betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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Dec 14, 2020 22:15:14 GMT
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The standard brakes were never going to be sufficient to handle the increased performance, and it was always my intention to rob the appropriate parts from the Felicia 1.8T. TeflonTom wrote-up the conversion on the Felicia thread, so I will not replicate it here. Put simply, the rear drums have been replaced with discs and callipers as fitted on the SEAT Ibiza mk2 GTi, in common with many other contemporary VAG models. When I removed the rear wheels I found 25mm and 5mm spacers fitted. The original bolts for the 25mm spacers had evidently gone missing at some point, and the bolts that had been used to replace them did not quite sit flush with the wheel mating face. I definitely should have noticed that when I had the wheels off previously!  I sourced some bolts with shorter heads to use when the 25mm spacers were re-fitted (after the photo was taken). The 5mm spacers did not go back on.  The front brakes were a bit more complicated to upgrade. Again, most of the hard work had been done in uprating the brakes on the Felicia 1.8T, and I only had to swap the bits over. The brakes going on are Golf G60 discs (again, same as mk2 Ibiza GTi parts) with Mondeo ATE callipers. The Mondeo calliper mountings line-up with those on the Caddy hub carrier, but the carrier has to be machined to take the larger M12 bolts. The hub carriers I took off the Felicia had this done, and had been fitted with mk1 Ford Focus coilovers. These coilovers are nasty FK units, and will be swapped at some point, but for now they are on the Caddy. Pictured below are the ‘standard’ front upright and brake, and the replacement with the larger disc and the coilover.  The difference in size between the discs is not that obvious in that photo, but when you see the comparison between the pads it is more striking. The standard pad is at top left, and the other four are the EBC Yellowstuff pads I am using in the Mondeo callipers.  Front upright in place, complete with nice shiny (and shorter-headed) new spacer bolts.  |
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Last Edit: Dec 16, 2020 8:02:55 GMT by betenoir
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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Dec 14, 2020 22:24:05 GMT
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As I mentioned previously, with the extra gauges being mounted under the centre of the dashboard, they were very hard to read. The easiest one to see was the one farthest away, which was the voltmeter, and was therefore the least critical of the three. Both the oil temperature and oil pressure gauges spent too much time at the lower end of the scale, for different reasons, so there was clearly room for improvement. The oil temperature gauge was always reading at the lower end of the scale because its range was 60-170˚C, meaning that the normal reading of around 90˚C was close to the bottom. This was easily rectified by fitting a gauge with a range of 50-150˚C. Having never had the oil pressure warning light showing, I had never worried about the reading on the oil pressure gauge, even though it was towards the bottom of the scale. I had to swap out the oil filter sandwich plate because the O-ring had started to leak, and whilst it was out I also swapped the oil pressure sender. I had bought a 0-5bar sender, suspecting that the one that was fitted would be a 0-10bar item, and so it proved. Ironically, now that I have fitted a sender which provides an accurate pressure indication, I have swapped the gauge for one that has no numerical scale, simply because aesthetically it was a better match for the other two gauges I was now using. Having finally located the gauges from my Felicia pick-up, the voltmeter was swapped for the one from that set. The order of the gauges was also reversed, so left to right is now oil pressure, oil temperature, voltmeter. I bought a DIN mounting box to put the gauges in the radio slot, but the box is going to need some Dremel work before it will fit. As a temporary solution until I have the time and inclination to sort that, I used the same gauge panel as had been mounted under the dash, but hung it on the bar at the top of the radio slot, held in by the ash tray and 12V socket.  The head unit in the Caddy is a fairly ancient Sony CD player. It hardly ever gets used, so the quality of it is not a priority for me. I had a box specifically for mounting a head unit under a dashboard, but it was too wide for the centre part of the Caddy dash. I struggled for a while to find a solution, before I had a brainwave. The box that the head unit cage fits into is held into place by two screws up from under the dash into spire clips (U-nuts) on the bottom of the box. By turning the box upside-down under the dashboard, I could put the same screws through the holes in the dash from inside the head unit slot, and screw them into the spire clips now on top of the head unit box. I will put some sort of centre console around / under it at some point, but it does not look bad as it is. |
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Last Edit: Dec 16, 2020 8:06:16 GMT by betenoir
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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Dec 20, 2020 23:21:45 GMT
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Last Edit: Dec 27, 2020 20:56:28 GMT by betenoir
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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Dec 20, 2020 23:29:48 GMT
