What did you do to your _______ today?

[johnnyvw]

That's actually pretty mild these days. There are lot of guys pushing close to 200 in street driven bugs, and that's without turbos. After 30 years away from the hobby, I was amazed at what people are doing.

 

[Uncle-A]

That's actually pretty mild these days. There are lot of guys pushing close to 200 in street driven bugs, and that's without turbos. After 30 years away from the hobby, I was amazed at what people are doing.

Getting back after 30 years away and they are discontinuing the bug again.

 

[snwbrdr]

I think they were more concerned with the DIY drilling into the existing wire harness. The pro would know locations to stay away from.

I doubt it. You put up the hitch receiver to mark the holes you need to drill, then you drill. Just follow the instructions provided with the hitch. It doesn't take a pro to mark and drill holes according to the hitch

 

[DbSki]

Opened up a '71 VW motor to rebuild (and hop up a little) to go into my '69 Beetle. Outside was pretty gunked up, but the insides don't look too terrible. Next step is to remove the rods and see how much wear there is on the journals. Haven't done this in 35 years, brings back memories of the old days
View attachment 120998

Trick to keeping the inside of Air-cooled VW engines cleaner is to run a Diesel Engine oil of the appropriate viscosity rating for the bug, higher detergent in it stay ahead of the tarnishing the VW engine suffers being air (and oil) cooled.

 

[DbSki]

Yesterdays job, tracing a wiring fault in a 2007 Diesel Transit van, central locking wouldn't stay locked (locks, horn sounds then unlocks itself) due to what appeared to be a faulty int lamp door switch
And on the Transit the door lamp switch is deep in the modular electro mechanical latch mechanism inside the doors.
Tested the latches and can hear the micro switch working on all doors.
So I go for the most obvious, back barn doors, swung the doors open and looked at the harness near the hinge and sure enough a bunch of broken wires.
8 wires and 6 broken, easy enough to just join them back up but here's the kicker, no color coding, all the wires are black, Ford saving a buck and forcing a sale of a new harness.
So after playing lucky dip using a test lamps as a bridge and DVM I managed various combinations until I worked out which was what and joined them back up.
There should be a special place in hell for whoever at Ford decided it would be a good idea to forgo color coding of wires in a harness.

 

[DbSki]

BTW, anyone with the 2 stroke inclination, I have a YT channel that is mostly about 2 strokes you may find of some interest.
Mostly on theory, some practical and a few handy tips like this one for anyone rebuilding one.

 

[François Pugh]

Well, update to this endeavor. New battery seemed to be working fine for about 2 months then all of a sudden, like over another week, starter started killing the charge again just like with the old battery. Tried a trickle charge.. Still maybe one full crank then dead. So, turned it over to the shop to figure out what's killing batteries. Professional opinion.. I bought the crappiest battery in the world and it has a dead cell already after less than 3 months. So far the battery they installed is working perfectly.. and good to have it there for a general check up of everything else.

Should have seen the review I left on Amazon for that battery.

If this new one also gets baked way before its time I'll go back. They said they'd work with me under that scenario when I was skeptical that the brand new battery was just plain crap..

In the good old days batteries came dry, were filled up at the shop and charged when they were bought. Now it seem's they come pre-filled ready to go. Some sit on the shelf for years before being sold. They have a shelf life. Be sure to look up the date of manufacture before buying a ready to go battery.

 

[johnnyvw]

A lot of diesel oils no longer have the necessary amount of ZDDP in it. Diesel oil was the hot tip for flat tappet motors, but enough has been removed that's no longer the case. There are specialty oils out now better suited. Synthetics tend to be the best for the air cooled engines

 

[DbSki]

True Synth is good but as the air cooled VW engine has no oil filter you are still stuck with regular oil changes, but if you don't mind spending a bit more then fine.

 

[johnnyvw]

Synthetic is only marginally more expensive than regular these days (at least here in the US), so the expense is minimal. With the low amount of miles put on these old cars, the cost of gas far outweighs the difference in price of oil. But my engine will have a full flow filter system.

 

[DbSki]

Yeah, not a fan of putting oil filters on the VW engine myself, anything that can reduce flow stands to impinge on cooling and so long as the oil is changed frequently they just don't need a filter.
Racing old 1200 Formula Vee we never used filters on the engine nor needed to, using one would present a risk of failure considering we were spinning a stock engine to 6k + RPM
Street use is probably ok but even so in some cases it might lead some owners to think they don't need to change oil as often, and they do.

As for synthetics....hmmm...many manufacturers embraced synthetics in a belief that due to less chance of oil breaking down over extended periods could cause damage for lazy owners not servicing their cars, unfortunately lubricant sales people (who are a slime that lives beneath all scum) have convinced a generation of people that Synthetic oil is worth extra because it contains magic Unicorn dust that "protects your engine and improves fuel economy" compared to mineral based oil which is a load of bollocks.

Ive been a mechanic since 1976 and built more engines than Ive had hot breakfasts and lost count of the times I've had to conversation with owners that "But I used synthetic oils" to which I answer "Ok but your engine is still fucked"
Fact is street use engines mostly fail due to some failure of engine ancillaries or outright abuse and lack of servicing, or the car is just a lemon.
Using a spendy Synthetic oil is not going to make a difference other than making your wallet lighter, even if the oil doesn't break down as quickly for lack of servicing it will still be full of combustion by product and later particulate matter as the oil filter begins to clog and bypass.

But .... if the owner feels better with an oil filter fitted and synthetic I would happy supply and fit the parts with a word said.

 

[johnnyvw]

Well, keep in mind most people that do this work to old VW engines are enthusiasts, and not the kind to ignore maintenance (and probably go overboard with it). Not putting a filter into a race engine for the reasons you state is understandable, but racing has pretty much zero to do with street use. Filter systems are common here is the US, and many very high performance engines go many miles with little wear...when it's done properly.
Some people can manage to break an anvil....

 

[DbSki]

Yeah as I understand "accesorising" cars is a pretty popular pastime in the US.
Car enthusiast here in Aus tend to be purists and anything non OEM fitted to "classic" cars raises some eyebrows.

 

[Cameron]

I really thought Aussies were a little more over the top than Americans when it came to car modifications?

 

[johnnyvw]

Yeah as I understand "accesorising" cars is a pretty popular pastime in the US.
Car enthusiast here in Aus tend to be purists and anything non OEM fitted to "classic" cars raises some eyebrows.

Keep in mind that for the last 10 years of production of the air-cooled beetle in Mexico, the engines had filters from the factory, as well as hydraulic lifters.

 

[DbSki]

Keep in mind that for the last 10 years of production of the air-cooled beetle in Mexico, the engines had filters from the factory, as well as hydraulic lifters.

How many countries where Mexican VW beetles exported to ?

 

[DbSki]

I really thought Aussies were a little more over the top than Americans when it came to car modifications?

Performance mods to increase power differ a little from "accessories", in the former there is a pretty clear objective.

 

[johnnyvw]

How many countries where Mexican VW beetles exported to ?

Pretty much any country they were sold after 1978. Definitely all of Europe.

 

[DbSki]

Pretty much any country they were sold after 1978. Definitely all of Europe.

Classic 2 door Beetles ?, how did they manage that with European emission laws ?
They ended about 1976 here with emissions laws.

 

[johnnyvw]

IIRC, 1979 was the last year here (super beetle convertible), emissions and crash-worthiness killed them in the US. They went to fuel injection around 74 with cat converters, and later digifant FI, which were on the ones exported to Europe.