OT: "Cabbies", tonight's episode

[roccit_53 at hotmail.com (C Boyko)]

(space for top posted replies)>>>


Well it was a perfect weekend, except for a few small details. Saturday 
found me heading out to Jim's in Rochester in the headache, the first 
longish run of the season, and it all went well . There is a cabin temp 
issue, but not from the lacking exhaust shield. I still need to be able to 
turn the heater core OFF, so that valve is on the "to do list" proir to 
Cincy. After being deafened by the 16Vs  wonderful drone, I had to "suffer" 
through being driven around Rtown in that 16V Cabby of Jim's. What a sweet 
car. It really IS a Scirocco, or mighty close to it. Yummy. The purpose of 
the trip was to pick up a slightly used suspension for the Cabby here at 
home. Anyway, not one, but two 16Vs this weekend, you can see my goofy 
smile.

(space for interjected replies, to really mess stuff up)>>>>

SO today is Mother's day.
Happy Mother's Day to Jules and the rest of the Moms out there. I ask one 
thing on Mother's day, that I get to do my own thing. And they better damn 
well feed me too. Anyway, "my thing" was wrench on the Cabby, but it didn't 
get home till mid morning. Jacked it up, both wheels came off without Mr 
4X4, I'm all set with lots of gas and grinding wheels, and so on, but the 
first set of nuts come off easily. Okay, says I, the bolts are gonna be rust 
welded in...nope, and same thing other side. (even though they had been off 
not so long ago, I don't trust this car to co-operate) My local "loan a 
tool" spring compressor was out for the weekend, so I dug into the parts 
collection for some stuff I needed, and got the hubby to do something 
useful, that being compress the springs a bit. One side in, other side in, 
DAMN, they have a left and right. Both sides out, swap them around, viola, 
c'est lunchtime and the front end is bolted up and down on the ground. No 
fights, no drama. Something is wrong, VERY wrong...

(yet another space)>>>

During lunch, it dawned on me. The front had been so Scirocco like, I 
thought it was one. I'm thinking, to do the back, lift the hatch and wrench 
away... wait, there IS no hatch. The rear is accessed through either the 
trunk or back seat, lots less clearance, but again no drama. I'm thinking 
the lower bolts will bite me for sure now, they haven't been off for who 
knows how long. Nope, off they come,(with Mr Hammer's gentle convincing, and 
Mr 2ft Johnson on standby)  I've mastered the tricks of using the jack to 
gently raise/lower the  axle, and got the bolt removal down to an art. Back 
together and test driving by 2 pm! Unbelieveable. That included a lot of 
time with the wire wheel on the wheels/ hubs, which had "galvanic corroded" 
into a death embrace in the last episode. AND!!! I even remembered to torque 
the lugs to spec. Not that I was the one who forgot to do it on my truck, or 
have ever forgotten to do it that for that matter.


I had the garage and myself all cleaned up for Mother's day dinner, and I 
still can't believe it went well. It just never does. But this car owes me 
one.

SO that's my weekend. It's so much more fun to write about it when things 
foul up. So wait a day, there's always something.


Thanks to Daun for having the fronts off not so long ago, and to Jim for 
selling me that sweet used suspension!
Cathy
1987 16V Scirocco "the silver headache"
1979 non-S "Klaus"
1988 Cabriolet for my daughter, "Roxy, the wannabe Scirocco"
and too much other crap to list.

(space for bottom posting)>>>>>

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Premium with Virus Guard and Firewall* from McAfeeŽ Security : 2 months 
FREE*   
http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines