Powder Hound
Top Post Dawg
- Joined
- Oct 25, 1999
- Location
- Under a Bridge, Crestview, FL, USA
- TDI
- '00 Golf 4dr White 5sp, '02 Jettachero 5sp, Wife's '03 NB Platinum Gray auto(!)
Day 62
Happy St. Pat's everyone! Don't drink too much. None at all would be best; your liver will thank you for that. But, to each their own. Remember the rest of us are counting on you to drive safely home.
Anyway, yesterday I didn't spend too much time there at the shop and what time I was there was in slow motion. Too cold still!
I am disconnecting stuff from the transaxle and getting it ready to drop out. The front is up on jack stands, wheels off. I disconnected the shift cables, and there's problems with the shift tower. Luckily, the replacement unit I have has no such problems. And I think I have a used Sigma 5 shifter in my garage; I'll check that before leaving for the shop.
Yesterday I was able to disconnect the inner CV joints and release the outer axle stubs from the bearing carriers. I'll have to refresh the suspension eventually, but I'm not doing that now because I'm saving that. We'll see. For the moment getting the halfshafts out of the way will be sufficient.
I also removed, or tried to remove, the dog-bone. One mounting bolt to the subframe decided it was more important to hang onto its nut than stay with the head, which twisted off. The other bolt came off as well as the two bolts on the underside of the transaxle. But the dog-bone itself is still firmly in place. I sprayed around the perimeter with PB blaster, hoping the overnight soak will loosen what is apparently firmly rusted into place. I can only hope the bolt shaft will come loose later as it will need replacing, of course.
There's other fasteners that are rusted, or welded in place nuts inside various parts that are rusted to the fastener more firmly than the nut is welded to the body part. I don't think I will ever again consider buying a car from New England for other than parts. It is just too much trouble to try and get everything apart. Good thing I'm moving south. And then there are various plastic weatherproof plugs, the problem child in this case being the reverse switch that is on the shifter tower of the transaxle. Why do these things insist on breaking instead of coming apart????
Anyway, there are also the fasteners around the exhaust to get the turbocharger out as well. I will check, but I'm thinking at this point the oil feed and discharge lines to the turbocharger will not survive this effort. Not looking forward to replacing them because they seem to be so precious to the sellers. Ugh.
Oh, well. At least I am on the downside of the electrical repairs to the house. Still need to replace a switch and run some cable, where the most fun part will be running it into the fuse box. Oh, joy.
Cheers,
PH
Happy St. Pat's everyone! Don't drink too much. None at all would be best; your liver will thank you for that. But, to each their own. Remember the rest of us are counting on you to drive safely home.
Anyway, yesterday I didn't spend too much time there at the shop and what time I was there was in slow motion. Too cold still!
I am disconnecting stuff from the transaxle and getting it ready to drop out. The front is up on jack stands, wheels off. I disconnected the shift cables, and there's problems with the shift tower. Luckily, the replacement unit I have has no such problems. And I think I have a used Sigma 5 shifter in my garage; I'll check that before leaving for the shop.
Yesterday I was able to disconnect the inner CV joints and release the outer axle stubs from the bearing carriers. I'll have to refresh the suspension eventually, but I'm not doing that now because I'm saving that. We'll see. For the moment getting the halfshafts out of the way will be sufficient.
I also removed, or tried to remove, the dog-bone. One mounting bolt to the subframe decided it was more important to hang onto its nut than stay with the head, which twisted off. The other bolt came off as well as the two bolts on the underside of the transaxle. But the dog-bone itself is still firmly in place. I sprayed around the perimeter with PB blaster, hoping the overnight soak will loosen what is apparently firmly rusted into place. I can only hope the bolt shaft will come loose later as it will need replacing, of course.
There's other fasteners that are rusted, or welded in place nuts inside various parts that are rusted to the fastener more firmly than the nut is welded to the body part. I don't think I will ever again consider buying a car from New England for other than parts. It is just too much trouble to try and get everything apart. Good thing I'm moving south. And then there are various plastic weatherproof plugs, the problem child in this case being the reverse switch that is on the shifter tower of the transaxle. Why do these things insist on breaking instead of coming apart????
Anyway, there are also the fasteners around the exhaust to get the turbocharger out as well. I will check, but I'm thinking at this point the oil feed and discharge lines to the turbocharger will not survive this effort. Not looking forward to replacing them because they seem to be so precious to the sellers. Ugh.
Oh, well. At least I am on the downside of the electrical repairs to the house. Still need to replace a switch and run some cable, where the most fun part will be running it into the fuse box. Oh, joy.
Cheers,
PH