmed that it is indeed supposed to be. So thank you for that! lol.


I should mention that you can easily make the corner light blink. Depending on whether your running lights are on or not it will either blink in time with the ones in the bumper (when running lights are off) or opposite (when running lights are on, which I like). Strangely it is not required in any way for the blinker to be visible from the side, but it is quite legal for a car's side marker lights to be wired to blink as well. All you have to do is wire the ground from each corner light to the wire of the corresponding blinker in the bumper.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Nothin' But Painting*



bluetoes591 said:


> I should mention that you can easily make the corner light blink. Depending on whether your running lights are on or not it will either blink in time with the ones in the bumper (when running lights are off) or opposite (when running lights are on, which I like). Strangely it is not required in any way for the blinker to be visible from the side, but it is quite legal for a car's side marker lights to be wired to blink as well. All you have to do is wire the ground from each corner light to the wire of the corresponding blinker in the bumper.


Yeah that would certainly make sense, eh? I just might do that. 'Cause I like having blinkers that people can see when I'm driving a car that insurance won't care about if I get hit.

So I got my replacement coolant temp sender in the mail and popped that in yesterday. I also decided it wouldn't be the worst idea to have a fire extinguisher with me. I don't fancy watching my car burn to the ground when and if something goes horribly askew. Also it makes me look like a serious individual, which I'm not.









Yeah those are zip ties. It's actually clever. It all holds in there very well and is quite sturdy, but I can rip it out really quickly because of where I put the zippies. It even moves with the seat!

The other oncoming modification is the addition of the Crown Royal shift boot. I've prepared for it by chroming up this fella:









Originally, the boot goes OVER this bracket, but I'd taken a "ring" from the old boot and modified it to seat underneath so I can attach the Crown Royal bag to it.

I've also decided the tops of my door liners were disappointing. So I removed those, and the fleather that I'd lovingly attached over winter. I don't remember who posted the idea, and I promise I'll go find it in WDYDTYFT later, but I decided to just paint them. I thought it looked really good and seemed like a pretty reasonable solution. Also the PO smoked in the car and the fleather on the driver's side is kinda yellowed and I just think it's gross. So I'm also doing the door handles (though I won't be removing the covers from those because I don't think painting foam would work as well).

Anyways, step one: Remove the cover.










I was foolish and glued the absolute crap out of the passenger side one, so step two was to remove all that lovely stuff.










Same on the driver's side, only that one I hadn't touched so it was a lot easier. I just used a heat gun and it came off mostly perfectly.



















Step... whatever I'm on now... was to fix this...










...like this:










Then I taped up the holes because I like doing things properly sometimes (but ONLY sometimes).










And threw on a couple coats of primer.










Today I began the process of finishing that up. So I had to make a trip to Home Hardware for some paint. I wanted to do gray and keep things simple, but that just wasn't an option. Their grays were all too light and I just felt that it would look... I dunno... silly? Well, let's not be too hasty because you haven't seen the colour I've chosen. I'm getting to that. Anyways, I would have done the exterior colour but they didn't have anything even close to that, and they didn't have the colour that I'm GOING to make be the exterior colour. So I got thinking, what goes with blue?









Why, BROWN, of course! My buddy's Fiat is blue with a dark brown interior that I *believe* they refer to as espresso, which is what this paint colour is called. How could it possibly go wrong?

First step was to get out of the wind. It was crazy out there today. I'm pretty sure the wind was actually violating local speed limits. Anyways, my natural reaction to this problem was to assemble a paint booth in my trunk. For reals.










And then I started painting.


















Espresso? I would have called it Milk Chocolate.

It's drying now, and although it's still a bit tacky, it's actually darkened up quite a bit. I'm going to sand this down with some really gentle and loving sandpaper and do at least one more coat but possibly two. I figure it's a fairly high-friction area (arms out the window and such) so I can't be too careful with it. Also at 6 bucks a can I'm really not worried about using a bunch of it.

Because I love you guys, in the middle of writing this I went back outside with one of my panels and my camera and took a picture. Just keep in mind, it's not actually ON because there's tape in the way of things and also I didn't care that much.










It doesn't actually look too bad. I'm thinking maybe I'll do the window roller as well as the handle. I'll leave the release latch black (because I can). And maybe I'll hunt down some dark blue fabric and reupholster my door cards. Of course all this means that one day I have to do the dash too.

Anyways, that's all for now. I'm waiting on parts courtesy of my new favourite people on the planet, doppelfaust and bluetoes. I will find a way to get your display names onto my car. Maybe I'll etch it into the parts you're supplying. Seriously though I'm super super appreciative of getting trustable parts from trustable people.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

I'm sure you are all just DYING to know what's going on. Slash probably not. But that's ok, because here's a minor update anyways.

At present I'm still waiting on the arrival of parts to make it go vroom, but in the meantime I've kept busy with parts that will make people shake their heads at how silly/awesome I am.

I got these guys finished up:










It took a very long time though because it's been raining a lot. Not that we've had a lot as far as quantity, but the frequency with which it rains is inconvenient to say the least. And it's always as soon as I get outside. There were a few days that I couldn't do anything, but eventually got this done and popped these guys back in today.


And then I was thinking. I know I want to paint the handle and the window roller still. That's fine. But that door card... that's kinda... uninspired. And the idea of blue does look pretty good, but it wasn't exciting. Using Photoshop, I played with different colour combinations, and then a friend suggested plaid. Burberry plaid, specifically. To which I replied, oh em gee. So here's what that looks like, at least, my amateurish rendering of it:










I think that's pretty much sold. It works with the grey, and the brown. So. Next paycheque


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

Plaid=YES!


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

bluetoes591 said:


> Plaid=YES!


I'm debating if I'm man enough to do the ceiling as well... It would be pretty magical. But I also haven't looked at it yet but I get the feeling it isn't going to be just pop out a panel, cover it, put it back in.

Has anyone else done a ceiling liner on a Fox?


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*...Nice Work....*

That actually looks pretty impressive J...!!! It would be a little distracting, for my tastes, but, If you wanted to do the headliner as well....be prepared to remove the windows....I have never done it myself....I never really felt compelled enough to modify/alter/change the liner....always something more pressing to do............but those cards look great...!!!


