[Vwdiesel] Merry Christmas

[travis gottschalk]

Well, I made it back to MN from WY before yet another big storm hit. Only had one patch of road bad and it was in WY. There was two different semi's in the ditch both facing the wrong dirrection for the side of the road they were on. One was a double trailer and it was still right side up.

I made it to MN in time to get my hopefully "last" recall done to my car. They did both the sunroof drain recall which I pretty much did the recall myself by cutting the ends of the drains off-but they had to "complete" it. And they did my glow plugs. They had to do a reflash, a glow plug controller and new 7 volt plugs which are the same plugs my brothers car with the exact same engine had in them all along. I started it for the first time today with it cold and it rumbled to life like it did with the first OEM set of plugs in it. FINALLY. So now that that was done I am getting the car retuned. It only consists of reading the new flash, emailing that off and then getting a tune back in the email and loading on the car with a loader. Car sure is weak without the tune to it. No other issues with the trip this time. I did put the snow tires on the Golf now. They are mounted to jetta alloy rims and they actually make it easier to get the packed snow out of them. I was the only one in the family with both a lift and snow tires so I was having fun getting family members from my parents yard and brothers yard (about 1 mile apart) while they were fishing all over and almost getting stuck. I didn't even have to break out the spikes-spider snow chains yet. 

Some updates on the past posts for my input. I didn't catch which year you are without the plastic lower cover but if it is a tdi and you have a chance of snow and ice I would get a metal one on there. My father is always thanking me for installing his as he hears the ice always hitting his cover. I am a little more abusive living in WY and I have deep scars on mine. Brother didn't even question putting a metal one on. If it is the timing belt plastic cover I wouldn't run without that either as it is to close to the wheel and you get to much road debre in there. I had something punch a hole in my trucks timing belt and it was two teeth off when it punched the hole in it. 

Congrads Loren on your daughters Engineering test. Was it the Professional engineering test or which one was it. I know first hand the challenge of those tests. 

On glow plugs and starting I find it will start hard with 1 bad plug, REALLY hard with 2 and after that they almost won't start at all. If you have white smoke for a good long time I would guess it is a glow plug or two. I had the fusable link go out and it won't start at all then. It is possible to take all the plugs out with the Injection Pump in place and the injectors in place but you need to take the IP lines off and have really good hands. At that point it might be good for the future times to make your own harness with forked plug ends so you don't have to take the little nut totally off till it is out of the car as the nut is really hard to get back on in the car. That makes for easier testing as well in the future. 

The jump packs are basically a battery from what I know about them. They still need charging and all the other stuff on them is just simple things. I have one that has a light, a tester for how good it is and a air compressor along with the cables and a master on/off switch. I don't know if it will do a totally dead diesel. But it will help an almost dead diesel. It will only do about 2-3 starts as I found that out on my lift pump issue last month before it NEEDS to be charged. Since I can't find the charger for it I just hooked it on the trickle charger with the switch on.

Trickle chargers are GREAT. I have 3 of them. One on the idle rabbit for the month (switch the rabbits monthly and uninsure the idle one-renters insurance covers the idle). I have a battery in one of the bikes from July 1998 and it is still starting the bike just fine. 

One last thing on this long reply is if anyone is interested, my father just finished writing his second book. This one is about his 27 near death experiences everything from mobs in other countries to several motorcycle accidents to animals almost taking him out and how a divine power had to help him through them. It is a good read even if you aren't christian. http://gottschalkbooks.com/ and if anyone travels through MN he would be happy to show you our JD collection and sign the book. 
Merry Christmas
Travis Gottschalk