Cabrio/TDI Swap

[Uberhare]

Step 1: Buy a $900 Cabrio with a new roof!

Step 2: Strip your daily driver for its guts!

Step 3: Remove the crap from the Cabrio

Stay tuned.....

 

[rentstdi]

im staying tuned

 

[andrew1984]

sweet!

 

[Lug_Nut]

What? Another one? These are getting to be as common as B4 Passat GLX to TDI conversions!

 

[compu_85]

Was your daily a 93 or 94 jetta in that teal color? If so I could use some of the body parts...

-Jason

 

[Uberhare]

Yes, the old car was a teal 94 Golf. The panels are in pretty good shape, it was just the floors that let go and the rear 1/4 panel was hit. What were you after?

Project was on hold tonight in favour of snow blower restoration! Grrrr.

 

[Uberhare]

Progress: Front end stripped. Ready for brake/suspension upgrade!

Tommorow: Remove wiring harness, dashboard, ABS monstrosity, pedal cluster.

Time tally: 9.5 hrs (including stripping the old daily driver mostly to a shell)
Beer tally: 4.5 (the tallboy counts as 1.5)
No accurate costing as my daily driver was sacrificed.

 

[rentstdi]

Why are so many canadians doing these swaps lately. I mean putting a diesel in a convertable. I 'm just jelous. I have an 87 cabby and an 05 jetta, love the jetta just waiting to get rearended. Keep up the good work

 

[Lug_Nut]

Looooonnngg winters...

Uber, It's interesting to me that you've pulled the subframe as part of the swap. I didn't. What is your reasoning?

 

[The Shootist]

The 4 seasons are Winter, June, July and August.

 

[Uberhare]

Looooonnngg winters...

Uber, It's interesting to me that you've pulled the subframe as part of the swap. I didn't. What is your reasoning?

Originally I had not planned to pull it. It was ummm, spur of the moment when the first 2 cv bolts stripped on the auto tranny. I hate autos, it was the easiest way to deal with it. The subframe going in out of the other car has good TT control arm bushings and a new rack, so it made sense.

It may be winter here, but my garage is nice and toasty!

 

[Uberhare]

Some progress tonight. I decided to make the car mobile again before working on the wiring. I need to get the doors open all the way and off the hoist to work under the dashboard properly.

Front subframe, suspension, steering all back in!
(TT c-arm bushings, Koni sport/GC coilovers, 11" G60 brakes)
Swapped the automatic shifter for manual!

Add 1.5 hrs for 11hrs total to date.
Out of beer.

 

[Uberhare]

One more thing: My 02a master cylinder support bracket came in today.

1H1 721 901A for anyone doing an 020 to 02A swap!

It was about $25 retail (CDN) from the dealer.

 

[compu_85]

Was your daily a 93 or 94 jetta in that teal color? If so I could use some of the body parts...

-Jason

-Jason

 

[Uberhare]

Yes, the old car was a teal 94 Golf. The panels are in pretty good shape, it was just the floors that let go and the rear 1/4 panel was hit. What were you after?

Project was on hold tonight in favour of snow blower restoration! Grrrr.

Yes! Teal green.

 

[Uberhare]

Tonight was dashboard night! I forgot how much I hated changing dashboards....

...and 1 hr/1 beer later...

And on to the donar car.........

I'm changing the entire interior to black. I have to find a black rear seat still.

Pedal box is out. I guess my wife has been driving with the clutch rubber missing. Likely for awhile too. That thing is a bastard to get out. Bolted on the 02A master cylinder bracket. I was running the 020 in the previous setup. I got my hands on a 3.17 final drive 02A!!

Lastly tonight was this:

You wouldn't believe how much it weights. I'll be going to non-abs 22mm master from the other car. The abs wasn't working anyhow. This car had rear drums with ABS. I've never seen that before on a MK3. Learn something new every day here....

Time: 14 hrs
Beer: 5.5

 

[Lug_Nut]

This car had rear drums with ABS. I've never seen that before on a MK3. Learn something new every day here....

Drum ABS seems to work quite well too. I'm pleased that mine work.

 

[Uberhare]

Drum ABS seems to work quite well too. I'm pleased that mine work.

If you ever decide you want to remove it along with all the associated wiring....Let me tell you it was installed before anything else in the interior of the car (ie heaterbox). That was no fun. I managed to do it without pulling the heater box, but it wasn't easy. The wires come through the firewall on the passenger side, along with the auto tranny harness. All gone, must have been 10 lbs of wires. All of wiring removed so far:

More dashboard spaghetti:

This next picture I found interesting. There is a capped plug that runs the stater wire back through the alarm system. Strange how VW did it. Why not just run it directly into the first connect.

AHU harness ready to go in:

"Ummm, honey -if you ever want your car to run again can I buy a bentley now?"

add 3 beer and about 3 hours today. Ok the beer was Coors light, so it really only counts as 2!