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

Was under the car today, looks like you did the right thing with your horn.



Also, your new coil is on its way.


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## doppelfaust (Aug 15, 2007)

bluetoes591 said:


> Also, your new coil is on its way.


Haha, I dropped one in the box when I sent him the fuel distributor.


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

doppelfaust said:


> Haha, I dropped one in the box when I sent him the fuel distributor.


Hahahaha, we gotta stop being helpful. By on its way I mean in the box sitting on the counter to be dropped off at the post office tomorrow morning on the way to work. Justin, I can refund yer monies if you'd like since you seem to be getting one already.  There may be a positive side to me dragging my feet on getting this thing out the door.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

bluetoes591 said:


> Hahahaha, we gotta stop being helpful. By on its way I mean in the box sitting on the counter to be dropped off at the post office tomorrow morning on the way to work. Justin, I can refund yer monies if you'd like since you seem to be getting one already.  There may be a positive side to me dragging my feet on getting this thing out the door.


Lol I was planning to ignore the problem because I don't like to inconvenience people but yeah maybe that's a better idea haha.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*I should get a swear jar*

Honestly, today was the first time I've actually seriously considered just throwing this car to the classifieds. Let's back up a bit though and find out how I got there.

I received the good news that my package had arrived from Steve, so on my way home from various shenanigans about town I stopped by work to pick it up (cause that's just where I ship everything now).










Not doing me much good in the box, so let's get to work!









Safety first.

The fuel dizzy was already sitting loosely, cause I took the screws out a while ago. So I had to remove the fuel lines while the whole thing was loose, which was a bit tricky and involved my standing on top of my car and going to town with the torque wrench. I'm sure it looked glorious.









This is what progress looks like.

So during the heart transplant process I had failed to take a lot of pictures. But I have a "finished product" picture. Everything went smoothly. No banjo fittings broke, I didn't lose anything, and the old parts even came out nicely!



















If the fuel distributor is the heart, then I guess the ignition coil is the... um... duodenum? I don't know, I'm not very good at anatomy. Well, we're transplanting that next, because hooray for analogies. This bit was a bit more work because of the nasty connectors on the old one. It took quite a bit of cutting to find a part of the wire that was in decent shape.









Believe it or not this wasn't the worst one. Those used to be roughly the same length.

This leads me to believe at some point I'm really gonna have to go to town on the car's entire electrical system and replace a great many things. I cut back three of the wires and spliced in new sections of wire with new connectors. One of them was actually ok, so I just left it in.









Not pretty, but it works. Probably.









New duodenum.









After surgery.









Everything looks to be in place.

Well, the first time I tried to start it, I figured out VERY quickly that I'd forgotten to torque one of the lines. Oops. It was a beautiful fountain of petroleum but it surprisingly didn't get the car to start. So I solved that issue, double checked all the other lines to make sure they were ok, tried again, and then this happened:






It started to catch for like a fraction of a second and then told me to go do unspeakable things to myself. After that I couldn't get anything out of it.

At first I'm like m'kay, fuel or spark, right? I pulled one of the injectors to see if it was spraying. It wasn't. Well. That may have something to do with it. I know the dizzy is getting fuel because it sprayed it all over the place and smelled terrific. It just doesn't seem to know what to do with it now. And conversely, I don't know what to do now. I'm a wee bit stuck. Tomorrow if I get a chance I'll see if I can manipulate that air plate and see if that will help. It does look to me like it's sitting low, so I guess if it isn't putting any pressure on the control plunger it's possible the fuel dizzy is just like "naw send all this **** back through the return line" and zero percent of it is getting through the injectors.

I really hope that's all it is, because at this point I'm kind of running out of ideas. As the sun was dipping away and I sat there looking at my pile of not-workingness, I did, for a minute, think "I'll just part the ****ing thing and be done with it." But I'm feeling less bitter about it now.

Also I guess in other news, I've got my window rollers painted and the door handles have a coat of paint on them. The texture came out way better than I expected, which is good. I need to buy some more paint before I can continue though.

Anyways, that's where I'm at. As always, taking suggestions on how to make this thing live.


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## doppelfaust (Aug 15, 2007)

:facepalm:

You can't catch a break, can you? Did you have a seal between the fuel distributor and the air plate? Did the car run before the fuel distributor swap?


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

doppelfaust said:


> :facepalm:
> 
> You can't catch a break, can you? Did you have a seal between the fuel distributor and the air plate? Did the car run before the fuel distributor swap?


So I replaced the whole top portion, which includes the plate. I figured there's an o-ring in between the dizzy and the thing it mounts on and I didn't have a replacement so I'd use the air plate that it was already attached to. It ran but not really. It dumped too much fuel and would just flood right away. In hind sight I should have replaced one item at a time but ah well. I think I just need to adjustthe air plate rest position. I just need time. I have some of that tonorrow morning though


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*We're just about there*

I have some VERY good news, and some VERY annoying news.

First the good news. I burned some dinosaurs today. Not many, mind you, but I had ignition!






That's what it does now.

I was correct about the air plate sitting in the wrong spot. I checked the resistance at the potentiometer (which is probably the douchiest sounding name of anything on a car) and it was incorrect. I also measured the distance that the air plate sits from the lowest point of the cone, and it was... far. Bentley says that 2.1mm is permissible. I was sitting closer to 5. So I used some pliers and bent the little metal clip up a bit, and after several small adjustments I got it to sit around 1.95mm, which is within the right range. It's also as close as I can get it. I measured the potentiometer's resistance again, and it's not perfect but it's damn close enough. For terminals 1 and 2 it wants it above 4000, but it doesn't say where. I was getting 5150. That feels really high to me, but it doesn't say "don't go above this". So whatever for now. Terminals 2 and 3 it says to be below 1000. Well. Mine is like 1050-1100. But you know what? I don't care that much just yet. Because of this:










I got the car to start exactly like that quite a few times, and every time it just ejects a pile of gas out of one of the lines, at which point the car is like nope. So in an effort to A; determine which line was responsible (it was hard to tell with gas on EVERYTHING) and B; illustrate for y'all what was going on, I put a shop towel on top. Wherever the gas comes out, the sheet gets wet. Easy.

