persistence, or maybe I am just that hard-headed
So, I seem to have made some progress.
Last year, on Jan 1, my car died. Quite suddenly. I had trouble starting it, but then got going, only to have it stop running not 200 feet later. After wrestling the thing around in the intersection, a guy driving a van came by, realized what I was trying to do, and offered to push me. Bumping it was in fact my plan, so I said yes. My reaction was this muted because I was winded from doing a 180, by hand.
It didn't help. The electrics had stopped, and when he pushed me, I got nothing; it was quite dead. I managed to drift back to the curb in front of my house. But the car had nothing.
It was January, and since I had little idea what was wrong, and I didn't absolutely need the car, I left it for a few weeks (All that snow was pretty fun walking around in).
As the weather began heating up, I came back to it. Troubleshooting was a pain because I had no one to help (Still don't). Thankfully dad bought a Bently when they owned the car, so at least I have that to help. I have honestly forgotten what I fixed/replaced and when. Part of my problem was trying to help my junkyard guy by going to him for parts. He's in Delaware. Guess how that works without a car. Add to that the curious history of Cash for Clunkers and the pounding the economy took two years ago, and he is now horribly short on parts for 23 year old VWs.
I replaced my Hall Sender. nothing
I tinkered around with pieces of my wiring harness. nothing
I put the battery on a tender, to make certain it was fully charged. nothing
I got an old distributor from Joe. nothing
I got an old coil from Joe. nothing
I got what I had thought was the ignition unit from Joe (Hadn't paid enough attention to my manual, it was the knock control unit), so obviously... nothing
Replaced the ICU with a brand new one. nothing (Although for 80% off, I was happy all the same)
Replaced the coil with a brand new one. nothing (Free, next day shipping was pretty nice)
By now, I finally realized I had indeed made progress. When the car stopped back in January, I got absolutely nothing from turning the key. Now, as of October, everything electronic worked (Including the starter), except the spark plugs. That was helpful.
The weather yesterday was rather pleasant. Of course when I went out just after lunch, it began raining. Not hard at all, just enough to make it tense. I wired up the battery, turned the key. nothing
I decided to swap out the "new" distributor with my original one. Part of why I hadn't sooner is a little, odd. In order to fix what I thought was wrong, I had to take it apart. The manual claims that there is a mark which tells the mechanic how to rebuild it. Naturally enough, I did not take the time to find the mark so that I knew what it looked like. Naturally enough, my dad bought a Carat, which is different enough from all the other Jettas that my distirbutor did not have this mark. So, by fixing it, I had broken it. Par for the course.
I realized that it might be possible to fix my old one by comparing notes to my new one, so I did. nothing
About to grab my phone for the tow to the shop, I glanced at the shiny new coil on my firewall, and noticed a wire that was not attached where it is meant to be. So I plugged it in.
The car now runs.
I had to jack up the rear, because one of my wheels refused to spin. She's been parked for over 11 months, and the rear brake calipers always freeze up when she sits. I've rebuilt them once already.
It was a little frightening driving to the service station for gas and air. Seems my tires were down to under ten pounds of air each. The front end feels squirrely, even though it does not appear to pull. And the rear brakes sound and feel odd. But everything works, except the door buzzer. And I need to replace my driver door panel, so that means the mirrors are currently manual.
My inspection expired at the end of Nov, so now I have to wait 'till Thursday to renew. But that gives me a little time for shakedown.
And now I can take my motorcycle battery to get load tested!!
Merry Christmas, indeed!!
Last year, on Jan 1, my car died. Quite suddenly. I had trouble starting it, but then got going, only to have it stop running not 200 feet later. After wrestling the thing around in the intersection, a guy driving a van came by, realized what I was trying to do, and offered to push me. Bumping it was in fact my plan, so I said yes. My reaction was this muted because I was winded from doing a 180, by hand.
It didn't help. The electrics had stopped, and when he pushed me, I got nothing; it was quite dead. I managed to drift back to the curb in front of my house. But the car had nothing.
It was January, and since I had little idea what was wrong, and I didn't absolutely need the car, I left it for a few weeks (All that snow was pretty fun walking around in).
As the weather began heating up, I came back to it. Troubleshooting was a pain because I had no one to help (Still don't). Thankfully dad bought a Bently when they owned the car, so at least I have that to help. I have honestly forgotten what I fixed/replaced and when. Part of my problem was trying to help my junkyard guy by going to him for parts. He's in Delaware. Guess how that works without a car. Add to that the curious history of Cash for Clunkers and the pounding the economy took two years ago, and he is now horribly short on parts for 23 year old VWs.
I replaced my Hall Sender. nothing
I tinkered around with pieces of my wiring harness. nothing
I put the battery on a tender, to make certain it was fully charged. nothing
I got an old distributor from Joe. nothing
I got an old coil from Joe. nothing
I got what I had thought was the ignition unit from Joe (Hadn't paid enough attention to my manual, it was the knock control unit), so obviously... nothing
Replaced the ICU with a brand new one. nothing (Although for 80% off, I was happy all the same)
Replaced the coil with a brand new one. nothing (Free, next day shipping was pretty nice)
By now, I finally realized I had indeed made progress. When the car stopped back in January, I got absolutely nothing from turning the key. Now, as of October, everything electronic worked (Including the starter), except the spark plugs. That was helpful.
The weather yesterday was rather pleasant. Of course when I went out just after lunch, it began raining. Not hard at all, just enough to make it tense. I wired up the battery, turned the key. nothing
I decided to swap out the "new" distributor with my original one. Part of why I hadn't sooner is a little, odd. In order to fix what I thought was wrong, I had to take it apart. The manual claims that there is a mark which tells the mechanic how to rebuild it. Naturally enough, I did not take the time to find the mark so that I knew what it looked like. Naturally enough, my dad bought a Carat, which is different enough from all the other Jettas that my distirbutor did not have this mark. So, by fixing it, I had broken it. Par for the course.
I realized that it might be possible to fix my old one by comparing notes to my new one, so I did. nothing
About to grab my phone for the tow to the shop, I glanced at the shiny new coil on my firewall, and noticed a wire that was not attached where it is meant to be. So I plugged it in.
The car now runs.
I had to jack up the rear, because one of my wheels refused to spin. She's been parked for over 11 months, and the rear brake calipers always freeze up when she sits. I've rebuilt them once already.
It was a little frightening driving to the service station for gas and air. Seems my tires were down to under ten pounds of air each. The front end feels squirrely, even though it does not appear to pull. And the rear brakes sound and feel odd. But everything works, except the door buzzer. And I need to replace my driver door panel, so that means the mirrors are currently manual.
My inspection expired at the end of Nov, so now I have to wait 'till Thursday to renew. But that gives me a little time for shakedown.
And now I can take my motorcycle battery to get load tested!!
Merry Christmas, indeed!!