The Bandit

[Mr Funk]

I take it you decided against running hte wiring through one of the wings? (Spanner -> works -> chuck)

it was bloddy cold this morning lying on my back while you were pumping my pedal

That's just so wrong on so many levels

Well now....

That's still the plan eventually. The problem arose with the screwed head episode. Originally the plan was to get the head off, work it then get it back on with a cleaned up engine but the crack scuppered all that. Long and short of it is that I'm way behind where I hoped to be. It's bloody hard to lay all the cabling (pffft) without an engine there to work off as you really need to see where it's going so at the moment I'm just going to get the spare in and get the bastard thing running, get the MOT and generally enjoy it for a bit.
While all this is going on the new, shiny engine will be getting built up in my garage along with a second, pre-extended loom. When everything is ready I'll swap engines, put in the new, hidden cabling, solder whatever needs doing and Robert is your proverbial father's brother.
At least, that's the plan.

Mac:
The info is thus -
*The strut brace was a dog-dick red OMP jobbie picked up for peanuts from either Demon tweeks or BBt for about £30. I cannot tell how much it effects the handling, it really is superb. It's been painted but shortly gets sent off for powder coating.
*The wishbones are brand new kit with new ball joints. I got them from a guy on here but they can be purchased, ready powder coated and with ball joints and poly bushes here:http://www.golfmk1.co.uk/Items.php?cat= ... =FRONTAXLE. Expensive but well worth the effort if you're going down that route. You could also go here: http://www.vwspares.co.uk/scirocco_suspension.php . Get them, whack on the ball joints and the poly bushes yourself, much cheaper.
*The ARB is another Crazy Quiff job. Full kit comes in at just under a ton and that includes bushes.

I was exceptionally lucky and just got hold of everything much cheaper as it came up as brand new-second hand. I've done everything on a rather modest budget and just grabbed stuff knowing I'll use it later on. I've managed to pretty much rebuild everything I think.

[Old Mac Rocco]

Dear Mr Funk,
Memory back to normal.
Thanks for all the info , very much appreciated, just got to start collecting all the bits now.
THanks again.

[Mr Funk]

Okay so while the thread has been quiet I certainly haven't been.

The wiring got to me as I made the mistake of thinking I could beat it. There, I said it.
In my eagerness I hadn't planned for every eventuality, something I'd normally do, and i got complacent. I should have sorted the cabling with the engine in situ and worked backwards but I didn't leading to the problem I have now. Ben and I are 99% sure that everything is sorted but the soldering alone is going to be a full on afternoon and only then can we switch the bastard thing on. Once that's done the rest o ffairly simple. There's a second engine loom on it's way more for my peace of mind than anything else. I'll be able to lay it out in the yard, untangle everything and insert the extensions using the old loom as a guide.
The plan is that within a week it'll be off to the MOT centre. It won't be running a dash as it's pointless at this moment in time but that really is a minor issue.
Luckily I/m off for a few days and have made a bit of headway, pics'll follow but despite being a bit of a cynic I'm betting on it running before Sunday

[Mr Funk]

That's it, I'm done.
Well for the time being at least. The bastard thing has finally beaten me and I'm going to step back a bit for the time being.
To be honest it's only relatively small stuff but it's added up and I'd like to stop thinking about for a while and concentrate on other things. But those two minor things happen the electrics and the engine.

There still seems to be no sign of the other engine. It was originally destined to be with me end of December but it's still apparently in the donor car. Concerned aboutthe delay I managed to source a spare engine which has gone in but its an unknown quantity.
But the major concern is the wiring. After after a few "modifications" I was pretty much forced to get a spare engine bay loom, all well and good but it seems to be slightly different to mine leading to the engine constantly firing on ignition.
So now it's time to stand back and review all the options. Despite the swearing I'm still committed but I need to distance myself a bit before it goes a bit "caddy".
Half of my problem has been Ultimate Dubs. I'm thrilled about bein asked and if there was any way of doing it I would but these latest problems are just conspiring against me. Even if I could gt everything running I wouldn't be happy with driving it partially built.
So at the moment there's a couple of ideas but I'm going to think over them and discuss them with ben, the guy with the patience of a saint that's been helping me.
Right, time for a beer.

[andyneedham2]

This is not good news Funk. Have you thought about mega jolt / squirt for the ignition and getting the engine running sweetly? I know its costly, but it gives you a mappable ignition which usually gets you a couple of extra bhp. Just a thought.