Here's the other thing of note - I'm not actually surprised that it was this one leaking. I had lost my washer for it so I had to replace it with one that was a bit too thick. But it was all I had. Well, apparently that isn't the way to do it. So right now what's holding me back is a single ****ing washer. Jesus... I have to make an entire trip for one washer. Do you know how upsetting that is? I really hope that when I go the cashier asks me if I want a bag.

Anyways, I'll get around to that soon enough I hope. And then with any luck I'll be able to just start it up, make a lot of noise, and start figuring out what else is wrong with it :banghead:


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## doppelfaust (Aug 15, 2007)

Progress is progress, glad it was just some adjusting that was the trick.

I wonder how long my car was running with that piece so *far* out of whack?


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*I love waiting*

Made the trek to two hardware stores today, and neither of them had the right sized washer. Surprise surprise. So I popped over to the dealer and ordered a few of them at $1.17 a piece. They should arrive Wednesday.

So I guess now I just wait.

Not to waste the fantastic weather though, I did get a bit done today. Mostly I just sat outside and did nothing because it's the weekend and that's how you're supposed to do things. 

Finished up my door stuff (minus the excellent fabric)










And finally got my hood aligned properly










And not that it matters, really, but I cleaned out the passenger side footwell. The pile of stuff on the floor was higher than the seat. I am currently sitting in it, enjoying the awesomeness.

SO with any luck, on Wednesday I'll be able to pick up my washers and then get the thing to start. So. Stay tuned. We may have lift-off soon. For realsies this time. And as much as I would love to make a driving video, I can't really do that until I get the leaky brake line fixed. But you'll at least get a video of it running. And perhaps starting, if I think of it.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

doppelfaust said:


> I wonder how long my car was running with that piece so *far* out of whack?


I wouldn't be overly surprised if it just accidentally got pushed down too hard at some point. I mean all it is is a small metal pin that holds the thing in place, which is a bit insane to me. Either that or you're car was, for a long time, like "dude what the hell is wrong with you FIX ME"


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Remember this guy?










Several days later...










...he's not looking so tough now, is he?

...

Anyways. I don't have a lot to add, but I did spend a little bit of time with my car today. Since discovering that the fuel pressure regulator hates me, I haven't really done anything. Doppelfaust has once again come to my rescue though, and a new one is on its way. So today I prepped the car for its next transplant.









You suck, C3000-13557.

It was actually kind of a challenge getting it out. The two lines that run to the bottom were in there pretty tight, but I eventually got them out. I did end up bending a screwdriver though. (I used the screwdriver to put opposite torque on it - it worked very well).










And now I wait. I'm feeling good about this. There is basically nothing else that I can replace. Unless my vacuum system is fluxed in some spectacular fashion. And I honestly wouldn't even be surprised if that were the case. But I will continue to pour obscene amounts of time, money, and effort into this car.

I did notice this today though, which made me a little sad:










It's just that one spot that's bubbling, and honestly you only really notice it because the sun is casting a shadow. But I'll know that it's there. Grr. One day I'll probably fix it.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*LIFE*

This is going to be a short update because it's 4 in the morning and I have to wake up at 9. Today has been a bit crazy, and in the midst of it I managed to get my Fox to start.






It idles pretty rough. It initially wouldn't start but I loosened up the idle bypass screw and after some messing around I got it to that state. It idles on its own, I don't need to do anything to keep it going.

Here's where it gets fun:

-when I apply throttle, it sputters out
-releasing the throttle causes a jump in rpms for a few seconds
-if I really hammer down the throttle, the air sensor plate knocks
-it sounds like a 2 stroke V8 (no really)

I drove up and down my driveway; it lurches and sputters and is awful and doesn't want to move particularly quickly, but it doesn't just stall immediately.

I have a short list of things I'll be seeing to tomorrow hopefully between other activities. Although my brake line failure is VERY noticeable. I had to fully depress the brake pedal to get it to come to a stop from like 3km/h. There's so much air in the system though that the brake fluid reservoir appears full.

Anyways, that's all I have time for - honestly I didn't even want to spend this much time here lol. I need sleep. Anyways, enjoy! I know I did.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Is it possible to change the name of a thread? Because I think I'd like to change this one from My Fox Project to My Fox Nightmare.

Remember how two days ago it would run (albeit like crap)?

Now I'm back to where it was all the way at the beginning; starts, dies immediately. I just don't even know what to do anymore. Just for fun I swapped the fuel pump relay for the horn relay, and for the second or so that I can get it to run, I can make the engine spin up pretty quick. So I guess there's also a problem with my fuel pump relay but that doesn't even help me anymore because I can't get the damn thing to stay running.

At one point I turned it over and it did the WEIRDEST idle. It was like, 10 rpm. It was crazy weird. I just let it do its thing and it went for about 30 seconds, then slowly cranked itself up to a more normal sounding idle, and then immediately died.

Things that I know are working:
- Main pump (with the horn relay in, it goes pretty loud, even if I haven't actually tried to start the car)
- In-tank pump (you can hear it going as well through the little access panel)
- Fuel distributor (incl air plate and electric bits)
- Diaphragm pressure regulator
- Ignition coil
- (the above three courtesy of doppelfaust)
- distributor cap and rotor
- spark plugs
- spark plug wires
- injectors
- cold start injector

So any thoughts on what to try next? Because I'm about ready to Old Yeller this thing. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

Camshaft timing off? The mark on the backside of the pulley should line up with the edge of the valve cover at tdc. The mark on the front of the pulley is a few teeth off for when used as the intermediate shaft pulley. When you get that wrong it sounds a lot like that...