 

[Uberhare]

One more pic:

 

[Lug_Nut]

This next picture I found interesting. There is a capped plug that runs the stater wire back through the alarm system. Strange how VW did it. Why not just run it directly into the first connect.

So that you can add additional interlocking devices where the plug is inserted.
It's kind of silly actually. The plug /socket at the input side is the same as the socket/plug on the output side. It's easy enough to bypass everything by completely removing the alarm module/interlock and then plugging the wiring harness output plug into the harness input socket.

 

[Uberhare]

That makes sense on the interlock. How many interlocks does one need??

Tonight:

Pedals all in!
Master cylinders are in!
AHU harness engine bay side almost done!

TDI harness meets Cabrio harness! A match not made in Wolfsburg....

Firewall insulation was thicker on the diesel, so I swapped it over while everything was out.

Tomorrow I will be making some new brake lines to match up to the new brake setup.

19.5 hrs
8.5 beer

Can't wait till this is done so I can start the next one:

 

[mogly]

Nice thread Jay. I've been watching your daily updates.

That white wagon, is that the one from Newmarket? If so, that was a solid buy.

 

[Uberhare]

Thanks Rob, good to know someone's reading here!

Yep, that's the car! I buffed it and waxed it. Looks really good in the daylight (or dark)! I spent about 4 hours on it with a power buffer. I want to swap a TDI into it as well. I just need to find some Passat TDI specific parts now.....

 

[Uberhare]

Tonight was a short night out in the shop, but I HAD to get something done...

I tackled the brake lines. I've always said if you're going to do a job, do it right the first time with the right tools:

I was able to source the proper coated brake lines from a reputable parts supplier. The cheap stuff only lasts a few years. Brake fluid: I used to profess how great ATE superblue was. I used it all the time on customer cars, UNTIL one day I actually tried to flush the crap out of my own car. It permanently stains everything blue. I still had a sealed bottle of Elf Frelub 650 so in it went! I'll save the super blue for my next beater.

Ok, so it's do as I say not as I do. I cheated - the rear lines were in great shape so I re-routed them from the abs setup. One of the rear lines had a larger fitting on the ABS master, so I had to cut and re-flare the end. Front lines are newly made!

This ones for everyone who's ever accused me of being a redneck:

Beer and hat were both donated to the cause! I did NOT purchase either one!!!!

+1 hr/+1 beer.

 

[Uberhare]

Almost forgot, here's my one man bleeder:

Works great everytime. Love the colour of the old fluid.......(Actually it was from my beater - not this car!)

 

[mogly]

I thought that must be the car. I'm glad someone bought, as I was seriously tempted! That'll make a nice TDI recipient.

That coated brake line is good stuff. We used that one all replacement bus lines once we figured out the cheaper not coated stuff required replacement a couple/few years later. Looks factory on VWs and easy to work with too.

 

[phazersonstun]

Hey Uberhare! Cheers on the Coors!

Can you show how you mounted the clutch master cylinder? This is one of the big things I am looking for on my swap.

 

[Uberhare]

This is the bracket you need that I posted. It mounts on the pedal cluster to support the clutch m/c. The holes are already in the firewall, just pop out the grommets.

Sorry guys, no updates took a week off.

 

[Uberhare]

Update!!!!!!

I spent about 6 hours today on the car. I got quite a bit done.

First you have to heat the garage:

Fuel tank and lines are in! It wasn't too bad of a job. Removed the "Unleaded fuel only sticker" in fear of my wife using full serve! Took about an hour for both cars. I replaced the connector on the cabrio with the diesel 2 pin one. Here's the factory wire release tool and the 4 pin gas connector (2 wires for sender/2 for pump):

Here's what an 020 clutch looks like after 45K of TDI abuse:

Lots of hot spots, wouldn't hold with RC2/3. I figured it was a good time to upgrade to an 02A!

ALWAYS torque your flywheel/clutch bolts with new hardware! I use the factory flywheel lock as seen above.

Here's a really good reason not to buy a fram filter:

Rust!!! This is the one I removed from the original 2.0 airbox.

I had to change the front engine bracket to use the 02A:

020 stuff on the left, 02A on the right. Different length of bolts and different bracket. I used the B4 passat one.

Airbox.......

The cabrio has en extra engine mount (which I chose not to use) so the a/c line humps over it. The airbox also has a different warm air inlet to clear the mount/hose.

I figured it was a good time to clean up all my grounds. This will help enure easy cold starts in our cold Canadian weather!

 

[Uberhare]

With a bit of help from my helper, the engine is in!

Getting there:

Engine bay almost done! I just have to finish the intercooler piping, and put the wiper linkage back in. I don't even remember why I removed it now.....Axles & exhaust still have to go in underneath, shifter works, clutch works!

Front end back on:

Now for tomorrows mess:

I should be driving her soon!!!

Add 6 hrs today.