Fresh From The Field

[happybunny]

Found this car locally and the price was right. The guy has 2 '82 diesel 4 doors that he won't sell, along with about 75 old American cars sitting in his field.











I'll get some better pictures tomorrow after work. I was running out of daylight and had already pushed the car inside so I couldn't get a lot of good shots.

He said the clutch was gone on it- right now the pedal is sitting almost all the way on the floor, so I'm going to see if it isn't just a broken cable or tube.

When the car first arrived it had a ricer trunk spoiler mounted backwards on the roof near the rear hatch. That had to come off before I let it inside.

The Good stuff: door cards look great, ignition, both doors and the hatch are all keyed alike. Cardboard is still intact from the headliner, but there is no material left. Engine turns over easily, but wouldn't fire with the 6 year old gas in the tank.

Aside from the spoiler, most of the car looks untouched. Still has what I am assuming is the original shift knob ( R 1 2 3 E ). The plug for the CO adjuster hasn't even been removed, and I couldn't find any obvious wiring hacks. Turn signals, horn, headlights, etc all function correctly.

[volks trippin']

awesome save! those seat covers look nice. hopefully theres no holes from the spoiler....

good luck! hope you keep it a westy!

[happybunny]

awesome save! those seat covers look nice. hopefully theres no holes from the spoiler....

good luck! hope you keep it a westy!

There's 2 10mm holes from the bolts they used on the spoilers. I'm trying to decide on the best way to repair them with minimal damage to the paint.

[volks trippin']

i would weld them up

[floridabmx]

requesting pics of the spoiler on the roof.

[JaymesW]

anywhere near twin falls/burley?

[rabbitnothopper]

cool man a little waxing on that red and it will pop and shine again


looking good!


how does a grille break at that location......odd...

[ribguy]

how does a grille break at that location......odd...

Not so odd in Idaho... little animals are always getting in the way... or flying up on you. In Idaho if you hook it... you get to cook it.

[happybunny]

He said the grille broke when his dog chased a rabbit under the car and was pawing at the grille to try to get to it. The car was outside of Parma, ID just before Nyssa, OR but was titled out of Lewiston.

[happybunny]

requesting pics of the spoiler on the roof.

That's the only pic I have with the spoiler still on. A little hard to see it, but believe me, it's there.


No new pictures today- I got off work later than expected and it was overcast and rainy so I didn't feel like wheeling it out. Made a little progress though. I cleaned out the rodent nest in the airbox, and did plugs, cap, and rotor. I didn't get a key to the locking gas cap, so a little coaxing with a flathead screwdriver and a hammer got the lock cylinder out so I could get to the tank. The gas level was pretty low so I tried to dilute it out with a couple gallons of fresh gas, but no luck there.

Saturday is my next day off so we'll see what happens then. I'll Most likely be draining the tank and trying to get her to fire up. I'm not worried too much about it running like a top- I've decided I will most likely be dropping in the ABA hybrid that I'm building for the cabby, and selling the cabby this spring.

[happybunny]

The engine lives! I tried to drain the bad gas through the line behind the fuel pump, but I could get a minute trickle at best. I took out the back seat and removed the fuel level sender and took out the pickup strainer. As soon as the strainer was out the gas came gushing out of the fuel line.

I soaked the strainer in a cup full of seafoam for about 30 minutes and scrubbed it down with an old toothbrush and reinstalled it. I dumped a few gallons of fresh gas in and the rest of the can of seafoam for good measure. After quite a few times of cranking it over it started to fire and run really rough for a few seconds then die. After a few times of doing this it started to stay running. After about 5 seconds of rough idling I figured I would try my luck and jump out and video it.



It smooths out after a bit. I let it idle for 5 sessions of about 5 minutes and it now starts up as soon as the starter twitches.

[SEE YA]

Good find

[JaymesW]

lol that youtube username is definitely fitting.