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## Simono (Aug 8, 2013)

What I have learned so far is to start with cheapest and move from there, so do some basic tests like these to isolate the problem:
- take the lift pump from the tank, and check the mesh filter, mine was awfully gunked
*-check the large banjo fitting(s)-two on my fox- on the fuel dist cap. Open them up and take the small filter out of one of them if its still there. *
-try throwing some carb cleaner in and seeing if it has anything to do with fuel at all, If it runs longer with carb cleaner it is the fuel system somewhere, but if it doesn't it could be something else
-I would try to get the car going in first gear and see if the momentum can re-engage the engine, it could just need a nice cleaning
-Bypass the fuel relay in mine its the big hole vertically in the center and the bottom hole horizontal, by placing a wire between can keep the fuel pump running 
-Check the charcoal filter at the very end of the dist cap vacuum hose (one of my hoses fell off it once and I didn't notice for a month)
-lift the air plate all the way there should be slight, continuous resistance on the way up but if you let it down is should go without hesistation
-Check centering of the air plate as stated it should be like in the bentley manual
-check the mesh filter that is directly over the air intake plate in the black hose and see if it is clogged
*-fuel filter (got mine for 13 bucks)*


*Another suggestion, is to check your fuel pump, right now I believe I am running with a ke-jetronic pump (CIS-E) on my k-jetronic fox (CIS) which (anyone correct me if i am wrong) is not putting enough pressure into my fuel lines to keep a normal high idle 800-900 rpm which right now I am getting 100-250 rpm on startup and when it warms up i get around 500-600. I don't mind though, it sounds like it has a huge cam  
*
My car was doing the same **** last month, don't worry it is so worth it when you finish. The three things I highlighted are my best guesses, hope it helped!


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Well, I got some time where it wasn't raining to go out and have a look at things today.

Started by pulling out the transfer pump. Oh my.

After getting high in the trunk of my car off the fumes, I had to take a break to breathe some oxygen. When I had some of my brainpower back, I looked at the mess that was my transfer pump. First of all, a hose is missing. I'm not sure how important it is, but it isn't there.










I tried getting a light into the tank and looking around with a little mirror to see if the hose was anywhere inside. I didn't see it, but that doesn't mean it isn't in there. But I could see that being a problem.

The second problem was with the filter. The little mesh screen itself was ok (I cleaned it anyways) but when I was removing it from the rest of the thing, I noticed there was fuel... in the plug!! Probably a good thing. Derrr. So the small piece of hose that connects to the filter was completely ruined. It was all cracked and awful.










When I was removing it, the thing was crumbling in my hands. It seemed far from ideal. So that halted my progress today in terms of being able to try firing it up.

I also checked the air plate - it's fine. I was going to check out the fuel filter and main pump but the light is fading. And honestly the gasoline high isn't a pleasant one. I've got a massive headache now lol. As I climbed into the trunk of my own car, I grumbled "the things I do for you" and my neighbor who happened to be outside looked at my funny. But seriously. This thing will probably be the actual literal death of me.


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

It's supposed to look something like this. Mine was in the process of dissolving, but there was enough left to duplicate it's length (and angled tip) in normal fuel hose. I'm pretty sure it just keeps the fuel from splashing and foaming.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Narrowed it down for now maybe*

Hey all, sorry I haven't been doing anything. I've been lurking but I've just not had the gumption to go work on my car. I did get out today though, finally. I spent all of my Canadian Tire money (about 18 bucks, mostly 5 cent notes too) and made several people in the queue unhappy. Good for me! I grabbed a test light, compression tester, some hose, and a fuel filter. The first two because I was confident that the second two would get me to a point where I could nail down the timing.

So first I swapped out the missing bits of hose on the transfer pump. Great, done. Pain in the ass putting it back in though with all the proper attachments actually on there lol.

Put in the new filter. Went in like a champ.

Aaaannd then the fuel accumulator started leaking. There's a little tiny screw in the back that just vomited gas. I made a couple calls to local parts places and nobody has one. But prices start at $160 anyways, so kind of eff that. Thrifty Me said hey let's just bypass it altogether. So I did just that. I used some of my leftover fuel hose, which fit PERFECTLY on the bits of hose that were still there. Like. Perfectly snug. And the old hose is clearly some alloy of adamantium and mithril, so I was able to get a clamp on it for a beautiful seal. It's by no means a permanent solution but it keeps it all in for now.

YAY! Now it'll start, RIGHT?!

Nope.

At this point I've got my brother helping me, which is nice. We used the turn signal as a test light (because why not) and ran it on the harness for the DPR. It didn't light up at all, and my multimeter can't pick up any voltage off of it. That said, someone cut the wire at some point and reattached it. It *could* be a wire thing. But my understanding is that this is largely just for optimization and the car should still run without it.

But here's where things get weird.

The fuel dizzy has no problem sending to the cold start valve - my car cranks and fires up. But as soon as the cold start stops, so does my engine. So we checked injectors again. Now, I had my car running not that long ago. We also tested the injectors before. They SHOULD work, right? Wrong again! Nothing spraying out.

I wasn't convinced that it was a problem with the injectors though, so we disconnected them at the dizzy. With those off, we cranked it and... nothing came out. I expected a fountain of gas, but there was nothing. Tried disconnected the diaphragm pressure regulator from the return line, and it poured gas out as expected. So fuel has no problem getting TO the dizzy. It has no problem getting to the cold start from there either. But it doesn't go to the injectors. I tried playing with the air plate while the car was being cranked with the injector lines out, and still nothing (although it was able to pull the air plate free of my magnet which kind of made me laugh).

At this point I think it will run beautifully once those injectors start going. But I'm at a total loss here. What could be causing this? Could there just be something clogged up? I'm fairly convinced that this is what's happened. It's the only thing that makes any sense, really. But I don't know how to proceed - how would one clean out a fuel distributor?


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## kerensky (Mar 5, 2001)

Fuel distributors are a lot like automatic transmissions. If you aren't *sure *of what you're doing, you're better off not doing anything to it. I didn't go read the whole thread - you have a Bentley manual I hope? I'd go thru that fuel injection chapter end-to-end and test everything.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

kerensky said:


> Fuel distributors are a lot like automatic transmissions. If you aren't *sure *of what you're doing, you're better off not doing anything to it. I didn't go read the whole thread - you have a Bentley manual I hope? I'd go thru that fuel injection chapter end-to-end and test everything.


You can certainly be forgiven for not reading the whole thread, it's a bit of a novel  - but yes, I have one (and also a Haynes for most of the MKII's which is great for the 1.8L and CIS stuff). I actually learned the hard way with my first fuel distributor not to mess with them. To be fair, it did turn out to actually not work and I didn't really HURT anything, but that was just blind luck and I recognise my fortune lol. It was pretty educational though.

