TWT -- The Wrenching Thread (21 Viewers)

[NCFJ]

LOL indeed. I refer to such things as Ghosts in the machine. General consensus is it's the main ground to the instrument cluster. Very similar to most LC electrical issue, suspect the ground. Ground resistance becomes harder to overcome so current back feeds through the rest of the grounds and lights up everything like a Christmas tree.

Of course I need a couple special tools to pull the cluster.

 

[izzyandsue]

I must admit I have never understood the love affair with water cooled VW's. It seems like the thing they do best is make pedestrians out of their owners. When I was in college, my roommate had a first gen Sciracco that mostly just sat and collected parking tickets because it was always broken down. I had to drive him around everywhere. Once I graduated and bought my first house, my next door neighbor had a diesel Rabbit. He always bragged about the great fuel mileage it got, but most of the time it just sat in his driveway under a tarp with some major ailment. His wife drove him to work every day and picked him up. She finally got tired of driving him around. She went out on her own and bought him a Geo Storm as a surprise for his birthday! A Geo Storm! Boy was he pissed! But you know what? He got where he needed to go with no problems for years after that. The Rabbit eventually got hauled away by a teenager that had plans to fix it, but I'd bet money it never ran again. Funny thing...my neighbor always pined over that diesel Rabbit like he had lost his best friend. Strange love indeed!

If the car is in the driveway, using zero gas, and you still,get to work, that’s amazing gas mileage in any book!

I have had good luck with VW, have leased, bought over 18 in the last 12 years and never had a problem. Raced the hell out of 2 GTis, never left me wanting more in track either. Then today....my son brings a friend to help replace a rear wheel bearing on a 2014 Jetta...broke 2 ratchets, and 3 extensions, getting the damned main bolt out. Finally a trip to Northern Tool for 1/2 in triple squared sockets did the trick. Hate that bolt, but the kid lived in Ohio and everything was rusted on that car.
One Tekton ratchet and one Kobalt, both will be replaced for free.

 

[jynx]

Who ever came up with the triple square drive should be made to stand still while every person who has cursed a triple square bolt hurls bolts and sockets at them... while I like new tools as much as the next guy, im not sure what was wrong with all the other bolts that were already commonly available.

 

[izzyandsue]

Well, surprise surprise surprise, KOBALT and Lowes no longer honor their “lifetime no hassle warranty”. All the way to the store manager in Matthews and they don’t care. Will replace with Tekton, they still have the “oh, it broke? Here’s a new one” warranty. In 20 years in Charlotte I have only replaced one Kobalt tool. Now Lowes sells Craftsman, who also has a lifetime no questions asked warranty on their site. Wondering if Lowes would honor those....

 

[NC LX]

Well, surprise surprise surprise, KOBALT and Lowes no longer honor their “lifetime no hassle warranty”. All the way to the store manager in Matthews and they don’t care. Will replace with Tekton, they still have the “oh, it broke? Here’s a new one” warranty. In 20 years in Charlotte I have only replaced one Kobalt tool. Now Lowes sells Craftsman, who also has a lifetime no questions asked warranty on their site. Wondering if Lowes would hone those....

I recently broke a KOBALT shovel. I bought it because it had the "Lifetime no hassle warranty."

 

[Malleus]

If you have been around LCs long enough you know that they can have some interesting electrical issues. Seems older Mercedes suffer electrical woes as well. I've not jumped into this just yet as it certainly is annoying but the car is slated for a total rebuild at some point including an entire new harness etc. This is on a 1985 380SL. I am guessing some sort of odd ground feedback is the route of all this evil. I posted on the Mercedes forum to see if I am not alone in this scenario.

Lights off-when turn signals are activated the pointers on all 4 gauges in the quad gauge jump up and down with the beat of the turn signal.

Lights on-when turn signals are activated the gauge lights go on and off to the beat of the turn signals. Both turn signal indicators on the dash flash on and off to the beat. The high beam and seat belt indicators flash off beat to the turn signal indicators.

The turn signals on the outside of the car all flash as normal

With lights on when high beams are turned on the gauge lights dim.

Is this US or grey model?

 

[NCFJ]

To my knowledge it is a US model. Turns out to be common.

