My 71 Duster work in progress

Rear shocks are on. They were nowhere near as stiff as the fronts were.

I bought a new DVM the other day, so I checked the sending unit a little while I was under there. I've got good continuity between the sender itself and ground, but a a reading of 84.5 Ohms with the meter on a 200 Ohm scale. Looking upthread that's a little higher than it should be at empty, so maybe it's OK. One wire was connected to the terminal, the other to ground.
 
Have you got the sender itself grounded? It won't ground itself correctly through the tank and lock ring. On the Valiant, which has a sewer-sized ½" pickup pipe, the factory clip-on ground strap wouldn't work. I hose-clamped an ATC fuse tap to the outlet pipe and ran a wire to a chassis fastener. It works great.
 
i welded a bolt to my sender housing when i went 1/2 to fix the grounding issues....seemed to me as something the factory should have done
 
Yeah it's grounded. That's the first thing I checked. There is continuity between the sender body and the car itself.

Before I put the tank in I tried to solder a wire to the sender but that didn't work - probably needed to work harder at getting the plating off - so instead I clamped a wire to the vent tube on the sender and ran it up to the body. FWIW the clamp is not around the hose it's directly to the metal tube.
 
Last edited:
69.5CUDA said:
i welded a bolt to my sender housing when i went 1/2 to fix the grounding issues....seemed to me as something the factory should have done
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure the factory didn't use 1/2" senders :D

Mine is 3/8" but the factory ground broke when I tried to stretch it to fit the larger tubing, so I made my own as described above.
 
Off thy duff, Robert. We've not heard of your Duster shenanigans in several days. I can't be expected to shoulder all the A-body effort 'round here.
 
Let's see ...

I had the front end height about an inch too high so I fixed that including loosening and re-torquing the LCAs, replaced all the rubber fuel hose on the car except for the hokey braided hose two inlet line at the carb. I found a split tie rod end boot (hooray for kwality). Had another leaky brake line at the RF caliper so I had to tighten all that up. (I've got a real problem with fear of stripping things if there's no torque spec. I've got to finish greasing the front end then I'm going to see how well the cheap at home alignment tools I have work to get it at least drivable if not right.

I'm sure I fixed other things since I was out there all weekend. Then I was distracted by the MIL's lawnmower backfire problem. It's a B&S V-twin and has a low grade miss and every now and again it'll backfire.

We've replaced the fuel line on that, fuel filter, plugs, then I checked the valves, checked/replaced the flywheel key. No luck, still screwed up.

The last thing I did was pull the gas cap, and poke the rubber gadget in the vent with my finger. It popped right out and fell inside the cap. Can't get out, wasn't needed to begin with unless you roll the thing over, so it's in there forever. I have high hopes but no confidence that the problem was a bad tank vent causing it to go lean and pop.
 
When I lived in PA I had an Toro walk-behind that was quite an expensive piece when new... meaning long before it came into my possession. Self-propelled with five speeds, electric start, the works. It would mow great for about 30 minutes, always hazing just a wee hint of blue. After about half an hour, it would progressively slow down until it stopped. It wouldn't restart for quite awhile, but when it did it ran less than it did the first time, again losing RPM until it stalled. A tune-up and carb rebuild made no difference. It stalled one day and I thought it a good time to check the oil. It hissed, like opening a can of Coke. Used to waiting, I had a beer and restarted it, this time leaving the oil cap loose. It ran until I shut it off that time. Apparently the compression rings were bad enough that after awhile, the crankcase pressure was approaching that of the combustion enough to slow the piston down, working its way to a die-out. I drilled a little hole in the oil cap and it never gave me stalling trouble again. The weird bit was that oil consumption wasn't nearly as bad as one would expect, even with the hole in the cap vomiting smoke and the odd bit of oil vapor.

Glad to hear you're still staying after the Duster, anyhow. I have the fear of strip-outs too, but on brake lines I'm pretty sure you'll round the head before you pull threads, at least in iron. We had to reef on a few lines on the Valiant, too. Stretch would reassure me it was fine, and he was right.
 
I googled the mower problem, and there are a ton of people that experienced it, but very few that reported actually fixing it. I hope this is it. The poor lady has more trouble with mowers than anyone deserves. I think she's gone though 3 since we bought our current one.

Now I've got VW problems. On my 16 GTI, you have to put the wipers into a "safe" position so you can pull them away from the windshield to replace the blades. That process involves pressing the Start button without your foot on the brake (otherwise it starts), pressing it again to turn it off, then flipping the wiper stalk to move them. Then do it all again to park them.

Apparently I failed to turn the thing off last night. I went out a couple of hours after changing the blades and noticed the tail lights were on. Then I got in the car and couldn't turn them off, and eventually got to a point where every sensor on the car was reporting a failure. It kind of freaked me out TBH, since the thing's not under warranty.

I grabbed the DVM and found the battery had a grand total of 6 volts in it. Since I still couldn't get the taillights to turn off, I had to pull the negative cable. I'm going to put it on the charger at noon, but the battery is likely bad which isn't all that surprising after 5-1/2 years. My big concern is that the dealer needs to do something to it before the electronic everythings will work right again. I swear if that happens I am consolidating that and my CTD into a mostly-paid for a cheap Dodge or another small import pickup. Last night's rant included threatening to sell all this modern junk and buy a '65 F100. :D
 
Minor panic attack - I hope the hood release isn't electric because the hood's shut and the battery's disconnected LOL.

Now that everything's turned off and the battery's totally disconnected, it's got 11v.
 
Recharge and you will probably be fine. You could do a load test to verify before changing out the battery and hold off until fall to replace it.
 
IME a 5 year old battery is either dead or dying. They also seem to go dead out of the blue when the first really cold day of the year hits.