I've been doing some reading elsewhere and I've got a few leads to follow up. Despite it being 2 in the morning and despite having to be up at 6:30 to go to work, I'm totally going to just go look at my car right now. Earlier today (I only had about 5 minutes) I dumped some seafoam spray into the injector line ports on top of the dizzy and, this could have just been a mistake on my part, but it did seem to growl for a tiny bit longer, and sounded particularly bitchin, actually.

Everything has been tested at one point or another, but there have been changes since everything was tested all at once, so that will probably be my next step if this new information I have doesn't pan out. So, realistically, if there's anything I've learned from this car it's that I will be testing everything in the fuel section of the Bentley lol.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

**






Two little things to sort out in the daylight before I can call this working:

Timing belt tensioner is on too tight and in the time that my car was on for this video, the belt got really hot and also squeaks a lot. That's super easy.

Then I have to try it with the horn relay in instead of the fuel relay. It still stutters and gets ****ty when I give it gas. But I think it's just the relay, on the basis that a relay is easier to swap out and I'm all for that.

So here's what I've done:

First I wiped out the sea foam spray that I'd filled it with in a vain attempt to clear the crud out of there. Then I got up close to have a look, and I could definitely see that there was STUFF in there. So I filled it with more sea foam spray and used a pointed cotton swab (the kind that doesn't leave little bits behind because duh) and then wiped out the sea foam. I repeated that a couple times until everything was clean and pretty.

Originally my plan was to, with the injector lines disconnected and the horn relay in, put it on "on" to get the fuel pump going, and then pump the air plate. Read on an audi forum that this has been known to force any debris through the tiny holes that go to the injector lines. I figured I have very little to lose, so let's do it, right? WELL. Fired up the fuel pump and watched a huge fountain of gas flow beautifully out of my distributor. It was pretty awful. Take that, environment :S

This is where the video picks up.


SO

If I put in the horn relay and it still stutters and acts ****ty when I apply the throttle, I'm thinking the next step is to replace the transfer pump. And if that doesn't do it, replace the main pump. If THAT doesn't do it, I'll just never go outside again I guess. I'm running out of things to replace here.


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## FoXlr8 (Jun 15, 2014)

Congrats on achieving ignition!

The CIS system seems like a major headache. I'm beginning to see why people entertain conversions to other systems.


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## doppelfaust (Aug 15, 2007)

It still sounds like a timing issue to me... I had that same hesitation to start after a head swap and lack of power and I timed it from the wrong mark on the flywheel.

I'll read over the entire thread again to familiarize myself with what you have done so far and see if I have any other help to offer.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

doppelfaust said:


> It still sounds like a timing issue to me... I had that same hesitation to start after a head swap and lack of power and I timed it from the wrong mark on the flywheel.
> 
> I'll read over the entire thread again to familiarize myself with what you have done so far and see if I have any other help to offer.


Yeah I'm probably going to have to re-time it no matter what - the timing belt tensioner won't move when it has the belt on it, so the belt just drags horridly across and gets really hot and makes a bunch of noise. I can't get it to come out with the belt still on... so... I have a most sour look on my face, anyways.


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## doppelfaust (Aug 15, 2007)

Have you replaced the coolant temp sensor on the bottom of the coolant fitting on the front of the head? It has a white Bosch style connector...

You might have a bad coolant temp sensor. CIS works by pulling a reading from that temp sensor until the O2 sensor is warmed up so it can go into closed loop and get its fuel reading from the O2 sensor. A bad CTS would definitely make the car lack power on initial start up.


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*..Tensioner Won't Rotate...?*

Hey there J...!!! Does the tensioner rotate at all...? I remember being advised to always change that bearing whenever the timing belt gets changed...if the pulley seizes...the belt will DRAG across it; (as opposed to rolling around it), and heat up, become brittle from the heat, then malfunction in some horrible manner.......from reading your last entry; I get the impression that your tensioner bearing needs to be replaced.....it should spin freely; even with tension loaded...there should be no noticeable drag, if I recall correctly...

Wow!!! I remember paying almost $55.00 CDN for one of these not so long ago.....(okay, maybe it WAS a while ago...!)
http://www.germanautoparts.com/Volkswagen/Fox/Engine/226/1
But, finances permitting, the problem could be....shipping could equal the package contents....what about sourcing one from a local supplier...? 

I wonder if the drag on the belt from a POOCHED tensioner....would be enough of a factor to retard engine timing; and as a result, engine performance....arriving a split second too late for the next combustion of down stroke....and the valves may be slightly 'misled'.....as to when EXACTLY they should open and close....Just a thought......

I hope you get it sorted out SOON...!!! CHEERS:beer:


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

KRAMMIT said:


> http://www.germanautoparts.com/Volkswagen/Fox/Engine/226/1
> But, finances permitting, the problem could be....shipping could equal the package contents....what about sourcing one from a local supplier...?


Ah well that would certainly help things along!

Yeah, it doesn't rotate at all. Just sits there.

Thanks!


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

Woooooooo!

For what it's worth, the timing sounds off to me too.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Just ordered the new tensioner. Picking it up tomorrow.

I pulled the timing belt partially out, but I have it zip tied (because how else would I do it) to the cylinder head so it doesn't come off the intermediate sprocket. Even though I probably need to re-time it. We'll find out.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*Cameras and Car Parts*

Ello, ello, ello

What a strange car I have.

FIRST though, I got a new camera 










I've been eyeing DSLR's for a while now because I'd like to take decent pictures once in a while, and a friend of mine was selling her old Olympus E-410. It's an older model, but it checks out (Star Wars joke). But you didn't come here to read about my camera, did you?

Picked up the new tensioner today. It is lovely. And mercifully easy to install. Knowing that my timing was likely out anyways, I did jump the belt over one tooth on the cam sprocket before tightening the new tensioner. Plugged in my battery, jumped in the car... it didn't start right away. But a couple tries, adjusted the intake bypass screw, and busted out the camera to catch something... a bit odd.






