TrollFromDownBelow wrote:Well...did you get the Squareback running?
Eventually . . . like this post.
In that state of fluttering aimlessness, "COlin, you're the mechanic here ... come
ONNN," I half-heartedly pulled at some wires, checked some hoses, and mostly entreated it to just start. I had this loyal battery that had held a charge for an entire year, I did not want to run it down stupidly. I wanted to be . . . methodical. Like many of us, I reliably went to the last reason this car did not start, the breaker points. Cleaned them, checked the gap, opened and closed the points with a screwdriver and saw a nice spark coming from the coil wire a good 5/16" from ground. Cranked it over. Totally dead. Thought about mouse pee smell on the engine and considered a scenario of mouse-chewed fuel injection wiring behind the left cargo panel. So, I got out the gasoline from Chloe and poured a teaspoon of gas into the manifold sensor hose. If the engine coughed, I could guess that I had a problem in the fuel injection. The engine coughed and ran for a second. Pulled the distributor to clean the dual injector trigger point assembly. Hopefulness once again hoped. Nope. Deaderndead. Tried the gasoline again.
"See, if it runs with a shot of gas for a second, that will fix it, see, and then you won't have to fix it."
Ah no.
Deaderndeadagen. Pulled the spark plugs. They're wet! Yay.
"See, I inadvertently flooded it, see, dry those plugs, then we can drive!"
Ah no. Now I have dark thoughts. I am Florence Nightingale with sick Volkswagens only if I can actually heal them. If I can't, I become psycho-disinterested, and I thought of reasons why it might be best to push the car back in the bay and wait until some year hence. Then a little fury welled up. This car doesn't like sitting. It needs to run. It NEEDS to run. Now the battery is just not spinning that engine over the way D-Jet needs. Got the Mercedes over and docked the batteries. Have some serious German Alternator, says the Mercedes. And that little Squareback sure did start. And I drove it like an idiot, a happy idiot. Mouse pee aroma off the engine, brake pad stink off the front brakes, musty barn moisture off the exhaust system, and we hit 60 mph just before the hairpin curve onto Lakeshore Drive, and 60 mph after, too:
Some VWs like to play hard. This Squareback did when it drove it across the country in December 2007, and I remember how much it liked to pull to 55 in 3rd gear as I merged onto the interstates, and this once a year stuff is just not doing it for the Squareback. Drove fine back to the barn with a hot clutch, hot brakes, hot exhaust system, and generator brushes that sure last longer than Chloe's. I need to come up with a road trip for the Squareback:
