What Broke Today?

[ruwaldo]

With all the little, and not so little, break downs we experience on our cars I thought this could be a cool thread.

Here is my first submission.

Went to the grocery store. When I came out to get into my car I pulled the handle and this came off in my hand.


Untitled by Russ Waldron, on Flickr

Have a set of new handles waiting for me to pick them up in the morning at DIP.... I'm sure this will not be the last time I post on this thread.   

[j.reyven]

You just don't know your own strength!

see, Russ as a small child.

[BuginU2]

Managed to destroy another EMPI fuel pump - not shocked, but I sure would have liked it to last at least a year.

[jbjetta]

It doesn't look like swiss cheese with holes in it does it? 

[Thanney]

What broke two Saturdays ago (forgot to post) was the piston seal for the brake caliper.  I keep meaning to take a pic of it to post on the thread but I keep getting distracted.  Went to DIP last Friday to pick some up, but they do not carry the rebuild kit in stock.  So they should have them in for me this Wednesday.

[j.reyven]

Last evening I mentioned my rear axle was making noise... definite rattle all the way there, and all the way home..

so today popped the hubcap off, checked the axle nut, .. shook the the wheel, hmm, no noise.... no clunking...
so I drove it around the block ... hmm, the rattle noise is gone....  but all I did was take off .. the .... hubcap...

doh! ... the little medallion on those cheap hubcaps was loose!

I can fix that! JB WELD!




so lets take a look at that exhaust ...

umm... yeah, it broke ...



pulled it off to weld back up (for now) ... but in the meantime..



Stinger! .. yeah, I know it not really a "muffler" but it can pretend. :)


UPDATE: no wonder the exhaust broke! cheap thin steel... 
I even blow a hole in the pipe with my little Harbor Fright Mig welder.

got 'er patched up though.. should be good for a few more months :)

[RogueVW]

COOL! I knew it would look awesome with that stinger! I'd leave it like that...I wanna see it running at night! FIREBALL!
hehe

[j.reyven]

it sounds kinda' cool now with an un-baffled stinger.

Say an early 'dub on my way out last night.... didn't need to honk, I just revved it a couple times 


I'll have to try going for a fireball some night.

[RotorMan]

COOL! I knew it would look awesome with that stinger! I'd leave it like that...I wanna see it running at night! FIREBALL!
hehe

My squareback use to shoot fireballs when I had a stinger on it..it was awesome!!

[j.reyven]

Coming back from the car show in Milwaukie, .. just out of Woodstock, I was waiting at a stoplight... green, ... and go! ...

thunk... foot went right to the floor. .... umm... my accelerator cable just broke.. :(

The car was still running, so to get out of the road, I idled over to a side street.
- Went back and popped the lid ...
- the cable was still connected at the linkage... damn...  line broke somewhere else farther up ...

I was only about a mile or so from the house, and in the middle of SE residential, so I figured I could just idle my way back.....  lol ... lot's of fun!

I cruised the 15-20 blocks back to my house never getting above 3 mph! .. little kids on bikes where even passing me!
 - a couple times I stopped to try and bump the idle up a little, ... but with jamming a screwdriver in there, I never got above 1000 rpm.

I did make it home, probably 15-20 minutes later, and took a look .. 
- yup.. it broke off at the gas pedal, luckily the cable end is still hanging out of the tube line, so I can still pull a new one through ..

lol, at least there was little traffic, ... and I did get pics from the show.

woo hoo.. DIP on Monday ...

[Kev]

Yes, been there had that break. Make sure you get the heavy duty bolt on style the other ones suck.

[CatBox]

I have gotten to enjoy both the clutch and the gas pedal breaking.

I gotta say its not really all that cool.

[BuginU2]

I've been chasing an issue with my ignition system for about a week now... It appears that getting an actual spark to the plugs has turned into an optional task for the coil pack and wires.  I may have provoked the failure when I decided to move the coil pack out from underneath the package tray (wedged between the top of the transmission and the package tray) to the package tray (within the car).  I had drilled out access holes for the wires to go through (along with rubber grommets) and routed them from the coil pack to the plugs.  Once I got the firing order correct - it still seemed like it was running on three cylinders - and a quick drive around the block confirmed that it didn't have the acceleration it used to have (along with popping sounds from the exhaust).

The wires I've been using are getting pretty ratty and the coil pack has a chip in one of the insulators that the plug wires connect into - so I decided to replace both.  I'm going to use a MSD coil pack and the plug wires from a 94 Crown Vic.  Why the Crown Vic?  The length of the shortest wires in the Crown Vic are longer than the stock VW ones I was using before.   They will arrive in a couple days - we will see if that resolves the issue.

While I was crawling around under the car - I decided to use some 3/8 inch tubing to create a conduit for each plug wire from the interior through the package tray and firewall and into the engine compartment.  I am hoping that will provide additional insulation between the wires and the body.

[BuginU2]

I believe I am in the process of breaking my clutch cable.

Last night on my way to the officer's meeting the clutch stopped disengaging fully.  When I left - it barely went into gear.  Managed to get it home... used the clutch a few times - each time is was progressively worse.

Put it up on the jack stands - and it appears the cable was rubbing against the end of the bowden tube.  Not exactly sure how that happens, but it was.  Fortunately - I have an extra tube and cable - will put it in tonight once it cools down a bit (the weather - not the car).

[Kev]

Bummer dude! Wonder if that was why I had a hard time shifting it into 2nd when I drove it to PIR?  Or was it the bus?