It appears that my cam sprocket isn't centered. I didn't know it could even be like that. I safely conclude that it would be the cause of that HORRIBLE screeching sound, though. I don't have the fortitude to deal with this today, but over the coming days I'll make an effort and actually get out there. But it's at the point where if I had to escape a zombie apocalypse, I may have a shot at it. Which is more than I've ever been able to say for this car. It still stutters and hesitates when you give it the beans but it will burn that fuel eventually. It just wants to do it on its own time lol.

Does anyone have any thoughts on that cam sprocket though? Is that going to be a gigantic pain in the ass to fix? Or is it just going to be like loosen it, (try to) move it to the center, tighten, and go?


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

The sprocket is centered, there is no way for it to be not centered. That central part that is not centered is not important and not centered on my car either.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

bluetoes591 said:


> The sprocket is centered, there is no way for it to be not centered. That central part that is not centered is not important and not centered on my car either.


Well see that's what I thought too; there shouldn't even be a way for it to be not centred. I guess it's just that little bit in the middle that looks wonky.

In that case, any idea what that awful sound is? lol


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## doppelfaust (Aug 15, 2007)

germanpettingzoo said:


> Well see that's what I thought too; there shouldn't even be a way for it to be not centred. I guess it's just that little bit in the middle that looks wonky.
> 
> In that case, any idea what that awful sound is? lol


The majority of that sound is from the timing. It is very apparent it's not correct with the video. The squeaking sounds is something belt related. Timing belt too tight? It takes some magic fairy dust to properly tension the timing belt. Second guess would be alternator... Bad bearing perhaps?


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

doppelfaust said:


> The majority of that sound is from the timing. It is very apparent it's not correct with the video. The squeaking sounds is something belt related. Timing belt too tight? It takes some magic fairy dust to properly tension the timing belt. Second guess would be alternator... Bad bearing perhaps?


Double yup. Just listened on the computer instead of my phone and I agree with doppelfaust on all counts.


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*...Thirded...*

I agree with doppelfaust and bluetoes591....sounds like your alternator is the squealer........refer to your Bentley Bible; Section 3, Page 11....tightening the tensioner to get the proper deflection in the belt.....grip the belt firmly by the edges, halfway between the longest run.....twist the belt to 90 degrees from its' normal resting tension.....if you cannot twist the belt to achieve 90 degrees...the belt is too tight, the tensioner must be slackened.......if you can twist the belt beyond 90 degrees, the belt is too loose and needs more tension.........I just had another look at the video (nicely shot btw!) and noticed that the belt was "twanging" quite a bit under acceleration....maybe the timing belt is a tad loose...but, definitely have a close look at your alternator....perhaps take it to a specialty shop for a load test (too bad you are on the other side of the province; my Buddy Ernie would test it for free; and tell you exactly whats' going on with it!), or, it could be something as simple as a loose bolt at the alternator bracket; where it connects to the head.....I remember on my Sciroccos; there was a bushing there that would go mushy from the heat....let the bracket waiver from true...and allow the alternator to destroy itself by running off-centre.....from the tension of the V-belt............

....But screeching aside......that motor is starting to sound better and better......all of your hard work and efforts are going to pay off soon man....keep pushing onward....YOU WILL GET THERE...!!! CHEERS:beer:


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## QuantumSyncro (Apr 28, 2000)

germanpettingzoo said:


>


I really want the wheels off that Passat, too bad we didn't get those wheels on the b3 in the US.

I'll bet it has a bunch of good stuff I could use on my next 'potential' project.

Steve


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## FoXlr8 (Jun 15, 2014)

germanpettingzoo said:


> Does anyone have any thoughts on that cam sprocket though? Is that going to be a gigantic pain in the ass to fix? Or is it just going to be like loosen it, (try to) move it to the center, tighten, and go?


Agree with Bluetoes, Dopplefaust and KRAMMIT. The only thing I see that's off-center is the washer behind the cam sprocket bolt. This is worth investigating because if the washer is oversized, you may not be able to torque it properly which may cause long-term wear issues. But it isn't causing rough running and squealing.

It does not (to my ears) sound like a distributor timing issue. 

I think I hear evidence of disrupted intake manifold vacuum and airflow (it coughs/sputters, recovers when you raise the RPM, and then returns to cough/sputter ... repeat, ad infinitum). If this is the case, it can only be caused by an intake valve opening during some portion of a piston's upstroke. It doesn't sound like a fuel delivery problem which would be more uniform across the rev range (i.e.: it would run equally crappily, only faster). A distributor timing problem would run fairly well (but sluggish) at idle and then gag & choke right away when you opened it up and then catch on a little bit as vacuum recovered, but still run sluggishly. If you were too far advanced (distributor) it would either not start or try to start and then buck heavily and maybe even try to run backwards before coughing dramatically out the intake. None of this is happening so I doubt it's the distributor timing. 

I'd follow Bentley's instructions for lining up the cam/crank on the number 1 cylinder Top Dead Center, then re-install the belt. 

The really cool thing about this engine is that the TDC markings are stamped right into the distributor housing and flywheel (which means it's easy to find by pointing the distributor rotor to the scored marking and then looking in the bell housing window -- remember that you have to turn the crank two full revolutions to get the distributor rotor to turn once). The cam has two little dots stamped into the back side that are meant to align with the edge of the head when Cylinder #1 is at TDC.

Once you get it right, mark the back of the cam sprocket with fingernail polish on both sides to easily identifiable reference points when you have the engine at TDC. This will allow quicker realignment if you ever need to remove & replace the head in the future.

One final thought: The tightness of the belt is important to its longevity but it does not affect the engine's ability to run unless one of the sprockets (usually the crank sprocket) is jumping teeth because it's too loose. And if this is true, it will stop running once it jumps enough teeth where ignition no longer possible. So we can be reasonably certain that correcting the tension will not alter the way the engine is running in the video you posted.

I hope this process of deduction helps.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

@Quantum if you want, I could try to pop over there and see what he wants for 'em if they're still around. He may have another set kicking around as well. Dude's got a ton of cool stuff. (well realistically he has MANY tons of cool stuff ha)

A friend has borrowed my torque wrench, but as soon as I get that back I will be diving in to see what I can do. For now I'll get it to TDC and see where everything else sits relative to that so I have an idea of what's up.

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and advice!!!! I'd say "you don't know how helpful it is" but I think we've all been there at some point or another. Regardless, I really really appreciate the help!