[Mr Funk]

Without sounding melodramatic the phrase about it always being darkest just before the light kinda sums up this weekend.
Ben and I left the car yesterday on a bit of a sour note. We'd done as much as we could but it was trousers cold and I'd come to the end of my tether. We knew we were close but constantly going over the same things wasn't helping and we made the choice to go away and come back with a fresh view.
As it turned out it worked. Ben was convinced the problem had to be as simple as a wire in the wrong place or a missing connector as the engine was turning but not catching. I'd originally had my money on a missing wire in the alarm loom but couldn't be sure.
Anyway, we fast forward a couple if odd phones calls last night while I was out for dinnerlast night and end up at this morning. We're both a bit more ready and primed and ben reckons he's narrowed down the problem.
There follows an hour of vague frustration, the engine is firing but there's not enough "oomph" so there's another call to welsh Jamie. He confirmed that one of the connectors needed to be wired in (a by product of my labelling system).
Two minutes and some wiring later and the trousers is running!
Now I'm always amazed at the resilience of bits and pieces. The engine we've dumped it hasn't run in at least a couple of years and must have been through a couple of people before getting to me and yet we just filled it with oil and it turned over on the button every time!
Honestly.
As soon as we'd required something or other it pretty much started on the first turn of the key.

But we're still miles away.
At the moment it sounds like farm machinery but that's to be expected. It needs running in and checking and there's a few bits missing. I'm far away from where I was yesterday but I realise how far it's sill got to go. The electrics are still all over the place but despite causing hf the problems I can still tackle that I reckon. There's still no driver shafts, the ends need changing, there's a ton of powder coating, all the wiring needs soldering and testing and god only knows what else.

But it's a start

[Funky Diver]

s matey... now we need the videos and phot's to compare the now and "then" when it's done :D

[Mr Funk]

Things I have learnt this afternoon. If you intend to run the car for any period of time probably best you make sure that ALL the rad hoses are secure

[Mr Funk]

So yesterday was a bit of an oddun but there was definite progress.

As you may have gathered the past few weeks have been a real painful slog as I've been doing the wiring. The loom I got for the engine bay came from an old storm and while it was essentially the same there were different connectors which made things bloody confusing for a bellend like me but the engine ran and that was a start.
It all came down to one or two bits and pieces namely the water temp, the oil temp and the WUR. The wiring in the cabin is pretty much sorted and just needs parts soldering, the alarm has been remounted and properly hidden, not just thrown in with cacky plastic tape.

Oddly one day it just started. Bit of a git to get started but five minutes tightening the air ducts and replacing the brass washer on the metering head and the filthly old bastard chugged into life and kept running, a proper surprise as it hasn't been tuned and it's all just been thrown together. Obviously this now meant that oil temps and water temps were kinda important so like the pro I am i just connected stuff and waited to see what happened.
What happened was that I got the oil temp (actually found out which wire it was by reading up on how to connect Audi gauges and working backwards), quickly followed by the water temp merely because it was the only one that fitted. This was all lovely and I decided to let it run to see if there were any problems and wait for the fan to kick in which is the only thing left that I hadn't checked.
Then the front of the car exploded in a burst of boiling water, turns out those clips really need to be tight.

Trousers changed, engine left to cool and everything refilled with water and I tried it again. Still no fan kicking in but that's only because it was properly dark and I needed food and the fan belt needs tightening and sorting as it's badly rubbing on the side of the engine. Oh, and there's a killer oil leak from somewhere but the good money is on that being the oil filter needing tightening but it's all fairly minor stuff now.

Still Bandit related comes the conversations I had on friday night in Londinium, a great, if very boozy evening with some like minded pie munchers. More than once I was asked why I've done what I've done. Why rip apart a perfectly good car and spend the next six months crying like a child when it all goes tits up?
In all honesty I can see the point. The car ran like a dream and looked the bollocks but in the back of my mind I knew it wouldn't last forever and sooner or later thigs were going to need doing so I may as well just attack everything all at once rather than keep pissing about.
Two cases in point: The engine and the doors.
The engine, while absolutely fine, was clearly on the verge of throwing a proper fit. Chances are the crack on the cam mounting would have gone sooner rather than later which could have led to being stuck at the side of the motorway with the cam having gone through the bonnet. That would have been a proper killer and I'd rather sit out a show or two knowing it's sorted than get all excited only to have to pull out as the engine has exploded on the way.
The doors are the same. The piss poor central locking was just never up to the job and was becoming a grade A pain in the arse having to remove the door cards every time it threw a bolt so while they were off I could sort the original problem AND sorted the components properly, not just hold them on with gaffer tape.
The end result will be a car I'm properly proud of not just a normal car with some useless shiny bits stuck on. As the saying goes: You can polish a turd....

