Dave's '79 GLD Rebuild/Refurb Thread

[sports racer]

25 years ago I cut the entire rear suspension off on my Bolwell Nagari, from the seats back and built up a 4 bar with panhard rod. Built new shock mounts, designed pivot points to get the roll centre perfect and it was easier than what you've described above.

Makes me look at diesel mechanics in a whole new light.

[gldgti]

Just noticed you mentioned about you current commuter car Dave - a '76 450 merc - if you want to replace it with something a lot slower but more economical, my parents are selling their '74 240D manual

I'd keep the golf though

[gldgti]

25 years ago I cut the entire rear suspension off on my Bolwell Nagari, from the seats back and built up a 4 bar with panhard rod. Built new shock mounts, designed pivot points to get the roll centre perfect and it was easier than what you've described above.

Makes me look at diesel mechanics in a whole new light.

sounds like a fun project.... in regards to difficulty though - just depends on what you know. I think doing a golf 1 diesel headgasket is easy since I have enough of the tools to make it easy.

now the injector pump is a lot more complicated...

[sports racer]

It was a fun project. Totally transformed the handling into something that actually felt safe at 250 k+.

[DaveGLD]

Just noticed you mentioned about you current commuter car Dave - a '76 450 merc - if you want to replace it with something a lot slower but more economical, my parents are selling their '74 240D manual

I'd keep the golf though

Man that sounds tempting, but I've already done a trip over to NSW to collect a benz this year and once is enough! Hope they get a good price, being a manual the buyers should be lining up - I used to drive an 82 W123 240D but it was an auto and waaaaay slow - I had to sell it because I lived in the hills at the time and it did not have enough power to do 60km/h on the local hilly roads! Drove a mates W123 240D manual a few months after I sold mine and you would not believe that they had the same engine - the manual gearbox totally transforms the car. Most diesels you see up for sale now are either automatic or so completely rooted they're only good for parts.

I really love the benz and vw diesels of the 70's, I'd easily have another (but need to sell a few other cars first!)

I reckon the golf would still beat the 240D for economy simply because it is so much lighter!

[hiho]

Hi Dave,

the head bolts are 11mm but the hex head is 10mm. You shouldnt have any trouble doing this yourself, i would advise that you clean the motor beforehand and also get yourself a 6mm 3/8 socket for the inlet manifold. Dont be tempted to leave the manifolds on the head as it will be far too heavy to accurately reposition the head on the block. Also, there are no dowels to align the head and head gasket on the block. While you have the head off clean the head bolt threads out thoroughly of crud - accurate head bolt tension is essential for this motor. Once the head is on install the head bolts without lube, tighten them to about 1/4 of the ultimate tension. Then, one at a time, remove and lube the head bolt threads, tightening them back to 1/4 ultimate tension. Once all are lubed, proceed to tension them as per the manual to the ultimate tension. This will prevent the lube from being squeezed out between the gasket and will give a better chance of sealing.

As long as you dont remove the pulley from the injector pump, you will be able to return the injector timing to what it was prior to the head removal. Just align the flywheel at tdc and note the timing mark on the injector pump sprocket.

This might sound like a lot but on one occasion I replaced a head gasket in 2 hours. It was a fresh rebuild and the engine builder (not me) had installed the head gasket upside down. MAKE SURE YOU DONT DO THIS. I discovered the problem when I was starting the car. With the gasket installed upside down the head was starved of oil as the oil gallery was blocked by the gasket.

[DaveGLD]

Thanks for the fantastic advice! Looks like I won't need the 11mm hex socket after all (at least it was cheap!)

I was thinking of ordering new head bolts anyway as they're only $1.50 - what lube do you use on the threads? Is engine oil ok or do they need a special grease?

[hiho]

I've never replaced head bolts on a 1.5D. Just use a small amount of engine oil on the threads. Another thing to check is the cylinder bores and piston crowns. If the motor has been run with water entering the cylinder then the piston crown can be cavitated and also the cylinder may be corroded from water sitting on top of the piston when the motor is off. If this is the case then the motor is cactus.

[DaveGLD]

Alright, just put my order in for new head gasket, cylinder head gasket set, new water pump and hoses - already have my haynes manual, hex sockets and torque wrench, plus plenty of scrap steel pieces for locking the camshaft and IP - I have some annual leave coming up next week so I'll be pulling everything apart very soon. Pics to come!

Thanks to everyone for the advice and encouragement sofar!

Oh... and a HUGE thanks to Dan D (GRN_VAGN) for supplying a recently rebuilt cylinder head!




This gives me a chance to clean up and prepare the new head so that I can just do a changeover instead of having to remove, clean up and check the old head.