[rabbitnothopper]

dude nice
shows that these cars can live forever

6 years man...most people would think that block would have siezed
noooooo....

keep it up!

[freedo84gti]

dude nice
shows that these cars can live forever

6 years man...most people would think that block would have siezed
noooooo....

keep it up!

+1 mine started up after not running for 18years, great little engines

[happybunny]

The engine really wanted to be seized- it cranked over pretty slow until I got oil pressure built up , then it came loose.

The main reason to get it started was to verify that the fuel system was functional. The little 1.7 is coming out, and the ABA hybrid is going in once it is put together.

I have the day off tomorrow so I plan on reassembling my cherry picker and lifting the ABA onto the engine stand, then getting it stripped down and cleaned.

It's got a few vacuum leaks, evidenced by the instant killing of the engine when I try to rev it up.

[happybunny]

No work on the car itself today, worked on the ABA hybrid that's going in it instead.

Engine on the stand:




Farewell AC and power steering, hello VR6 pulley for the water pump



Goodbye ABA Head




This guy is going on in place of the ABA head:

[the dubshow]

cool. i almost did the same thing for my mk2. Then built a 16v.

amazing how little it takes to make these run.

[happybunny]

I got most of the way through stripping down the ABA and degreasing/painting before I had to go rub some errands. After I got home I finished up the gasket match and port smoothing on the head.

[volks trippin']

great progress!

[tgibson]

Looking good... I have the same motor in my Cabby. It was a huge improvement over the tired 1.8

[brettj20]

great find

[rallydiesel]

Looks similar to a diesel Rabbit coupe I've been trying to buy for a couple years from a stubborn farmer. I don't understand why some people gotta be so hard-headed and would rather let a car sit and rust in a field then let someone restore and enjoy it.

[happybunny]

great progress!

I'll get some more done next week- My anniversary is tomorrow so the wife and I are going out of town for the weekend.

[happybunny]

Looking good... I have the same motor in my Cabby. It was a huge improvement over the tired 1.8

This motor was originally going into my cabby, but since the 1.7 has to come out of the 4 door to replace the clutch, I figured I might as well put it in this one.

[happybunny]

great find

This car sat on craigslist for weeks, but the guy said I was the only one who actually came out to look at it. Most likely because he lives out in BFE and there aren't many MK1 enthusiasts in this area- most of the guys are into MK2's.

[happybunny]

Looks similar to a diesel Rabbit coupe I've been trying to buy for a couple years from a stubborn farmer. I don't understand why some people gotta be so hard-headed and would rather let a car sit and rust in a field then let someone restore and enjoy it.

Some day I'll find an 82 Diamond Silver diesel coupe. We had one when I was a kid from about age 3 to 12. I really caught the rabbit bug one summer ( 1990ish) when my dad's friend came to visit in his 84 GTI.

[happybunny]

I haven't had a lot of time to work on the car, but managed to get a little bit done. Engine is ready for the head to be installed and the rest of the goodies put back on. I got the freeze plug installed where the oil breather used to be, and just need to trim the block off plate a little more and drill the holes in it.

Matching up the plate:



Got the rest of the block and oil pan scrubbed down, new pan gasket, and some fresh paint:



The lack of sludge in the engine when I pulled the pan off and the fresh looking cross-hatching on the cylinder walls makes me suspect that this engine has less than the 100k that were on the odometer of the car it came from.

So far there's no way I would spend the $65 on the blockoff kit. The 40mm freeze plug cost me $1.75 and the sheet of aluminum was $1 at the local metal scrapper.

I found a good looking 1980 4 door at the JY today with a nice set of black vinyl/simulated leather seats. They have a couple small rips, but nothing that can't be fixed with a vinyl repair kit. I got the two front seats with seatbelts and the rear with the pivot hinges for $75. I'll get some pictures of them up soon.

[happybunny]

Eurospec lightweight flywheel, HD clutch, throwout bearing, distributor shim and gear set, etc are on their way to me. The block surface has been prepped and the pistons decarbonized. Ready for the head install on Thursday. Water pump and belt tensioner assembly is back on, just need to find the right size belt for use with the vr6 pulley on the water pump.

