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Mk1 Caddy

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Feel my pain...

Thanks for the picture… it appears to have stopped leaking there now but has started leaking through the accelerator pedal and the seams down the side. I'm going to have to investigate.

But that will have to wait as tomorrow is MoT time !!

Anyway, I do a final quick check of everything which uncovers that the front left side light comes on very dim when I press the brake pedal :'(A quick firkle with the rear light and the connections and everything now seems alright, probably a dodgy earth.

Then the passenger seat belt decides to stop working properly, managed to sort of fix that and I'll add it on the bits to replace with new.

Wish me luck for the morning as the furthest it's been driven in almost 8 years… let's hope the MoT man is in a good mood

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Guess what passed the MoT today ?








Go on, have a guess










Who said my Caddy ???








Well…. go and have a word with yourself because I have another hole to weld up  :'(  (and another bottle of wine to drink)

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But this time he says "yes!" What a nice man…

Out of the garden and driving around



(and then on the way back the washer stopped may have working and the dash lights may have given up the ghost as well)

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It's been a sunny day so with a fresh MoT I decided to do the sensible thing and take it apart again..

The Weber 32/34 that came with it is now almost fitted, but it appears that the K&N I have is too tall and goes the wrong way with the mounting plate I've got and the adaptor plate doesn't fit the old airbox properly, I don't have the original air box mounting thing and the old fuel line is too short !

So I need a new adaptor and air box mounting bracket, I can find the adaptors for the top of the carb but not the mounting bracket having had a quick 'google'. Does anyone know where I can get these from or have an old air filter that'll fit?

Last edit: by Blah blah

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Wahooooo! good news on the MOT

Nice one mate  :thumbs:Shame about the carb issues. I might have an air box from a big block engine knocking about here. I'll have a check

Cornish Host.
1980 VW Derby
Clive the Cabby
Ujum the Invisible
Mynx the  Tintop

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So, picked up a new small oval K and N filter today but it also runs front to back so doesn't fit dagnamit.

A quick call to where I bought it from and they had a NOS blank base for a fiver ! Result if I say so myself.

Another result today was a front carpet from Borednow (cheers) needs a bit of work but it'll do for now

And they say good things come in threes, I turned it over with someone holding the choke and it only went and started and sounded great.

So tomorrow's job will be to modify the blank base and fit it, fit the manual choke cable (£8 for a generic one from the bay of E) and have a look at the carpet.

There was lots of hissing from an inlet on the back of the carb… I remember a thread somewhere on here that said something about what I should do with it but I can't find it - if you've got a link (or can tell me) please let me know.






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With the weber now fitted. it's like a completely different car, goes like stink and the induction noise is addictive, but just like every silver lining has a cloud, I now don't have reverse, first is where reverse was, second has gone as well, just leaving 3rd and 4th…

Aarrghhh…. ^&*($%^£$^&* !!!  :(Having had a quick search it sounds like it may be the linkage bushes so where's the best place to get a new set for a 4 speed box (before Christmas!)

Anyone wanna fit them?

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veedubmachine could have them in stock and I could fit them if you are really stuck but its fairly simple to do

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Cheers, picked up a complete set yesterday and a few other bits…

And today I thought I'd have a look under the bonnet to see what could be done from above.

It appears that the reason the gears stopped working was because one of the rods with the plastic ends had popped off, and as the other end was held on with a tie wrap, it was probably not the first time.

So I thought I'd drop the new one on. Then I might as well change the other while I was at it. Then I replaced some bushes and a few more bushes and voila, I have gears again and it's almost lovely and smooth  :thumbs:I've still got to change the gear stick and shaft thing, but I'm doing this in the garden and it was gone 7:00pm when I finished the other bits, not much fun working in the dark with an inspection lamp and a head torch !!

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Right, after many a wild goose was chased, I cleaned the end of the shift rod, modified the selector lever so I could really tighten it up and I am back to lovely, positive gear change and I even took it to work today…

Just need to fix the heater fan now because it was flipping cold !

