Project Volkswagen Jetta GTI
Fuel, spark, ignition – we have lift off!
It’s amazing the bits you can get for old cars. In some cases, MGBS for instance, you can even buy a brand new bodyshell for goodness sake. But at the other end of the scale, some parts just aren’t available, no matter how big your wallet is. Looking at the high pressure fuel pump assembly on our VW Jetta GTI, I had a distinct feeling I was looking at some parts made out of unobtanium.
I didn’t think the high pressure pump itself would be a problem, as it is similar to many others fitted to other cars of the period. In fact it looks very similar to the ones on my old Mercedes 500 SEC. Good thing too, as it’s the pump that has failed. A quick internet search confirmed pumps were available – phew. I also thought the fuel filter looked identical to the one on my Merc, and again it’s readily available. But, and here the comparisons with my car continue to hold true, the pipework is specific to VW and disappeared off the shelves years ago.
In the case of my Merc, this meant visiting a pipe specialist and getting hoses made up. Luckily, in the case of the Jetta things are a bit more straightforward, as a quick search on ebay showed that braided stainless steel brake hose manufacturer, Hel, makes a set of pipes specifically designed to replumb the fuel pump, accumulator and filter on our Jetta. So with the pump, filter and hoses all ordered, I turned my attention to the reservoir and its associated bracketry.
This is essentially two round clamps either side of the central reservoir, one for the fuel filter and one for the accumulator. The whole part is made of moulded plastic and the clamps are quite thin. To compound the issue, the bolts that tighten them onto their respective charges were seized solid, and while attempting to undo them, the clamp for the accumulator broke. Clumsy of me? Possibly, but to be fair the clamp already had a small split in it which acted like a fault line, and was just waiting for someone like me to come along and give it that little bit of encouragement to go the full San Francisco, which it happily did.
We considered putting a large hose clip around the whole thing to hold the accumulator, but in the end I decided a glued repair would be preferable as it would look neater. Besides, I love a gluing challenge. Simon expressed doubts about my ability to repair the part using adhesive, but this simply strengthened my gluing resolve, and pretty soon I had a plan.
The key to successful gluing – and I have a penchant for old tat, plus a wife
who breaks stuff for a pastime, so I’m well practised – is holding the part still while said sticky stuff sets. To this end I used superglue, (that’s cyanoacrylate to any fellow gluing aficionados,) to glue the two halves of the broken bracket back together. In some instances this would be enough to effect a permanent repair, but bearing in mind this part is put under considerable tension when the bolt that closes the bracket is tightened, I needed to add tensile strength. A small strip of old T-shirt (I know, a black one would have looked so much better) soaked in epoxy resin provided this added strength. Job done, and not a hose clamp in sight.
In a previous instalment of the Jetta journey I mentioned that we had the use of a mobile lift in the Classics World workshop. (The word ‘workshop’ makes it sound a little glamorous – it’s actually just an old barn.) Well, I obviously upset the lift gods in the last few weeks, as this is no longer available for us to use, so refitting the fuel pump assembly was considerably more awkward than removing it had been, as I had to do it lying on my back in the semi gloom of the Dark Side of The Workshop. Still, I got there in the end. Here’s how it went.