Doesburg Mk1 - 77 2 Door

[Doesy]

So as some of you saw, I picked up this old Mk1:

1977 swallowtail automatic for sale

When it was for sale in Sydney. It hasn't been rego'd since then and it hasn't aged great, either that or those photos make it look nicer than it was. The paint is pretty dodgy (A really poorly mixed pearl shot over a stark white, almost fully assembled judging by the over-spray on the CV boots and original paint still inside the car).



But after taking out all the interior trim, which is in excellent condition, I found only a few very minimal spots of rust. Under the rear hatch seal, under the drivers side rear window and a bit below the drivers door. All is in very early stages and I'll get it way before it starts to grab hold.

So after getting it into my shed, which was a hassle since it was so low (some 3 wheel motion was involved), I got it up on stands and decided to have a look at the job the previous owner had done on the suspension. It came with a set of Hot Tuning (yeah I hear they're pretty dodgy) coil overs which the guy who owned the car before me said didn't work after he tried to fit them with 16x8s... So upon closer inspection, I think anything would be better than what was in there.




I need some new top strut mounts (going to Camden GTi on Friday) so I just trial fitted them and they seem to fit the bill and will do for now. I had a charging problem when I first got it and discovered that alternator was wired up by a 4 year old? So I fixed that up and it's in working order now.




Tonight I battled with undoing the old top shock mounts so I could see which kind I need and I believe these are later ones with the concealed bearing? Can anyone verify that?



So next on the list

• Repair Surface Rust
• Repaint Bonnet
• New Side Window and Quarter Glass Seals
• Chrome Trim
• Rego

I have a Bentley manual which should arrive tomorrow and a couple editions of Poor Richard's rabbit on the way. If anyone has some of the chrome window trim that comes in coils could they let me know? I'd be up for purchasing that since mk1 autohaus were out when I did my order. I'm looking forward to getting this thing on the road and driving. Thanks for looking!

[Jarred]

Glad to see this mk 1 is getting some TLC.

Was very tidy before it was sprayed and ruined...

[Stiggy_21]

congrats, i think i have a pic of it somewhere (prior to respray), found it doing the shopping

SO jealous you have working 1/4 lights!!!

[Stiggy_21]

[ByronRichesMk1]

Jesus f****** ***** they sprayed over that! That looked beautiful D:
Glad to see its in the hands of someone a lot more sensible!

[Doesy]

It was so good looking, I can't believe someone painted over it and did a ****ty job of it too. Having a hard time now deciding whether I want to repaint it in timorbrün or the colour that I had in mind before.

So I got my Bentley manual in the post yesterday and have been reading through it, kinda bummed it only has info about the zenith carby and fuel injection in it. Went to Pick-a-part today in the pouring rain and robbed some stuff off the mk1s they have there. Then went up to Cambeltown and got a couple of goodies. Hopefully I can get back there while Matt is around and get some knowledge off him and some more stuff.



One of the things I picked up at pick-a-part was a mint passenger 1/4 window seal. Pretty happy to save myself the stupid asking price that they have on werk34 and vwheritage etc. Also got an OG steering wheel to replace the thing mine had on it and a blank off plate to go in the open hole I had where fog light switches would have gone.





I think I mentioned before that someone had been doing some dodgy wiring on this car. So this evening I started tackling that and pulled out the 10s of meters of excess monster cable and redundant speaker wire. This is just some of it...



I started tracing some other useless wiring that was in the engine bay too and came across something I wasn't sure of. As I said my manual only covers the Zenith Carb, where as I've got a Solex 34PICT-5. There's some dodgy looking wiring that is spliced into the ignition loom that then runs through the firewall and to a switch on the side of the carb.

Looking at some drawings online I believe the switch is an electromechanical cut-off switch? And this stops engine run on? Whenever I turn the ignition on in the car I can hear a click coming from the switch from the carby. Here's a photo of the switch I'm referring to, the one beside the screwdriver...




Could anyone tell me if my understanding of the switch is correct? And if the clicking is normal? Thanks guys, small victories...

[mikinoz]

Disconnect the wire and it won't start. You're correct it being fuel shut off.

[Doesy]

OK, so after further looking around I've found that the clicking is normal and that it's a plunger engaging in the electromagnetic cut-off valve. So that's that. Can anyone tell me about the 34PICT-5? How is it different to the 34PICT-3? Is there a better carb for these 1.6s than these Solex carbs?

EDIT: Cheers Mikinoz!

[Doesy]

So, I picked up a few more goodies from Camden GTi when I went to pick my sister up from Mount Annan. A set of front and rear wheel bearings, A Weber 32/36 DGAV (which has been converted to DGEV with an electric choke) and a Lynx adaptor plate so the carby will fit straight onto my manifold.



First things first was to remove my hubs so I could give the bearings some attention. I removed the hubs and they're in great condition. I'll be reusing them. I took some measurements of my hubs and bearings/races and I'm currently spinning up a tool on the lathe to use to remove and install the bearings. It should be done tomorrow or early in the week when I have some time. Pics to follow when it's done and I use it.

I gave the carb a clean up since it was pretty grimey when I got it, like all good carbs are.



I decided to disassemble it and have a look at what the previous owner had done inside it since there were some obvious signs of previous disassembly. The first thing I noticed was that the electric choke mechanism wasn't working but I put this down to a dodgy spring. The second thing I found however was more concerning and I'm still stumped on.

Inside the carb, in the fuel bowl, I found these two balls.



They're quite small, that's a 5 cent piece in the photo. Now I don't know where they came from in the carb. I have stared at the exploded diagram, printed it in A3 to make sure I haven't blindly missed these two balls, I've read a number of disassemble-reassemble articles, Looked it up in the Weber book, scoured the internet and even watched 3 lengthy videos on taking these particular carbs apart and NONE of them mention these two balls.

I've come to the conclusion that they don't belong in the carb, but that begs the question of what the hell they were doing inside there?! Has anyone come across these before?

USPS tells me that my parcel from Mk1 Autohaus has just passed through Australian Customs and hopefully a few other packages make it to me this week! Small Victories.

[golfgti101]

Those balls are check valve balls for the primary circuit.
carb has been turned upside down or dropped etc for them to displace.

off memory there is a plug or similar that holds them in place.