I decided I'm just going to make new door cards. The fabric is falling off the rear ones and the fronts have that plus the old speaker holes.

Wandered around the fabric store for awhile before I finally settled on what to cover them with:

Attachment 102221

-Rog

^ That was a kidding, by the way. Just trying to root out any purists that might be lurking.

I have been working on this off and on. At the moment I'm finishing up the battery relocation. At the very least you would do well to swap out the wimpy grounding cable for a hefty one:


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...4db9da5921.jpg

I did one of those from the battery to the body (in the trunk) and one from the engine to the body. I can tell you that the starter really spins now and the headlights are much brighter. I'll definitely be looking at all the grounds and seeing what I can improve.

And in the "one thing leads to another" nature of these cars, I noticed that this wire was in bad shape:


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...1292a7a617.jpg

It's the one that goes from the fusebox to the starter.

Traced it all the way back to the fusebox, in fact, and it was bad the whole way, so I replaced it completely.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...6bd5ea2752.jpg

I had the same problem on my B1 so I'm curious if that wire is bad on anyone else's car.

-Rog

Rog,
I've been thinking about swapping out the grounds on mine too. I've got the transmission out atm working on third gear, so now would be a good time to fix any wiring while alot of the junk is out of the way. How the running going?

A little bit of an update . . .

I replaced the two temp sensors, the one on the back of the head and the one by the thermostat. Didn't really seem to change anything. But now that it's cold I'm able to drive it all the way to work before it starts to misbehave. Any farther and it starts to act like it's misfiring just as you roll the throttle off idle. Once it gets past that it runs and accelerates just fine.

One thing I observed is that the connector on the side of the distributor is broken so I have it ziptied to the distributor and the other day I jiggled that and the engine died. That explained something that was happening while driving where it would die for a second or two and then get going again. I secured it better and haven't been able to jiggle it enough to repeat that. But while working in the area I was thinking that maybe the distributor is wonky and isn't advancing correctly or something. The original started misbehaving and causing a random fuel pump cutoff that would last for a second or two or sometimes it would leave me stranded for awhile. Finally figured out the problem (hall sensor) and replaced it with the one from my parts engine, which wasn't exactly mint either. So I'm going to see if I can find another one to try.

I was also thinking about the O2 sensor, since it seems to be temperature related. Once it starts to warm up, perhaps it's not handing off correctly between idle and throttle engagement.

Just some things to think about. For now I'll be driving it until I figure it out or the weather gets too warm.

-Rog

Oh, and I don't think I've mentioned this before, but the turn signal flashes faster the colder it is outside. When it was down around 10F awhile back it sounded like a playing card in bicycle spokes. :eek:

I pulled the flasher out and there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. I know that the reason turn signals flash faster when a bulb is out is because of a change in current, so I'm sure it's related to a difference in current, but the cause is a mystery. It never did this before it was parked, so the only thing I can think of is corrosion of some kind. I plan on checking out all the wiring, but if anyone has had this problem I'd be interested in hearing your experience.

-Rog

Been doing a few little things...

Flushing the cooling system (this is about the sixth change with either just water or water and radiator flush, both of which are clear):

Attachment 101645

Changed the oil and I'm trying out the 1.8t oil filter which is HUGE:

Attachment 101646

I don't know of any particular benefit, but a little more oil capacity and they're easier to find it seems like. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that yes I don't have any AC stuff, but I did still have the bracket and it looks like the larger filter will fit just fine if your car has AC. Now, if you have a 10vt engine there's a little nub on the block that you have to grind down a bit but it's very, very minor.

Finding and fixing vacuum leaks, like a small crack on the bottom of the Stupid Hose™, which I gobbed up with Permatex Black, which works great on these:

Attachment 101647

And the hose on the crankcase vent tube, which was a very significant leak:

Attachment 101648

Still not quite running perfectly, but I think fixing those last two helped some. The most annoying part about these cars is how you find some catastrophic issue and think, "Wow, this was definitely the source of it not running correctly!" and then you fix it and...no change.

-Rog

I'd make sure your afm in the fuel distributor is moving freely

Another year goes by... Having run out of cheap stuff to replace, I figured I would snap up some new injectors while they're still available and what do you know...


Runs like new. I wish I'd known, although I wasn't really in a position to spend that kind of money back then. I'm guessing the old ones weren't opening properly at low RPM but the extra pressure above 3000 allowed them to open fully and then it would run great.

My last reservation about this car is the windshield. Have searched far and wide with no luck. Should have gotten one a few years ago when Safelite was still making them. :(