Former VWDieselParts.com Forum

OK here is the promised update. I wish I had pics, but there weren't any big mysteries. Getting that 5-speed tranny out & back in was interesting, not in a good way, mainly because all I had was a standard floor jack. You kind of need several hands to move & balance that cumbersome thing whi...

Excellent link, Caerbannog, that was exactly what I needed :). That adjuster nut was screwed down so that the little rod stuck out even when not in 5th. Adjusted it up a bunch ... it ended up well above the plastic case ... now 5th has about the same gate resistance as 1/2, not a problem at all. Tha...

Interesting info, Caerbannog, tomorrow I'll take a look at the tranny, maybe I'll be lucky & have the adjustment. I'm pretty sure it is engine oil, Fatmobile - thin and dirty .... well not terribly dirty but I did just change the oil. Plus the oil level dropped nearly a quart in a few hundred mi...

Fatmobile wrote How do you know it was the rear crank seal? Hmmm, good point. Those other things are certainly something to check. On that long trip the clutch started slipping like crazy, and when I looked underneath there was oil all over the underside and dripping out of the bellhousing weep hol...

Mine's an 81 1.6 n/a .... the throttle stop shouldn't be a big issue for soot. If it is the fuel screw, its a bit much and wasting some fuel trying to get top HP - I have mine set just below the factory limit and it never soots under any situation, but then I'm more interested in mileage than power....

I have the car, but I've seen something like this on other vehicles when a previous owner simply added too much grease. The spindle nut should be barely snug (thrust washer can be slid sideways with a screwdriver tip), not tight, so hand-tight seems OK. If the wheel turns freely & no grit/rumbli...

Out of the blue the crankshaft rear oil seal failed on my 81 Rabbit ... while on a long trip of course LOL. Now that I have to pull the tranny (5-speed, but clearly an 82 or 83 from the big reverse switch), has anyone replaced the pushrod bushing & seal at the same time as the release bearing? I...

This is not in any manual, but seems to be working. I did this on a Massey Ferguson tractor (Perkins diesel, sheet copper head gasket) to avoid retorque because getting to the head is a minor nightmare, and did it on my 81 Rabbit with 11mm headbolts because I knew I'd get busy and not get to it in t...

OK, I did the helper spring modification the way the crustycrank.com site said, except I did not do the nonwoven bag thing. The helper springs are a snug fit inside the Rabbit springs. I could not get them in until I thoroughly cleaned the Rabbit springs, and a light coat of oil is a huge help. The ...

Yup yup you're absolutely right, a crisis exists while it is unclear what the better path is going to be, since investing heavily in the wrong one means unnecessary pain. I hope things such as biomass become more viable with improved conversion technology, but regardless, eventually the rising cost ...

Everyone loves to point fingers, but it is a fool's errand. Western oil companies, American and European, control neither the cost of the raw materials nor the price of the product, it is all determined by auction on the world merchantile exchanges. American companies in particular control a measly ...

Thanks for the info, sounds like I ought to just get the parts and get right to it. I'm guessing I ought to get new rubber stops for sure. Did you guys find it necessary to replace the rubber parts in the upper mounting? They're not so cheap.

I am beginning to wonder if there are different sort of blocks out there, ones that wear more than others or something. I bought my MK1 diesel with 300K on the clock, barely ran and laid its own smoke screen. When I pulled the pistons the #2 had ring end gaps of 0.1" and the others were in the ...

Hey guys, there's an interesting thingie about cheap helper springs for MK1 Rabbit in the Free Advice link at http://crustycrank.com/index.htm#menu I'm thinking about doing this one myself, the rear on my Rabbit sags more than I'd like if I put heavy stuff in the trunk, and the shocks are near gone ...

That bubbling/vapor at the expansion tank after just a little idle does sound like a compression leak. Never had my Rabbit do that, but my old Massey tractor went through the same thing due to a failing head gasket. It ran just fine, but lost some gasses into the coolant. Just before I got the downt...