I haven't gotten around to updating my blog since Monday, but that doesn't mean that I have been neglecting Lily! Over the course of this week a lot of things have gotten done. The windshield wiper motor finally came out, with Jon's help. The radio, if anyone is interested, was held in place by two little washers that had to be turned very gently with a tiny screw driver. The washers were actually integrated into the stereo knobs, hence being virtually invisible. Once we got the washers out, the faceplate came off the radio. Then there were two rather inflexible metal strips in front of the radio. They were holding the radio back, preventing it from falling forwards. In other models, there are little hinged clips in the back so I had spent a while trying to bend these things. It was not going to happen! Once those were out of the way and all of the wiring for the radio had been disconnected, the radio was easily removed by pushing it towards the passenger compartment. If anyone wants to market a theft proof radio, I think I've found the perfect prototype. It took me at least an hour's work to get the thing out! I don't think your average car radio thief would have the patience for this thing. (Do people still actually steal car radios these days? My last car was so run down that the thieves would have felt sorry for me so I didn't have to worry about that!)
Once the radio came out, we were easily able to get the windshield wiper motor out and take it apart. Everything looks ok, but there's some pretty heavy rust build up. I have to figure out how to test the motor and I'm going to scrub all of that rust out of there before I put it back together. If the motor isn't faulty, then it must be a wiring problem. Still, I wanted to take things apart and look at them before putting them back together so I don't really mind that I may have taken the extremely long way around.
While Jon was humming and hawing in the front of the car (the so-called luggage compartment as my newly arrived Haynes manual calls it, thus avoiding the nomenclature issues that can arise when trying to describe the thing that is like the trunk in the front of the car), I went around to the back. I decided to wash out the oil sieve instead of buying a new one, but I'm still waiting for new gaskets before I put the oil in. Gaskets, as I learned this week, are called Dichtungen in German. My Dichtungen should be at the VW mechanic in the next town tomorrow. After that, I'll close things up and put in some fresh oil. All of the Germans seem to like 15W/40 and since it's a German car, I've decided to go native. Another word that I learned this week is Zundkerzen. They are not Zundsteckdosen, like you would say if you translated "spark plug" directly into German. Germans think of them as more like candles. I'm not sure why.
I'd been wanting to look at the spark plugs since I got the car because my dad always said that you could tell a lot about the state of a VW engine by looking at the spark plugs. Fortunately, they were not gunky at all. That indicates that there isn't oil leaking into places where it shouldn't be. Of course, it could be leaking into other places, but for now I'm feeling good about the state of things. The did have a bit of corrosion on them, but I think that's probably because the car was stationery for so long. Regardless of their pristine beauty, there's a strong chance that they're older than I am and the extra set that Kurt had left in the tool kit didn't look too much better, so I bought new ones. Those are going in tomorrow too.
I'm still not sure how to go forth with the project. On one hand, the engine runs and doesn't seem to leak oil anywhere. At all. Which is weird for a VW...good weird. Lily does not mark her spot at all. This makes me hesitant to start pulling things apart and replacing seals because I'm not sure I could come up with anything better than what is already there. Somehow I trust the mechanical skills of the VW factory workers who put the engine together more than I trust my own. On the other hand, the car is 40 years old and I'm pretty sure that no major work has been done. The hot and cool air ducts in the engine still had overspray on them and the car only had just over 40k km on it when I bought it so it seems unlikely that much has been done and it seems very possible that nothing major needs to be done. I don't want to do a half-assed job, but I don't want to dig myself into a pit and end up with a car that doesn't run as well as it should just because I'm eager to get my hands greasy. What should I do?
Well, for tomorrow at least, I'm going to put the oil gaskets and sieve back in place, fill her up with oil, put in some new spark plugs and drive her all the way across the road. This is to free up the garage for the crazy Bavarian things that my neighbors want to do to celebrate last weekend's engagement. Wish me luck! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment