bring me up just to tear me down- JETTA UPDATE!

Hey everybody! So, as many of you know, I've got and 1989 Volkswagen Jetta project car I’ve been wanting to finish, but for lack of time (and motivation) it hasn’t gotten done. Well, Saturday I woke up early with a mission. I only had a couple things left to do before it was drivable again, after seeing it apart for almost a year. So, I grabbed up the tools I needed, ate a slice of pizza for nourishment, and got to work. About two hours or so later I had all new strut mounts on and was pretty sure I had the suspension leveled out. I was finally able to put some wheels on it and see just how low it would go. The Jetta's front lip is now about 4 inches off the ground and I'm stoked about it! Then I backed it out into drive way for a wash and some final decision making on the ride height, tested and changed some fuses, it was ready for the road …or so I thought. Then the problems started.

At first the car cranked but wouldn’t start, so I went through some checks under the hood and found that my glow plugs (yep it’s a diesel!) weren't hot. So I got a volt meter and started to follow the glow plug cables to see where I might be losing voltage. (Stay with me here!) I traced it back to a fusible link that was supposed to be getting 12 volts but was only getting 9 milivolts. Now I’m thinking that the glow plug relay must not closing. I check it out, and the relay clicks as if it’s working but I have a little extra relay, so I go ahead and change it. Now getting 10v and that’s fine with me! I try to start it up again and it doesn't even crank!!!! :[ I immediately test the starter positive, battery, cable drop, and starter solenoid. All were well. I ended up tracing some wires to a small connection between the battery and the ignition that was disconnected. I tightened that up, charged the battery and it started right up!!!

I was stoked and ready to drive it. I hopped in, threw it in reverse, backed it out and put it in first gear, and all of a sudden I had no gear selection at all! I looked under the hood at the shift linkage that I had rebuilt a few months back and one of gear selectors had fallen out. I put it back on and put it in first gear again, let off the clutch and it immediately died. No jolting or anything. It just died. And that is because I was actually in third gear. Apparently I had something binding the linkage and keeping me from putting it in first. By that time Pat and Jen had showed up and I was overwhelmed and needed some additional parts so I just had them help me get it back into the garage and left it for another weekend... but Saturday ended with gumbo, bubble tea, video games and lots of entertainment that helped take my mind off my Jetta. I guess it was, overall, a productive day! Stay tuned for my next Jetta Update, I bet you can’t wait!

matt

PS. PICTURES COMING SOOOOOON.