[Vwdiesel] Well, I cheated a bit today...

[Bryant Baecht]

Hi all,
     OK, getting under time constraints, I called my local VW guy and asked
if he was busy today.  Since we just had the snow storm the answer was no,
so I towed my diesel rabbit in for the inspection to get tags, and then over
to his shop.  Since I'm REALLY slow doing something the first time, I had
him do the timing belt and check the valves since the valve cover was off.
He called me at 5:45 tonight to let me know it was ready and running good.
>From where I left off, the poor thing was running, but not idling very well.
Got down there and we fired it up.  Smooth as silk!  WOOHOO!!!  He also did
some digging and had the fast GP relay, so we put that in in about 5 minutes
and hooked up the bus.  Fired up the GP's and my led was working now too!
It went out and it fired on less than a turn over.  SWEET!!!  He showed me
the old belt and it was worn pretty darn bad.  Plus the IP gear had jumped a
couple teeth.  YIKES!  Hence the bad idling.  We put my tag on with a Das
Autohaus tag frame and I hooked it up to tow it home.
     Got it home and drove it a around a bit.  I also stopped by the FLAPS
and got some bulbs ( my blinkers aren't working, but have a bulb out.  Also,
one of the reverse lights is out.  Also picked up a gallon of phosphate free
antifreeze for flushing soon, and the bottom hose that was cut for a warmer.
The hose on it seemed bigger and it looks like that's where the leaking is
coming from.  Found out I need to replace a CV boot ( I'll probably just do
the whole axles/CV's as I have a front clip that I can pull them from ),
springs in the rear are pretty bad, lower ball joint needs work as well.
So, got a list of things to work on!  But I'm so stoked it was running so
nicely!  Anyway, just had to post.  Be doing some more mechanical things to
it as the weeks go by and I'll post what I wind up doing.  All in all,
having fun here in Kansas and loving my rabbit!

Bryant