I had been looking for an old VW diesel in need of work so that I could have an excuse to rebuild one of these cars from scratch. I got this 1985 Jetta off of Craigs List, these old diesels are in high demand and are getting really hard to find. This one was having some electrical issues and a transmission linkage had broken. Here she is.

The Interior
I planned to borrow an engine stand and lift from a friend, but I needed something to do in the meanwhile. I started on the interior. The car had a leak and the interior had a strong smell of funk and mildew. I want this car to look good, ... who am I kidding, I'll settle for looking decent. Out comes the carpet, seats, center console, etc. The rubber/foam pads under the carpet had water damage and ofcourse the floor had rust. There was a nice colony ants living in the foam, they kept me company.


The floor metal was cleaned and a nice combo of oil based Rustoleam and Rubberized undercoating was applied. I got some new padding from Home Depot and throw out the original stuff. The carpet got a good power washing, as did the seats. Next came the Scotchguard. I was worried about the rubber door seals cracking so I took off all of the weather stripping and let it sit overnight in a bucket of Armour-All. The very dirty door panels were removed, they had significant mildew to water. Even the plastic sheeting in the door had become mildewed. I scrubbed clean the door panels and sprayed the back of them with rubber undercoating. I replaced the plastic sheeting, between this and the rubber coating the door panels should stay dry.

Time for the new WVO system
The hoses are run under the carpet just like they were in Vegetta 1. The pictures show the insulated hoses on top of the new padding.




Above is the WVO system filter and the second fuel tank for the diesel fuel.

Now with interior parts cleaned and the hoses in place, it was time to reinstall everything. Carpeting, seats, padding, door panels, etc... all went back in. To finish it off I replaced the old junk tape player with a new MP3 compatible CD player.

The Brakes
The brakes actually looked to be in good shape. The rear drums/shoes had about half of their life left and the front rotors/pads looked brand new. Even the brake fluid looked pretty good, on my other jetta the fluid looked like chocolate milk and caused some release problems. Apparently you are supposed to replace the fluid every two years (with is way too often in my opinion), so I went ahead and did it while I had the chance. Also regreased the rear wheel bearings. The front brake calipers were disassembled and cleaned inside and out. While I have the brake fluid drained, I may as well replace the flexible brake lines between the calipers and the fixed metal lines. These flexible lines tend to crack over time due to constant flexing and age.

The master cylinder and power brake booster looked to be in good condition so I opted not to replace them. They're easy to access later on if needed anyway. However, they do get a cleaning and painting.

The Bottom and Tire wells
The engine lift gets called back into duty, but this time to lift the car so that the bottom and tire wells can get the treatment. The power washer takes care of the dirt and rust. A little Bondo for a couple of rust holes, and then lots of rubber undercoating and even a little rustoleam. A long time ago, I had a 81 Accord that had a cross member rust out, I remember what a pain in the butt it was to search junkyards and get that replaced so now I also keep an eye on bottom rust and prevent it if possible. Hopefully, with the paint and rubberized undercoating, the body will last me a long time.

The Engine
I didn't really know a lot about the condition of the engine and transmission. They seemed to work fine but this was no reason not to take them out. :) I had a bunch of problems with the first Jetta due to aging components and sloppy repair work over its life. This time I decided to replace everything that could break so that I didn't have to fool with it one at a time and have to deal with it away from home (power steering pump, CV joints, etc).

Out came the altenator, AC compressor, power steering pump, radiator, air filter housing, cooling fan, oil filter, washer fluid container, power steering resorvoir, and countless wires and sensors. I learned the hard way over the years to label each wire for reinstall, and to keep track of each of the bolts by putting them back in place if possible. With a little manuevering and luck the engine and transmission came out.

Once the assembly is on the motor lift, I took off the oil pan and transmission to leave just the engine hanging. I took a bunch of pictures of the complete engine in the likely event I forget what goes where. Next the turbo, belt pulleys and timing belt cover come off. Judging by the wear on the clutch plate and the timing belt I can tell this engine has been around the block, definently going to replace those.

I ordered a compression tester to see if I needed to rebuild the engine, but as with everything, I have to wait a week for it to show up. In the meanwhile, I remove the engine mounts and take the power washer to the engine compartment. Its real nice to see all the crap that finds its way into the nooks and cranies to come out. The engine mounts spend the night in the Armour-All bucket and then get painted. These mounts cost around $45 each, so gotta take care of them.
Here is what the engine compartment looked like.

September 16, the compression tester arrives. A quick read of the instructions, hooked everything up, and gave the engine about 10 seconds of cranking. At 32 bar, the engine is right in the middle of the wear range (34 bar when new, 28 bar when rebuild needed). Given this, I figure the engine has another 100k miles on it. I now just need to replace the hoses, belts, etc, but the long block can stay as is.

---------------------The first order of the new parts has showed up.


The following work was performed,
Replaced-- clutch disc, power steering belt, AC compressor belt, altenator belt, passenger and driver side inner and outer CV boots, all of the hoses (7 total), fuel filter, air filter, oil filter, timing belt, oil pan gasket, valve cover gasket, water pump and related gaskets, AC condensor radiator, brake hoses, thermostat, all four glow plugs, all four injectors, fuel lines, and other things I forgot...

Also did the following-- converted AC system to R134 from R12, cleaned and regreased all 4 CV joints, flushed all of the brake fluid, dismantled and cleaned the front brake calipers, dismantled and cleaned brake master cylinder, flushed radiator and heater core, removed and cleaned the inside of oil pan, power washed and painted engine compartment (while engine was out), removed and painted front 2 crossmembers, removed and painted radiator fan and its housing, scrubed clean and armour-all all plastic components, recalibrate the engine timing, other things I forgot...



Engine on crane with new parts installed. Above you can see the new timing belt and water pump. Below the engine is being slid back into the car.



Half axle with regreased CV joints and new boots, then installed.



Final engine installation with both fuel systems.

With the engine installed, drive train connected, fluids topped off, wiring re-installed, and the fuel system connected it was time to check the system. After a few sputters, she roared to life. After I finished everything else, I took it out the Washington DC beltway. I tested the engine, brakes, and both fuel systems, everything worked great. Now its just time to get the state inspection done and I have a new used car.

FINISHED