[Mr Funk]

A very quick update as I'm posting from the iPhone.
Had last week off and got a shed load done, would have got the wiring sorted but ran out of loom tape. Dash is in and I reckon there's a few hours worth of work on the detouring of wiring.
Picked up this lot today:


Done a true gent and at a bargain price. Good times

[Mr Funk]

So the weekend (and definitely NOT Friday afternoon) provided an excellent chance to start putting things back on where they should go.
A pm conversation Friday afternoon has once again confirmed the arrival of the new engine. The problem behind it is that the car it's coming from it itself having a conversion to G60 and the garage doing it is fitting it in around other jobs and is doing the owner a massive favour. But that's cool as now I'm fully aware and Ben and I are primed with the shiny blue engine hoist of justice, it's a double win as we can grab the engine directly and the donor car can go to the garage prepped and ready for the new engine to go it. Everybody's happy.

So with that in mind I'm much more comfortable with the spare engine. Actually comfortable wouldn't be the best word to describe it. More like impressed as it turns over on the button everytime (assuming I've remembered to connect all the wires) and is pretty quiet.

The powder coating continues unabated with more stuff going off to Paintwise in margate for a good coating of matt black. It's all good but some bits, such as the alternator, need a going over with a stanley knife.
All the samco kit is fully installed except that odd little three way tube. The original is proving to be an utter bastard to remove and I could just save myself the hassle and install it directly onto the new engine when it arrives.
The dash is in but I've left the glove box, centre console and dials out in case I need to get to anything. Putting it all back together is a five minute job. Oh yeah, and I broke the clip that shuts off the massive furnace in the centre of the dash. Good times.
And the wiring is very close to being finished. The problem had been supply of loom tape as I was using a nice fabric stuff but switched this weekend to a water proof self amalgamating substitute. This meant cutting everything back, laying it, testing everything works, wrapping and laying another small piece and testing again. Painstaking but much better than laying it all and getting a problem.

And so with the evenings getting brighter I'm hoping to remove the hubs today and get them to D and D autos (who also have a red GT2 in their yard they're trying to shift) so the new bearings can be fitted to the shiny new kit. Also reckoning on the wiring being done and end up with a potentially road legal car.

[PeteGLi]

......All the samco kit is fully installed except that odd little three way tube. The original is proving to be an utter bastard to remove ..........

Try unbolting the metal water pipe from the bottom of the block and the side of the cylinder head. That way you have some play and will be able to pull the pipe off the water pump, then off the metal pipe. When it is off, you will be able to see that the hose fits snug up against the lug with the bolt hole on the metal pipe and that is why it is difficult to shift.

[Mr Funk]

That's pretty much the way I was looking at going as I'm going to be removing all that stuff as I've had to order the wiggly tube from the oil cooler through another firm as Samco won't sell direct. Will probably just wait until the new engine is here and d it that way though

[Mr Funk]

Quick update and everything is looking really good. Everything is back in although there was a slight problem with oil pissing everywhere which turned out to be a screwed oil cooler rubber then me putting the unit back on upside down. With that done and tested the rest of the engine went back together and I ran it for a bit to make sure everything works which it does although it was hard to tell as I currently have no MFA unit as the old one was knackered and stopped working.

And then I actually drove it! Okay so it was only about 6ft in reverse but it's a start!
Pick up the rest of the powder coating today hopefully which is the little but important things like rad hangers, battery clamp and rocker cover bits. Once they're on and the MFA arrives it's off to the MOT

[Mr Funk]

Engine running fine, fan and everything cutting in and fuses no longer popping. Slight oddness with the windscreen washer but swapped the wires so it now pumps when you push it rather than pull it but as I don't have a rear wiper it's no big deal. Interior back in with some ideas mapped out and it's now sitting waiting for the lowloader.
Even drove it 8ft which is the furthest it's gone since Action.