Tweet
Hi there, been planning this build for months and the time has finally come to get my 1976 Passat LS on the road. My Uni holidays just started today and now I got a deadline of 3 months to get the car in a mechanically A1 condition.
So today I managed to start the car after it was on its retirement holiday in the front yard for a couple years now. But it was not easy to persuade her to come back to work.
What I done first was recharge the battery the night before, but my dad decided I should test out this battery charger he got from cash converts, and what do you know, it didn't work. So I decided that to get the battery from my Mitsubishi magna.
After that debacle I tried to fire up the engine. So I recruited the help of my dad, who at the time was about to cement a post in the ground but figured it was more fun helping me. So we turned the key and got more than what we were expecting, a fuel line urinating fuel everywhere, I reckon it had more holes than swiss cheese. We found a hose suitable to do the job temporarily, we tried that and it still didn't run.
We found the problem to be that the spark plugs weren't firing. So we replaced them with the spark plugs from my other 1975 Passat TS. That still didnt work. After scratching our heads and reading the manuals we were still left clue less. So my dad made the executive decision to pull the leads and the distributor cover off the TS and put it on the LS to see if it starts. Still no luck. So we then tried to tune the the timing correctly, after hours of meddling with the car we were still getting no where. We then looked at the TS timing we realised that we were way off, so after some adjustments we tried and..........................nothing still. We scratched our heads read some more of the manual *realised it wasn't helping* drank some coffee then off to troubleshooting we went. at this point we thought that the coil might be broken. So we then replaced it with the one from the TS and the car started up like a fire in a paper factory.
NOTE to self: Having a functional running car exactly the same as the non-functional running car is a good idea and a god send.
At this point my dad told me to replace all the parts which we installed from the TS with the original LS parts to see what was at fault. After going through and testing and connecting all the various parts in various situations I ended up with all the original LS parts on the car (except for the spark plugs) and it was starting up and shutting down like it was brand new. I was dumbfounded.
I might as well add that I'm 18 and my knowledge of troubleshooting engines ain't that vast and my dad isn't a mechanical guru either, and trying to start the car up literally took us ALL DAY. And now with all the original parts back on, lets just say were both like WOW.
But I would call day 1 a success, I set out what I wanted to do, I started her up and she ran no problems not missing a beat, And most of all I learned something new which I will never forget.
Step 2, see whats wrong with the brakes. I know that I need new front pads and most likely rotors, and I need new drum brake hubs and shoes and gotta replace the cylinder. Any tips on that would be much appreciated. If I need any new brake parts I was planning on using these guys, their prices seem good and I've seen others in Australia who have used them, http://www.germanautoparts.com/
Hopefully I can get some pictures up in the next couple days.
So today I managed to start the car after it was on its retirement holiday in the front yard for a couple years now. But it was not easy to persuade her to come back to work.
What I done first was recharge the battery the night before, but my dad decided I should test out this battery charger he got from cash converts, and what do you know, it didn't work. So I decided that to get the battery from my Mitsubishi magna.
After that debacle I tried to fire up the engine. So I recruited the help of my dad, who at the time was about to cement a post in the ground but figured it was more fun helping me. So we turned the key and got more than what we were expecting, a fuel line urinating fuel everywhere, I reckon it had more holes than swiss cheese. We found a hose suitable to do the job temporarily, we tried that and it still didn't run.
We found the problem to be that the spark plugs weren't firing. So we replaced them with the spark plugs from my other 1975 Passat TS. That still didnt work. After scratching our heads and reading the manuals we were still left clue less. So my dad made the executive decision to pull the leads and the distributor cover off the TS and put it on the LS to see if it starts. Still no luck. So we then tried to tune the the timing correctly, after hours of meddling with the car we were still getting no where. We then looked at the TS timing we realised that we were way off, so after some adjustments we tried and..........................nothing still. We scratched our heads read some more of the manual *realised it wasn't helping* drank some coffee then off to troubleshooting we went. at this point we thought that the coil might be broken. So we then replaced it with the one from the TS and the car started up like a fire in a paper factory.
NOTE to self: Having a functional running car exactly the same as the non-functional running car is a good idea and a god send.
At this point my dad told me to replace all the parts which we installed from the TS with the original LS parts to see what was at fault. After going through and testing and connecting all the various parts in various situations I ended up with all the original LS parts on the car (except for the spark plugs) and it was starting up and shutting down like it was brand new. I was dumbfounded.
I might as well add that I'm 18 and my knowledge of troubleshooting engines ain't that vast and my dad isn't a mechanical guru either, and trying to start the car up literally took us ALL DAY. And now with all the original parts back on, lets just say were both like WOW.
But I would call day 1 a success, I set out what I wanted to do, I started her up and she ran no problems not missing a beat, And most of all I learned something new which I will never forget.
Step 2, see whats wrong with the brakes. I know that I need new front pads and most likely rotors, and I need new drum brake hubs and shoes and gotta replace the cylinder. Any tips on that would be much appreciated. If I need any new brake parts I was planning on using these guys, their prices seem good and I've seen others in Australia who have used them, http://www.germanautoparts.com/
Hopefully I can get some pictures up in the next couple days.
Go for it, what an awesome uni holiday project!! will be very rewarding hey 
Not much has been getting done lately to the car. Will let you know whats been happening when something actually happens. Hopefully will post up some progress in another week or so.
Comment