 

[S4Cruiser]

Who ever came up with the triple square drive should be made to stand still while every person who has cursed a triple square bolt hurls bolts and sockets at them... while I like new tools as much as the next guy, im not sure what was wrong with all the other bolts that were already commonly available.

I had to google this to even know what type of bolt it was...mostly VAG specific it seems. Guessing even tho they look like a star drive they aren't! Would surely ruin a wrenching project if you weren't already aware of needing the specific socket. Doubt it's something easily sourced from the HD.

 

[jynx]

I had to google this to even know what type of bolt it was...mostly VAG specific it seems. Guessing even tho they look like a star drive they aren't! Would surely ruin a wrenching project if you weren't already aware of needing the specific socket. Doubt it's something easily sourced from the HD.

Yep, seems like for some reason VW likes to use them in brake and suspension parts. Definitely not readily available, at least around here. And yes, if you didn't know, it could definitely ruin a weekend. Especially since a lot of the triple-square bolts are torque to yield... I got my set from Amazon i think. And yeah, it is just close enough to fool you, but it is not. Imagine 3 squares rotated like 30° of each other.

 

[Malleus]

To my knowledge it is a US model. Turns out to be common.

Hmmm...I had a gray market 230SL once upon a time. The left rear fog light (which is required by law in Germany) was funkily wired into the harness ground and caused no end of troubles.

 

[Roxx]

I have had the bushing for the 80 front arms for two years now. I was afraid it was going to take me days to do this jobs after reading some threads with torches and all kinds of scary tools.
I pushed the rubber out with the press, took the sall saw and cut the ring very carefully and push it out. Very fast process. I just was careful not to mark or pass the blade to the arm. Here are some pictures if someone don’t understand my messy writing. I can write it in Spanish if you like.

 

[lumbee1]

I have had the bushing for the 80 front arms for two years now. I was afraid it was going to take me days to do this jobs after reading some threads with torches and all kinds of scary tools.
I pushed the rubber out with the press, took the sall saw and cut the ring very carefully and push it out. Very fast process. I just was careful not to mark or pass the blade to the arm. Here are some pictures if someone don’t understand my messy writing. I can write it in Spanish if you like.

View attachment 2450489

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Are those OEM bushings?

 

[lt1fire]

I have had the bushing for the 80 front arms for two years now. I was afraid it was going to take me days to do this jobs after reading some threads with torches and all kinds of scary tools.
I pushed the rubber out with the press, took the sall saw and cut the ring very carefully and push it out. Very fast process. I just was careful not to mark or pass the blade to the arm. Here are some pictures if someone don’t understand my messy writing. I can write it in Spanish if you like.

View attachment 2450489

View attachment 2450490

View attachment 2450491

Dang mine came out a ton easier than yours did.

 

[lumbee1]

Dang mine came out a ton easier than yours did.

I've heard that OEM bushing separating from the arm is like a gun going off. @Roxx method is the preferred method for removing them. My aftermarket offset bushings fell out of the arm when I replaced them with OEM.

 

[izzyandsue]

I took mine to NCFJ, point and grunt and he replaced them

 

[SFROMAN]

I've heard that OEM bushing separating from the arm is like a gun going off. @Roxx method is the preferred method for removing them. My aftermarket offset bushings fell out of the arm when I replaced them with OEM.

We pressed out the OEM front arm bushings out using Johny's press and sure enough there was a loud bang, similar to a 22 shot. scared the crap out of me.

 

[roadstr6]

I cut mine, same as Rafael. Loan-a-tool'd a ball joint press (big C-clamp) to push them out and push new ones in. Cake. That was before I got the 20T shop press. I would expect that with a real press it would be easier than cake. Pudding maybe...or ice cream?

 

[Malleus]

Since I'm planning this for the coming week or two, I thought I'd cross post this for public consumption:
100 series wheel bearing (etc) maintenance

This guy really did a great job, both on the truck and in his post.

 

[Malleus]

I know somebody here needs this:
Horizontal bandsaw
...and it's single phase

 

[lt1fire]

I've heard that OEM bushing separating from the arm is like a gun going off. @Roxx method is the preferred method for removing them. My aftermarket offset bushings fell out of the arm when I replaced them with OEM.

Mine were OEM..... they required some pressure and did have a pop but nothing too bad.