Sam's build thread

[sambb]

hey just putting it out there....... whats to stop me just getting an upholsterer to cut/stitch a neat slit in my drivers seat base, removing the under-seat draw and mounting a plate to the floor so that a 6 point harness can be used? My seat is always in one spot so I could get the crotch strap into the right location easy enough. Not as strong as a crotch strap that goes through a solid seat base, but it couldn't be worse than a 4 pointer surely?

[sambb]

Picked up my box this afternoon. Apparently there were a few little hitches. Main one being that because with the Kaaz diff design the bolts come into the threaded diff housing from the ring gear side, which is opposite to a wavetrac where nuts go onto studs that are pressed onto the diff. The Kaaz supplied bolts were just protruding a smidge enough out the back side of the diff housing that they needed to be taken back a tad or they'd brush the bearing.
So super bonus was that he had on hand the pinion bearing surround out of a 6 speed that fits my box. In the first pic is the comparison between the 5 speed and the 6 speed one. Its the race that holds the pinion bearing so looks to be a hell of a lot stronger. I'm now wondering if there's any reason to swap the pinion brace (pic 2 as fitted to my current box) to the other side inside the bellhousing with this box r if the oversized bearing support will do the trick as is.?
Either way I'm now thoroughly out of money and need
- flywheel bolts
-driveshaft flange bolts
- hub nuts x 2
- to service/regrease my passenger side driveshaft
- decide whether to keep my existing 14lb flywheel or get another and go a tad lighter

$$$ which I wont have in time for Bathurst so this box will have to wait till after March.

[Sydneykid]

hey just putting it out there....... whats to stop me just getting an upholsterer to cut/stitch a neat slit in my drivers seat base, removing the under-seat draw and mounting a plate to the floor so that a 6 point harness can be used? My seat is always in one spot so I could get the crotch strap into the right location easy enough. Not as strong as a crotch strap that goes through a solid seat base, but it couldn't be worse than a 4 pointer surely?

I often use the front seat mounting bolts for the twin crotch straps, one each side. No need for holes in the floor pan, but if you do there are seat belt washers (square and round) some with captive nuts, that you can use under the floor.

Cheers
Gary

[Sydneykid]

Picked up my box this afternoon. Apparently there were a few little hitches. Main one being that because with the Kaaz diff design the bolts come into the threaded diff housing from the ring gear side, which is opposite to a wavetrac where nuts go onto studs that are pressed onto the diff. The Kaaz supplied bolts were just protruding a smidge enough out the back side of the diff housing that they needed to be taken back a tad or they'd brush the bearing.
So super bonus was that he had on hand the pinion bearing surround out of a 6 speed that fits my box. In the first pic is the comparison between the 5 speed and the 6 speed one. Its the race that holds the pinion bearing so looks to be a hell of a lot stronger. I'm now wondering if there's any reason to swap the pinion brace (pic 2 as fitted to my current box) to the other side inside the bellhousing with this box r if the oversized bearing support will do the trick as is.?
Either way I'm now thoroughly out of money and need
- flywheel bolts
-driveshaft flange bolts
- hub nuts x 2
- to service/regrease my passenger side driveshaft
- decide whether to keep my existing 14lb flywheel or get another and go a tad lighter

$$$ which I wont have in time for Bathurst so this box will have to wait till after March.

I'd still use the external support brace, no harm in over engineering.

Why new flywheel bolts an driveshaft flange bolts? Are the old ones a bit damaged? If not re-use them.

New hub nuts are also not really necessary as long as you can lock them OK.

What's the light flywheel, 4kgs? Not really worth it for 2.5 kgs double win, being the rotating mass and the total weight of the car. I'd use the money on lighter wheels, possibly 5 times as much weight saving and they are a triple win, total weight, rotating mass and unsprung weight.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

Ok brace will get swapped over then.
I'd just assumed that I'd need to remove the flywheel to get it refaced for the new clutch at minimum and see if at the same time they could take off another pound. Its a 14lb (stock is 22lb) so much lighter already but you don't think taking a little bit more out of the flywheel would have merit? I always figured flywheel bolts were a strict one use. I know the manual says the drive shaft flange bolts are one use - everything is stretch bolts on my car.
The hub nuts have ratcheting tabs that tear/bend off when you remove them. The nuts are only 50Nm + 1/4 turn I think so they need those tabs to be safe I think. Once they are fitted there isn't really any available thread that protrudes that you could get onto with a lock wire.

[Sydneykid]

Ok brace will get swapped over then.
I'd just assumed that I'd need to remove the flywheel to get it refaced for the new clutch at minimum and see if at the same time they could take off another pound. Its a 14lb (stock is 22lb) so much lighter already but you don't think taking a little bit more out of the flywheel would have merit? I always figured flywheel bolts were a strict one use. I know the manual says the drive shaft flange bolts are one use - everything is stretch bolts on my car.
The hub nuts have ratcheting tabs that tear/bend off when you remove them. The nuts are only 50Nm + 1/4 turn I think so they need those tabs to be safe I think. Once they are fitted there isn't really any available thread that protrudes that you could get onto with a lock wire.

