Sunday engine pull

[jlagnese at massed.net (John S. Lagnese)]

Maybe get a letter from the boss stating the sequence of evente to CYA! 
Otherwise this sounds great!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gordy Stedman" <ydrogs@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <Scirocco-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2007 5:17 PM
Subject: Sunday engine pull


> Worlds biggest cherry picker!
> http://picasaweb.google.com/ydrogs/88JETTA/photo#5095312499978558242
> So here is the story.  I have been working in Albuquerque for 2 weeks on a
> new Costco.  The first day I arrived after work hours and noticed this 
> white
> Jetta parked on the job site and did not think much of it.  It continued 
> to
> be parked in the same place day after day.  I thought it was one of our
> subcontractors workers car that was broken down.  Last Friday they were
> cutting the dirt grade for the parking lot and noticed they cut around the
> Jetta so I asked our superintendent what was up with it.  He told me that 
> it
> has been abandoned there for over 2 months while the work on the job site
> has been going on for a month.  The plates expired May of 06 and they 
> called
> the police to get it removed but the cops said it was not stolen and on
> private property so they could not tow it away.  For all those who think I
> am a thief he said it was going to throw it in a dumpster and hauled off 
> by
> our disposal company.  I said let me get some things off of it first 
> before
> you junk it.  So I got to check it out to see if there was anything cool 
> to
> take out of it.  I look under the hood and see it is a 1.8l RV with an ASF
> tranny with digifag.  Since I am out of spare engines and I am sick of my
> AUG tranny and CIS I start thinking of how I can get it out while still
> working 10 hours a day.  I ask my boss if he cares if I pull the engine 
> and
> he does not give a shit but thinks I am insane.  They moved the car next 
> to
> our job trailers with a fork lift on Friday to a flat area.  So I work
> Saturday and then get off and go to Target.  I get a $20 set of shitty
> tools, 2 ratchet straps, bucket of zip ties, shop rags, junk pair of pants
> and cheap shirt, hand cleaner and painters tape.
> This morning I get there at 8:30am and begin to strip away at the A2.  I
> borrowed a set of tools from my boss so that helped out.  I got everything
> out and off while it was on the ground but needed to get under the car to 
> 86
> the drive lines and exhaust.  We wrapped a tow strap around the front sub
> frame/bumper assembly and used the forklift to lift the front of the car 
> 6'
> up (wish I had a photo of that).  Since I do not travel with a 30mm socket
> and breaker bar or a 8mm triple square (which I will now pack every time) 
> we
> decided to remove the drive lines with a chop saw since we had one in our
> tool inventory.  Tricky getting the 15" blade in there but it cut thought
> the solid driver side like butter but also got the front solid brake line 
> in
> the process, oops.  I used a saws all from our carpenters trailer to cut
> through the rusty exhaust bolts from the DP to the cat.  We put the car 
> back
> on the ground and wrapped the tow strap around the tranny bell and used 
> the
> pick point on the alternator bracket and lifted the engine up while I 
> undid
> the motor mount bolts.  That bad boy slid right out.  We had a spare 
> pallet
> lying around so we put it on that and I strapped her down around 1pm.  I
> will push it to the back of one of our containers and wait till it gets
> trailered back to Portland.  Here are other pictures of the process:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/ydrogs/88JETTA
> The engine spun 360 after I pulled out the plugs and the tranny shifted 
> into
> all gears so I am stoked.  I also found a pick-n-pull yard in Albuquerque
> that I might hit before the day is over to see if there is any Scirocco
> treasures there.  Can not figure out why all my coworkers want to go to 
> the
> casino on their day off when there is so much fun VW stuff to do here :)
>
> PS- I look at this as helping out the environment by recycling a used 
> engine
> to keep another Scirocco alive VS it being grand theft auto.  God I hope I
> do not go to jail for being a Scirocco freak.
>
> -- 
> Gordy
> MK1 x 5
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