My name is Earl, and I have a Stainless Steel bolt fetish =)

[Earl]

lol

[Earl]

Started cleaning all of the dust out of the interior Friday

 

Got about 75% of it clean up but it was dark out by the time I finished up for the day. Need to do some touch up on the motor this week as well as anti-seizing all of the stainless hardware. 

 

 

I missed working on this but I really need to get my motivation boosted so that I stay at it

[REKIII]

Did you know that was a hatch back?

[Earl]

Of course=) 

[Earl]

Finished cleaning up the back half of the inside

 

 

needed the steering wheel off of the work bench so I threw it in=)

 

also needed the rear seats/cards out of my living room so that all went in too=) 

 

I really like the look of the rear head rests from the back. Also threw the MHW's on the other day as you can see. 

 

The passenger side seat/foot well area is pretty much cleaned up and about half of the drivers side is done. 

 

Should be doing the antiseize on the engine in the next few days and putzing around on miscellaneous other things. 

[patsbimmer1]

Those seats are spot on man!

[ClassE]

Every time I see that pattern material on seats - I immediately think "mk3" golf.

[Earl]

Sam seems to tell me that it is a bowling alley carpet or bus seats...

[patsbimmer1]

I think it looks like my childhood

 

[DrLeadFoot]

 

Just whack it!

[Earl]

That's as deep as mine goes but it isn't tight. It is really close to being interference fit but I can still pull it out with my finger=/

[DrLeadFoot]

How much did you freeze that thing?!? 

 

Did they make different sizes? 

 

I've read of people being able to lightly pull out pilot bearings on the removal side of the coin.  Maybe it's okay?

 

 

I have a lot of questions.

[Earl]

I actually let it warm up and it turns out I didn't have it froze long enough to shrink it. It is just undersized to begin with. The old bearing was 1.260 and the new one is 1.2595. That .0005 is why it won't fit snug. I found a few threads with people getting undersized bearings so I just need to get a different one. 

[Earl]

Finally an update worth sharing.

 

Two weekends ago I pulled the motor from the stand and set it up on the floor to do the rear main seal and mate the trans. 

 

Started by doing the rear main seal

 

 

I then went to install the pilot bearing but had an issue. I had not thought to check if the  pilot bearing was different for a g250 and g260. Obviously it was. I then went through two different non-OEM pilot bearings and they were undersized and would not interference fit into the bore of the crank. I was trying to get the trans on quick so I didn't want to wait for an OEM one to arrive at the dealer. I ended up taking that route and the bearing fit perfect. I'm not sure what it is but aftermarket pilot bearings are not as thick as OEM and they are undersized, making them useless haha 

 

Here is the original one vs the g260 one and one of the undersized ones

 

While I was was waiting for the OEM pilot bearing to show up, I tried to install the flywheel. I ran into another issue here. Some how I ended up with dual mass flywheel bolts instead of the shorter m20 flywheel bolts. I should have noticed this before installing them but hindsight is 20-20. 

 

I ordered the correct bolts and picked them up, as well as my OEM pilot bearing. I then was able to get things to go smoothly for once=) 

 

[Earl]

I then wiped down the friction surface of the flywheel (don't mind the two stains, happened when the flywheel was cleaned after being resurfaced) and installed the clutch

 

Put the clutch fork and throwout bearing in the trans

 

Laid out the new hardware

 

Then slide the trans on and bolted it down without any hiccups

 

Trying to plan out what to do next. I want to get my battery cable routed to the hatch and my pressure gauge lines ran so that I can throw the carpet back in the car. I also want to get all of the brakelines routed in the bay before the motor goes back in. I would also be doing the rest of the brake lines at this time. 

[tsweers89]

Wait wait wait. All this work and your still using the m42?? But why?....

[Earl]

I just don't mind the little guy=) I really like the fuel economy and I think if I put a bigger motor in, I would be more likely to drive the car hard and potentially ruin something 

[REKIII]

Looking good!  However, now whenever I see your car, I will only be able to see the stained flywheel.  

[Earl]

Darn=/ 

[Bassboy3313]

Looking great Earl!

[zojave]

[Earl]

I have been holding off on updating this so that I would have a good update but things are going slower than molasses haha

 

Let's start where I left off. The motor and trans got mated and I started figuring out what I need to do before it goes back in. 

 

First I changed the rear carrier bushing for the shifter.

 

After that I ordered up an 11/16" Volkswagen Rabbit master cylinder for my booster delete. I need to fit it and start doing the brake lines for the front of the car. I also just ordered all OEM rear hard lines so that I can finish that up. 

 

Speaking of the rear end

 

I hated how one of the bushings wasn't seated right and I wanted to redo some of the paint. I also need to refresh the seals on the diff (sold the medium case 2.93) and install a stud kit from Thayer Motorsports. That will make swapping in a medium case much easier down the line. 

 

Here are some of the goodies that have arrived

 

I split the trailing arms from the subframe and removed the poly bushings but it got too dark to take pictures. I will be cleaning up the arms again, repainting them, and then installing the new bushings. I also stupidly drilled a hole in one of the bushing mounts last time to allow air to come out since one of the bushings did not want to install properly. I will be welding that up as well. 

 

I ordered a set of LED license plate lights and installed them too. I got a set off of ebay because every brand that I could find is still made in Taiwan (even the more costly options). I tested them with a power supply to check the light output and they are a very nice bright white without being blue at all. 

 

The only other news that I can think of is that I went to install my Motorsport handles but ran into an issue. It seems they have a different lock style than my handles, making  the cylinder swap not a plug and play affair. 

 

I could swap the wafers from my lock cylinder into the ones for the motorsport handles, but the face plates of those cylinders are all dented up. I have the handles sold and was going to pick up another set but I think I am going to keep it simple and run plain handles.

 

I should be working on the car tonight and am hoping to get a bit of work done on the trailing arms. 

[ClassE]

I can't wait to see this at Scooters...

[Earl]

Welded up the hole I idiotically drilled in the one mount

 

I then wire wheeled all of the paint on the arms that wasn't fairing well and threw a coat of primer on. Somehow my full can of primer ran out of aerosol after finishing one arm so I had to use a different can I had on the other. 

 

I will be picking up more primer today and then hopefully getting the paint on them. 

[Earl]

I was going to finish painting the arms the other day but ran out of paint and the paint I was using is now discontinued. I did spray them with self etching primer though to cover any spots I missed with the first coat of primer. 

 

 

Now I just need to get a nice day to prep and paint them, as well as the subframe. 

 

Yesterday I tackled the output shaft detent rings and seals on my diff. I will be redoing the paint on it as well as replacing the bolts for the sides and the dust caps on the flanges, don't worry=) 

 

 

Popped the flanges out to see what I was working with.

 

 

Next I pulled the sides and popped out the old seals and detent rings

 

 

Then in went the new seals

 

 

I popped the output flanges back in for now to keep any debris out of the diff. I will be coating it in KBS rustseal and just need to pick up that up as well as new hardware for the sides