The car sat for six weeks while I recovered from my bionic toe installation. Finally, about 10 days ago I got back on it. The first order of business was to change out the fuel pump and change the oil.
The old, apparently leaking, fuel pump had been replaced with this no-name $16 cheapie, probably from Jbugs, the hotrod VW parts place. The fuel lines had been "expertly" installed with 3/8 or 1/2 inch screw clamps. I didn't trust the pump, and especially didn't like the installation.
I bought a Brazilian Brosol pump from Wolfsburg West - a great place to do business with. The original style pumps are quite pricey if you can find one. I'll leave them to the purists.
I used to hate coming across these Oetinger clamps until I got the proper tool for them. Now I love them. Just clamp them on and snip them off. They are seamless so they create equal pressure all around the hose - no pinched places.
I changed the oil and got about 4 quarts of oil/gasoline out of the crankcase. I put the proper 2 3/4 quarts of 10w-30 in it, and the engine sounded much better.
Next was to restore the rear ride height to its correct position. The PO had "decambered" the car by repositioning the trailing spring plate on the torsion bars, lowering it and making it look cool, and drive like crap. The plate is splined to the torsion bar, and the PO had rotated the the plate one spline counter clockwise.
I had to take out the shock absorber and remove the spring plate and reposition it on the torsion bar. This was the most worn-out shock absorber I have ever seen. It took NO force to move the piston. Turn it upside down and it would extend or compress just by the force of gravity.
One of the first things I noticed was that it had new axle boots and they were installed wrong, and they were already leaking. The seam (the line of bolts) is supposed to be facing back, not up. The PO had tried to take care of the car, but just didn't know what he was doing.
This Craftsman level/protractor that I bought 5 years ago is probably the last tool I ever bought (or will buy) from Sears. It is used to make sure the spring plate is engaged in the correct splines.
A set of new tires and some polish on the 5.5" Porsche rims and the old girl is looking better. I've decided to bite the bullet and go for a complete repaint. I'll probably drive it all summer, sorting it out and making sure it's mechanically up to snuff, then take it apart and have it painted next winter.