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Excellent!

Bet you were freezing mate!  :lol:  :ninja:

Cornish Host.
1980 VW Derby
Clive the Cabby
Ujum the Invisible
Mynx the  Tintop

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Good work pal

It's all shits and giggles until someone giggles and shits 

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So… (as you do) now that I've fitted the weber and it's running well, I'm looking at what else can be done to the 1.595 engine to perk it up a bit

After some searching, it seems that a gti / 1.8 dx cam and gti manifold may be the way to go. Apparently shaving my hedgehog improves things as well..? :ocf_emoticons__eek:

Anyway, I know that dropping a 1.8 DX (or 20v or V6) in would give me instant power, but I quite fancy seeing if I can tweak the 1.6 and see where I end up. It's still got the original disks up front, and a solid beam at the back so too much power could mean lots of bills sorting the rest out to make it stop / corner and to be honest, I like the simplicity and honesty of the 1.6. It goes surprisingly well for what it is, I am not really chasing huge numbers just "use-ability" and if it aint broke… (the bank account could do with a quiet period tbh as well, so the cheaper the better)

It's going to have another full service again (plugs, leads, oils, filters, fluids yadda yadda) and will have a new exhaust at some point (MoT advisory - rusty exhaust, so a good excuse to get a full stainless system!) so that just leaves modifications.

So, do after market manifolds really offer significant gains over a standard GTi one? Are their any other cams worth a look?? And do I really need to shave the hedgehog???


 

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Shaving the hedgehog sounds painful  :lol:  

A bigger / better / $ branch manifold lets out stuff quicker and more efficiently and with a slightly bigger bore exhaust you should get around 5% hike in power with a good air filter (K&N) etc. Then you can re-tune the carb maybe with bigger jets etc or go for twins  :o  or a bit cheaper way is to go with bike carbs

I know swapping the DX engine cam for a GTI one gives a bit more duration. Don't know about swapping them into a 1.6 though.

When you say you've got the original brakes are they VW11's? if so should be fine for a but more power.

Cornish Host.
1980 VW Derby
Clive the Cabby
Ujum the Invisible
Mynx the  Tintop

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tbh I wouldn't mess around with the 1.6 as you will spend a lot more on go faster bits that wont make anywhere near as much power as an engine swap, they are 75bhp to start with so even if you could increase it by 20% its still not going to be as powerful as a 1.8 carb engine.

 the brake callipers are the same as gti but use non vented disks and pads so just swapping them to gti vented type will help. rear brakes are good as standard. bigger servo and mc swap will improve feel and confidence in brakes, and aftermarket grooved discs and better pads will help stopping too

a stainless exhaust will be over £300 for a custom job as none are available for the caddy off the shelf.

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if you do want to see what you can get out of it i have a 4 branch for sale, also have a gti cam and1.8 carb cam, some new vented discs, and think I have a caddy tailpipe somewhere, probably other bits too

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Th

sporttrucker said

if you do want to see what you can get out of it i have a 4 branch for sale, also have a gti cam and1.8 carb cam, some new vented discs, and think I have a caddy tailpipe somewhere, probably other bits too

The gti cam and manifold sound interesting (as well as the other bits), tell me more…

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mild steel 4 branch £25 standard mk2 gti cam and pulley £15, you can have the caddy rear exhaust for free as i cut a bit out of it but could be welded back on. might keep the new discs for one of my gti's but may have another used pair.

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Well, February was a bit rubbish (with a little stay in hospital due to a duff knee) so to cheer myself up I went to the drag and drift at Perranporth airfield at the weekend and I've bought a stereo for £10 to replace the non-working radio.

Just got to work out how I fit the half a dozen wires in the car to the 2 dozen wires on the stereo… oh the fun of electrictrickery

Sporttrucker, if you've still got the manifold, I'm still interested in it

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How was the drag n drift? Missed it this time

Ian

Cornish Host.
1980 VW Derby
Clive the Cabby
Ujum the Invisible
Mynx the  Tintop
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