Looking at Rabbit truck from junkyard, what to bring?

[fairweather]

Hello,

I am about to go to an auto recycler to look at a rabbit truck that has been siting for a few years. They said it was an impound that never got picked up so it's not been in an accident and they state that the engine was running.

They didn't know much about it so I am going to look at it. They said it's got a diesel in it so I'm assuming it's the 1.6 NA. I noticed on WIki that if it's an 80 it might have a 1.5, are those pretty rare and how to tell the difference? What should I bring with as far as equipment to diagnose as much as is reasonable in a yard lot? I am somewhat familiar with the 1.9 tdi but the caddy and the 1.6 are a whole new beasts for me.

1. Battery, to try to turn it over, is there a way to turn it over by wrench first?
2. Set of tools
3. Jack
4. ??

TIA, Tom

[glutamodo]

If the belts are tight you might be able to put a deep (or with exension) socket wrench on the alterntor pulley to turn the engine over by hand. Diesels are a bit difficult to turn over, of course, due to their high compression. I can't remember offhand what size socket though, 22 or 24mm maybe.

Good to see you finding and looking at a pickup in a yard... A year or two ago, a flatbed semi truck passed me when I was in Casper (WY) and it had a bunch of freshly crushed vehicles on it. In the stack was a Rabbit pickup, I was like "aarrgghh!" I wish I'd have known what junkyard that was in before they smooshed it!

Clean the crud off the block and get the engine code for the engine size - near the top of the engine block, below cylinder number 3. But I'm drawing a blank as to which codes they used. I don't have a diesel manual anymore except for 77-79 to look it up. I think they still used the CK engine in 1980 for the 1500 though, and 1600s were like CR and JK.

As for what other stuff to bring, not sure what would be the best to try to do in a junkyard - do you want to try to start it then?

-Andy

[fairweather]

Well.. too much of a project for me. Unfortunately they weren't very careful when they moved it in the yard and did some body damage.

If any one is interested I took a bunch of pics, they wanted 500 but would and should take less.

1980 1.5l diesel, 4spd, topper.

It's in Rifle, CO at creative auto recycling.

[jracer6]

Damn, I used to live not too far from there.

I hope somebody grabs this. Link this thread to the KCW page in grand junction. Im sure someone would want this down that way. I know their mostly aircooled guys, but Im sure someone would kill for a diesel in this day and age.

nice find.

[vwcrzy]