Pearl white coupe revival

[ottawa coupe]

Oh ffs it's always just one more part.... cooling system airtight now EXCEPT the stupid o-ring for the stupid coolant temp sensor which i stupidly didn't order..... so hopefully the vw dealer has one tomorrow.




Got my bits together for the battery connections. 2awg welding ground cable for the positive lead. Picked up a crude but nifty tool for "crimping" the terminals onto the cables. Bonus, it's hammer operated so i get to get my frustrations over o-rings out lol. Produces a pretty good result i think.


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Just gotta pick up some stainless bolts for ground studs tomorrow and i should be able to knock the battery stuff out pretty quick.

[ottawa coupe]

Aaaaaaand another leak found. I thought the lower rad connection was water tight as i only had to weld a 3mm hole in. However now that everything else is sealed, the weakest link was indeed the the friggin afftected zone that got porous. No biggie, will try to braze it.

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So, back on to fusion to draw up the lower and then sending to craft cloud for printing. I noted that is has already gotten more expensive thanks to international developments and transport costs.... i get it next week tho.

On to electrical i guess.

Still no word on the trigger wheel.... i am getting less sympathetic to the reasons....

[ottawa coupe]

So, trigger wheel is in fedex's hands now thankfully. Ground studs welded and by tonight, i should have the positive terminal connection point under the dash sorted. O have a proper audi one for the engine bay on the way but otherwise, battery stuff done.

I am still not 100% happy with the brakes, i think there's air in the abs i gotta deal with? I've read something about doing that with vagcom but i've not flund a procedure. Just keep pressure bleeding?

trigger wheel due friday, hopefully not delayed....should that schedule hold, i think it'll be a roller once again this weekend and i won't need to get under it again till it's on my lift to sort the exhaust connections.

i think the only non electrical thing left is the lower rad connection, friday if things go exceptionally well but i think that's optimistic.

Then all the electrical connwctions.....

Edit: boo, got my fedex emails mixed up. Trigger wheel is next week....

[ottawa coupe]

Great googly moogly it never ends...

Information i was given regarding front axles for an 02x in a b3 was incorrect. The advice was that axles from a c5 work. So i went and hopped on the trusty interwebs and purchased the pn i was provided and thought nothing more of it. Till 45 minutes ago. The outer CVs don't fit. The abs tone ring is too big and interferes on the knuckle.

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So after much searching of part numbers, i believe the only conclusion is i am going to have to weld up halfshafts that have the proper 02x inners with b3/4 outers. By chance i have half a dozen or so Urs axles that issam was just gonna throw away a coupla years ago. So cv boots aside, free.99.

The downside is i hate doing it. I did it without issue on my old racecar but that doesn't mean i liked doing it. I bet this time too that i will be dealing with different diameter shafts too.... fml....

It's either that or i go back to the original plan that i aborted with the 01e from my s6 because i couldn't find a read diff i needed for the tdi box. I have subsequently found a diff. But that would mean tearing into the s6 when i am just about to wake it up (and then have 2 intense projects at the same time), swapping boxes, and redoing everything i did for gearbox mounts, shift linkage and possibly exhaust. Oh ya, another propshaft because the 02x is longer than the 01e.

I realize there may be one other option. The $$ one. I am going to call the shop that did my propshaft. Maybe they can make me some axles with the right cvs....

Edit: nope, local shop doesn't do CVs anymore....

[ottawa coupe]

So, found a two things. The root of the issue and a backup solution.

The root cause is me (d'uh!!! Lol). I didn't realize the outer cvs needed to be swapped. That is doable with oem shafts. I got aftermarket axles because cheap and available and didn't know about the outers. Most aftermarket chinesium are not meant to be serviced, just replaced, so their splines and cvs are rarely interchangeable. An oem joint has a different spline and circlip arrangement.

So that's the trap i fell into.

I have found 1 oem axle on ebay, will see how it works out and then will find another. Because they are in europe (none found here), the axles are cheap but the shipping is many times the cost of the part. The one i bought is 15€ but 45€ shipping. The rest are 20€ and over 120€ shipping..... nla at audi new and even then, a tqd pricey at $1000 each

The worst case is that i have found a local shop that can make some for me.

the next worst part of all is that my shop is now an utter mess with greasy guts of cv joints everywhere and i am running out of rubber gloves lol

[ottawa coupe]

Decided i needed a pick me up. Popped the rear coilovers on and rolled it outside.

