pulling springs/shocks on my gt - Page 2

Grant · #16 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 07:34 AM

Sorry, did you disconnect the axles just to remove the springs? Or for some other reason?

Every time I've had to remove springs (stock or otherwise) all I needed to disconnect was the shocks, watt's linkage (where it connects to the chassis) and maybe the sway bars?

If you have a spring compressor, you can pretty quickly dispatch of the tall springs with out having to pull axles or anything else.

Hope that makes sense..

ckeen74 · #17 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 11:30 PM

I'm going to replace all the bushings in the back end, and probably do the front transaxle mounts too.

New bits:

Anybody know what this grommet is for? Found it between the fuel tank and the rear bulkhead (don't ask why I went there

)...

Think I'm actually going to make the spider be the test case for the rebuilt fuel pump, it seems to be in worse shape...

ckeen74 · #18 (**permalink**) 03-12-2008, 11:42 AM

Got the rear axle out last Saturday, and took it down to my mechanic yesterday. He nearly died laughing at me for pulling it to replace the bushings, and I was feeling pretty bright for pulling it... but on the other hand, I can leave the bushings to him, and I also get to paint all the bits I pulled so at least the underside of the car can look nice. Think I'm going to scrub the transmission clean while I'm down there, that should tidy things up a bit.

ckeen74 · #19 (**permalink**) 04-06-2008, 10:04 PM

Well, in the slow progress, I sandblasted all the small parts and borrowed a pneumatic drill to remove the paint from the axle with a wire wheel... what an arduous task. Today I skipped the ARA tour since the spider didn't have sufficient fuel pressure (its 2nd new pump, I think I've got some diagnosis to do), so I painted the parts, and while I waited for the paint to dry completely, I washed my Golf veloce and picked up a free Ansa twin-tip exhaust from Andrew (thanks!).

Here's a pic of the results:

It's a bit less glossy than I'd hoped for, but I picked the low gloss paint because I didn't want the underside of the car outshining the topside (which is not too hard, if you've noticed the paint on the top).

ckeen74 · #20 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008, 09:03 PM

Well, the car is finally done, just in time for the trip to Seattle/Vancouver. Just need to put on new front flexible brake lines, the turn signals, and a new headlight this weekend. Check it out!

One odd thing to me is that the Watts linkage bars seemed to have to be twisted a bit for me to slide the bolts into the ends. Is that bad? I just assumed the old bushings were so worn there was no twist left in them.