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Engine cooling had always been an issue on the Caddy since the 1.8T transplant. It is not that surprising, as it now generates more than three times the power it came out of the factory with, and the associated increase in heat generation was never going to be insignificant. When the same engine was in the Felicia, the coolant temperature gauge generally sat just above the ‘normal’ mark, but quickly went up in traffic unless the radiator fans were switched-on. The thermostatic switch for the fans had never worked reliably, and manual over-ride had been wired to the HRW switch and tell-tale, and I replicated this in the Caddy. During the transplant the radiator fan circuit in the Caddy had been modified to be a hybrid of the petrol (single speed fan, no relay) and diesel (two stage fan, relay switching) such that it operates both fans at a single speed, switched via the relay. With the new circuit in place in the Caddy, I succeeded in getting the thermostatic switch to activate the fans, and realised that it also illuminated the dashboard tell-tale when it did so, which I like. After the transplant into the Caddy, the coolant temperature gauge would go up pretty quickly after start-up to settle at about 100˚C, where it would stay during normal driving. In traffic it would shoot up from there towards the red if unchecked by the fans, although they would bring it back down to an indicated 100˚C pretty quickly. Despite showing some high temperatures at times, I rarely saw the tell-tale indicating that the thermostatic switch had kicked-in, and I never saw (or smelled, heard) symptoms of over-heating. I concluded that the coolant temperature gauge circuit was not indicating correctly, and embarked in trying to work-out why. In unmodified cars, a problem such as this is usually caused by a component failure. This is also likely in a modified car, but it is also possible that components which were not designed to work together are individually operating as they should, but are not working together properly so that their operation is not having the desired effect. Once I started reading-up on the various specifications of coolant temperature senders fitted to VAG cars, and some of the problems this has caused after modifications, I decided that what I was seeing was a similar issue. This is probably well known to many on here, but the VAG 4-pin temperature sender is two separate sensors, both of which vary resistance with temperature independently. One pair of pins provides engine temperature to the ECU, while the other pair of pins are those which drive the coolant temperature gauge. The resistance of the two sensors is not necessarily the same at any given temperature. It may have been more straightforward for the engine swappers among us if VAG had fitted two separate senders, but they did not. As the engine was running well, it appeared that the ECU half of the sender was doing what it should, but the gauge half was not. I spent ages experimenting with various senders in pans of water which I heated and cooled whilst I measured resistances,  ... with temperature gauges which I fed from variable resistors,  ... and with various Felicia/Caddy looms which I buzzed-through trying to find a phantom resistor which I had read somewhere was in some models and not others. After all this, my conclusions were... sadly inconclusive  . I was convinced that I needed to add a resistor into the gauge circuit, in series with the sender, to get the gauge to read accurately, but I was struggling to work-out the value of resistor I needed. Searching online to find what resistance values others had used I came across a thread about someone experiencing similar problems after he had fitted a 1.8T. He had asked for advice about what resistor he needed, and someone had pointed him in the direction of the temperature sender fitted to the mk2 Golf GTi 8V, which apparently has the correct characteristics for the 1.8T ECU and the older temperature gauges. That sounded worth a try, especially as I had one of those senders in my garage. Two minutes later, the mk2 Golf sender was fitted in the Caddy, which then started and ran fine (positive indication #1) and had the coolant temperature gauge settling on the ‘normal’ marking (around 90˚C). Success! In this instance, if I had tried mindlessly swapping parts rather than trying to be clever and methodical about it, I would have got to the answer much more quickly. |
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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Dec 29, 2020 21:21:24 GMT
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I was not a fan of the aftermarket steering wheel that was in the Caddy when I bought it, but it took me ages to make-up my mind as to what I wanted to replace it with. I had a Momo suede rally wheel in the Felicia 1.8T, but that wheel was more suited to a track car. I considered fitting one of the various styles of wheel available on the Felicia / Caddy range, but none of them that I have tried have been that nice to use. After a prolonged period of indecision reminiscent of my partner in a shoe shop, I decided I wanted a three spoke leather wheel like the one fitted in the mk4 Golf GTi. Little did I know this would open up a world of small spline / large spline confusion. This was the old wheel, pictured during some earlier dashboard experimentation, and without its rubber centre cover.  