[Vwdiesel] stranded

[James Hansen]

Good stories everyone. Good idea for a thread.

It rained, so I get to come in from the field and read them :-)

I have two stranded stories, that required a tow, and a couple others or so.

97 Passat- the turbo oil supply line support clamp had rusted off, not that
I knew this mind you...  It's behind the intake manifold, and supports the
solid steel line running from oil filter housing to turbo from vibrating.
It's necessary because when it is unsupported, the line cracks off at the
turbo, and you pump oil out, rustproofing the car, and the highway.  On
review of the oil track, at highway speed when cracked, this gets you a
couple miles before the light comes on.  This happened an hour from home, I
had to be in Saskatoon that evening (2 more hours away), so waited the two
hours for the tow truck, got a tow back to home (he helped me to push it
into my shop) and I wound up having to machine a new ferule for the steel
line, because it's like nothing else, and special, reinstalled, and was in
Stoon that evening.

89 Jetta td, 580000 km.  Teeth strip off a one year old timing belt at the
crank sprocket just after starting at -40.  Car bucked and farted a bit
getting going at idle, and on one buck, thumped to a stop.  I figured that
was bad.  Tow home, swapped out the t belt with the old one that had come
off a year earlier, and it started and ran fine.  Dodged that bullet.

Wife's 82 gas jetta years ago had me fuddled for a bit.   It wouldn't start
in the parking lot by her office, so I head there with buddy that had
happened by, couldn't get it going.  Would fire ONCE when first turning the
key to start position, but no joy..  Next day, went back armed with an
arsenal of spare everything.  I was at the point of changing out the hall
effect in the distributor, when I had same buddy crank the car over.  NO
DISTRIBUTOR TURNAGE.  Crap.  I guess it backfired when it was shut down, and
munched the teeth off the t-belt on the crank sprocket.  Man I took razzing
from buddy over that one. One for old belt, two for not being very thorough
before going off on a tangent replacing parts like a newb. Stupid
non-interference engines....

First year of VW diesel ownership- had an 82 4 door NA, this was maybe
1988...  I was stranded at Big White for a while.  I wound up bump starting
it after cranking the battery down to nothing.  I washed it the day before
in Kelowna, and the dreaded relay flooding killed the glowplugs.  Not
knowing about the dash light being a guideline not a rule, I just didn't
know. Used a dab of ether to cold start from then on until I got home- kept
a rag wired to the intake snorkel, give the rag a shot, close hood, start
car. Got home, checked relays, figured it out, replaced the windshield
gasket, and made a dam of silicone up higher so the water can't run that
way.

-james