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Annika Kentopp wrote: > > IÕm looking for suggestions from all of you out there who are more > experienced with Type 3Õs than me. Just bought last month a Õ73 > Fastback with 36K miles. It was the proverbial little old ladyÕs car, > and it was sitting (with occasional starts) for about 3 years now. She > drove home to DC from north Jersey okay, and IÕm about to start > working on the problems I know about (right rear brake locks up pretty > quickly, steering is way loose, some lights are shorted out), but I > thought IÕd see if there were any suggestions of things I either > should check or replace right off the bat. IÕm inclined to replace any > flex lines or hoses, since itÕll be easier to fix them now than when > they fail on the side of a road somewhere, but maybe I shouldnÕt worry > till they do fail? Any thoughts? > Having been more or less where you are now, here's what I suggest. A vehicle this age, despite the low miles driven, should have its brake hydraulics gone over- especially if its been sitting. Never wait for a brake component to fail, even on your worst enemy. The brake pedal feel should not be rock hard- it should have a good range of motion and modulation. It should also brake evenly and not lock up anywhere. On mine, I disassembled all the brake components. I disassembled the rear brakes and reassembled and relubed them where apprpriate, reusing most of the mechanical parts and brake shoes- they were in good shape. For the rear hydraulics, I rebuilt the wheel cylinders and honed out the slight bit of roughness. I also replaced the rear flex lines- the part numbers you will need are L/H: 211-611-775C, R/H: 211-611-775B. They're not the original part numbers, but these are a good fit and should pose no problems. For the fronts, I disassembled the brakes and sent the calipers over to Jim Adney to be rebuilt. He did a fantastic job. He confirmed for me that the piston bores were quite nicely corroded (I had a very hard time retracting the pistons), reused all the other mechanical components and replaced the front pads with new PBR brand pads. I also replaced the front flex lines, L/H and R/H: 311-611-701B. I also rebuilt the master cylinder. I sent the pistons over to Jim to have him replace all the rubber bits, as one of the seals requires a special tool to slide it on, and I figured why cheap out now- I might as well do it 100% the first time. Since I had all the hydraulics taken apart, I took this opportunity to refill my braking system with DoT-5 fluid, which has some better housekeeping characteristics for a vehicle that might spend the winter garaged and gets limited road use. Ask Jim for his DoT-5 FAQ. All told, this all cost me around $250, and this included Jim's rebuilding my front calipers. The work is not particularly hard- if you've worked with brakes before, and have the Bentley manual, it should be cake. If you work at your leisure, it could be done over the course of a few evenings. I would also recommend replacing ALL of the fuel lines- this includes all the lines to the injectors. For this, you will need a 25' roll of 5/16" fuel line (you'll use 20' or so), I recommend the Goodyear Hypalon stuff- it has a datestamp along the length, which will help you know when to replace it. You don't need special fuel injection hose, or the original German braided stuff. I also used all new hose clamps- I'm partial to FI-specific clamps. You'll need about 32 of them. This job can be done in a day. Outside of that, I suggest giving the engine a tune up, checking the timing, dwell, etc... and changing the oil, and maybe doing all the maintenance items, working under the assumption that they're all due by now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~