I bought a Golf wheel off eBay, and ordered an adaptor to allow the (large spline) wheel to fit the (small spline) Caddy steering column. When I removed the old wheel, and went to slide the adaptor onto the column, it would not fit. I tried easing it on with a little coppergrease, and I tried decreasingly gentle levels of persuasion, but it was not happening. The old wheel went back on, and I went back to the drawing board (well to the internet, actually). I found threads about the spline adaptors on a number of VAG forums, and a few of them said that they can be difficult to fit onto the column, as they are a tight fit, so some force may be required. That convinced me that I had not been sufficiently determined, so when I got the chance a week or so later, I removed the old wheel to try again. This time I tried persuading the adaptor into place using a hammer and a brass drift. It was still not happening. By this point I was confused and frustrated. I think of myself as being an experienced amateur mechanic, but swapping a steering wheel was defeating me. In desperation, I resorted to counting the splines on the steering column and the inside of the adaptor. Given that I am long-sighted, this was no easy task, and I failed to determine exactly how many splines each part had, but I did convince myself they were not the same. I then started wondering whether the Caddy column was evidence of its pre-VAG Skoda origins, and was not ‘standard’ VAG small splines at all. This theory was only disproved after I had done some experimenting with steering columns and wheels from my SEAT Ibizas, which demonstrated that the Caddy column splines were the same as those on the Ibiza. So, I ordered another spline adaptor. When the second spline adaptor arrived, I tested it on a Felicia steering column I had in the garage, and then on the Golf wheel, and confirmed that it fitted both of them before I attempted to fit it into the Caddy. When the opportunity came to fit it, my son was doing it whilst I was working on something else. He removed the old wheel (yet again), but then called me over as the adaptor would not fit onto the column. I had a moment or two of confusion and panic before I realised that there was already a spline adaptor on the column! The old wheel had been fitted using a spline adaptor, but on all of the numerous occasions I had removed that wheel (probably 10-12 times for various jobs) the adaptor had always come off with the wheel, so I had never noticed it. After all the confusion and messing about trying to source the correct adaptor, I had one all along, but I only found-out when I had found the solution anyway. Finally I was able to get the Golf wheel fitted, and the look and feel of it makes the effort worthwhile.  I still do not know what the story is with the first spline adaptor I bought. It does not fit any steering column I have, although the outer splines are the VAG large splines pattern. I have stashed it in the ‘just in case’ box in my garage, where it is far from alone. Much as I am happy with the new steering wheel, fitting it had an unfortunate consequence. The centre of the Golf wheel is larger than the old wheel and this makes it difficult to see the bottom row of dashboard warning lamps when the wheel is in some positions. The camera angle in the photo makes this look much worse than it is, and I am not worried about seeing the hazard warning, brake fluid level, alternator, or handbrake lamps all the time, due to the nature of what they are telling me, but if the oil pressure warning lamp comes on I want to know about it immediately. It would not have been that hard to rearrange (and re-wire) the warning lamps in the instrument cluster, but I decided to go another route. The replacement oil pressure sender I fitted had an oil pressure switch incorporated, which I had not initially connected. I now ran a wire from this sender terminal to a second oil pressure lamp which I fitted into a switch blank in the centre of the dashboard. This second lamp is a very bright 10mm LED which I had previously used in the Felicia 1.8T, and which you cannot miss if it illuminates. I like the peace of mind which comes from knowing I have two independent oil pressure warning circuits (plus the gauge!). The steering wheel centre horn push on the old wheel was unreliable, so I had wired a second horn button into the dash. This remains in use as I have not (yet) connected the horn push on the Golf wheel. The picture shows the LED oil pressure warning lamp, the horn button, and the HRW switch wired as a radiator fan over-ride, all resplendent with symbols I bought from Vehicle Wiring Products many years ago, plus the battery cut-out mounted where the headlamp adjustor knob was originally.  |
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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Dec 31, 2020 22:06:04 GMT
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Ever since the engine transplant, there has been a slight oil leak from around the area of the oil filter housing. I had never seen the oil level drop noticeably, but there were always a few spots on the ground wherever the Caddy had been parked. JKM had noticed it, and had replaced the washer on the oil pressure switch, which improved things but proved not to be a complete cure. It was very difficult to see where the oil was coming from, not helped by the lack of space around the engine, but it appeared that the leak was from the oil seal at the top of the sandwich plate between the filter and housing. I had bought the sandwich plate used, as I mentioned in a previous post, and it was not a great quality part. The oil seal in particular was fairly insubstantial, as can be seen in the picture.  