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It's back in. Made myself a hoist out of pulleys, worked pretty well. Combination of trolley jack in the right spot and the hoist and some faff got it in the right spot. I mangled up the intermediate plate even more, hope it's ok.
I have now worked out how to get it in and out easily. It needs to come right to the front of the engine bay, then up to the right height, rearwards, then left. I think this is why Haynes tell you to remove the radiator fan - although they don't tell you why, and they don't tell you to use the scissor jack to pull the engine way forward.
Haynes tell you to remove the radiator fan – although they don’t tell you why, and they don’t tell you to use the scissor jack to pull the engine way forward
Sad to say, Haynes aren't what they used to be. "Use a suitable size Allen key..." first, a waste of space, because they wouldn't tell use to use an unsuitable size, second, they've done the job, why can't they just tell you what size it needs!
Agree with that! The old Haynes manuals I have for my old cars (Mini, Nova, AX, Volvo 240) tells you what size pretty much every tool needs to be, it even shows how to make some of the tools! The one for my Fabia on the other hand is so generic in the descriptions it could be for any car and still apply. The older ones also go into detail on how to rebuild a gearbox where as the modern ones just say 'It's too complicated, take it to a specialist'.
It probably is!
There's plenty of stuff that is easy if you have a VCDS diagnostic tool, but they take the position than noone has one. Having said that, Ross-Tech are quite good with telling you how to do stuff with VCDS and I guess Haynes can't be seen to be endorsing Ross Tech.
I need to get it back on the road today and give it a good test drive as we need to go to my parents tomorrow. I want to cycle over, and I need to be confident the car's not going to crap out on my wife.
Bottom balljoint yesterday. Funny how it never goes as expected...
Removing the problem rivet heads - no problem at all. Getting the rivets out - absolute pig. Getting the ball joint stub out - stuck pig. Then pulling the driveshaft just that fraction too far dumping the gearbox oil on my shoulder on its way to the pit floor - delightful.
So Picasso was also treated to a gearbox oil change - oil cost more than the balljoint.
Bottom balljoint was stuck as an absolute bastard when I had to change it several years ago. Impossible to remove - I had to buy an angle grinder and cut it into pieces. It was just corroded in, cos the lower wishbones are alu.
Dumping gearbox oil is bad - I'm very thankful that my gearbox is sealed and the driveshafts bolt to an external flange.
It's done.
It’s done.
And.........
Seems ok. Not a huge difference in the driving, but I just reset the clutch adaptation in the gearbox so it'll take some time to re-adapt. There's less jerking from 1st to 2nd when in manual mode, which was always noticeable and it's a bit tighter generally. Old flywheel was very clearly buggered though as the float was way out of spec. The rattle on cold idle has disappeared though.
Good work Mol.
Balljoint did shift after some good whackage. And yes the flange driveshaft with stardrive bolts are one thing I like about VW group cars.
Ross tec is brilliant
Fair play mate. I'm in the cba camp of doing stuff but now I've moved and have no tame garages I'm gonna be back on it......
Apparently they don't all have that design. I've done them so many times now I've figured out the routine - put the long one on first and put the wheel on that side and use a brick to counter-hold it. That way you can move the brick to do the bolts on the other side of the driveshaft easily. Then when you do the short side, because there's less room leave the wheel on the other side and you can lie sideways and position the brick to hold and release the wheel with your foot.
Ta Duncan. Hopefully another job I'll never have to do again. I can't wait to go all electric. No flywheels, no gearboxes, no injectors, turbos, EGRs, air filters, glow plugs etc etc.
I can’t wait to go all electric. No flywheels, no gearboxes, no injectors, turbos, EGRs, air filters, glow plugs etc etc.
+1
Did a long trip yesterday, and the flywheel seems to be bedding in as it's now noticeably lovely and smooth, gear shifts are getting better. Pretty happy with that.
Nice one, that's a good result in the end.
One of those jobs where you get half way and wish there was an undo button so you could go back and either leave it well alone or take it to the local garage and throw money at the problem.
That or report it as stolen and set fire to the bastard thing in a layby 😉
The idea has come up many times.
Next thing on the list is fixing the erratic heater output. It's an electronic or a sensor problem.