Problem of the day. Post it up!

[MarioVelotta]

I guess things to check, do you have a good ground strap from tranny to chassis. Is the alternator case grounded. Is your alternator stand isolating it somehow? If you do an overland test (just run an excite wire through the rear pop out to an ignition lead up front with a bulb inline) does it still not turn on? In this case maybe to much voltage drop somewhere? A nick in a wire grounding the excite wire?

Do you have your alternator charge cable direct to your battery or does it stop at the starter first? Maybe a loose terminal there?

So many questions

[Vee Dub Nut]

The rev'ing it a bit to get it to charge is somewhat normal... Mine does that (genuine Bosch internal regulator).

You have to get it over a certain speed to get it to excite and charge. If you start it and have a low idle speed when it first ticks off, sometimes you need to blip the throttle to get engine speed up to get it to charge. I never noticed it with carbs cause I always modulated the throttle during start up, but with efi and not having to touch the throttle on cold starts, I noticed it all the time.

[shag55]

Good strap, yes.
Alternator stand is powdercoated but still was grounded. I added an extra ground wire to be safe.
No voltage drop. 11.7v at the connector grounded to the alt case.
Reving it a little is normal but I have to now rev it to 4k

[MarioVelotta]

Went to drive my bug to work today but it was leaking fuel Gonna have to look into that this weekend. I'm just glad I had to go shut the garage door to see the drips leading out to my car... Crisis averted!

[56speedster]

Good thing you saw it Mario. I had a fuel leak/boost vacuum leak a couple of months ago that was caused by a broken fuel rail support bracket that attaches the CB fuel rail to the CB end casting. I built some boost pressure and the car died and I was able to coast into a parking lot to see what was up. Opened the deck lid and smelled fuel and then saw the injectors sitting up and out of the lower bosses on the end casting. I pushed them back in to the end casting and babied the car to work and made a new bracket.

[shag55]

Those cb brackets suck! They are not for turbo use.

[miniman82]

Really? I've not had a problem with mine, just make sure you loctite those allens!

[turbobaja]

Went to drive my bug to work today but it was leaking fuel Gonna have to look into that this weekend. I'm just glad I had to go shut the garage door to see the drips leading out to my car... Crisis averted!

Good job catching it before things got any worse! Something about the fuel in my baja stinks worse than usual...it's been spilling hear and there on my garage floor over the last few weeks and stinking the place up something fierce.

My problem today: my faithful '84 GTI wouldn't fire up this morning, not even crank over. Hopefully it's just a battery, it would be the first time it's had a dead battery in the 7+ years I've been running the same AC Delco battery

[56speedster]

Really? I've not had a problem with mine, just make sure you loctite those allens!

Mine broke at the top 90* bend. They are using a top die with a knife edge when they bend these (or at least the ones I have) which I don't like so I made new brackets using a die with an 1/8" radius. It ran for well over a year before it broke and could have just come from a bad batch. Who knows? It's all good now though I was thinking of designing a new bracket that doesn't need to be attached to the bottom of the rail. Some kind of saddle to go over the top of the rail and still attach the same to the end casting. No need to worry about it now though because it isn't a problem anymore.

[Stripped66]

I found with my manifolds the mounting bolts were only engaging a few threads into the intake manifold. I had one bolt pull through the threads and sprayed down my entire engine compartment with gas going down the freeway (this was on the 3/4 side, with the header/collector underneath that head) and fortunately I walked away with only a cleaner engine bay. Longer bolts were the fix.

[56speedster]

TOO MUCH BOOST!!!

Weather was nice so I went for a long spin today and when I hammered it, I hit the hard limit that I have set in Tunerstudio. Wasn't sure what happened at first as the car pulled hard and then hit a wall. Decided to run hard again and as I watched the boost gauge, I saw it climb right past 20psi and then hit the wall again. Gotta figue out what came loose or isn't working and then set the controller to 19.5psi as the Speedster was flat out screaming and ripping up the pavement. Gotta love the cooler days.... I'll run it till I blow something up.

[seabeebuggy]

Well at least you get what you want. Have fun with it.

[56speedster]

Well at least you get what you want. Have fun with it.

Yes sir I do and it looks like I might be wanting a new wastegate as I've checked all of the plumbing and have found no leaks. Drove the Speedster to work this morning (a VERY cold ride with the top down) and am still building past 20psi. I will take the boost controller out of the equation and run straight to the wastegate this afternoon before ordering a replacement.

[56speedster]

Confirmed that the wastegate has gone belly up and will replace in the next few days.

[MarioVelotta]

Just got your pm. I still have it!