This sandwich plate went in the aluminium bin at the local dump, and I replaced it with a new part, which had a single more substantial oil seal rather than the two O-rings which had hardened and flattened with age. When I swapped the oil pressure sender and switch over I applied a couple of drops of thread sealer as an extra precaution. With the new sandwich plate fitted, the oil leak was further reduced, but maddeningly still not to zero. The part that now came under suspicion was the oil seal between the oil filter housing and the heat exchanger. I bought a replacement and swapped it over, but when I re-fitted the sandwich plate the oil O-ring was not located properly. I only found this out when it was all back together and I started the engine, which resulted in a large pool of oil growing on the driveway. Not one of my better moments! The O-ring was damaged where I had tightened the sandwich plate with the O-ring incorrectly located. There was some swearing when I realised what I had done. I could not find a replacement O-ring without buying yet another sandwich plate, so this time I decided to buy a high quality sandwich plate for which replacement O-rings are available separately. Mocal have always had a very good reputation for oil coolers and related parts, and after a bit of searching I found a Mocal sandwich plate from Merlin Motorsport The O-ring on this one is a substantial part, and spares are available separately. I do not plan to use lower quality sandwich plates on any of my cars in the future. With everything back together, complete with the Mocal sandwich plate, things were definitely improved again, but still I was seeing a couple of spots of oil where the Caddy had been parked, and they still seemed to be emanating from the area of the oil filter housing. On a hunch, and because I could not think of a more plausible explanation, I removed the standard oil pressure switch again. The sealing washer had been replaced previously, as mentioned above, but when I took it off I could see that this washer, an aluminium part, did not look in great shape. I re-fitted the switch with a replacement copper washer and, finally, no more oil leak. |
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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Dec 31, 2020 22:15:44 GMT
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Having tinted sunstrips on my cars has become a habit since I first had one put on my Evo VIII 15 years ago. It was not my plan to have one in the Caddy, for aesthetic reasons, because a sunstrip can look a bit ‘scene’, whereas I am aiming for a more classic look. I relented for practical reasons i.e. I have got so used to having a dark strip at the top of my windscreen that it felt wrong (and sunny) without one. I took the Caddy to South Coast Tints in Southampton, who have always done a fantastic job, and I am similarly pleased with the outcome this time.   |
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Last Edit: Jan 1, 2021 0:06:54 GMT by betenoir
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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I had never been keen on having the cone air filter sitting in the midst of all the heat under the bonnet, and it had always been my intention to improve on this arrangement. The obvious thing to do is to relocate the screenwash reservoir, thus freeing space in the NSF corner of the engine compartment. This gets the filter further away from the hot engine, and gives the potential for a cold air feed through the front panel. The standard screenwash reservoir is specifically shaped for the location it usually occupies, and does not lend itself to being anywhere else. Instead I used a smaller (1.2l) "universal" washer bottle which is a more regular shape, and has roughly the same cross-section as the car's battery, meaning that the bottle can be located alongside the battery pretty easily. With the screenwash reservoir out of the way, I initially tried fitting a mk4 Golf / mk3 Ibiza airbox, but it was obvious that was not going to work, so I fitted the longer air filter pipe which had been on the Caddy when I bought it, which conveniently locates the air filter right behind the front panel, and adjacent to the inner wing. I still plan to replace the air filter with a better quality one, and to add ducting to encourage more cool air through the handy circular hole in the front panel, but what I have now at least gives some chance of feeding the engine with cool air, where there was no chance previously. Before:  After:  |
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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When I fitted the coilovers, my original intention was to check the rest of the suspension and replace as necessary, but it became one of those jobs done with time pressure to get it back together, so I did the minimum knowing I would have further items to attend to later. Recently the front end had started making some unusual and slightly worrying creaking / clunking noises when changing direction, which I took to be indicative of the front top mounts being shot. At this point I faced one of the challenges of modified cars, especially those which you have not built yourself. That challenge was not knowing what parts I needed, especially since in TeflonTom's Felicia 1.8T build thread he mentioned needing to find some top mounts to work with the Focus coilovers, but he did not mention what solution he came to. One solution would have been to dismantle the Caddy suspension, then attempt to identify the parts I removed. My approach was a bit less intelligent. As well as the Caddy, I own mk2 SEAT Ibizas and a mk1 Octavia RS, so I bought top mounts for both of them as well as Caddy parts, on the basis that I would hopefully find something to fit the Caddy, and the other parts would get used eventually anyway. Along with new CV joint gaiters, suspension bushes and wishbones (for later use) I gathered an impressive box of bits (rather than a box of impressive bits, sadly) waiting to be fitted.  