VR6 Campaign

Nice work mate. Always satisifying when you work out why something isn't working. Almost like a Eureka moment.  

smudger1980 said

Nice work mate. Always satisifying when you work out why something isn't working. Almost like a Eureka moment.  

Cheers,  I had an inkling it was an earth, but had a good dollop of help from Rubjonny!  Still can't work out why the VAGcom doesn't work, but hopefully i will get the engine going over the weekend and then i can start tidying it up.

I'm collecting bits to change the hubs back to 4 stud, and managed to win some 280mm calipers yesterday so happy with that.

Well i got the alternator and tensioner on that i bought from another forum, and fitted the 6pk1105 belt and it fits nicely with no power steering pump in the way anymore.

My MK3 early 280mm brake calipers arrived so i'll clean them up too.  Getting quite a nice little pile of running gear bits together now, which all need wire brushing and then painting.

Unfortunately when i tried to start the car at the weekend, nothing happened at all, not a thing cf_emoticons__BangHead:  There was a click from the ignition relay but didn't hear anything from the fuel pump relay.  Luckily when i got the alternator the guy was selling his ECU so i plugged this in and i heard the fuel pump make a noise, but still nothing from the engine bay.

Looking at the starter motor it was pretty rusty so i took it off and bench tested it last night by connecting the battery up to it directly whilst the starter motor was in a vice.  Jumping the positive and Terminal 50 connector the starter did diddly squat, so i've just got a replacement ordered.  Hopefully that will be the last piece of the puzzle in getting the engine fired up for the first time    I doubt it as there's always something else  but hopefully this weekend there might be some 6 cylinder music!

Best of luck with it mate. Hope that's all that's wrong with it to get it going.    

It's alive!!!!

The ECU on the car must have been fried!!  There was also a missing earth strap from the gearbox to the earthing point on the passenger mount so i've run a temporary wire to earth the block.  Tried it last night at about 10:30pm on the off chance and the engine turned over, but i would have been killed by the wife if i woke the baby so i had to wait until this morning to try again, and here is the result.  (Click on the video to watch)

Got to change the oil and replace the oil temp sender at the same time as i spotted this was corroded when i found the earthing point on the front of the block.  Then i'll replace the current coolant pipes with the Samco hose set that came with the car.  A rail has been welded onto the front crossmember to stop the radiator moving at the bottom but this means the radiator stands very close to the inlet manifold and doesn't go under the slam panel.  Once i've sorted that problem hopefully I can then fill it with some coolant so i can run it for longer and check it's all ok.

Yesterday morning i went on a 2hr round trip to get some car ramps , so now i can have a good look underneath.  I can now also try and clean up the running gear i have been collecting and get it changed over to 4 stud and get the brakes plumbed in.

Brilliant news mate, congrats on getting her going. Not long to go now till you can enjoy her on the road.    

smudger1980 said

Brilliant news mate, congrats on getting her going. Not long to go now till you can enjoy her on the road.    

Thanks, it's great to know it runs, but I'm afraid there is a long way to go yet!

There is always a long road being building/developing mine for 10 years now and still not finished!!

Good luck with it though keep the faith!!

Anymore updates on this mate??

collo16v said

There is always a long road being building/developing mine for 10 years now and still not finished!!

Good luck with it though keep the faith!!

 

With the other new addition to the family it is taking a bit longer than before.  Our first baby (17 weeks) doesn't do anything for the spare time!!

Although saying that i finally managed this weekend to wire wheel the bearing housings i got from you ages ago, so they are ready to paint in Hammerite.  Hopefully tonight once the little one is in bed.

I'll get some pics up once they are done.

Congrats on the little one mate. They tend to sap time from the projects don't they

Looking forward to pics

smudger1980 said

Anymore updates on this mate??

Not at the moment.  I've managed to get all the suspension bits to convert to 4 stud i think, probably find i haven't once i've started taking the existing setup off I then need to get the near side driveshaft customised, i'm not really sure how to measure what length it needs to be, any ideas anyone?  I'll put a post in the runing gear forum.  I've searched as much as i can, loads on Vortex but can't seem to find the length.

Need a few nice days to wheel the car out of the garage and get it up on some axle stands to test fit it all really as there is no room in the garage, plus also i want to get it out again to fire it up.  It sounds like the wrath of god burbling away 

Managed to grab a couple of hours on the car today spread over the day.

I thought i'd tackle the front running gear but as the car is in the garage (and the weather was wet today) I could only tackle the drivers side.  The previous owner had swapped the car to use the 5 stud VR6 bearing housings but used the Mk1 wishbones.





I bought some 100mm driveshafts from this forum a while ago when i was planning to 20v a car, but never found a suitable shell.  So after buying some late cabby hub housings from Collo16v i spent this week during the nights, when the wife and baby were in bed, to clean them up a bit (not that they needed it really) and gave them a quick lick of Hammerite.

So this afternoon i removed the VR6 housing and driveshaft and replaced it with the 4 stud late cabby one and the 100mm driveshaft.  I realised whilst removing the one on there that the ball joint was from a VR6 and so nipped over to GSF round the corner to get the Mk1 ball joints, bolts, nuts and pinch bolt but they didn't have the ball joints in stock They are on order and will be here on MOnday so i'll be putting them on MOnday night so i can lower the car down from it's current raised position!



As it stands, looking ok





The missing ball joint



 

Nice work dude    

Managed to pick up some underlay from a local carpet shop that has the rubber crumb layer with felt on top yesterday.  Got plenty of it so once i can get the car outside i can cut and fit it and get the carpets back in.

Went to the local scrappy, as they had a MK2 last time i was there, to get the wiper motor loom as my motor when i connected it up kept blowing the 15A fuse. Unfortunately it had gone, so I went to GSF and got some service parts with a rotor arm and dizzy cap on order:

Hopefully the postman might bring me some spark plugs from Ebay if i'm lucky!




I came home and pushed the car out of the garage and noticed my pile of wiring loom i kept from my last project when i broke an ABF Mk3 and there in amongst all the wires was:



With the plug i need on the end, result!!!!  




Here's the car out of the garage for a bit of air

Gonna be a beast wen shes done matey

Jammy git finding that connector you needed.

Makes up for buying a Mk3 wiper motor when the mk2 one i already had worked!  I just hadn't checked all possible wiring combinations when bench testing it! 

Got some more service bits today so i now have a small pile to get fitting, as well as two 9" slimline fans to fit to the radiator once i put it back on as there is hardly any room between the inlet manifold and radiator when fitted!




I took a picture of the radiator mounted when i first got the car before draining the coolant and there ain't much room there, you can see at the bottom of the picture that the fan cowling isn't fitted because there wasn't any room.  There's not much room between the alternator and radiator anyway, so i plan on running the fans in front of the radiator and to push the air through it, if i can work out how to wire them in!!