91 ABF Track Project........Six weeks in

[mr.brown]

Looking good, where did you get the strut brace from.

Ebay - but I'm not 100% sure of the design - I'm waiting to hear from the seller.

[mr.brown]

Day 34

Nuts! And bolts. And washers. I'm sure there's a reason why VW chose this set-up



but thanks to VW Heritage and VW - who seem to have a mutually exclusive supply of the necessary parts - I have managed to replicate it

[mr.brown]

Day 38

Nearly torched it yesterday as it refused to start - even with 10L of fresh VPower. Figured out the problem today and it fired up first time
Still a slight coolant weep but it's liveable with for now.

So, on to some actual work. I wasn't happy with the positioning of the IAT sensor



As previously documented, the ABF airbox is huge and isn't likely to fit without modifications to it and the inner wing. Besides which, Pete very kindly included an expensive BMC CDA intake kit - it would be a shame not to keep it.

Here is the location of the ABF IAT housing. As you can see it's part of the airbox



My idea involved using a 70mm MAF housing, found on many VAG and non-VAG cars. Here's one I bought earlier



I took a hacksaw to both pieces above and as luck would have it the IAT housing "tube" fits perfectly into the tube left when you cut the MAF sensor off. I hotglued anyway to be on the safe side.

Et voila!



Side view



In place

[mr.brown]

Day 38 pt2

Proof of Life

[Rusty dan]

Looking good Sean! Gonna be a fun track weapon!
How much will this differ to the old Throbbemobile in driveability?

[mr.brown]

Looking good Sean! Gonna be a fun track weapon!
How much will this differ to the old Throbbemobile in driveability?

Well, brakes are bigger and suspension will be better. Also, it should be a good deal lighter to start with. Might have some other "track oriented" goodies down the line too.

[mr.brown]

Day 40 (but it's still raining)

Quick, cheap weight loss programme - cheers Craig

[mr.brown]

Day 40 - something about 40 days and floods....

Always one step forward two steps back with this f*&!@ng car.

Finally got the Cobra seat to fit with the slider and give me some headroom. Not perfect but then its only a temporary solution. Also temporary is the cheap eBay steering wheel - required to determine whether flat or dished fits better.



and then noticed this



The upside is that I was thinking of ditching the heater matrix/fan for an altogether different reason and this has made my mind up.

[mr.brown]

Day 42

So, the accelerator cable fitting wasn't particularly secure (and also there was no pedal bush)



Thanks again to ClubGTI forum, it turns out that a mk2 Golf 1.3 cable has the correct ends and sufficient length for an A1 conversion. £17 for the cable and bush from GSF. Took about a minute to fit -



I also tackled the heater matrix "bypass" pipework. Fortunately, the car came with plenty of suitable hoses and connectors. Didn't take long to concoct this



The infamous metal pipe connector was removed - none too soon judging by the amount of crap within



Good news is that it starts on the button, doesn't appear to leak, gauges seem to work and the rad fan kicks in when hot

[mr.brown]

So, it's starting to look more like a car now. The lights are all in and operational, I even cleaned some of the moss off the windows and scraped the fence paint splashes off the glass. As well as all new bulbs I splashed out on new wipers and a new washer bottle - this is about half the size of the original so can be tucked out of the way,

Many jobs still to do before I can even consider taking it for an MOT. The main problem is that the wheels are seriously toed-in at the moment. The track rod ends are screwed in all the way so the problem must be with the track rods themselves. I have new complete arms but it's going to be a pain to fit.

Other jobs in no particular order:

• Remove heater matrix/blower unit and blank off the hole.
  
  Remove interior soundproofing from driver's side then tidy up both sides of the floor pan.
  
  Fit passenger seat
  
  Re-do Lambda sensor wiring
  
  Plug car into VCDS and check for fault codes
  
  Swap throttle body from Ibiza
  
  Swap alternator from Ibiza
  
  Swap breather hoses from Ibiza

[Tim_R]

I envy your motivation and progress!

Before you go too far down the route of removing the heater I'd suggest thinking about how to demist the screen on wet track days (having done a couple of those, being able to see out helps a lot!) and also it's a useful secondary way of cooling the engine in an emergency (my rad fan had packed up it turned out).

[mark1gls]

Track rod problem----- There is some movement/adjustment the steering rack end it's just getting a spanner thin enough to hold/undo the locking nut which is the problem, I then used some water pump pliers to grip/undo the track rod, guess you can move the locking nut up the rack and screw the track rods further in put they will only go so far.

Is your speedo still working or have you stopped at 999.9 on the mileage trip and why is the alternator light on?

[mr.brown]

....how to demist the screen on wet track days

I have an idea for that

But I'll be keeping the original parts just in case.

.....guess you can move the locking nut up the rack and screw the track rods further in put they will only go so far.

Is your speedo still working or have you stopped at 999.9 on the mileage trip and why is the alternator light on?

I might have to try that with the track rods as a temporary fix. Not sure about the speedo - no MOT or tax so haven't actually driven the car yet. No idea about the alternator light - I suspect faulty wiring but as my spares car has a brand new alternator I may as well fit that anyway.

[mark1gls]

Check the regulator on the alternator, remove the 2 screws and take the regulator off, check there is some bushes left and clean the connections to the regulator, you will see them in the alternator and on the regulator when you remove it.

My old and new regulator

[treefingers]

how low are you going to run this? are you going to do any bump steer/roll centre correction?