215 replies to this topic

[VelovetAndy]

As a break from making brake caliper adaptors , I thought I would fit my newly arrived Polar FIS ( Many thanks to Illegal r32 who made all this happen for me... much appreciated ) . Anyway, firmware update duly done , I though I would spend a happy ten minutes removing the panel beneath the pedals and plugging in the Polar . An hour later I came to the conclusion that despite removing said panel, Un clipping the relay box and standing on my head in the footwell, there was now way on this earth that my hand was going to get anywhere near the plug on the canbus gateway , let alone unplug it and plug the Polar in place. 
Fortunately this wonderful forum rode to my rescue in the form of a post from some time ago from someone who had met the same problem. Solution is to remove the wiper arms, plastic scuttle panel, windscreen wiper motor and drive and an access panel . Beneath lurks the Canbus gateway . Now knocked off for tea, so battery disconnect in the morning, quick plug swap and I will be one Polar Fis to the good. 

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[VelovetAndy]

Round 2. Fitted really easily. The only hard bit is fiddling the wiper motor gear back into place. Oh, and the scuttle panel. A cracking upgrade. Really nice to have temperatures, pressures, speed etc all digitally displayed and all controlled via the steering wheel. Really neat upgrade I would recommend to anyone 

[VelovetAndy]

Right. Warm glow of the Polar Fis has not worn off, but back to the rear brakes. The next step in this labyrinthine journey is the brackets that hold the Tdi calipers. I had to make new ones as these calipers are smaller than the R32 ones. Several hours with the pillar drill, hacksaw and files and one pair of brackets appeared. Not quite as elegant as the Epytec ones for the R32 calipers , but at £9.34 for two pieces of aluminium plate 120x100x15mm ,not quite as expensive either .  

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[Richyo]

Great build Andy, seems like a really thorough job you’re doing! Seems like you and the R32 had a lovely Valentine’s Day! 🥰

[VelovetAndy]

It certainly did . Mrs Wright got flowers and chocolates but I think that the car got the better deal! Anyway, bespoke rear brake hoses from Epytec arrived this morning.  Beautifully made and absolutely ideal. Just waiting for one more item and the rear ended strip and rebuild is set to go . 

[VelovetAndy]

Final roll of the dice with these wishbones. Prototype one went in the bin I cocked up the spring pan height , setting the base of coil spring too high to leave me any adjustment . Prototype two had more promise. It fitted, it had the damper mounting and the spring seat would still have left me with another 15mm of lowering potential if needed. Snag was (a) it weighed 1.5kg more than the o.e arm and ( it looked as if it was designed to be in the middle of a field being towed by a Massey Ferguson . So that hit the bin. The latest iteration still needs a little coil spring centring ring in the middle of the pan and the damper mount, but as , at the moment it is 0.5 kg lighter than the o.e arm, a bit of a result. It also does not look quite so agricultural and , once powder coated , might even look half  decent . However, VW probably spent a lot of time and effort designing the wishbone to take the axial and vertical loads and cost 50p  to make . They used 2.2mm thick steel , and the wishbone is primarily a pressing with a top welded in place . I, on the other hand,used 50x30x3mm box steel , fired up my pocket calculator and did some beam strength calculations, primarily in bending and torsion , which is all well and good but with a fold  and weld in the middle , half the beam stiffness is lost.  Mind you , at just over 1000kg load per mm of deflection and a pin joint  failure at 6000kg( when the bolted joint at the hub end gives in ) , perhaps it will do .In the meantime, I have nearly finished my modified caliper adaptors which retain the damper mount on the hub, so prototype three is definitely the last one and is also probably destined for the scrap bin . 

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