1986 VW Golf is now in my possession.

[jtbo]

Originally Posted by Christ

E fan? How about "no fan"? Haven't had a coolant fan since I put the car on the road.

It is not necessarily to have one, but you can think E as Emergency, if there is some out of normal situation where need of cooling is increased, it is nice to have one.

I have two fans but they don't work as there is something broken, however I don't really need them, haven't needed for 3 years, but it would be nice to have them operational just in case

[Christ]

Mine worked fine til I dented the housing, which blocked the blade, then left the engine idle for 3 hours... The fan tried to come on, fried itself.

I don't let the engine run more than a minute without the car moving, so I don't worry about it.

[Christ]

Bolted on the half assed adapter I made from the front and back of the booster.



Bolted on the master cylinder.



Cleaned the reservoir out, filled it with fluid, then took the tires off and back bled the master cylinder using the front calipers. There's still air pockets in the rear lines, but they're not bad enough to do any harm.

Right now, the force rod leaves about half an inch of free play in the pedal. Once a good adapter is made, I'll fix all the little issues. For now, it should work. Haven't actually tested it yet, other than making sure I had pedal pressure.

Actually going to test drive it soon.

[Christ]

The machine shop wanted $150 to make the adapter with a piece that I BROUGHT. Would have been even more to use their material...

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by Christ

I wasn't saying those were the figures to stand by. I was just trying to get an idea for what kind of loses are there.

The only test I can think of is to remove the timing belt and soon the intermediate shaft with the engine on a stand, using an electric motor and an ammeter to determine wattage required with and without the oil pump attached. Once I get the other motor on the stand to rebuild, that might be an option.

3600 rpm is a decent speedfor a test, because it would be in excess of 70mph road speed, and is likely the highest speed the engine will regularly see.

A motor that spins 3600 @ xVDC with an ammeter to read current draw should give enough basic data to form a conclusion, yes?

Test 1: Intermediate shaft and oil pump installed, sae30 oil.
Test 2: remove oil pump pickup, leave pump installed (bearings well be oiled fromm previous test.
Test 3: pre oil bearings, remove pump and spin balance shaft alone.

You'll probably want to use a speed closer to road load unless you're always going 70mph. An ammeter/voltmeter may present a small problem since motor efficiency changes with load/current, but with the caveat that any results will likely be exaggerated by a bit it should be informative to run a test like that.

[Christ]

Takes about twice as much effort to lock the tires up, but basic breaking effort isnt truly any harder... Basically unchanged.

On the plus side, I can feel the lockup coming on before I'm at the threshold, and modulate my pressure to prevent it.

[Christ]

Total cost of the mod:

$26 master cylinder
$4 bolts and nuts/washers.

$30.

Already had the fluid, but that would have cost an additional $5.

[jtbo]

1st gen Rabbit I remember having very heavy brake pedal, maybe it had no booster at all back then?

From my memory it was quite a spartan vehicle, but managed incredible FE, 2nd gen is probably much more refined.

I guess it is same with brakes as powersteering, comfort deletes feel, in modern car I have had difficulty to 'feel' road. Great mod!

[Christ]

I believe the early Rabbit and late 70's Jetta were manual brakes, with a wider m/c mount pattern of 3.5" or so, in stead of the 2.5"pattern on newer models.

Those models would mount directly to the firewall, in place of the bracket that holds the booster on my Golf, I believe. However, I've never seen one first hand, so that is just speculation.

[Dave's Civic Duty]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I like the thrill of the hunt. Actually finishing something? Bo-ring.

Yeah Frank, that's my motto! I never really thought of it that way actually. It's really tough when you are a force of one also, life gets in the way of all our best intentions.

Dave