Restoration and maintenance advice

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Diddymen, Sep 26, 2011.

  1. I cant take credit for these as I've pinced them for another site, I've only edited them to reflect VW's ;D .......wise words none the less :D


    Warning! When working on the car - electrical, mechanical or body - it may well be highly desirable to disconnect the battery first. When doing this always remove the ground connection first and replace last, and this is regardless of whether the car is negative ground or positive ground.
    The reason for this is that if your spanner should happen to touch the body whilst it is also touching the ground post of the battery nothing will happen. Once the ground connection is removed and if you want to remove the battery it is now safe to undo the 12v (aka 'hot' or 'live') connection, because if your spanner should happen to touch the body while it is on the hot post still nothing will happen because the ground connection has already been removed.
    If you remove the 12v connection first and the spanner touches the body whilst doing so, you will generate a large spark which can ignite any battery gases that may be present, or maybe even cause the battery to explode in your face!

    "Listen to your car, it is talking to you." Get used to how you car sounds, feels, looks, smells (and tastes, if so inclined), and investigate any changes BEFORE you get a breakdown.

    Don't assume that because you have found one problem, you have found the ONLY problem.

    Don't change parts willy-nilly in an attempt to fix a problem. It is expensive and you may just disturb the fault (particularly electrics) only for it to reappear (probably in the dark and the rain) another day. Think of how the circuit in question is supposed to work, investigate why it doesn't, prove which bit is faulty, then replace/repair it.

    Many break-downs occur soon after a car has been worked on; 'new' parts can be faulty when you receive them; 'new' parts will sometimes fail soon after fitting; 'new' parts almost certainly won't last as long as the originals.

    A VW is never 'finished', if there is nothing for you to currently work on it is merely 'resting'.

    A manual is an aid to common-sense, without common-sense any manual is useless.

    If you haven't found a use for something yet, you haven't kept it long enough.


    And finally the quote of quotes:

    "Al, bent over the wheel, kept shifting eyes from the road to the instrument panel, watching the ammeter needle, which jerked suspiciously, watching the oil gauge and the heat indicator. And his mind was cataloguing weak points about the car. He listened to the whine, which might be the rear end, dry; and he listened to tappets lifting and falling. He kept his hand on the gear lever, feeling the turning gears through it.
    "Listen to the motor. Listen to the wheels. Listen with your ears and with your hands on the steering wheel; listen with the palm of your hand on the gearshift lever; listen with your feet on the floorboards. Listen to the pounding old jalopy with all your senses; for a change of tone, what a variation of rhythm might mean. That rattle - that's tappets. Don't hurt a bit. Tappets can rattle till Jesus comes again without no harm. But that thudding as the car moves along - can't hear that - just kind of feel it. Maybe oil isn't gettin' someplace. Maybe a bearing's startin' to go..."

    The Grapes Of Wrath
    John Steinbeck
     
  2. Honky

    Honky Administrator

    Very good, thanks :).
     

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