Colin visits SF East Bay (Livermore)
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:35 pm
At 0900 on the appointed day, a beautifully manicured Chloe rolls into my driveway and out hops The Man.
We proceed inside for some coffee and to go over the day's itinerary. My wish list: lower control arm bushings, fuel tank swap, shifter freshen-up, speedometer de-squeaking, then some fun with the AFM and tuning.
Before we dig into the day's work we hop into the van and Colin takes it around the block to feel her out. He seems favorably impressed with the engine response, but feels that we may be losing some power and consuming more gas than is necessary due to running rich.
Back at the house, up goes the front end for a look at the control arm bushings. One looks more twisted than the other, but Colin attributes that to the track arm being shorter on that side and not to a failed bushing at all. So we decide not to bother with that work.
On to the fuel tank and shifter: Colin drops the spare tire and starts pulling out the shifter box while I dick around with the blocked spray nozzle on the can of spray paint that I had just purchased. Treat the top of the tank with a film of paint, while making sure the wind isn't blowing towards the VWs. Then under the van to drain and drop the old tank. Tank draining takes a looonnng time, but is greatly aided by putting the return line into the can and running the pump with Colin's magic fuel pump relay jumper. Old tank comes down without drama, seals are swapped (Colin, turns out there was a new sender o-ring included with the tank, but it was taped to the inside of the box) and new tank lifted into place. Bit of fuss getting the tank retaining straps up and onto their studs, but nothing that a little locally-applied violence couldn't solve.
Then I got over-eager and tried to pop the crossover pipe barb into its grommet, which promptly disappeared into the tank. Oops. So drop the tank and Colin uses his coathook-fishing ability to tease it out to the filler hole. Back in business: raise the tank, more locally-applied violence, treat the grommets to some dielectric grease (claims it's good for o-rings) and finish sealing the tank. Nice. Install filler pipe and put the gas back into the tank. Another application of the pump relay jumper and we confirmed that no leaks were springing.
We were making such great progress on the tank that we forgot to examine the shifter rod bushing the first time, but remembered to check it out the second time. To my surprise, my bushing looked perfect, just lacking lubrication. Another use for dielectric grease. Shifter now moves smooth as butter. Colin takes a couple of pics for Kubelwagen's reference, but then his camera battery died. Me, I'm no shutterbug, so those couple of close-up snaps of a dirty shifter coupling are all the record we have.
Once shifter and tank are back together, we re-group back at the engine compartment and Colin runs some diagnostics. We are in agreement that the engine is running on the rich side, based on the AFR readings and the tailpipe colour. Plugs look ok: #3 looks lean, and #4 looks a bit oily. We decide to nudge the AFM lean by half a tooth and take her for a test drive. Seems a bit sluggish initially, but smooths out once warmed up. AFR readings have definitely shifted to the lean side. Will need to evaluate when starting from dead cold.
Throughout the day I'm peppered with informative little tidbits about VW design and reasons behind them. The day ends all too soon as Colin packs up the patient Chloe and heads off in search of a campsite for the night.
We proceed inside for some coffee and to go over the day's itinerary. My wish list: lower control arm bushings, fuel tank swap, shifter freshen-up, speedometer de-squeaking, then some fun with the AFM and tuning.
Before we dig into the day's work we hop into the van and Colin takes it around the block to feel her out. He seems favorably impressed with the engine response, but feels that we may be losing some power and consuming more gas than is necessary due to running rich.
Back at the house, up goes the front end for a look at the control arm bushings. One looks more twisted than the other, but Colin attributes that to the track arm being shorter on that side and not to a failed bushing at all. So we decide not to bother with that work.
On to the fuel tank and shifter: Colin drops the spare tire and starts pulling out the shifter box while I dick around with the blocked spray nozzle on the can of spray paint that I had just purchased. Treat the top of the tank with a film of paint, while making sure the wind isn't blowing towards the VWs. Then under the van to drain and drop the old tank. Tank draining takes a looonnng time, but is greatly aided by putting the return line into the can and running the pump with Colin's magic fuel pump relay jumper. Old tank comes down without drama, seals are swapped (Colin, turns out there was a new sender o-ring included with the tank, but it was taped to the inside of the box) and new tank lifted into place. Bit of fuss getting the tank retaining straps up and onto their studs, but nothing that a little locally-applied violence couldn't solve.
Then I got over-eager and tried to pop the crossover pipe barb into its grommet, which promptly disappeared into the tank. Oops. So drop the tank and Colin uses his coathook-fishing ability to tease it out to the filler hole. Back in business: raise the tank, more locally-applied violence, treat the grommets to some dielectric grease (claims it's good for o-rings) and finish sealing the tank. Nice. Install filler pipe and put the gas back into the tank. Another application of the pump relay jumper and we confirmed that no leaks were springing.
We were making such great progress on the tank that we forgot to examine the shifter rod bushing the first time, but remembered to check it out the second time. To my surprise, my bushing looked perfect, just lacking lubrication. Another use for dielectric grease. Shifter now moves smooth as butter. Colin takes a couple of pics for Kubelwagen's reference, but then his camera battery died. Me, I'm no shutterbug, so those couple of close-up snaps of a dirty shifter coupling are all the record we have.
Once shifter and tank are back together, we re-group back at the engine compartment and Colin runs some diagnostics. We are in agreement that the engine is running on the rich side, based on the AFR readings and the tailpipe colour. Plugs look ok: #3 looks lean, and #4 looks a bit oily. We decide to nudge the AFM lean by half a tooth and take her for a test drive. Seems a bit sluggish initially, but smooths out once warmed up. AFR readings have definitely shifted to the lean side. Will need to evaluate when starting from dead cold.
Throughout the day I'm peppered with informative little tidbits about VW design and reasons behind them. The day ends all too soon as Colin packs up the patient Chloe and heads off in search of a campsite for the night.