Happy, happy, joy, joy

[roccit_53 at scirocco.cs.uoguelph.ca (C Boyko)]

Well, the adventure with my MkI has taken a bend in the road. Finally.

Those who know me well, know that I have been chasing what has
affectionatly been called "assrunning" since September of last year. This
is on my '79, which had a high compression 1.8 dumped into it last summer.
And was fun as hell to drive. Till September or so.

The problems really began after I ran the tank dry, and between Drew Mac
(my wrenching buddy/mentor) and I, we'd been scratching our heads as the
following failed to correct the problem:
new fuel filter/different fuel distributor/new injectors/different used,
then new fuel pump/new relay/various tests on electrical fuel
components/pressure tests... 
Replaced points with TCI-H, then with knock, then back to no knock, trying
three different knock boxes, three coils, and three ICMs, several
distributors in the process, as well as two different sets of new
wires/caps/rotors
Troubleshooting galore on pin this and plug that...check and double check
timing (cam and ignition), gaps, compression, hell, I even checked valve
clearance. 5 gas analysis to set mix.....and still, nothing ever changed
the miss. It just never went away.

So last night, for whatever reason, after a lot of despair and the feeling
that we'd done everything, we decided to check injector spray. Recall,
these were new injectors. Guess what? Replacing those new ones with some 10
year old ones Drew had kicking around made the difference. Now this is not
to say that there was no benefit from many of the other installations, oh
no, some of them did help. (The fuel pump for one) But the injectors were
the last piece to the puzzle. 

I have to say I learned a lot about ignition systems and CIS along the way,
and I will miss the huffing. 

There are two morals to this story, no, three.

1. When you are ready to put the for sale sign on the car, no, make that
the fleet, give it one more try.
2. When replacing fuel system components, do the injectors LAST, in case
you send crud into them.
3. Don't trust anything to be okay just because you've already replaced it.


And of course, I had the brake switch fire to add additional frustration to
the mess. The new switch has seen 6 hours of road time, and is working
well, so it's a keeper. 

SO now I have the car apart again, but for things that I know will do what
I expect them to do, like a gasket to keep old Klaus from piddling on the
floor. It was SO nice to have actual acceleration again, and there's still
room for improvement, the knock ignition needs to go back in, and the mix
is still probably wrong. Small steps. But I'm happy once again.

The cabby's still broke, the bug's still loud, but Klaus is happy, and that
just puts the spring back in my step.

Thanks for reading, and don't give up.

cathy