Also finished trimming the breather blockoff plate, just need to fire up the grinder and smooth it out and drill the holes for it.

[happybunny]

Progress has been slow with only being able to spend an hour or 2 every couple weeks working on it, but I did this last weekend: ( and yes, thats a CIS basic setup that I swapped in for fun)






Amazing how easy the engine comes out when you do it the right way- from the bottom.

Hardest part was unbolting the downpipe. Even with lots of PB Blaster I snapped off 4 of the 6 studs. Used the hoist to support the engine while I unbuttoned everything, then raised it up enough to push the downpipe out of the way. After that I dropped it onto a mover's dolly and used the cherry picker to raise the car and roll the engine/trans out from underneath.

I didn't get a picture of it, but I also took the intake manifold to the local machine shop to have it hot-tanked to get rid of all the grime inside. They ended up doing it for free because they felt bad about forgetting to do it the first day it was there.

[happybunny]

Finished boring out the intake manifold to accommodate the larger MK2 throttle body. Need to finish swapping over the linkage and then I will be gasket matching runners as well.

[happybunny]

Got the tranny separated from the old engine today and needed to check out why the clutch lever was stuck in place. I was expecting to see the pushrod punched through the pressure plate cover, but instead I found this:


The release bearing grenaded, and the PO drove it like that long enough to weld the finger to one side of the bearing, and the pushrod to the other. I can get the finger at the local JY, but I'm having a hard time finding the 4 speed pushrod.

[rabbitnothopper]

Got the tranny separated from the old engine today and needed to check out why the clutch lever was stuck in place. I was expecting to see the pushrod punched through the pressure plate cover, but instead I found this:


The release bearing grenaded, and the PO drove it like that long enough to weld the finger to one side of the bearing, and the pushrod to the other. I can get the finger at the local JY, but I'm having a hard time finding the 4 speed pushrod.

yeah i know about those, i put one of those into my 81 and i eventually removed it and put the solid metal type back in there
the plastic ones can separate and the bearings fall out into the trans......
i dont know where you can find the solid metal ones.......

GAP should have the pushrod and the fingers
germanautoparts.com

if you find a source for the metal TO bearings PLEASE let me know i'll buy 3
hehehe

[happybunny]

yeah i know about those, i put one of those into my 81 and i eventually removed it and put the solid metal type back in there
the plastic ones can separate and the bearings fall out into the trans......
i dont know where you can find the solid metal ones.......

GAP should have the pushrod and the fingers
germanautoparts.com

if you find a source for the metal TO bearings PLEASE let me know i'll buy 3
hehehe

GAP has the fingers, but they only list the 5 speed pushrod. Seems to be the norm with all the other parts houses I've checked too.

The new bearing came from Techtonics and it is the plastic/metal combo. The old one had extended plastic tabs coming up out of the top of it, which I haven't seen on any of the new ones. the one pictured here appears to be all metal, but the picture isn't quite clear enough to be sure. http://busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=020141165E

[rabbitnothopper]

GAP has the fingers, but they only list the 5 speed pushrod. Seems to be the norm with all the other parts houses I've checked too.

The new bearing came from Techtonics and it is the plastic/metal combo. The old one had extended plastic tabs coming up out of the top of it, which I haven't seen on any of the new ones. the one pictured here appears to be all metal, but the picture isn't quite clear enough to be sure. http://busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=020141165E

thats plastic also on busdepot

solid metal ones are solid metal
i always reference this one
top right, solid metal

http://www.brokevw.com/TO.html
(only pic i have of them)

the plastic sleeve actually goes in your trans as a buffer slip between the metal of the trans and the TO bearing
i dont know where you can get those either.....they are generally required and hold the TO bearing center

i swear they had a 4speed pushrod
someone does i know it, i have seen them