[T3] just brought home a project car.

[David Williams <djw@efn.org>]

Well, this is the first time I've posted to the list, but I've been
reading along for the last month or so. Alright, I've come into possession
of a beat up Sqaureback, which I've since decided is pretty much beyond
restoration. I originally found it with the intent of robbing it of it's
pan for a kit car project, but I entertained the idea of keeping the body
to restore it, until I got it home and noticed there was more rust than I
first saw. I'm going to delay my decision on what to do with the body
until I'm able to get the whole thing cleaned up, and hopefully get the
body removed(I suppose that if during removal of the body all of the
rusted areas give, and the whole thing collapses then the decision will be
easy). Now to the more immediate issues.. I havn't been in contact with
the previous owner again since I hauled it home, so I don't know for sure,
but it seems that the ECU for the fuel injection is gone. I guess now
would be a good time to say that is a 1971 Squareback, with EFI. The
injectors are still in place, but I can't find the electrical part of the
fuel injection system, plus to make matters worse some previous owner cut
wires, seemingly at random within the engine compartment. If it does turn
out that he doesn't have the ECU, do I need to find a '71 replacement, or
can I use one out of any Type3?  And since I get the impression that
working ECUs are not only hard to find, but also fairly expensive to buy
once you do locate one, what would be required to switch to a carburator
setup? I had wanted to stick with the FI, but if I can pull parts from
wrecking yards to switch to carb(s), then that might be the cheapest way
to go. For reference the engine hasn't been run for about 1.5 years, and
so I'm keen to find out if it will be possible to nurse it back to life
without spending too much money in the process. The other question I had
was, is there any way to tell if a transmission is in decent shape without
putting it into a car and trying it out? There was an extra transmission
tossed into the back of the car, and you can easily turn the shaft on it
and see the transaxle parts turn, so it isn't seized solid, but should I
be able to move the shift lever thing by hand? Well I suppose those 2
items are the most pressing, since right now I'm concentrating on getting
a working motor, and 1 or 2 good transmissions(there is also one installed
in the car) out of the deal. Currently it looks like the car is going to
cost me $50, but I'm going to try and haggle him down if it turns out that
the ECU is a no-show. 

Thanks for your time.

I have a brief webpage setup that I'm trying to keep updating as things
change at:
http://members.xoom.com/VW_Project/

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe? mailto:type3-request@vwtype3.org, Subject: unsubscribe