it wont be at toys for tots.

I need seat brackets that I'll be getting that day..

 

When ever you are ready with info about pick up and payment...let me know

mold cleaned right off the door panels and steering wheel, used upholstry cleaner and vacuumed the seat, no more mold.

I mean, it doesnt smell anymore, at least.. I'll have to look a little deeper under the surface when I have the seat recovered to see if it was a worse infestation.. I think I'll take the carpet out to check under there.

I need to rig up some kind of dehumidifier in that place though, or get 123,342 little bags of silica gel.

well damn, i never knew that mold was that easy to get off of interior parts... now i know.  whats next on your list of things todo?

The slowest 11 second Scirocco ever.

I'm not convinced of the quality of the braille battery.. the max (on the $179 one) is 445 CCA, and thats over 100 under what my spanked optima was yesterday (and normal is 650). they are small, but the optima ones have always been good to me, arent terribly expensive and are leak-free.. they arent super cheap, but you can mount the thing upside down if you want- and it doesnt weigh 25lbs more than one of those little guys, either.

I've never had a problem with one before.. you apparently arent supposed to let them deplete and stay that way over a year- and it has a 72 month warranty, so I wont pay full price for the replacement, even though its my fault its fucked.. the braille batteries are 12 or 24 month warranties, and cost just as much as a red top.. not to mention that I cant just walk in somewhere and get a new one if it does go south.


well, its not "rally grade" which is evidently worth around $60..

usrt setup, $150:



missing linkz setup, $90:



I have the missing linkz kit in there, have had it for about 4 years now.. its amazing- I dont know what the difference between that and the usrt one is, but it seems to be a sticker and slightly different hardware.. I doubt either one costs more than $25 in materials to produce.

I'm not swapping the cable shift components in because I like the feel of the shifter- in fact, I dont like it as much.. I need a stronger transmission, and I'm sick of fucking with 020s.. the 02A is more durable (I hope) and I can use gears out of cars up to 1998, which had far less transmission problems than the earlier cars, while still pushing more horsepower.. I'll need that durability once the screwcharger gets installed.

as far as the usrt "motorsport shifter" goes, I dont feel like $1000 is a worthy investment to replace factory parts that rarely break anyway, especially when upgraded with a B&M, which costs $200 if you get ripped off, and much less other places.



they're also overpriced on a lot of non-unique parts as well.. $825 for a peloquin for an 02A is a little excessive.

not to talk crap on them as a company, but I havent really seen a lot of "fast" cars with their gear in them, which leads me to believe that you dont need their stuff to have a fast or well built car.. if you like spending money for shiny shit with stickers, I'm sure they're the place to shop.

$345 for a 4 cylinder 19 row oil cooler setup? I got mine from BSI racing for under $200 a few years ago, and racer parts wholesale has all the shit even cheaper if you buy it piece by piece.

sorry for ranting about usrt, I just think they're peddling the "rally-grade" label to a bunch of unsuspecting kids.

yeah, it might just be a spanked battery.. I would suggest replacing the battery cables though, or making some of your own overkill versions- especially the ground side.. I've replaced the negative battery cable on every 16v I've owned, and its always improved starting, and sometimes corrected phantom running problems.. most of them are fuzzy and green inside (particularly behind that black covering where it goes past the frame) and dont have much continuity due to frayed or broken strands.

they get stretched when people remove the trans without disconnecting them (I've done this a few times, and I know where they mount), and sometimes get pinched in the bellhousing.. 8v CIS cars aren't as starved for ground as a 16v or a digifant car, but I would suggest replacing at least the ground side and adding a supplemental one from the negative battery post to the back of the intake manifold where the cluster of brown wires are connected.. it never hurts, and sometimes helps- at the very least, it'll fire up a lot faster when you crank it due to more power getting to the ecm and the ignition components than through the aged factory wiring.

your negative cable goes from the post, down to the frame under the battery, and over to the trans.. then the positive current comes in wherever the power wires are attached to the various accessories.. this means the current has to travel through the crappy old cable and trans case and engine block to get to the starter/alternator, as well as to complete the "spark plug circuit".. not exactly the most direct route.. on a 25 year old car, one or more of those battery cables are bound to be shitty.

a pep boys or autozone negative battery cable with a eye terminal at both ends (going from the - post to the VC bolt) will help reinforce these connections, but you should replace at least the ground side, since the factory cable is only like $15.. to reinforce charging, a second cable can go from the other side of the VC to the alternator case, but this isnt entirely necessary.

stealing an A2 stud top bellhousing bolt from a yard car is also a good plan, because it puts the connection at the bellhousing rather than the end cap of the trans where it can do the least good.. these are a 17mm bolt with an extra stud coming out of the head, with (if I remember correctly) a 13mm nut on the end to connect the negative cable end to.


start with the battery.. it could be low on CCA, and now that the weather is getting colder it just cant hack it.. if the problem persists, connect a meter set to measure amperage between the negative battery terminal and the end of the disconnected negative battery cable.. if the draw appears severe, start yanking fuses until you see it get better- then find out what is connected to those circuits with the bentley wiring diagram.


grinding and drilling? what kind of hack shit is that? that black part at the bottom of the missing linkz kit is also a short throw lever extension, which I dont believe comes with the USRT kit.. that guy also makes one on a slider for more adjustability:


if you dont want a short shifter, the kit is even cheaper, so the usrt stuff is even more money for less stuff.

 I think I still have a TT one from back in the day in there.. the heavy plastic bushings for the relay shaft were also a pretty decent upgrade, they come in teflon or UHMW and are stiff as fuck, yet self lubricating.

I've never felt an A1 shift linkage that was as tight as mine, but then again, I replaced every part that could possibly wear to make it that way.. the missing linkz kit has a little metal pin in each socket that slides over a ball to keep it from popping off.. I haven't had one problem with it since installation.

I'm pretty sure the reduction in friction comes from the rod that has the weight in both kits- spherical bearings or that ball and cup joint are both better than a (surely corroded due to age) rod jammed through a plastic bushing.

if you dont have one on both your cars yet, I would suggest even his basic kit for $60 to fix up the one with nothing in it:



or, if you dont like a screw clamped on weighted rod, you can drop $15 off the price and get the one without.

or, you can wait until I rip mine apart and buy all my stuff with under 10k on it, including the shifter box under the lever, once I cut this stuff out there is no way I can reinstall it.