My way of load testing them is to charge the hell out of them, and if they won't stay hot long enough to get the car started, then I need a new one. Apply DVM as needed to confirm. 👍

One cold day this past year it flashed up a warning about low voltage and I thought that was it, but it kept on plugging along until I brain farted last night.

I'm going to need a new battery soon, so it almost becomes a question of buying one at today's inflated price, or waiting for it to give up completely in 6 months to a year and then paying an even higher price then.
 
It got to 12v only after 3 hours so I'd say the battery is bad. The car started up no problem but the stability sensor and the TP sensor are lit up on the dashboard. I don't know if driving is required to get those to self calibrate and turn off, or if it's a factory ploy to piss me off so I'll trade it in when the full battery job costs $150 for a battery and $250 to hook it up and reset all the warnings. It is a VW, after all.

I didn't have my wallet in my pocket so I avoided Bob's famous bad luck and decided to not take it for a quick spin to see what happens.

(I'd bet that motion is required for them to initialize and get back to working again)
 
most stuff requires X amount of a drive cycle to "reset"...how much of a cycle depends toooooo much to go into...my 01 explorer sport is the WORST about the drive cycle soo much so in 6 months ive yet to get it to "seat" the reset from swappin the battery....no fails just "not ready for testing"

id bet the TP needs to idle for x amount of time and drive at a couple steedy speeds over x amount of time to set
 
They reset pretty quick when I drove it. I think they use rotations and tire slip to manage TP and the stability control, so at least that makes sense.

BTW, I've got one ball joint that won't take grease, and I did not know that the top of a UBJ will rotate if you turn the grease fitting. These do anyway.
 
If you can't get the ball joint to take grease there is a needle attachment for a grease gun that you poke into the rubber boot to add the amount of grease you require. In the future you can locate the same hole and add grease again for regular maintenance.
 
71dusterman said:
If you can't get the ball joint to take grease there is a needle attachment for a grease gun that you poke into the rubber boot to add the amount of grease you require. In the future you can locate the same hole and add grease again for regular maintenance.
Click to expand...
I hope it doesn't come to that. I tried it both with the BJ unloaded (jackstand under the frame) and loaded (jack under the LCA). I also changed the zerk but no improvement. The other side (UCA) seemed to take a long time to get greased but eventually the boot filled up.

One of the tie rod ends puked out what looked like oil before my grease appeared. It was clear, at first I though tit was water. Maybe the factory grease melted? For sure I've got to get some decent grease in all the parts.
 
What a cluster fuck.

I tried to change the title a while back. DMV told me I needed to have a VIN verification done because the title is old and the car is too. The DMV told me any person with a badge can do the verification, from State troopers all the way down to DNR game wardens. My first thought was "this is arbitrary bullshit" and If it wasn't for having already sunk more in it than it cost to begin with, I'd be tempted to just sell it on using the title signed by the person I bought it from as if I'd never had it.

Anyway, that task got back burnered until today when I finally got around to calling to schedule that. I called the staties first, the phone call seemed OK, took my info, bla bla bla. I just got a call back telling me that I have to go to the local county sheriff's office and pay the fee for having it done, and then they will schedule me. I won't be surprised if they don't tell me next that I have to bring it to them.

TBH I thought it was a gov scam intended to get a cop inside my garage to see what cars I own that aren't being taxed and to see if they can get me caught in a lie over what I paid for it. Turns out it's more likely just a nominal fee to go along with all the other nominal fees for which I get nothing in return.

And I still don't like the idea of inviting a cop to my house. IME, they're all bastards, even the ones that aren't.

FWIW there are very specific conditions in their rules, and none of them apply to me. Fuckers. I'm thinking about trying a different DMV office to see if I can get a different clerk to pass it on through.

https://www.dmv.com/wv/west-virginia/vin-inspection
 
Well, if we didn't have a globalist governor intent on running the state like a prison camp, I'd tell you to send it here. Signed title? Walk into the SoS office (our DMV) and pay the fee, and you're now the new owner with a fresh (and freshly-dated) title in the mail within 10 days. No title? No problem. Bring in your bill of sale. If the title doesn't come up on their radar, off you go... again with a new title on its way. My Challenger never left the garage nor did anyone visit it, although sometimes they want to see the car. I'm not sure why; they don't do an inspection or anything.

Since our governor is Lady Empress Supreme rather than an elected official, one has to make an appointment to go to the SoS office, which is currently backlogged until about Labor Day.
 
That's the way it used to be here. All they cared about was getting their filthy lucre. I guess that's still all they care about, since yet another fee is involved. But the last time I transferred a title, it was just a matter of handing over the signed title and a check, the new title arrived in a week or so.

The DMV here is appointment based too. They started it for Covid, and liked how it made their day more relaxing so they made it permanent. I swear there was a line of people waiting outside who didn't have an appointment and they were still letting them in. It's just another day to be pissed off in paradise as far as I'm concerned.

I think I set a new world's record for how long it takes to grease a car. Good grief I was out there for two hours and all I accomplished was that, the tires back on, and the car back on the ground. I burned though half a roll of shop towels too, wiping up all the grease that wouldn't go in the zerk. I finally got enough in it to where I could feel it plumping the boot, and stopped while I was ahead. Everything except that one UBJ greased like it should. I guess the next time I grease it, it will have worn enough to where there will be nothing to hold the grease back.

Every now and again I'd flash to an image of the hose or ball joint exploding from all the pressure I was putting on it. Still I soldiered on. :D

BTW it seems like I have four horns in the garage, and none of them work. I've got voltage at the plug, and can hear the relay clacking, but no beeping happens. It's the kind of luck I have.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

SiteLock

SiteLock
Back
Top