I still use the original pull out that came with the car?

replace it if its broken if that pleases you...but its nothing to do with the main earths that cause the car not to start or charging problems

For me It will stay as it is then

It may have an impact on my old radio so I'm going to clean up the contacts and keep it. Like to try and maintain the originality.

Edited 2 December, 201510 yr by c.w.pritchard

Bonnet earth strap makes no difference to FM band.

AM band (medium wave and long wave) however, gives huge amount of noise that varies with engine speed when no bonnet earth strap.

Ok. Thanks for the information.

Linked this up for now. Looks the part just like the earth from the coil pack. I know the opinion is to replace with the heavy duty cable but at the moment it is not the time to be spending on the car and it's not on my list to Father Christmas so will sort out in the new year. I've made sure there is enough slack to allow for the movement of the engine and cleaned the bulk head behind the bolt. This bolt, by the way, was holding the frame for the ECU.

mind that gearbox one doesnt snap off when the engine moves , and yea needs to be fatter imho

The gearbox engine mount one is the original that came with the car. Shouldn't be much movement there.

Don't know if this is of use but on early mk2 golf gti's VW used to use the engine mount bracket as the earthing point and later models had the earth point to one of the top two transmission mounting points instead (the bell housing to engine block) as the earlier point is crap due to the extra joints to the gearbox as every joint in an earth creates resistance and thats with good clean connections the same as small diameter earth cable and poor quality cables.

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/184002/custom-length-battery-cables-crimped

he's offering cables made to measure...looks like you have to haev white though

Black at £2.50 per metre is a good price plus p & p. Not bad. A great service. May see if it's still available in the new year.

Right. It let me down again. Refused to start in all this wet weather we've been having. Took it to my usual garage after it had dried out for a week in my garage at home. Turns out that it's not an earthing problem after all but a fuel pump issue. When I turn it on to start and it refuses I don't hear the fuel pump prime. Was told this was down to a poor Earth on the car, but, it does turn over but doesn't fire! Garage suggests the power supply to the pump is faulty or the pump is on its way out. I'm going to refurb the whole system starting with the relay and working through.

Any help on good quality replacements at a reasonable price. Relay is 109. Start there.

Fuel pump could be tricky and costly. Any suggestions?

Any help would be appreciated!

genuine stuff will be best

id suggest you locate the fault and jsut fix rather than steam in and replace everything

edit - pretty slack diag from the garage too , chances are its the relay , clean all the connections for good measure

Edited 23 January, 201610 yr by steveo3002

Yes. Did that but would like to replace with new as it is 25 years old.

The RAC guy suggested an earthing issue.

Edited 23 January, 201610 yr by c.w.pritchard

Well luckily genuine relays are still available new http://www.clubpolo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=339081

That and the fuel pumps seem to be common failures as the years go by. There was a Bosch replacement that the guys on Club G40 found, i'll have a search and try to find it, since the GT and G40 use the same pump it should be a suitable GT replacement too.

Thank you. Much appreciated.

Just looked at the link you set up and it appears that my car has a different relay. The number on my relay on the car is

357906381

Strange. Even looked at the numbers on the terminals in the wiring diagram. 30.85.86.87. which are the same on the side of the replacement. Thoughts?

Edited 24 January, 201610 yr by c.w.pritchard

You should have a 4 pin relay and a 5 pin relay. The 4 pin ones are easy to get a hold of. Just take a number 53 out of any VW. It's the 5 pin one that is the hard one to come by.

Ok

These are the two relays in the area next to the ecu.

The one on the right is the fuel pump relay. I took both out, with difficulty, and cleaned up the contacts. These had not been moved for 25 years probably.

Looked up the other relay, 321919505A, and would you believe it, it has said that it is also a fuel pump relay. Don't understand? Is it possible that they are both fuel pump relate Do? This is said to be specifically for the 3f gt engine.

I'm sure one of them has something to do with the ECU as well. It is only the 3F and PY engines that have this setup.

Ok. Still unclear as to which relay is for the fuel pump. My research suggests both are?.....?

The standard 4 pin is the fuel pump relay it also supplies power to the injectors, the Idle air control valve and the Lambda heater, the 5 pin is the ECU power relay

Thanks. That's a big help.