Aircooled VW South Africa

Took my 4 year old daughter on a valintines date with the bus, just me and her.
It was awesome and when i picked her up she was all dressed up, waiting for me.

My wife and I planed the whole thing.

Well, Took out the 1600sp engine on the Kango Buggy on Wednesday night (my son and I). Then replaced the pushrod tubes and seals, replaced and fitted new gearbox mountings.

Cleaned up all tin ware and sprayed. Then we replaced the Alternator with the donor bugs alternator.
Set the valve clearance, and replaced rocker cover seals.

This all was done Wednesday night and Thursday night when my wife was in PE for work.
Friday night was out, could not do anything as my Heavy (brother in Law) was visiting.

This morning we struggled to put the motor back but with no success, then I saw the new mounting on the right side's bolts was catching the engine casing, out with the grinder and convinced them to fit nicely, whoosh in goes the engine no hiccup's.

Set the timing with the 12v lamp, and she purrrriiiiiiinnngggg like never before.

Took her for a spin and man O man it was worth working till after 12h00 on Wednesday and Thursday night.

One of the SP:

Guys please give me suggestions on the back lights, those truck lights are UGLY

Why don't you replace them with the newer LED lights. You get ones with nice patterns.

Set the timing with the 12v lamp, and she purrrriiiiiiinnngggg like never before.

This is how its professionally done. Way to go. No timing light needed.

Ja and drove it to the beach yesterday afternoon and she stutters on accelaration .
Ai will check it all over again tonight.

Like the rims you have on the buggy
What size are they, I had 17" on my bug now they roll on the rat

Hi Notch I noticed them, mine are 16" with 205/60R16 front and 245/75R16 Rear. Would like to have them rathet in 15'S and go to 235/75R15 at the rear and 205/65R15 Front. But I have them so might aswell stick to them.

Still need to sort the front suspension out.

Pinch, whats up with the front suspension?

What are your tyre pressures? And 205's on the front???????? You need to get closer to "MarieBuscuits" for a better ride first.

My 5c.

Hi Hitler, (sounds weird to call somebody Hitler). I bought it with tne 205s, what size would you suggest?. The buggy still darts from side to side after a uneven spot in the road. The steering is also hard to turn might be the 205s. There is a small amount of play on the king pins but it is very small. Looks also if the PO tried to lower the front by removing torsion bars, but Im not sure. Will take a photo to show you the front stoppers and where the arms are when standing still. Maybe you could helpmin this regard.

Tx Pinch

Hi Pinch, no problem, just "HR" will do.

You will definitely find it difficult to steer with the 205's.



It doesn't look as if you have dropped suspension from this picture.

Sorry HR, had to watch the varsitycup, here is a pic of the front stoppers unloaded.

Pinch wrote: Looks also if the PO tried to lower the front by removing torsion bars, but Im not sure.
Tx Pinch

Many on this forum will tell you that doing the "cheap-o-drop" (and I'm also guilty of this - following the advice from a NON-forum member ACVW expert) instead of "select-a-drop" is downright madness. What I did to rectify the swerving issue and hard steering - btw, it's all in the suspension stiffness (might be wrong here though, but own experience) - was to fit motorbike shock absorbers to the front. Think they came off a Polaris or something, nice and chrome coil over shock. Stiff as a plank (was going to say something else ), but solved my problem immediately and also kept the stance with a slight rake. The shocks where second hand and slightly worn, but worked great. Find a second hand motorbike parts dealer and try to impress or make them cry with your story. Got the two shocks for R100 each.

Started out by replacing tie rod ends and this led to quite an educating afternoon. It was a first time job.I saw play on the spindles. Lots of play on link pins. King pins had very little play. Stripped out link pins and bushes. I didn't have replacements. I found if i turned the bushes around it eliminated some of the play. The grease channels and holes were blocked solid with hard grease. Replaced the bolts that holds the link pins, they were quite gouged. Then decided to tackle allignment. Steering and roadholding is much improved. Learnt a lot.