[T3] Madison Visit

[Jim Adney]

We were very pleased to have Daniel Nohejl & Jessica Chase visit us 
in Madison, WI for the last couple days. We had a great time with 
them and also managed to find and fix some problems with their car. 
They're gone now, but we think their '69 Square is ready for the long 
trip they have ahead of them. They have a great trip ahead of them, 
running thru Yellowstone, the Tetons, Glacier and on to the Pacific. 
I also recommended that they try to visit Crater Lake.

While they were here, I installed my most recent version of the under 
dash ground kit (mainly for '68-'70 FI cars) and my new 3-position 
fuel pump primer switch. We discovered that a steering column bracket 
had been installed backwards at some point, making the new switch not 
fit until the bracket was put back correctly.

We played with the speedo cable, to see if there was anything we 
could do about the ticking needle. I checked both the cable and the 
speedo itself to see if either had a tight spot or was dragging, but 
both seemed perfectly smooth. We thought we'd found the smoking gun 
when I discovered that the cable needed to go OVER the tie rod, 
rather than UNDER it. Routing it correctly seemed to help at first, 
but then the old tick came back. At some point we removed the cable 
and compared it to some new ones I had and confirmed that the length 
was correct.

I adjusted the cable as best I could and they left with their old 
cable and a needle that ticked at some speeds. I recommended that 
they try rotating the housing by quarter turns, to see if there was 
an orientation that worked better. Perhaps they'll let us know in the 
next few days.

We had one brief moment of dispair when the starter refused to run, 
which happened right down the hill in front of our house. That turned 
out to be caused by a blown fuse in the circuit of their hot start 
relay. That circuit doesn't normally get a fuse, so I replaced the 
fuse with a wire. We don't expect that problem to arise again.

Finally, they unpacked the rear of the car so we could go thru the 
fuel injection. We were hoping to duplicate a problem that Daniel & 
Jess had discovered: They found that wiggling some wires near the 
left injectors could make the engine die. Using my Bosch FI tester, 
we found that the circuit thru the pressure sensor, both primary and 
secondary, could occasionally be interrupted by wiggling those wires.

I took that connector apart and found 2 pins that were loose and 2 
that weren't very tight, so I tightened up all 4 of them. That is now 
fixed nicely.

It was fun to finally meet them and fun to spend some VW time and 
quality time together. This morning, after they left, Melissa 
mentioned how nice it is to have young friends. They left some parts 
behind, for me to rebuild while they're traveling, so we hope to see 
them again on their way home.

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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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