[misc_work] My Ebay 1.6 Gti Refresh

[pug_ham 240 3 Cars]

With the lakes trip looming large on the close horizon I figured it was time to start getting the few things I wanted to do on the 1988 205 GTI 1.6 I got last year off ebay in preparation.

 

I'd noticed the inner wing metal tube was looking worse for wear & got one of the new Baker BM stainless pipes instead.

 

I went to fit this about a month ago & noticed whilst it was apart someone had previously bodged the expansion tank to block hose with a piece of pipe in the middle joining two hoses.

 

The following Monday morning & I was on the phone to Stew at BakerBM again to order the 8v coolant hoses I wanted to replace the old ones after I also found the rad to wing pipe was dying.

 

 

A friend had decided to part with her 205 GTI which I'd been looking after since she got it but when she text me the night before to tell me, I was more concerned about getting my Walker phase 2 exhaust system I'd loaned her while I continued to try & find someone who stocked, could & would get me a Walker front pipe with the correct twin siamiezed downpipe design.

 

Luckily, I had noticed that while the my 205 had a recent front pipe on the phase 1/1.5 three piece system I could see it didn't have the split without taking it off the car.

 

I swapped the two systems over & got my walker phase 2 system back.

 

I also figured while the whole exhaust was off mine, I'd swap the partially seized beam for a freshly rebuilt beam.

 

I proceded to strip the car down ready for removal but in a plan to avoid extra brake pipe issues I removed the back plates to save splitting the brake lines.

 

Once the beam was off I brought it home for stripping.

 

I'd already cleaned a decent centre tube from another 1.6 beam I'd sourced a while ago & fitted the new bearings in ready.

 

 

With the old beam back home, I wire brushed all nuts & bolts before spraying them with some plusgas & leaving it to soak.

 

All the torx bolts & nuts came undone, I used an impact driver to undo the all & none rounded off.

 

ARB removed & ready to start.

 

 

Then armed with one of Tom Fentons torsion bar pullers I started to take it apart.

 

 

Tom's puller worked a treat & got the bars moving pretty easily, easier than I expected for a beam that doesn't appear to have been apart since it was put on the car in 1988.

 

 

Once the r/h bar was out I tried to knock the radius arm out but initally the arm was knocking off the shaft so I stopped & turned my attention to the l/h side.

 

 

This side came free nicely so the beam was stripped quickly but the assessment of its condition was pretty clear from taking it apart. FUBAR.

 

I then attacked the r/h arm again, not being to bothered if it left the radius arm shaft in the tube for the time being but it all came free, taking the remains of the old bearing & seal with it.

 

 

A bit worn out!

 

I had a pair of good radius arm shafts to use so I wasn't to bothered about the condition of the old ones, knowing it was partially seized on the right.

 

I took them to a local metal work shop their use the press to swap them over & properly reset the stub axles after I'd knocked them through to get the brake drums off.

 

 

With these swapped over I cleaned the torsion bar splines in the tube & radius arms up using a stainless pan scouerer & plusgas. I have an old suede brush I've used before I couldn't find but this if anything was better.

 

 

 

Next it was time to start putting everything back together so I fitted the tube seal carrier & seal, filling the gap between the seal & outer bearing with grease, giving the arm shaft a coat before fitting it into the tube.

 

I then set my dummy shock to 318mm & coated the end of the torsion bar splines with graphite anti seize compound I have & have used previously on my beam builds.

 

 

With the bars almost in place, I rotated them one spline at a time until they slid fully & smoothly home under finger pressure.

 

Rebuilt & ready to fit.

 

 

Back on the car last weekend;

 

 

Then I decided to give the rear brakes a new set of wheel cylinders etc & this is where things went off track.

 

g

[pug_ham 240 3 Cars]

I had noticed when fitting the back plates etc back to the new beam (I took them off to avoid splitting the brake lines & the very issue I'm now stuck with), the pipe unions & bleed nipples weren't in the best of condition.

 

 

 

So, I figured I'd build some other 1.6 GTI back plates I had, which had been treated to a coat of hammerite, with new wheel cylinders & make up some new rigid pipes along the radius arm.

 

I started on the o/s hub & got the new back plate fitted before looking at un-doing the old rigid to flexi union by the lower shock bolt.

 

This is where things took a quick turn for the worse, the union was severly rusted & well beyond coming undone with a brake pipe spanner so mole grips were the only way.

 

The union simply disintegrated as soon as I tried to turn it, leaving me with nothing to grab hold of to remove the remaining pipes.

 

 

I started looking further back along the lines to see how I could get around this, I couldn't, the unions were all nearly as bad as the one which had disintegrated.

 

The pic below is the body side of the o/s rigid to flexi union that's hidden above the bracket;

 

 

The only way was to replace the flexi's & pipes back to the T piece, once I'd managed to get the old ones off.

 

I rang around a couple of local motor factors, even armed with the oe numbers for the flexi's I needed but none of them could get the right one for the nearside & I was dubious if I would get the correct offside one.

 

I'm pretty sure I have some rear hoses for the 1.6 GTI from a goodridge kit but really wanted to stick with oe rubber ones on this car so I'll source some anyway & swap them over after this weekend if I don't get some tomorrow.

 

I'm going to make some more calls in the morning armed with other numbers for the n/s flexi, including the Motaquip number as I have a Motaquip dealer nearby & they were one of the places I tried today who couldn't help.

 

The only union that would come undone was the cross body pipe into the T piece for the o/s rear brake but the front to rear pipe was in a similar condition to the rest.

 

I have now replaced the front to rear rigid from the compensator to the (also new) T piece & the pipe from the T piece to the o/s flexi.

 

I'd hoped to have all this (& more) done today, I also want to swap a bodged expansion tank to block hose but as the system needs to be drained plan to swap the heater matrix & all other hoses with BBM silicone ones.

 

The exhaust manifold is also blowing from the crack in the usual place so I've one to swap that's far better as well, if I can before thursday evening.

 

g