SAW anti-service bulletin

It's funny really, because on a current thread I discuss doing a
"nut and bolt" on your car and inspecting the car yourself.

This is classic, last time I completed my service and inspection, I found the bottom support bracket for my steering wheel column was a little loose. So I diligently tightened it up, and patted myself on the back for finding this, and then about week later the steering started to stick a little. So I call SAW and tell him what it's doing and he tells me the things it could possibly be, and then says "by the way, you didn't tighten down the bottom support bracket on the column for some reason did you?".

Well yes, I say proudly. Well that one is only for supporting the column and not for holding the column in place....it has to be able to allow the bottom to expand and contract with air temperature changes or it might bind.

I guess, I should say everyone should do inspections, but assume your an idiot like me, and ask before you start changing things you don't necessarily understand, or that you have never worked on before.

I also took the opportunity to adjust my column inward another inch, and up a little, since I had screwed up the column alignment trying to figure out why it was sticking.

A lot of my tinkering can cause problems that Steve later has to figure out....sometimes I'm sure he wishes I didn't think I was so smart....LOL

That's the problem with custom built cars; there's really no service manual or one-fits-all procedure for doing your maintenance work.

Steven, that is a great story to tell on yourself.

Hows the car doing?

Iam still waiting. John

Almost 18 months and still waiting............Michael

Steve O, you know you are never going to stop tinkering with that car, we just don't know all of the other stories. Just keep tinkering, it is too much fun to stop. Or you could join Tinkerers Anonymous??

I do love tinkering with things. And I only screw something up about half of the time, but hey it could be worse.

I have had several other opportunities to unknowingly screw things up.

One of my success stories has been the alignment. After everything settled in and I noticed some bad tire wear on the front tires, I had the car realigned, but I went down to about a 1/16" total tow in on the front end. SAW starts them out at 1/8" total tow in, but as the suspension settles in things will move, and while I was at it, I wanted to make the front a little looser and take out some of the tendency of the steering wheel to return back to center. While most people want this tendency to act like most modern cars, my personal preference is to have less, so the car is even easier to turn (it now drives like it has power steering almost), and when you hit hard bumps the lesser tow in makes the steering wheel less reactive and jerky. I wouldn't recommend starting out at this setting, because you don't want to take a chance of the suspension braking in and have the front alignment accidently being tow out, but after 5 thousand miles are whenever you do your alignment, I recommend it as I think it is the nicest change I have made.

I also spaced my rear wheels out a little more because I like the look a little better, and it gave me a lot of no worry room to lower the car. I also spaced the fronts out a little more so they didn't look like they were so tiny and inset compared to the rear tires being out more. I still should raise the front about 1/4", but have never gotten around to it, as it isn't a 2 minute job like the rear is, and it would only be for making the car perfectly level.

Steve
Is this "bottom support bracket for my steering wheel column" referring to the steering box?
Are the SAW's R&P ??
Or, isit a custom (non-VW) column?
thx DT

(now arent you wishing you just posted a pic?)

SAW uses a GM style column, mine is an ididit, but flaming river is the same. The column is supported and aligned via an upper support near just behind the dash. This support aligns the column in the spot you want it and also keeps the column from moving with the steering wheel. Then near the bottom of the column is a second support to help support and align the column. The second one is purely support and if you tighten it down tight then the column can't expand with air temperature changes and begins to bind the steering.

SAW connects the column via the normal knuckle style U joints to the bar that runs to the rack and pinion. The common rack and pinion that is used is the flaming river or ididit.

On the flared cars the rack has longer shafts dimensions, because the flared cars have an actual wider track to go with the flares.

The car is doing really well. I have to say, that another thing I have learned is the importance of good electrical connections.

I had taken the relay for my radiator fan off, once because it stuck and caused a dead short and then wouldn't let any electical power go to the fan. And several other times, as I was working on some other mods, that I will post about soon, but don't want to talk about until I'm done testing. Then one day I started having trouble with the relay getting too hot and releasing. I thought it was just another bad relay, so I bought another one, but it promptly did the same thing.

Again Steve at SAW told me the several things it could be, but also after describing my problem, he told me to recheck all of the electrical connection for the fan and make sure they are tight, and most importantly that the connections to the relay should be tight enough to be difficult to pull off with just your fingers. Otherwise the amperage draw across loose connections can increase the amperage and make the relay overheat of just plain overload and shut down.

Good God, to make it easier to disconnect the relay and then reconnect it while doing some of my research and testing, I had loosened up the connections a little. Ok, I had forgotten that I had even done that until I was checking things, but more importantly, it never even occured to me that making the connections looser would increase the draw. Thats another classic, create your own problems story, but a good lesson for anyone doing anything with their wiring.

I had a similar problem after installing my "lights on buzzer". It runs from the ignition post to a buzzer and then to a light post on one of my dash instruments. 7 dollar part from Napa.

About a month after installing it, and I love it by the way, my ignition key was getting very hot. It turns out that I didn't get the bolt tight enough on the ignition post and it had loosened up and now all of ignition wires were a little loose on the post. The extra amp draw that was created was transferring heat into the entire assembly.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking... I just checked the propellers and they all spin really neat. Please fasten your seat belts in case we get off the ground!

LOL

I appologize in advanve for preaching, but here is a minor correction to your electrical story... A loose connection does not increase the amount of current. That is determined solely by the load (resistance) of the device being powered (the fan in this case). The loose connection provides a much smaller, poorer contact area than a tightened connection. Pushing to much current thru a poor or loose connection (or an undersized wire) causes overheating of that connection or wire. This can cause not only the failure of the device (your relay), but is also the major cause of (electrically caused) fires; both in cars and in houses. Typical poor connections occur in homes in old warn out receptacles, plugs with bent prongs, copper or brass terminals in houses with aluminum wire, etc. In cars they often occur at "push on" terminals or within plug in type connections.

No problem, I guess I just assumed the extra heat was being generated by extra amerage, but it makes perfect sense that what your saying is true.

The heat is generated through the higher resistance of the poor connection. Sort of like an electric heating coil. What makes that hot is its resistance.