Progress In The Last 6 Days...

I've been working far too hard at work this year! I can't carry more that 5 days over to the next financial year so I've had to take four days off this week! It's been nice spending some time on the car and I've got a good number of the little jobs done.

On Saturday I had 'fun' with the water pump. I fitted this last week but I thought I'd better tighten up the nuts properly. You can't get a socket on these because of the pulley so I used one of my ratchet spanners. This was going well right up until I did up the last nut. I felt the nut tighten and then suddenly slip. I was gutted! My first thought was that I'd stripped the thread in the alloy water pump housing. Fortunately, I was lucky and it was just the stud! I couldn't get the stud off in situ so I had to remove the water pump.

I got a new stud in and made myself a new gasket. If you've never made a gasket you should try it! It's really easy and it saves loads of time. You can use card from a cornflake packet if you're desperate but the pukka stuff, which I use, is 'Flexoid' paper. It's really cheap on eBay and it can really get you out of a jam! All you need to do is trace around an existing gasket or place the paper over the flange and rub it over with a dirty finger to highlight the edges and then cut it out. You can make the holes by hammering a bolt into the paper. Easy!


Anyway, once I'd smeared a bit of Loctite 5926 gasket sealant on the faces I started bolting the water pump back in. This was all going well right up to the point where something threaded again! I couldn't believe it! This time it was the nut! I got a replacement and gave that a go. This time the stud threaded!

Something was definitely going on here! Once I looked into it, it was obvious what the problem was - the studs were too short! There weren't enough threads of the stud in the nut to take the torque of tightening. Once I'd realised that (and made another new gasket and found some longer studs) I was back in business. Sorted!

On Sunday I went to Stoneleigh. It was a brief visit again for me this year but I saw a few familiar faces and met a few new ones. There was loads of stuff for sale and I saw quite a few bargains. I really, really, wanted the mint bonnet that was for sale at £180 but I just couldn't have got it home in the back of my Golf! Instead I settled for picking up a few useful nuts and bolts!

On Monday I got my Nippon Denso alternator fitted. I'm still figuring out how the hell I'm going to wire this up but at least it's physically fitted in the car. I used a Canleys fitting kit. It was good but I'm going to replace the adjusting plate with a couple of rod ends in the near future.


On Tuesday I spent the day fixing the brakes on my Golf. The pads had seriously worn down with all the miles I'd been doing for work. In one case the friction material was down to 1.38mm! I decided to replace both the discs and pads as the discs had a massive groove around the edge because they seemed to be slightly oversize. I ordered replacement parts from Euro Car Parts and set about doing the job. It was all going swimmingly until I realised that the drivers side caliper wasn't sliding properly. Unfortunately the metal sleeve that the caliper slides on was seized solid on the caliper bolt and I had to destroy it to separate the two. Amazingly, my local VW dealers had the part in stock and I managed to get it back together on Wednesday morning!


On Wednesday afternoon I decided to finish off my anti roll bar links. I made my own out of rod ends from McGills Motorsport. There was a bit of work needed to get them fitted. I needed to drill out a sleeve to make a spacer and source some longer bolts for the wishbone end. Drilling out the sleeves was easy thanks to an 11mm cobalt drill bit from Namrick! Sourcing the longer bolts was tricky though. I couldn't find any online and eventually I had to get out the Yellow Pages. This worked out nicely and I turned some up at Nutters Fastenings in Nechells, Birmingham, which is just a few miles from where I work.


This morning I got another nice new part in the post. This time it was an alloy pulley from Rimmers. I'd heard bad things about alloy pulleys in the past. Apparently they used to be all alloy, which resulted in the keyway wearing out because of the softer material. The Rimmers one has a steel sleeve in the middle bolted to an alloy outer. Another bonus is that the bolts look like they might be handy for mounting a timing wheel if I ever want to move to a Megajolt set up in the future!

Going back together...

I'm slowly getting the engine back together! Just before christmas I recieved an alloy water pump housing from Canley Classics. I was a little bit suprised to see it as I ordered it ages ago and it had been on back order for about a year! Initially I was annoyed that Canleys had just sent it (and billed me) without asking me if I still wanted it, but when I checked my email I found they'd emailed me about a week before and I'd totally missed it so I can't really complain!

As luck would have it I was just about to repaint the waterpump, housing, engine front plate and pulley with POR15. I was tempted to leave the new housing in bare alloy but in the end I thought it'd look better painted. Two coats of POR15 with a top coat of Blackcote and it looks the business! It gives a really deep gloss black. Just compare it to the 'normal' engine enamel on the black in the pics! I'm going to be using a lot more of this stuff in the future! The only thing that is annoying is that it sometimes leaves annoying brushstrokes so you're better off using foam brushes. Look on eBay if you need some - they're £5 for 20!

I had a great idea with the timing cover bolts and screws - I numbered them. This will come in handy the next time I need to take them off!

This is my 'refinished' thermostat cover. Normally there is a number cast into the top. I thought this spoilt the smooth lines so I sanded it off and polished it up. Looks much better!

Heaters and Carbs!

I've had quite a busy weekend. I removed a whole stack of stuff from my car. The carbs came off first. I took them off complete with the manifold so that they can be posted off to Andrew Turner later on in the week. I spoke to him on the phone earlier on in the week and we had a good chat. He's going to take a look at them for me and get back to me to let me know what needs doing!

I also got going on fixing the heater. The controls for the temperature were completely seized so I started tracking down the problem. The heater lever assembly and the cable were okay (but a bit stiff and grubby) so the problem had to be the water valve. It was beyond repair so I ordered another. Then I started looking at the 'heat distribution' lever. This is supposed to direct the heat either to the footwell or onto the windscreen. This was seized solid as well but I couldn't see exactly what the problem was without getting the heater box out of the car.

Getting the heater box out wasn't as hard as I was expecting. All you need to do it to get the passenger glove box out, disconnect the heater, undo the bolts and then slip it out. I immediately noticed why the lever wasn't working. The linkage at the bottom of the heater had snapped off where the cable attaches. It could do with a new heater box as it's gone a bit rusty around where the pipes enter but at least the heater matrix looks to be in pretty decent condition. The heater motor is in tip top condition too which is a relief!

While I was mulling over what to do with the heater I removed the fuel pressure regulator. Hopefully this won't be needed when I get a new fuel pump that delivers the right pressure! I also spent some time ordering parts this week. A new heater valve showed up from Rimmer Bros on Thursday along with a thermostat, rear oil seal, gaskets and a kit that reduces gear lever 'rattle'. I also ordered an alloy water pump housing from Canley Classics that should be with me by the end of next week. I've decided not to go with an electric water pump on the grounds that I want to keep things simple so alloy will be the way forward for me!