I have not worked much on the car of late, but when I did, I concluded that the replacement nut that I bought is the wrong size. It turns out it is metric. I should have known that; everything else on the tranny is too and the instructions that came with the replacement arm even said it was a 14mm nut. Oh well, simple enough to fix, right?
It turns out that Advance Auto Parts did not have any metric nuts that big. (They did read my check engine code on the Passat and I got away without spending a dime once we figured out that it was just a bad reading in the rain that falsely said the engine temperature was too high). So off to Home Depot, which only carried 12mm and 16mm. So off to Napa which had 14mm, but the wrong thread size. Grrrr. I was thinking I might have to go to Fastenal and buy a big package just to get the one that I need, but then the Napa guy suggested that I go to a tranny service place down the street and see if they had one they could sell me.
I went to Austin Transmission and talked to Jeff who took the part with him into the shop and came back 2 minutes later with a nut on it and said "Have a nice day". That was nice, even if it only costs a buck.
Eventually I got home and tried to figure out how to put everything back together, now that I have the right parts. I spent a half hour or so, but could not figure out how to get the interior linkage back in place. It fell out when I finally removed the old nut, and it is not exactly straight forward to get it back together. Nor are there any instructions for that piece, since it should not have fallen out to begin with. It wouldn't have except the tranny is in place and I am working upside down. I did find an old picture I took back on April 8th that seems to show what it should look like, so tomorrow I will tackle it again.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
9/18 4:44pm
That is the exact moment when I defeated my arch nemesis. The one bolt that had kept me mired down on the build has finally been conquered.
Having failed in trying to work around the huge stock gear selector arm on the transmission, I needed to remove one nut to get it to come apart. It was a 13/16" nut that I had been able to take off once before, but that was when the transmission was out of the car and much easier to work with. Unfortunately, I somehow managed to over-tighten it when I put it back on months ago and was left with a terrible problem that could have set me back to the end of April.
To access the nut, I had to drop the transmission oil pan, remove the filter, remove the valve body and a retaining pin. Not fun, but do-able at least. That left me looking at the nut as seen in the center of this blurry picture.
To work on it, I had to lay on my back with the nut about 2 or 3 inches from the tip of my nose. There was no way to get a socket on it. I could barely get a flare nut wrench on it, but only in one location that did not let me get any real leverage and there was only about 1/16" possible movement of the wrench in the best case. I quickly began to round off the nut as it just would not budge. I needed to salvage everything around this nut so I could not do any easy cutting, and I could not get a die grinder or angle grinder into that tight space anyway. I tried heat. I tried special penetrating oil. About the best grip I could get on it was with an angled Crescent pliers. Alas, nothing could get it to loosen.
Eventually, I decided to try to cut off the nut and I bought a cheap rotary tool (dremel) at Harbor Freight. It came with 25 cutoff disks that were small enough (less than an inch) to get in that space. But being about the cheapest thing that HF sells, it was woefully slow at cutting through the steel nut. Hours and hours later, I was able to get 3 good cuts done and it finally loosened enough to break loose with the pliers, and then easily twist off by hand. Here is a picture of the nut itself once it came off.
All told, it took me over 11 and a half hours of really unhappy work, spread out over a month. In the process, I spent even more time and money trying to come up with work arounds. I also ruined the gasket between the valve body and separator plate, so there goes another $50 for that kit. Anyway, I think I will at least be able to start making progress again and doing things that are enjoyable.
Finally, fellow local Hurricane builder Paul Proefrock came over this week. He needed some pictures and measurements for another builder and since my car was still so open, it was easy to get it off of mine. I got a lot of other questions answered by him that will help me proceed.
Having failed in trying to work around the huge stock gear selector arm on the transmission, I needed to remove one nut to get it to come apart. It was a 13/16" nut that I had been able to take off once before, but that was when the transmission was out of the car and much easier to work with. Unfortunately, I somehow managed to over-tighten it when I put it back on months ago and was left with a terrible problem that could have set me back to the end of April.
To access the nut, I had to drop the transmission oil pan, remove the filter, remove the valve body and a retaining pin. Not fun, but do-able at least. That left me looking at the nut as seen in the center of this blurry picture.
To work on it, I had to lay on my back with the nut about 2 or 3 inches from the tip of my nose. There was no way to get a socket on it. I could barely get a flare nut wrench on it, but only in one location that did not let me get any real leverage and there was only about 1/16" possible movement of the wrench in the best case. I quickly began to round off the nut as it just would not budge. I needed to salvage everything around this nut so I could not do any easy cutting, and I could not get a die grinder or angle grinder into that tight space anyway. I tried heat. I tried special penetrating oil. About the best grip I could get on it was with an angled Crescent pliers. Alas, nothing could get it to loosen.
Eventually, I decided to try to cut off the nut and I bought a cheap rotary tool (dremel) at Harbor Freight. It came with 25 cutoff disks that were small enough (less than an inch) to get in that space. But being about the cheapest thing that HF sells, it was woefully slow at cutting through the steel nut. Hours and hours later, I was able to get 3 good cuts done and it finally loosened enough to break loose with the pliers, and then easily twist off by hand. Here is a picture of the nut itself once it came off.
All told, it took me over 11 and a half hours of really unhappy work, spread out over a month. In the process, I spent even more time and money trying to come up with work arounds. I also ruined the gasket between the valve body and separator plate, so there goes another $50 for that kit. Anyway, I think I will at least be able to start making progress again and doing things that are enjoyable.
Finally, fellow local Hurricane builder Paul Proefrock came over this week. He needed some pictures and measurements for another builder and since my car was still so open, it was easy to get it off of mine. I got a lot of other questions answered by him that will help me proceed.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Wedding
Sorry, I have nothing to post. I haven't really worked on the car in a couple of weeks. Phil and Helen have been in from California for their wedding. What a wonderful time it all was.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Stuck
Well, I am very stuck right now, thanks to a nut inside my transmission that simply won't budge.
