Arschlaufen has left the building....

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

Finally, after almost two years of chasing gremlins, (the non-AMC type),
Klaus (my Kolibri green 79) is finally "meeting my expectations". Which
include such things as smooth acceleration. And not "running like ass". 

Backing up the clock to fall 2004, I ran the tank dry. By this point, he'd
had his "extensive cam swap" (JH with RD pistons, tranny, Fox intake, TT
exhaust, 4K tranny, etc, oh, and a new cam, my husband knows about the cam
at least), and had always had a slight miss, which we'd attributed to
points ignition. But he ran like a scalded cat prior to that dry tank. Drew
Mac builds a mighty fine junkyard block, let me tell you, and he's been a
huge help in terms of mental health support and parts during this whole
thing. 

Anyway, long story short, the car ran like ass on the way to Ohio that
fall, Ron and Drew swapped out the points and it ran worse on the trip
home. At that point I swapped fuel distributor and injectors, (the initial
distributor had a "catch" in plunger motion) The "new one" was the Raven
"best case" distubutor, then it still ran poorly. So then next came several
rewires, replacement of entire ignition system three or four times, new
parts galore, a second set of injectors, fuel pressure tests X2, various
filters and screens cleaned/checked, compression and timing and mix tests
up to wazoo, fuel pump X2 (first "new" one was dead), cold start injector,
AAV function (swapped it out several times and replumbed it), I even
checked valve adjustment. And ignition wiring, resistance and voltage
supply everywhere that might cause a problem, and swapped
plugs/wires/coils/KS boxes, ICMs, and was looking into WMD sources. Probed
pins, all that good diagnostic stuff. It really acted like a soft miss, and
it got worse as you accelerated, so it could have been either ignition or
fuel, most people said it sounded like ignition. And when you're swapping
in used boxes and such, there's always that question eh? Some things helped
a bit, and I sure found a lot of stuff that needed fixing, ragged wires and
so on, but there was still something really wrong. I'd checked injector
spray pattern a few times, but never done the volume test till last
weekend. Needless to say, I was getting pretty down on myself for not
finding it.

So yesterday, I swapped in the ugliest looking piece of corrosion to go
into the car. A "new" fuel distributor. And it just plain rocks my world. I
still need to adjust mix a bit, but yeah, it's fixed. And not one leak. And
we're back to "scalded cat" mode. :D

Expect to see "happy Cathy" at Cincy, I love my 16V, but anyone with a MkI
knows the deal. It's just not a MkI, you know? I just love that car. Which
is good or I'd have given up on him long ago. Behrle? I owe you a ride....

Cathy