As it turned-out, the standard Caddy parts were what I fitted. Seen side-by-side, it is evident that the replacement (Febi Bilstein) parts are a slightly different profile to the ones taken off, so the strut top will sit a little (<10mm) lower with the replacements fitted. This will increase the ride height correspondingly, but as the sump is showing signs of having had a few bashes, this is no bad thing. I can always adjust it out with the coilovers if it looks too much.  With the old parts removed, the top mount bushes themselves did not look too bad, but the bearings were a different story. I do not know how much work these bearings really do, but these were seized solid so they were only really acting as thick washers. Whether or not they were the source of the untoward noises, clearly they needed replacing. |
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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When the 1.8T engine and 02A gearbox had been in the Felicia, prior to my ownership, the final drive had been changed to one with 3.94:1 ratio. This gave the Felicia, and more lately the Caddy, excellent initial acceleration, but made cruising along the motorway a bit tiresome. This is perfect for buzzing around annoying people, and obviously there is a place for that, but my intention with the Caddy is to use it when my son and I go to motorsport events or car shows, and for this we wanted a slightly more comfortable cruising speed. 02A gearboxes are available in around thirty different specifications that I know of, so there was never any doubt I could identify something more suitable, although finding one for sale in the ideal specification could have been more problematic. So, rather than trawling through all of the specs to find the perfect gearbox, then potentially waiting ages for that type to come up for sale, I chose a more pragmatic approach. When I found an 02A gearbox for sale, I checked the code (assuming I could persuade the seller to find it and tell me) against the specs to see if it looked like a suitable candidate. The gearbox in the Caddy was a CDA, but with a 3.94 FD fitted in place of the standard 3.68 FD, and I found a standard CDA for sale. The comparison between the two, and speeds in gears at 4000rpm (with 195/50R15 tyres) is shown below. It is not a massive difference, but I decided it looked promising so I bought the standard CDA.  As I had not fitted the 1.8T myself, and knowing how little space there is around the engine, I had my doubts about how easy it would be to extract the gearbox, but as it turned-out it is not too bad at all. A couple of hours after I had erected my trusty gantry, the gearbox was sitting on the floor.  I already mentioned that the sump has clearly taken a few impacts, and when I came to remove the gearbox rear mounting it became apparent that had also taken a hit. This mounting is attached via three bolts onto the transmission casing, and the impact had cracked the casing so that one of the threaded holes was split. The damage had not caused any loss of gearbox oil, but clearly I will have to do something about it if I decide to use this gearbox again in the future. I had noticed before I embarked on the gearbox swap that the offside outer CV gaiter had almost completely disintegrated, and this obviously represented a good opportunity to replace all four gaiters whilst the driveshafts were off. Again I had the issue of deciding what parts I needed. I ordered Golf inner boots (VAG 191498201,Febi 03328) and Lupo / Ibiza outer boots (VAG 171 498 203, Febi 03595) and these proved to be correct. As at least one CV joint had been exposed to the elements, and because it seemed prudent to take the chance while they were off, I took both driveshafts to JKM for them to check the joints and replace the boots. They came back with a clean bill of health, and looking much better.  Before fitting the replacement gearbox, I swapped the flywheel for a single mass part I had bought from eBay on the understanding it was a G60 part. The flywheel I took off looked identical, but I swapped them anyway. The clutch I took off looked pretty good, but as it was all apart I put a new VR6 clutch in. Manhandling the replacement gearbox into place, even with it hanging from the hoist, was challenging as expected, but everything else went back together relatively easily. Or so it seemed, but when it came to testing it, the clutch pedal was very soft, and the clutch would not disengage. This would have been frustrating at the best of times, but as the Caddy was due back at the body shop it was even more galling. I tried and failed to diagnose and fix the fault, but resorted instead to taking it to the body shop on the end of a tow rope. |
