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I ended up unpining one of the connectors so we could feed the wires through the rubber sleeve.
I didn't want the same thing to happen again so I glued the sleeve to the plate with black contact cement.
With the door raised up as far as it can go (with no lift strut or torque rod installed) my rivet tool just barely fit. In fact I had to tap on it to get it to go in there.
This picture shows just how hyper-extended the door has to be.
Done deal
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Meanwhile Tam prepped and painted the top of the roof box, the rear of the roof box, etc.
With both doors back in working order the last thing we did today was to coat the inside of the roof box with Cavity Wax.
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We worked on the car for a few hours tonight. Main objective- swap out fuel distributor, rough adjustment of CO screw, see how the car runs.
I opened the fuel distributor which we had sent to DMCH for a full rebuild, testing, calibration.
Immediately upon unwrapping it I noticed a couple things. The fuel distributor seemed to be in worse shape than when I had sent it. The paint job looked like someone just waved the spray of a paint can past one side of it. Or maybe a 8 year old kid painted it. Mine had been well prepped and painted really good with fuel proof paint. Then I looked at the I.D. tag and it looked not as nice as mine was....and maybe even a different color.
So I looked at my pictures.
Sure enough....this is not the fuel distributor that I sent them.
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Pictures of the disappointing paint job. I know it is just a fuel distributor but you guys have seen the condition of my engine. I want this thing to look perfect.
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We did the thing where you hook up all of your fuel lines except the injector lines, back off the CO adjustment, jump out the fuel pump, and see if fuel starts coming out of the ports.
Several ports immediately started having fuel Weeping so I back off on the CO screw. Still weeping, did a full turn CCW. One port still weeping slowly. One port never even had fuel come up in it.
Now I am wondering if this F.D. even got rebuilt correctly or tested.. .and did the pressure get set.
I was so frustrated that I ended up yelling at Tam and dropping the f-bomb when she kept asking me a bunch of questions about what was happening.
We decided to try starting the car just so we could at least drive it back to where we keep it parked.
It was smoking like crazy and the engine sounded weird. I backed off the CO adjustment, I backed it off more.
I yelled "Shut it off shut it off!"
Tam said "What is wrong with it?"
I lost it. I reached my tipping point.
After a while I calmed down. We figured that maybe it was just burning fuel that leaked into the mixture assembly when we removed the old F.D. so we started again and I gave it some throttle. It was really smoking but then it stopped smoking and died. It didn't want to start or stay running. Tam took my hand and said "God help us to get this thing to run right"
I turned the CO back CW figuring maybe it was smoking from fuel that spilled, i had backed it way off so maybe it was too lean now.
The car fired, seemed to run fine, and wasn't smoking anymore.
Okay so maybe a breakthrough.
We quit while we were ahead.
I still have my issues and doubts with this F.D. so I will be reaching out to DMCH tomorrow.
I don't lnow if it is this disease or what but I am feeling really insecure about my abilities to set up, test, calibrate this K-Jet system so I may end up having to pay someone to commission it to give me some piece of mind.
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Good work. Sometimes the car needs some vocal coaxing.
I really need to look into my roof box. It?s not a problem now, but I guess I should nip it in the bud. How did you like that cavity wax. I?ve never used it.
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Vocal coaxing, haha I like that.Originally Posted by Helirich
The 3M cavity wax is a great product with the long spray nozzle kit they sell. I have used it on my Tacoma and other vehicles for rust proofing.
I think I heard somewhere that it is used inside the panels of VWs.
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I emailed DMCH a long descriptive email this morning followed up by a short text to James E.
I received this email at the end of the day.
Hello Bill,
Thank you for the detailed writeup and photos - we immediately went back to our records to follow the paper trail, as all fuel injection components that are sent in to us for rebuilding are tracked from start to finish and we ended up discovering that your unit and another customer's unit were shipped out on the same day at the same time, and they got sent to the opposite recipient they were intended to ship to. We have been rebuilding fuel injection components for almost a decade, and this is the first time that has ever occurred, so we are reviewing our methods to ensure it is also the last time. We would never intentionally send back anything to a customer that was not what they shipped to us. So first, and most importantly, we will be providing a shipping label to have you send that fuel distributor back to us. We have also reached out to the person who was shipped your unit and they are being asked to send it back in as well. Because it appears both units have been put into service (we checked our records and found we provided some tech help to the recipient of your unit to get his car running after he received it), we will tear down both units again for inspection. The difference you are seeing in the quality of the unit you have now versus the unit you sent us is precisely why we always want the customer's supplied unit returned to them, so this must happen first to make things right.
In spite of the mix up, I can assure you that both units, as well as every unit that leaves us, were tested for proper pressure, injector balance, and flow at three different metering plate depressions to simulate idle, low load, and high load, respectively. They do not leave our building until all of these tests are passed.
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So...my opinion? Stuff happens. I appreciate how they are taking care of the situation and how they took the time to explain what happened and what they propose to do in such detail.
So we will be removing the F.D. currently on the car and sending it back to DMCH. Tam is not looking forward to the fuel mess.
In the same email DMCH sent this info which will be very helpful when installing the new F.D.-
For a first startup on a newly built fuel distributor, the first thing I would have anyone do after receiving a rebuilt unit from us is attach all lines including injectors. Then prime the system by installing an RPM relay bypass jumper and check for leaks. If no leaks are found, depress the air metering plate until each injector is flowing when the plate is depressed. It is perfectly normal for the injectors to come in at slightly different times on the first prime and this is not an indicator of a problem. Now adjust the CO until you are seeing approximately 1-2 drops from the injectors every second. This will typically be a bit rich once the engine is running, but not so much that black smoke is coming from the exhaust. While the injectors are out, observe the spray patterns of each to see that they are consistent. If not, a few firm whacks on the head of the hollow bolt with a wrench or small hammer can usually get them in line. Repeat this for all 6 injectors and you will usually get them all back online. If this does not work, they may require cleaning. Once you are satisfied with the injectors, install them, reinstall the RPM relay and start the engine.
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Last edited by SupercoolBill; 03-12-2026 at 07:12 PM.
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While that is a weird situation, I don?t think the FD has a matching numbers kind of thing, like an engine. I would think a rebuild should be completely inspected and determined to be serviceable. If it is, I don?t know why you need to get yours back. I guess I?m cynical, but I?m suspicious.
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