We closed down work around 12-12:30 today.  That left me an opportunity to get started early on the Ghia motor pull.

The first step was to use my label tool to badge all the electrical wiring. Removed some engine compartment floor shielding. Heater cables and hoses were next. Then four bolts and she dropped out.

Now for the bad news. The clutch, pressure plate and throwout bearing are all in great shape. The clutch still has the manufactures ink stank visible on it.

So now I am surfing the net to try and find some more information.  I am at  a loss to the cause of the vibration.  It was vibrating when the clutch was released.

The tranny shaft does have some up and down movement, but nothing more than 1/32 of an inch.  Slight pressure yields a tick/tock tick/tock clicking as the shaft moves up and down. This could mean a bad bearing inside the tranny. I would expect more movement if that was the case though.

The Samba has give me some ideas. One poster said that it may have been as simple as adjusting the clutch cable. Gosh…I hope not. Pulling the motor when all I needed was a simple adjustment would be the ultimate screw up on my part.

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The 1970 Karmann Ghia needs some maintenance.  A few months ago the clutch peddle was giving us quite a shimmy.  In a previous post I noted that the clutch had a little whine.  I think the throwout bearing is bad.  This being bad can cause the clutch peddle to whine when fully engaged.

Since this classic car is fairly new to us I had no idea if the engine and tranny matched the body.  The previous owner told me everything was original.  I just wanted to make sure before I started pulling the motor off the tranny.

I started my VIN/Chassis/Engine block number matching at The Samba.com.  It’s a huge source for information about VW production cars.  The link previous stated takes you to products years and VIN numbers.  Thier info helped me come to the conclusion that our 1970 Ghia Convertible is all stock.  The VIN and Chassis match, and the engine block number was produced with a few months of the VIN.  Perfect.  This is great news!

Now that I know the engine and tranny are alos 1970. I headed up to Painter’s Grinding.  This is a great little machine shop up in Denver that specizes in VW restoration parts and hot rodding them.  They hooked me up with a clutch kit.  The kit includes clutch, plate, and throwout bearing.  They also tossed in a clutch alignment tool.  I also picked up a main seal.  Since I’m already in there I might as well replace it too.

The plan right now is to pull it apart Friday morning.

I found this great TechyShit blog post tonight and had to share it.  See when I was a kid my Dad hung out with a guy that had one of these.  I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.  TechyShit breaks down 10 Old Computers With Outrageous Price Tags

Poor Boy Fab Shop; that’s me, Skully’s at home DIY projects! In this ever crappy economy most of us see an ever depleting disposable income. (Although I will admit if I did have the money I still like to fab my own stuff, its fun and saves money for the more expensive toys.)

For owners of any 4 wheel Drive the secret is to get as big of a tire as possible with the amount of lift you can afford. For XJ owners it can be a pain to figure out how to get the big tires under your vehicle as most lift kit makers state for XJ’s 4.5″ of lift you can run 32″ tires. Problem I find that not so accurate. I have 4.5″ of lift with 31’s and still rub in the front and rear.  The front of an XJ you can cut to yours hearts content to give yourself room. The rear of an XJ is a little more complicated being it is a Unibody and the pinch seam and lower quarter panel gets in the way. Even with minor to major cutting most still do some form of Bump stop (more…)

I have issues. I love to track automobile data like mpg, oil changes, and other service information.

I have been using a Twitter app called MyMileMarker. Their software reads direct twits with mileage, gallons, and price. It has a few bugs. I had a little trouble getting responses confirming that the data was received. MyMileMarker also does not allow for recording service items. I like to track oil changes and tire rotations also.

A few days ago I found Gas Cubby. Here is a direct link via iTunes.

Gas Cubby fills the bill for me. It allows for multiple vehicles and tracks all your fuel fill-ups & vehicle service records. The options are endless. I enjoy being able to track Octane. My Mini Copper S requires a high grade of fuel and being able to track mileage when I don’t fill it with Premium is great. My new Jeep has a a life time warranty, assuming I keep good service records. Gas Cubby allows for export in .csv. Making and annually service log will be simple.

Good luck Gas Cubby. Worth every penny to me.

Check out what I saw at my local Costco yesterday. The Costco on Lone Tree Colorado had it hidden on a back isle, not sitting out with the other laptops.

It was an Acer AspireONE AOA-150-1864. It has an 8.9″ screen, Windows XP, 120gb hard drive, and a wireless G card. I have never seen one in the wild. Looks like a great mobile option for $349.99.

It’s all over the Internet. AT&T is going to offer iPhone tethering. The only question still outstanding is how much it will cost. Most rumor sites agree somewhere around $30.00.

I don’t really have need for it these days. I used tethering quite bit a few years ago. These days WiFi is almost everywhere. I also find myself using my iPhone for tasks that I use to pull out the lappy for.

I would like to see some info about how the connection is going to be made. A bluetooth connection in combo with a 3G tether will drain the iPhone battery pretty quickly. Let’s hope those of you that decide to subscribe can us it via USB also.

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