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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Once the Caddy was back at home, I launched into trying to work out what I had done wrong in refitting the clutch and gearbox. The clutch pedal felt as if it did nothing through much of its travel, then (with the engine running) caused a horrible metal on metal grinding noise when pushed all the way down. I have never known it happen before, but I came to suspect that the release bearing had become displaced whilst I was struggling to manhandle the gearbox into place. There was nothing for it but to take it all out again. Having barely had time to put my tools away from the last time I had done the job, it did not take long to get the gearbox back out, but when I did so I found that the release bearing was exactly where it was supposed to be. This was a setback, as I did not have another theory at that time. Closer inspection determined that the grinding noise I had heard was the actuator arm impacting the clutch pressure plate, but I could not work out how that could happen. I had two release bearings (which looked the same) and two actuator arms (which looked different, but functionally the same) so, in the absence of any other ideas, I swapped both and reassembled it again. I had noticed signs that the clutch slave cylinder may have a miniscule leak, so although I had no reason to suspect that it had contributed to the current issue, I replaced it and pressure-bled the system. Again I tested the clutch, and again it was doing exactly the same as previously. After having had the gearbox out and back in twice in the space of a couple of weeks, at this point I was considering taking the Caddy on the back of a truck to JKM (again) and just asking them to sort it out, but I do not like to give-up like that. I spent several days pondering, and several hours with various rulers, tape measures etc., trying to figure out what could be different about the gearbox and clutch I had fitted compared to the parts I had removed. I spent ages researching all sorts of weird and wonderful thoughts, like maybe some 02A gearboxes have different sized bellhousings, or maybe the mounting pivot for the actuator arm is adjustable or…, I could go on. All of this research, pondering, and measuring led me to the firm conclusion that no-one in the world as documented on the internet had ever experienced (and solved) the issue I was now facing. Hard to believe. I had by this point resolved to remove the gearbox again, and my suspicions were now focussed on the flywheel. As I mentioned previously, the flywheel I fitted looked very much the same as the one I removed, but if they were different, and specifically if the distance between the crankshaft mounting face and the pressure plate mounting face was different between the two flywheels, that may explain what I was seeing. Taking the starter motor off and checking the clearance between the pressure plate and the bellhousing there seemed to disprove my theory, but having removed the starter motor I was part way through taking the gearbox out again, so that is what I did. This time it took little more than an hour before the gearbox was once more sitting on the driveway, and on inspecting the clutch on the flywheel it finally dawned on me what the problem was (although not yet the cause). The clutch fingers were almost flat, rather than protruding from the pressure plate.  I took the clutch off again, and checked the part number on the flywheel, which showed it to be identical to the one which I had removed. Not what I had expected. At this point, admittedly rather late in the long process, I finally adopted a methodical approach. I put the removed flywheel on the work bench, and bolted the associated clutch to it. The clutch fingers protruded as they should.  Next I bolted a VR6 clutch to the same flywheel. Exactly as I was seeing in the Caddy, the clutch fingers were squeezed in as the pressure plate was tightened. The difference is more distinct when illustrated with an actuator arm and release bearing resting on the clutch fingers. With removed clutch:  With VR6 clutch:  I tried swapping friction plates between the two pressure plates, but clearly they were not designed to work together. Only now did I check the removed flywheel and clutch part numbers online, to find they were both TDi parts, meaning that the flywheel I had fitted was also a TDi part rather than the ABF part I had thought it was. When I had removed the (now known to be) TDi friction plate I had compared its thickness against the new VR6 friction plate, and had noticed it was ~2mm thinner. I had put that down to wear on otherwise identical components, but now I could see that was not the case. This also told me that the TDi clutch I had removed must be practically brand new, so I refitted it to the Caddy. Two hours later, it was all back together, and finally working. There are a couple of obvious learning points from this protracted process, the first of which I really should have ingrained many years ago, given how long I have been playing around with modified cars. 1. Check part numbers on everything. Look-up applications to understand exactly what you have got. 2. The VAG 1.9TDi single mass flywheel fits the 1.8T engine, and can be used with the 02A (and 02J, presumably) gearbox, but not with the popular VR6 clutch. |
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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Jan 13, 2021 21:16:40 GMT
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Some jobs you do on a car bring a level of satisfaction massively disproportionate to the expense and effort that goes into them. If you need a 'quick win' to maintain enthusiasm these jobs are good candidates, but sometimes these things just have to be left to be symbolic of a job done. With the engine swap from 1.9SDI to 1.8T completed, I had one of these symbolic tasks to complete. Before:  After:  |
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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Jan 13, 2021 21:19:51 GMT
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Getting my Caddy to this point has taken a couple of years, but this thread is now caught-up with progress. Further updates will follow, but they are likely to be much more sporadic.
