Day
3 - Brakes
11/24/03
Well, after a nice weekend of catching up I got back to the polo Monday night. First, I finished chipping away what I could under the hood for now and cleaned up the strut towers. I purchased some primer and high temp paint to temporarily paint the left side of the firewall which looked terrible. After getting the engine bay to its cosmetic best (well, for now) I started installing the new wiring harness.
As you can see, I had it sprawled all over as I figured good routing for it. The harness came from a right hand drive vehicle. This meant the brake fluid level wiring, windshield wiper motor wire, and a few other things were in the wrong places. Easy enough, just one wire has to be lengthened to the positive terminal of the battery and everything looks a-o-k.
After installing the harness, I rolled the car outside and used a siphon I had purchased to get all the old diesel fuel out of the tank. Surprisingly, the fuel was very clean. There was no sludging or evidence of breakdown. I was happy to see that, as I was worried that the 17 year old diesel fuel would have turned to jelly over the years.
Now everything is tied away to prepare for the engine install. I also installed one of the small hoses that used to be cut that runs through the firewall to the heater core. After taking a break working under the hood (great segue there) I started diagnosing the brakes.
The fluid in the brake system is at least 17 years old, and as a result is not functioning. Over time brake fluid absorbs moisture from the air, as well as air pockets forming that degrade the efficiency of the brake fluid. Mine was degraded to the point of no return. The brake pedal traveled all the way to the floor and there was no pressure at the brakes.
Went to the local auto parts store and purchased new DOT 3 brake fluid. The manual calls for DOT 4, but that can be changed later. DOT 3 basically has a lower wet and dry boiling point. No biggie. Also picked up a handy one-man brake bleeder kit.
First, I sucked as much fluid out of the master cylinder reservoir as possible, and hooked up the bleeder to the right rear wheel cylinder. I topped off the reservoir with new fluid and pumped the pedal a few times. Went to the back and saw the black fluid filling the bleeder bottle. Kept pumping until the fluid in the bleeder line was clean.
Repeated the process for all four wheels (moving farthest to closest in relation to the master cylinder) right rear, left rear, right front, left front. After completing the flush/bleeding, the pedal feels good and firm, and I have brakes again!!
The bleeder kit, old and new fluid. Look how dark the fluid is in the water bottle. It needed to be changed badly.
Also, looking at the pictures from the donor polo, my polo had the wrong transmission mount attached to the body, so I replaced it with the one Steven shipped in the crate:
Sorry for the blurry picture, the camera batteries were dying and the auto focus didn't kick in.
Anyhow, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to rent and engine hoist
and lift the engine/tranny out of the crate and start the preparations for the
install into the car.
Go
to Day 4