Have a close look at the flywheel face, if it is relatively groove free then a simple scuff up with emery will do the trick, then spray it with brake clean.

There is a limit to how light I would go with a non steel flywheel and you have already taken quite a bit off it. From memory the race ones for the VW's are around 4 kgs, so you are only ~2.5 kgs over that. If the face needs machining then maybe a bit more can be removed, but listen to the machinist.

Flywheel bolts are high tensile (often Grade 10 or 12) so a quick clean and inspection will reveal any deformation. If the threads look intact and uniform then they are good to go.

I'm not familiar with Polo hub nuts but the common design has an outer flange for punching into the drive shaft slot. So I usually reverse them from the side to side so the punching is in a different spot. They actually don't carry much load as all of the drive goes through the splines. The nuts really only carry the tension load from the drive shaft boots (hence the low tightening torque for their size). As long as they don't loosen, so the threads and locking need to be in good condition.

Are they this style?

If so don't worry about the tabs, just punch in the flange.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

Righto I just spoke to Brian at GTI Imports and he said that the flywheel bolts and driveshaft bolts are re useable. He's been in the VW parts importing world for decades and said that the reason why flywheel bolts are described as single use is because they come pre loctited. If you remove them, VW assumes you are a dunce and wont clean and re locktite the threads , therefore they 'call' them single use when in actual fact they can be used multiple times. Sam for the driveshaft bolts apparently.
When you do the box on the Polo only the drivers side shaft needs to come out of the hub so really I only need 1 hub nut. My passenger side CV is noisy so I was going to get my spare from the old car re lubed/booted and throw it in at the same time thus the need for 2 nuts. Yep the nut in the pic is what my car use. So just a punch on the nuts flange will do it yeah? will do.
My flywheel was part of a complete ECS Stage 1 single mass flywheel/clutch conversion with their lightest flywheel specc'd. Its a tiny bit lighter than a G60 flywheel so it could be that ECS takes that one and ightens it further and its already near its limit. It was sold as a steel flywheel but I assume thats cast and then machined, not billet. Given that the car is only pulling 6500 at the most, surely it'd be safe yeah, or is more about what happens when the clutch suddenly camps onto it under full torque ie the sheer force at the bolts?
In an ideal world the flywheel will look virginal when I get the box out. Its only been in there a bit over a year but has done 40,000 km so I'm not sure. So are we talking any grooves at all, remove it? any evidence of heat spots do I ignore those if it is dead flat? Because if it can stay in I'd prefer that. The clutch and pressure plate I'm looking at ( Diesel Transporter) has already been balanced and so too was the ECS flywheel that's in there so it sounds like everything cold be plug and play.

[sambb]

Yeah the G60 flywheel is 7.8kg which is 17LB so mine is far lighter than that. It could be that mine is the flywheel from a Golf Mk3 VR6 or a machined version of that. I did see that ECS sells aluminium flywheels that are below 5kg. Perhaps those are motorsport type ones? That'd be way too light for any use on the street though wouldn't it.

This is the 14lb ECS one. It had a few specs of surface rust on it when I bought it so I got it super lighter re faced to get that off. Looking at the centre it looks cast yeah?

[Sydneykid]

The flywheels we use in the race cars are designed for 5.5" twin or triple plate clutches, totally unsuitable for a road car.




Yep, just centre punch the hub nut flange into the drive shaft groove/s.


Give the flywheel a quick rub with some emery (mid range coarseness, say 200 grit) and spray it with brake clean. Should be OK as long as the grooves aren't too bad or too frequent. Heat spots should polish off with the emery, but make sure you stay even with the rubbing, not in one spot. Send me a picture if you are in doubt.

Sometimes the flywheel and pressure plate are only balanced together as one unit. So make sure that they were individually balanced. If not then you will need to get them balanced. Twice, once individually and then again checked as a unit.

RPM and centrifugal force are the big flywheel killers. That and loose flywheel bolts, double whammy. Loctite is your friend. If it's flat and doesn't have deep heat marks it should be fine. Spend some time with the straight edge.


Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

yeah thinking about it the clutch/PP will come balanced together but they are not part of a kit with a flywheel so how they'lll balance out with the flywheel is an unknown. Thats good enough reason for me to remove the flywheel and do it right. Given that, instead of emery i'll get it refaced which'd be the right way to go yeah? Just a super light skim should be fine.
Of course the other option is to just retain what I've got. A oneyear old clutch that's done 40,000km which should last longer than the diff plates anyway...….its tempting!