Yes, still friggin snowing here....

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[ottawa coupe]

Took the brave pill again (they still work!) And started throwing the electrical harnesses at it to see where i am for wire lengths. I think i'll be ok for the main ecu connections and the throttle pedal (if i ever get the damned connector delivered!) But the connections between ecu and the rest of the harnesses will need to be extended. Not a silly number of wires thankfully, but a task i'll likely procrastinate on nonetheless.

so many little things to deal with!

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[ottawa coupe]

So, as called above, i havve been procrastinating and waking up my s6 as opposed to working on electrical lol.

But i did get my printed lower rad connection yesterday. Fits perfect and because no protrustion for the second port, provides more clearance to the alternator pulley. Hard to see but about 10mm clearance now.... miles of space lol

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[ottawa coupe]

I am gonna say the cooling system is now sorted. Did a pressure test this morning

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Arms got tired pumping so didn't get to 15psi. The couplers at the rad are leaking ever so slightly but that's most likely due to the fact the slots for the retaining clips need massaging as they are not sitting 100% right. I also have noticed that the o-rings for the aftermarket couplers off which mine are based use thicker rings than oe....but i am using oe right now cuz they are easier to install.... minor things to adjust.

and i got off my butt for electrical.... finished the positive terminal by the starter and extending the starter and alternator exciter wires. I have all my connectors now so no more excuses.

Happy tbpught re battery connections. Now that those are done, the car burni g to the ground is now an option....yaaaaay!

[ottawa coupe]

Productive day yesterday, got the ecu wires extended and secured such they will make it to the fuse box and other chassis connections. I have the chassis wiring for the engine bay routed, i need to extend a few bits tho. The last 2 power connections look like they need shortening but i am not going to do that until i have sorted and tucked away the hornets nest of wiring by the fuse box. There's probably half a dozen connections i need to sort on that side too.

Fire test (battery connection) sometime this week.... 20260328_183051.jpg

[ottawa coupe]

Got a few solid hours in the shop this morning and knocked a bunch off the to do list.

The car passed the smoke test and it will spin the engine! Super happy about that. I now need to dig thru a bunch of stuff and do a full system check. Ecu was not plugged in either.

as monty python said, "i'm not dead yet!"

[ottawa coupe]

Got another hour last night. Things are starting to wake up. All of the switches in the dash work now. I have a few failed connections at the rear lights to sort and i still need to test the door wiring and hvac.

I think i am gonna try and get the aux guages working too for peace of mind, i just dunno where to tap in to for oil stuff...

And i got the hidzzzzzz working

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Maybe try to start it this weekend????

[ottawa coupe]

I got to the bottom of my cooling system leak.

i disconnected the coupler from the hose and put some plugs in tested, no leaks. What's happening is that the hose is pulling the coupler a bit cockeyed. So either i need to figure out how to make the coupler immobile, or i need to make the hose not pull on it.

Not sure how i will go just yet....will first try to take stress off it but there may be another print required that has some additional mounting points to make it rigid.

Busy week this week but i am going to try and finish the electrical at least. If i do that i can at least run it for a few seconds this weekend maybe.

Edit: went out at lunch with lotsa wd40 and force, i got it on with the thicker o-ring and voila, no leaks. Finally

[ottawa coupe]

Omg, the going backwards never stops! The only wiring things to sort now are the thermoswitch on the radiator and the tail lights. I got down to 1 bulb misbehaving. Traced it to a corroded pin on the bulb monitoring module for the rear lights. But of course i am using the cabby fuse block for my setup as the coupe one was too far gone and brittle. So i can bypass this module entirely..... but more friggin soldering!

may do a moderately late night and get that done. With luck, that's IT and can push for the test fire this long weekend. I want to get the wiring done beforehand because if i get it fired up first, then i am likely to half *** the remaining electrical testing and repair lol

[ottawa coupe]

So, got the lights all working as they should. Xenons work but high beams are a bit of a mess as is the interaction with DRL so for the purposes of getting it thru a safety in the future, will use the candles that are the halogens. Something about a diode to make the high beams work righ and i found info on drl removal. That's a future problem.

tomorrow i need to extend the rad thermoswitch and then i'll plug in the ecu and see if vagcom can read it (worked on the bench so should be fine) and the abs module. Once that is confirmed, i DID get some fuel on the way home from work today..... it may happen this weekend?????