[DaveGLD]

Jeez, just checked and it has been nearly 6 months since the last post, but we are finally making progress! I've been using my time off from work (work is shut until the 9th) to finally get the golf going again.

Today I drained the coolant, pulled off the alternator and removed the water pump housing and thermostat. I think I have found the culprit of my overheating as the thermostat had basically spat out all its wax and was stuck shut - I had planned to replace the thermostat and water pump anyway so I already have the bits to do this. Hopefully the head gasket it still ok and all I need to do is fit the new thermostat and she will be good again!

Unfortuately this good news was overshadowed by two minor issues - I found that the bottom mounting tab on the alternator mounting bracked was completely snapped off:





Seeing as this is where the adjustment for the alternator mounts this might have been exaggerating my overheating problem by not allowing the drive belt to be properly tight and slipping on the water pump pulley. It has broken off nice and close to the bolt hole so I will have to try and weld and grind this to get it to fit - I might try and reinforce the inside of the bracket with a washer or another piece of plate. The bracket is 5mm thick so it just shows what sort of vibration and fatigue issues these old diesels can have!

I managed to remove the water pump housing from the engine no problems but when trying to split the pump off from the housing one of the bolts sheared off and is stuck tight in there. Again I will have to try and drill this out and re-tap the hole - while not really a major issue it is still a PITA!





Anyway, I will try and fix these issues myself but in the meantime I've posted a wanted ad in the classified section, if anyone can help out with a spare water pump housing and/or alternator bracket it would be good to hear from you!

Also managed to fix the cold start knob and fit new wiper blades which was good. I still have some serious electrical gremlins to sort out, there are some wierd things going on when I try to start the car and the radio stays on for about a minute once I've turned the key off - I've checked the wiring and it has never done this in other cars I've had the head unit in so I'm going to have to spend some time removing all the home made wiring from the previous owner and restoring the loom back to factory.

At least it will be cooler tomorrow, 38 degrees in a mechanics suit outside can really test the patience!

[Preen59]

I think I have an Alt. bracket. Will have a look.

Just buy a new water pump.

[DaveGLD]

Cheers. I do have a new water pump but the stud has broken off in the housing that the water pump bolts on to.

[gldgti]

Hi Dave, nice to see your back at it!

Thats the commonest alternator mount bracket failure - i've seen that plenty of times. Personally, I had luck fixing it just by grinding back to a v prep both sides and MIG welding it on pretty high amps - then, importantly, allow it to cool slowly in a warm place with no wind. Dont run it under tha tap or it'll be hardened and brittle, and it will fatigue again. Also, grind the weld back so its flush with the original surface again and buff it smooth with a flap disk while its still hot to put a bit more heat in it and make the cooling time even longer.

After seeing a few of these failures, I think its largely because the brackets were all cold formed and the work harnening shortened the fatigue life somewhat.

[DaveGLD]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and parts offers - I've managed to fix both issues with a trip to a family friend in the morris club who has a garage with all the kit. Managed to get the stud out with the use of a huge vice, some inox and gentle rocking back and forth - after about 30 seconds it came loose and unscrewed.

He also managed to weld up the alternator bracket for me - gldgti you were spot on! We ground it back and then a weld either side, ground the welds and then left it in the sun to cool slowly. (I reckon the last time I heard the term 'work hardening' was in my materials science class a few years ago! )

All up i was in there for about 10 minutes and then another half hour for a chat which was nice. Will clean up the gasket surfaces and paint the alternator bracket this weekend and then hopefully she will go back together!

Huge thanks to vwgolf for offering a replacement bracket and pump housing as a plan B! Fingers crossed our weld job will be good for a few more years!

[DaveGLD]

It lives again! I had to buy a new battery as the old one had died through lack of use, but the car now starts and I have taken it for its first drive in nearly a year! I had the car running at high revs so I could keep an eye on it and see if it would boil at idle, but it warmed up nicely - the thermo fan has been bypassed and I had to operate it manually every now and then to stop the temperature getting up beyond about the 1/3 mark.

Took it for a test drive around the local backstreets and up to the servo to put some air in the tyres and the temperature gauge stayed under halfway the whole time. Fingers crossed the new thermostat has solved my overheating problem, but I want to take it on a high speed run, hill runs and a couple runs under load just to make sure, but sofar it looks promising.

In true Mk1 fashion something else has broken now that another thing has been fixed, I seem to have blown the glowplug fuse which is a 50 amp strip type fuse - does anyone know where I could buy one of these over the counter? Autohaus has them and there are sellers on ebay UK that are selling them for peanuts but I'd rather just go and buy one so I can fix it this weekend! Not sure why it blew, maybe the new battery is giving such high voltage that the glowplugs are drawing a little more current, or maybe one has blown (I have spares though).

The saga continues....