Last week, Nathan and I testfit the cockpit and the shifter linkage workaround I came up with a while back did not work. It was more than an inch off. So I have decided that I do need to replace the selector arm, but I cannot get it loose.
Here are some pics we took along the way. You can see in the first one that the exhaust headers seem to be okay, clearing the cockpit footbox by an inch or so. In the second one, you can see a wider view of what the car will look like with the cockpit in place.
I think I am going to have to cut the nut off. It is probably okay, in that I don't have to re-use everything in there, but it is extremely tight where that frozen nut is. My regular cut-off wheel on my angle grinder is too big so I may pick up a cheap dremel type rotary tool to cut the nut. The really depressing thing is that even when I do get the new arm in place, the shifter linkage may still be too close to the tub that it will require more re-work. Ugggh!
Last week, Nathan and I testfit the cockpit and the shifter linkage workaround I came up with a while back did not work. It was more than an inch off. So I have decided that I do need to replace the selector arm, but I cannot get it loose.
Here are some pics we took along the way. You can see in the first one that the exhaust headers seem to be okay, clearing the cockpit footbox by an inch or so. In the second one, you can see a wider view of what the car will look like with the cockpit in place.
I think I am going to have to cut the nut off. It is probably okay, in that I don't have to re-use everything in there, but it is extremely tight where that frozen nut is. My regular cut-off wheel on my angle grinder is too big so I may pick up a cheap dremel type rotary tool to cut the nut. The really depressing thing is that even when I do get the new arm in place, the shifter linkage may still be too close to the tub that it will require more re-work. Ugggh!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Back to work
I spent a few minutes today putting on my headers and their gaskets. I had painted them a few months ago, but they would have been in the way if I had attached them, up until now. Since I want to test fit the cockpit very soon, I wanted them in place. The clearance from the cockpit footbox to the headers can be very small, in some cases less than an inch.
Anyway, it was pretty easy. I had already bought some cheap header bolts that are the correct size, but unpopular with other builders because they tend to loosen too easily. We shall see. I do see that they are a huge pain in the neck to try to tighten once everything is in place. Here is a good picture showing the header in place with the spark wire in place.
You can see one bolt to the right of the plug in place and one hole to the left of the plug with no bolt. It is extremely tight in there and getting a socket may be terribly difficult, especially once the cockpit footbox is in the way.
In the end, I spent about a half an hour on this task, and another hour scouring the internet to double check that they were not upside down. They fit pretty nicely either way, and I would not have been the first builder to make that mistake. It turns out they are fine. Here is a finished picture that has been modified to show up a little better on the computer.
And big thanks to Gil Kleine who came by my house tonight and helped me move the cockpit out to the garage. The Passat is now sleeping outside, so pray for no hail.
Anyway, it was pretty easy. I had already bought some cheap header bolts that are the correct size, but unpopular with other builders because they tend to loosen too easily. We shall see. I do see that they are a huge pain in the neck to try to tighten once everything is in place. Here is a good picture showing the header in place with the spark wire in place.
You can see one bolt to the right of the plug in place and one hole to the left of the plug with no bolt. It is extremely tight in there and getting a socket may be terribly difficult, especially once the cockpit footbox is in the way.
In the end, I spent about a half an hour on this task, and another hour scouring the internet to double check that they were not upside down. They fit pretty nicely either way, and I would not have been the first builder to make that mistake. It turns out they are fine. Here is a finished picture that has been modified to show up a little better on the computer.
And big thanks to Gil Kleine who came by my house tonight and helped me move the cockpit out to the garage. The Passat is now sleeping outside, so pray for no hail.
Monday, August 17, 2009
No work
I did nothing on the Cobra this past week. Instead, I will post a neat story/video of an FFR getting built by/for a guy with ALS.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Shifter
I worked a lot on the shifter this week. I picked up a spare rod to try bending to fit better, but that did not work. Eventually, I ended up connecting a straight rod to a new replacement bolt that was longer than the original. This allowed me to move the rod closer to the transmission itself and hopefully clear the fiberglass cockpit tub. I do not know yet if that did the trick as I need another set of hands to test that fit.
Here is a good picture of the shifter mounted on the transmission where you can clearly see the steel rod connecting it to the transmission arm.
And here is another from the driver side showing the shifter itself.
Finally, here is a closeup of my modification to bring the connecting rod more into the location that it would have been in had I been able to use the replacement shifter selector arm from last week. Like the extra nuts being used as spacers?
It does shift, but it is a little stiff. Not exactly sure what to do about that. It is still all just mocked up and will definitely have to be loctited if I decide it is good to go.
I also picked up a tap and die set this week at Harbor Freight. This was part of my messing around with the shifter linkage work, but I also want to use that to make nice threaded holes for bolts that will be for the electrical grounds. I may finish the battery cables and terminate them to grounds this coming week.
Here is a good picture of the shifter mounted on the transmission where you can clearly see the steel rod connecting it to the transmission arm.
And here is another from the driver side showing the shifter itself.
Finally, here is a closeup of my modification to bring the connecting rod more into the location that it would have been in had I been able to use the replacement shifter selector arm from last week. Like the extra nuts being used as spacers?
It does shift, but it is a little stiff. Not exactly sure what to do about that. It is still all just mocked up and will definitely have to be loctited if I decide it is good to go.
I also picked up a tap and die set this week at Harbor Freight. This was part of my messing around with the shifter linkage work, but I also want to use that to make nice threaded holes for bolts that will be for the electrical grounds. I may finish the battery cables and terminate them to grounds this coming week.
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