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dikkehemaworst
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,636
Club RR Member Number: 16
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Jan 13, 2021 23:35:00 GMT
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nothing to say, but WOW , and thanks for sharing
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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Jan 15, 2021 21:29:42 GMT
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What a fantastic read have been going over it the last few days and evenings, amazing thread very detailed. Love the modification to the boost controller in the clock. Super neat.
Thread bookmarked
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I only just clicked back into this thread for some reason, since you launched it.
Somehow had lost focus on the thread, and I do follow all truck threads.
As said before, what an awesome, thought through build this it.
I love the fact you got pleasure out of the Felicia Whupping asss and making them wince or cry.
Subscribed.
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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benny31 grizz Thanks, I am glad you have enjoyed the thread. My friends would probably say that if I spent a bit less time thinking things through and a bit more time getting-on with it, my projects would move along a lot faster 
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betenoir
Part of things
Afraid of the Light
Posts: 163
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May 15, 2021 23:10:25 GMT
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After the minimal front suspension rebuild when the coilovers were fitted, it was only a matter of time before I needed to do a proper job. The FK coilovers which had been on my Felicia 1.8T donor were always terrible, and they had deteriorated noticeably from that. They were mk1 Ford Focus parts, but I was led to believe that mk4 Golf (mk1 Leon, mk1 Octavia) front coilovers might also do the job. I bought an incomplete used set of AP mk4 Golf coilovers, but it was clear that the front damper diameter was too large for these to fit into the Caddy hub carriers without significant metal having to be removed, to the extent that the hub carrier may be substantially weakened. The mk1 Focus coilovers are smaller in diameter towards the bottom, so less metal needs to be removed. I was not keen to pay for a set of four coilovers and only be able to use the front pair, and eventually I found someone who was prepared to order just two rather than four coilovers from KW, although it was their cheaper brand AP which I went for. They arrived more quickly than expected from Germany, but when I opened the boxes they were obviously not a matching pair.  KW were very apologetic, and dispatched the correct replacement straight away. The coilovers and a pair of hub carriers went off to my friendly local machine shop so the hub carriers could be machined to accommodate the coilovers and the larger mounting bolts for the ATE (Ford) callipers. My plan was to strip and rebuild both front and rear suspension at the same time, and to make this easier (and safer) I bought a scissor lift for the workshop. To get it under the Caddy I had to use four low-rise ramps, and then I had to put some ballast in the back of the pick-up because even with the scissor lift positioned so it was touching the front wheels, it was still the back that lifted when I wound the lift up. Initially I put the extra weight as far back as possible, then once I had the front of the Caddy at the desired height I shifted the weight forward so it was balanced and I could tilt it with one hand to get it level. Axle stands then went under the rear of the Caddy, the scissor lift tilt mechanism was locked, and I shifted the ballast again so there was some weight on the axle stands. Already I am convinced this scissor lift is a properly cool piece of kit.  |
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. I was convinced that I needed to add a resistor into the gauge circuit, in series with the sender, to get the gauge to read accurately, but I was struggling to work-out the value of resistor I needed. Searching online to find what resistance values others had used I came across a thread about someone experiencing similar problems after he had fitted a 1.8T. He had asked for advice about what resistor he needed, and someone had pointed him in the direction of the temperature sender fitted to the mk2 Golf GTi 8V, which apparently has the correct characteristics for the 1.8T ECU and the older temperature gauges. That sounded worth a try, especially as I had one of those senders in my garage. Two minutes later, the mk2 Golf sender was fitted in the Caddy, which then started and ran fine (positive indication #1) and had the coolant temperature gauge settling on the ‘normal’ marking (around 90˚C).
