We saw this in the newspaper a 75 VW beetle for 12K , the guy drove it to us , now i have to be honnest i have never before worked on a beetle . But i am not a total noob when it comes to
cars . I had a 88 Corolla Twincam that i put a 4AGZE engine in ( the 1600 supercharged version ) I have a hilux 4X4 with a ford V6 engine in that i work on .
But this is my first experiance with a beetle .
Well as i said the guy drove it to my house , and i got him down to 10k . Well then i had chance to get a closer look at this beetle and i am now convinced this beetle was humped by the great HERBIE himself !!!!
When we pulled the motor i realized this is a wonder car , i still wonder how the hell this thing ran !!!!
It had 4 diff sparkplugs in of which none of them was for a beetle .
Sparkplug on piston 1 was bent closed and couldn't spark
Intake on piston 2 didn't open so that piston just went up and down for the fun of it
Conrod 3 was upside down
The left side had a single port intake
The right side had a double port intake
Cylinder 4 had a nice 2 mil groove where the gudgeon pin must have wanted to come out
The Genie was not working
It had no brakes , but had to be stopped by handbrake
Well i got myself a pet project to keep myself busy
And seeing as i am a IT consultant by trade i got onto the web and discovered this forum . Thanks to everyone on here for sharing their knowledge , using that i started working on the beeltle . I replace all 4 slave cylinders , and the master cylinder , send the brake shoes in for new re bonding . LMAO then assembled it and for the bloody life of me couldn't get the flippen brakes to work , i bled them over and over and it just didn't want to come up . Till i sat down and gone through everything . HAHAHA then i saw that my friend that helps me on the beetle tightned the bloody master cylinder to much and the 2 bolts pulled through the firewall so when you press on the brakes you actually pushing the whole cylinder forward therefore no brakes !!! EISH now that was a nightmare getting those 2 bolts loose to pull it back . Well after hours swearing and sweating i got it out used two big body washers and fixed that problem , lo and behold now we had brakes .
Ripped the engine out and discovered the wonder motor . Descided to overhaul the motor .
4 X New Sleeves
4X New Pistons and rings
Big end bearings
2 X double intakes with valves reseated
New gaskets all around
Next to go was the starter . Dunno what the guy did but the started was totaled . Recon the starter quote R 750 , new starter R 850 so i opted to get the new reduction box starter . Installed it and my wife took the kids to voortrekkers only to phone me 30 min later " the beetle is mking a funny noise and doesn't want to start " Go there and yup didn't want to start , ran started it drove home took out the starter and saw the starter they supplied me had a bendix drive that was 2.5 mil too long so it stayed engaged and stripped the bloody gear . So got a new one then battled my ass off to get the retaining circlip and ring back on the starter shaft . Took it to a auto elec as i thought that is what they do so maybe he has a special tool . Well this bloody TAPPET looks at it and say that the started must be taken apart to fit the circlip !!! What a moron and he calls himself a autoelec ? Well i asked him how will he be able to get the bendix over the bloody engage gear on the bottom of the shaft ? the circlip and retaing ring can only go on after the whole starter is assembled . Well then he tried and couldn't get it back on and again said nope i must leave the starter then he will disassemble it and put it back together again . To which i told him he is a bloody idiot and thanks but no thanks . LMAO then he had the cheek to tell me he does hundereds of these starters and thats the only way to fix it !!
Well took my starter went to another autolec took him 3 min flat to get the ring circlip and cup back on !!
Fitted the starter , then started on the wiring OMG another nightmare !! the ignition switch had a key in that was broken off , and a push button installed on the dash to start the beetle .
I took the ignition out went to a locksmith and they removed the key , i replaced the ignition switch and rewired it . Took the doorhandles of and had the locksmith make me keys for them . The windows didn't want to wind up and down so took them out and cleaned the worm cables on them . hehe without the doorpanel on the windows roll up and down no problem , put them back on and it didn't want to open and close . Now it was my wife putting the panels on and taking them off as i was busy with the wiring . So after her takeing them off and refitting them 5 times only for the windows not to work when the panel is on i took a look at it . HOLY HELL they used 1.5 inch selftapping screws to screw the panel onto the door so everytime the panel was screwed on the window couldn't wind up or down as the screws stopped it .
Then the next day she didnt want to start , check the battery and yup dead as a doornail , took the genie of and had it tested , yup genie is of to never never land . Bought a new altenator as i read that that is a better route to follow . Now battery is charging nicely , put rubber car mats under and over the battery as i read that the back seat can short on the terminals and start a fire , also with fire in mind bought a small fire extinguisher for the beetle .
Took it for a test drive up to whiteriver , but the gears are horrible !!! It's like throw it in there somewhere and hope to get something . Once again read up on it and yup common problem on the beetle the bush on the linkage . So gearlever off to check it out . AWWWW CRAP !!! wish i took pics of it . The bush holder must have worn out without a bush with the PO and broke open , so instead of doing it the right way , drilling out the holder and replacing it with a original part he bend it flat and just behind the gearlever opening cut a slot across the linkage channel . Then used a T plate with a hole in and brazed it to the channel with the gearlink rod through it , no bush . Well thanks to tips on the forum i opened the chanel inspection plate in front fed through my fish tape hooked it to a string pulled it back and tied it to the cup of the gear link rod , then in the back also tied a string to the rod then pulled the whole rod out . Good thing i did as the rod was rusted like hell . Cleaned that of and greased it good .
As luck would have it the T plate this moron used as a bush holder had the right ID for the bush to go in . So we cut open the chanel to properly fit this makeshit busholder and welded it to the chanel with the bus installed into it . Then with advice from the net i tied the cup of the rod to a broomstick and pushed it through while my friend guided it into the bush . One hard push and it slipped into the bush and into place !! Well after connecting all up i have now a nice tight gear shift and don't have to guess anymore where what gear is .
Looking at the engine after taking the beetle for a drive it was soaked in oil . Read also a beetle don't leak oil it just like to marks it's territory . But this was a little too much , so ripped the fan shroud off and saw my friend used the wrong seals on the oil cooler !! so relaced those , good thing i did as i then saw this carb is pissing fuel out of the pumpjet . Close inspection saw that 1. this is the wrong size carb a solex 30/31 PICT . So i ordered a new 34 PICT and hopefully it should be here today .
Well this is my fun i have had with this lil beetle so far . Will keep all posted on my progress . Check out the pics of here under http://www.aircooledvwsa.co.za/viewtopi ... 37&t=20352
Glad you found some of the info you needed on here. Enjoy the journey.
