I just remembered something about my Pickup. It doesn't have an engine mount, just the 3 transaxle mounts replaced with urethane bushings. I decided to try this, after listening to the reasons I shouldn't posted on this list (looked like nothing I couldn't detect and go back to fix). It seems to work just fine, I can even bark the fat front tyres with the baby DCP. I suspected it might, as my Bently manual mentions that early gas Rabbits lacked an engine mount (though I've never seen a Rabbit without one). An electric motor is alot lighter and shakes alot less :-) Plus my mounts are alot harder than stock (they do pick up road noise, OK for a tough Pickup, but perhaps not what you would want in a nice Rabbit).
Seth wrote: >Don't forget to pull the speedo drive, and plug it when you do. Pulling >the front bolts of the lower control arms and rotating the arms out can >get you enough slack to pull axles without separating the ball joint >fron the knuckle. If I understand my manual correctly I should be able to pull the axle out without undoing any part of the front suspension (except automatic Rabbits). There will be enuf room to push the axle together and get it out of the way of the transaxle. I wonder about that too :-) Anyway, I thought I would hang the axles high (for changing a transaxle) and then pull and swap the axles while there was no transaxle in place (big tight nut loosened before the front leaves the ground). Then there outta be plenty of room to pull them out then. >But I would change the bearing AND the hubs when I do >axles. Suck it up and spend $20 for each hub and bearing, and $60 for >each reman axle (don't rebuild them with just CV joints, they are a real >pain). The total can be $200 plus using the bearing press, or another >$40 to get it done, but all three often need replacement simultaneously. >And don't ever, ever, ever, even roll it a foot unless the axle nuts >have at least the specified torque (~180 lb ft for some) or else you >will be buying new bearings really soon. Could you expain more about, "don't ever, ever, ever, even roll it a foot unless the axle nuts have at least the specified torque"? You are refering only to rolling the bearing with weight on them right? That is, can I roll the hubs by hand when the vehicle is in the air to make sure the bearings are smooth? I cannot find any reference to not rolling the bearing in the Bently manual and I don't want to mess them up. Thanx! Chuck wrote: >With some 1300lbs of lead aboard, you ought to be good for a lot >more than 40 miles. The bed cover should make things a lot >better than dragging a bucket through the wind (I see a lot of >pickups around that have this same problem: owners don't get a >cover, remove the tailgate, or get one of those tailgates with >holes to let the air through - probably cuts 2-3 mpg off their >mileage, depending on how much freeway driving is going on). The rumor is that the VW Pickup is espcially bad in this area. Power to go any given freeway speed should drop to level previously seen 10 to 15mph slower. I know many Rabbit Pickup owners that report noticable fuel milliage increases with a camper shell on their Pickups. >I've thought about an upper tie bar. Would it really help on a >Rabbit? Are things really flexing that much? It would be one >more thing to work around and remove if I have to take out a >battery near the firewall, although with sliding batteries on the >trays, I might manage to not have to remove it. I never knew >about a lower control arm tie bar - does that connect between the >two bolts that hold the control arms to the body? If so, we put >one there, in a fashion, as the support for the rear of the front >bellypan, and the front of the big middle bellypan. That piece >is aluminum, so it may stretch, but so far no problems with the >crushing of the aluminum under the boltheads affecting the >tightening torque (52 ft-lbs). You have the concept behind the lower tie bar down. I don't know how much flex is there, but cornering puts alot of load on the lower control arm inside attach points. Each front corner of my Pickup weighs about 1000lbs - not something VW was planning on. As far as the upper, I don't know how much they try to move. The performance crowd seems to think the bar is needed. >You must be pulling that bucket through the air pretty hard. >With a 96V Rabbit, 60mph is nowhere near full throttle, assuming >no headwind. With 120V I would assume it would be even easier. The Prestolite makes great torque per amp, but not alot of rpms per volt. I'll have the motor running at almost 4500rpm with the stock gearbox (3700rpm now with the late sedan 4-speed). The Presto won't pull many amps at 4500 rpm. Back EMF will be pretty high, I won't have to back off the throttle much to get under 150 amps (at 5000rpm the Presto only pulls 115 amps foot to the floor). Neon
