Yeay for Progress!

The Cabby is alive and kicking. We were able to get out the bolt by using some drill bits and lots of PB blaster as lubricant. Replaced the bolt and used some JB Weld on the new bolt. It worked great! There is the minor (major) annoyance of the heat shield noise. The clips were rusted so all the heat sheild does is rattles every time I accellerate.

I know! I'll install the radio and drown out the sound! Not so fast... the radio is another issue. Because what is an old VW without issues?  When hooking up the radio it would give power to the head unit at all times. That means draining my battery which is no bueno. The previous owner appeared to have another wire ran and we tried that. It does turn on when you start the car now and turn off accordingly, but my radio doesn't remember the presets and goes into demo mode everytime I start the car. There must be some way to keep a little power running to it for memory purposes without sending it into reset mode everytime the car is off. I should note that the radio is an ooolllld Pioneer head unit back from my days as a Car Audio supervisor at Best Buy. So, circa 1999. Heh, that's a bit old, but top of the line in its day! I has a cool animation of the twin towers on it and some other nifty charachteristics so I would like to keep it if possible. Might have to go back to the installers and get some pointers as I didn't do that stuff myself. I can handle speakers and easy stuff, but the wiring is a bit mystifying.

Other issues remain: The parking brake. It has the cables ran but the lever is all disassembled and probably missing some bolts. I may try to buy a replacement kit or go to the junk yard and try my luck there.

Holding pattern

Stuck right now in the Cabby progress. Its obvious we are missing parts for the parking break and still have a sheared bolt to contend with that we cannot tackle on our own. It is drivable and I registered it yesterday finally. But would like it to be completely sound before I make a work commute. I have no idea what its going to cost to repair the sheared axel bolt. Will have to do some checking around.

NEW BRAKES!

Hooray, they are here and nice and shiny.

I let Jeremy tackle this project because with all the cussing he was doing there was no way I was going to go near those things. The old drums were pretty rusted along with the emergency brake cable. I think what happened was the gas from the old tank was rusted and dripping onto the cables and causing them to rust out. I could break the cable right in two, snapping it like a piece of carrot. Here's a few more shots of what we were dealing with.

How to dismantle an atomic bomb

Or just my radio. The previous owner had some interesting wiring going on in here and so far when you hook up the wiring harnes the radio comes on. Which is all fine and dandy when the key is actually in the ignition. However, this happens with no key. Still working on this little mystery.

Edit: Mystery solved. Apparently most older German cars have this similar "feature." It will require a seperate wire going to the ignition. More fun with electricity!

Yes, I spilled it.

Oil went all over the engine and it smells wonderful.

Look close

That's acutal dirt on my arm.

This is a pirate flag

Because that's how I roll.

Life saver

Jerk

I see you oil filter... bastard.

As easy as it looks. This was not. First of all, its torqued on there pretty hard. Easy enough... I'll just get my oil filter wrench that doesn't work on this vehicle because there is no clearance to move it. Back to O'Reilly's where I'm sure I'm know as the girl that doesn't know what the hell she's talking about. Got a proper filter cup do-dad that fits on a socket wrench and all was well.

Changing the oil

My first time changing the oil. Not too bad. It would help if my pipes were a little stronger so I wouldn't need Jeremy to losen everything for me after I pop a vein in my head trying to get off a bolt.