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I picked up a nice little DSLR camera. I played around with it a bit and took some nice looking shots of my car.





































And my neighbour's dog didn't seem impressed that I was existing:










Anyway, just a little camera love for you guys


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Today was supposed to be the day!

I started by checking the timing marks on everything. I cranked it to TDC, pulled the timing belt off of the cam sprocket, lined that up accordingly, belt back on, and IGNITION!

...Except not. Nothing happened. So I tried moving the cam around, tooth by tooth, but I couldn't get it to start up. Then my socket wrench exploded, and there was much sadness. I have many of these, so it wasn't the end of the world. I kept playing with different combinations of things, because from what I can tell the ignition rotor is where it should be when it should be there. When it's lined up with its timing mark, the crank pulley is lined up right as well.

I tried probably 75% of the possible positions the cam could be in, each time making sure cylinder 1 was at TDC. None of them seemed to be making any difference. The closest I got, it sounded like there was one cylinder going. That made me laugh, because it was kind of adorably sad.

Couldn't even get it back to the point where it ran stupidly.

Then I realised, I'm slightly daft. I went to listen to the radio for a minute to clear my head, and that's when I noticed with the power on, my gas needle didn't move. Durrrrrrrr.

So I packed up my tools, grabbed some change and my jerry can to set off in search of petrol. Immediately there was a problem - my jerry can was missing its cap! I remembered then that I am a thrifty Fox owner, and could think of something between home and the gas station. What resulted was me shoving the receipt between the screw cap and the top of the hose. Mission accomplished. Gas in, ignition on... and then this happened:


...


Nothing!

So I'll get out there tomorrow or Friday and try again. With gas this time. I guess my 1 cylinder running used all the gas I had. I did hear it kind of half-heartedly chug a couple times but not the sound of actually beginning to start.

(p.s. I did take a few pictures today but they're on my phone and I can't find the cable, so I just haven't been able to upload them)

BONUS STORY:
While I was walking to the gas station, I saw a pair of lacy underwear on the ground. At first I was perplexed. Then I had this brilliant idea that maybe I could sell them on ebay - there IS a market for ladies' underwear that is "pre-worn". But then I realised I'd have to touch them, and have them near my house, and at some point give them to another human. I don't think I can do all of that. I just chuckled and moved on, hoping someone more ambitious than I thinks of the same thing.


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

Piston reaches the top of the cylinder twice per cycle. Could your camshaft be a full rotation out?


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

bluetoes591 said:


> Piston reaches the top of the cylinder twice per cycle. Could your camshaft be a full rotation out?


That was the first adjustment I'd made when it didn't work the first time.

I actually wouldn't be too surprised if I actually had it right at one point and just had no gas lol. Time will tell.


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## FoXlr8 (Jun 15, 2014)

Ugh. 

Sorry it's fighting you so hard.

The good news is you do have some really pretty pictures of the car, if not the panties. Maybe it's for the best and you avoided a Shallow Hal moment.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Just a tiny update today:

My brother helped me set the timing. It should be perfect now.

But my car won't start.

We ran the cold start briefly into a jug, and the first problem was that it was the colour of apple juice. It also didn't smell anything like gas. So we set it on fire, and it was a much slower burn than you'd expect. So my fuel is gross and unusable.

So I'm going to drain the tank and try to get as much crap out of there as I can and then fill it with 94 octane (maybe I'll splurge for the 98 and punch mother nature right in the face) and then it should work.

But I've been saying "should" for a year now.


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*...Premium Is Premium....*

I used to put regular fuel in my Foxes....but then...one day...I decided to just use premium fuel....I started getting better fuel economy....it was a HELLUVA lot more fun to drive....and since I have been on the B5 Forum here and there; premium fuel is necessary to keep the engine working properly.....no knocking with premium fuel....anti-sludge requirements for the turbo and so forth.......when I was getting gas one day....dude says, "You must really love your car!!", just because I was putting in premium fuel.....I have had such in both my Foxes; one of which has been stationary for almost 20 months...but I have been turning it over weekly (at the very least), to keep the engine parts moving and seals moist......my point is....premium fuel doesn't seem to sludge up nearly as fast as lesser grades....PLUS....higher octane = more FUN..........not to mention anti-knock sensors; the like of which are rare on a vintage CIS motor....so why shake the shinola out of the motor; by using shinola fuel...?!? Just a thought....sure it costs more...but it doesn't botch your engine either.....!!! Pay at the pump; or the Prick Service Advisor.....more thoughts.....

Speaking of fun...I went to go see myboxyfox this evening and saw Rob as well......if ANYONE could get your Fox going smoothly....Rob is the Guy.....not to take anything away from You and Your Brothers' continued attention.....I would really love to come out and see your Fox......maybe after I get my HC for Woody III; and maybe the timing belt/water pump procedure for my Pigssat out of the way....I am going to take some time off during the first week of September.....if that is of any consequence to you....maybe I could come out for a visit then perhaps........note the double maybees...heheh....CHEERS...J...!!!


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

KRAMMIT said:


> premium fuel doesn't seem to sludge up nearly as fast as lesser grades....


Premium doesn't usually have ethanol (or at least not as much) in it, whereas these days Regular is up to 10% ethanol. The ethanol goes funky in a couple months and turns into goo, versus gasoline which is still okay for quite a bit longer. This is why lawn mowers and other small less efficient equipment that sits a lot have so many problems these days, they're full of ethanol sludge.


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## FoXlr8 (Jun 15, 2014)

bluetoes591 said:


> Premium doesn't usually have ethanol (or at least not as much) in it, whereas these days Regular is up to 10% ethanol. The ethanol goes funky in a couple months and turns into goo, versus gasoline which is still okay for quite a bit longer. This is why lawn mowers and other small less efficient equipment that sits a lot have so many problems these days, they're full of ethanol sludge.


Ethanol also absorbs water. In a heat-cool-freeze environment, there could be regular buildup of condensation inside your tank. The ethanol will absorb it until it's saturated. At this point phase separation will occur. 



> Phase Separation can happen in an underground or an aboveground storage tank, a vehicle tank, a boat tank, in any type of equipment tank, and even in the gas can in your garage.
> 
> When this happens, you can have serious and even catastrophic engine problems, without warning.
> 
> When this Phase Separation occurs you will have an upper layer of gasoline with a milky layer of Ethanol and Water below it, and then in many cases a third layer of just water at the bottom.


If this has happened in your car, it would explain the coughing and gagging in the earlier video as well as the non-starting now. Even if the fuel in the lines and pump itself had suffered phase separation, you'd still have mostly gasoline, with 10% useless ethanol and some portion of water. But the injectors would still be squirting mostly gasoline. Later on, when you tried to start it again, you may have been drawing either water or useless (water-saturated) ethanol only -- from the bottom of the tank.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

*A New Direction*

Hello Foxers

It is with heavy heart that I announce my retirement.

I love my Fox. I do. I have (essentially) never driven it, and I love it. I know it is capable of being so much more. But some life changes have made it so that I can no longer really work on it and, even if I get it running, I can't afford to keep it on the road - insurance every month for a driver under 25 with a few tickets, on a car more than 15 years old is basically the GDP of Dubai.

Add to that, I've made a kind of extreme decision to move to Japan in April. So. There's that too.

I know this isn't the place for classifieds, and I will be posting there later, but I need to assemble an ad and that will require me to eat breakfast first. So. You all know the condition of it. It's not inspiring, I know. But I genuinely believe it is ready to run as soon as I get this old fuel out. I won't officially be selling it until I get the fuel cleaned out and some new fuel + stabilizer in there and I can see it run.

It needs new brake line for back right, just a small section near the passenger door. If you have the tools and experience, this is 7 dollars and 20 minutes of your time.
The alternator may need to be swapped but it's also possible I had the belt tensioned incorrectly. I accept that.

I'd like to get 500 for it because of everything that's gone into it, but you could probably talk me down from there. I just want it to get the love it deserves.


Also I just want to take this moment to thank every one of you for all of the support over the past year and a bit. For everyone that has sent me parts, given advice, paid attention, only looked at pictures - whatever you've done to get my build thread to nearly 10,000 views and get my car to the point where it just about works (I honestly believe it will after it gets new gas) - THANK YOU. Thank you immeasurably. This has been, by far and away, the best community on the internet that I've ever been a part of. Thankyouthankyouthankyou. -EDIT: OVER 10,000 views!

I'm going to be spending a lot of time in Pennsylvania between now and April, so I'll be getting a car down there. I may pick up another Fox, and if I do, I will return. But I may spring for a Mk4 Jetta TDI (platinum gray (ld7x) is the only colour for this car) in which case I will be over at the appropriate forum.

See you all around. I'll keep lurking for a while.


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## Simono (Aug 8, 2013)

germanpettingzoo said:


> Hello Foxers
> 
> It is with heavy heart that I announce my retirement.
> 
> ...


Id snag this within the day if you werent in ottawa.


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Simono said:


> Id snag this within the day if you werent in ottawa.


If I can manage to get the brake line solved, you could probably drive it home. Which would be the saddest thing ever, watching it drive away lol.

Please nobody drive it away. Tows only lol.

Half kidding.


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## KRAMMIT (Apr 16, 2011)

*...Sorry To Hear...*

Awww Buddy...Sorry to hear that you are having to bow out for now....(once a Foxer; ALWAYS A FOXER...!!!)...life has a nasty way of unfolding sometimes.....heading to Japan, eh...? Nice....are you going there to teach English...? ...a Buddy of mine did that years ago and made a decent amount of coin.....

So sad to hear that you haven't been able to get your Fox fired up as yet.....did you try dropping the gas tank to remove the skunky fuel as yet...? It really isn't so difficult to do........I have been out to Port Hope a few times this summer....and each time...I think about continuing on to Ottawa for a visit.....but with the Fatman in the car....(there is always the risk of incontinence....)...so, I end up not making the journey.....my apologies for that......

So GLAD that you are having a plan; and a direction to move forward in though...if you do end up with a newer vehicle; your Fox training will serve you well; and you will marvel at how easy it will be to remove fasteners, that haven't been stuck for fifteen years or so....

Keep in Touch Man....All the Best....!!!

P.S. I am responsible for at least a hundred of those views.... I have always enjoyed reading your posts, J...!!!


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

Hey thanks Kevin!

Yeah, I'll be teaching English in Japan. It should be a fun time. The story behind the decision is long and uninteresting but by all accounts I will actually come back with money. Maybe I can pick up where I left off, in terms of Foxes.

Been looking at cars in PA on Craigslist and there are so many crazy fun looking cars, I don't even know where to begin. There's even an old VW Type 2 in New Castle, where I'll be spending most of my time!!! Ugh, decisions decisions. If I find a Fox wagon down there though... you can bet I'll be back on here with that lol.

Anyway, thanks for the kind words. I'll definitely be in touch. Like I said, I'll be lurking for a while. There are some exciting builds going on around here


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## Simono (Aug 8, 2013)

If you fix this brake and fuel problem, I will come get it off you. I am 524kms away from ottawa, I figure if I can drive the car 100kms, I'm good. I have CAA plus with two tows left which is 400kms.


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## bluetoes591 (Apr 3, 2009)

Noooooo...you gotta drive this car at least once. You're so close...


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## germanpettingzoo (Jun 3, 2013)

bluetoes591 said:


> Noooooo...you gotta drive this car at least once. You're so close...


I know. You have no idea how much it hurts. But even to get a temporary plate on this thing I have to have some sort of insurance. Being that it's my only car (I walk to work, I don't really need one lol) I don't have any insurance that I can throw it on. There is ONE insurance company that will cover me but they want about $500 /month because I have a slew of tickets - it was one very unlucky year, 2013 lol. So I'd have to be able to throw down an awful lot of money.

That said, you can bet on me just driving around the neighborhood unplated after I get those brakes done. Cause. You know. Testing 

But yes, Simono, we'll be in touch! Honestly, I think you'll be able to drive this thing the whole way.


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## Mustardblue (7 mo ago)

I'm resurrecting this ancient thread because I'm curious if this car is still around. I used to be germanpettingzoo but I didn't revive that account. Just made a new one.

I still think about this car a lot. Anybody know if it's still kicking around?


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