Coccinelle Bleu

Rear-ended

2008-03-06T23:15:00.001-08:00

Well, on November 4th I was driving through Lompoc, and stopped at a light, going straight. Behind me a very large Dodge truck, bunches of machismo. The light changed to turn left, and the truck behind me was vaguely aware that the slight hesitation while accelerating was actually caused by the rear of the tiny car in front of it, barely visible above the truck's hood. Caught mid-sentence while chatting with a friend, I let out the clutch and felt the car jerk forward, and my head jerk back, with much more torque than the previous times I forgot to take it out of gear. A lot more torque. Must have been each one of those fifty ferocious horses! And for a short instant I was very proud of my four cylinders of fury, and a short instant later while continuing through the crosswalk, my mind registered that ungodly crunch, and the new and persistent noise my engine made until it stopped altogether.

In short, I was rear ended, but that's not very spicy.

With the help of my passenger we ran it across the intersection into the nearest parking lot, in full realization of how trashy this makes me look in front of all the beautiful women who must have converged at the intersection at once, presumably on their way to a beautiful women party.

The driver turned out to be very cool, and was really patient while I took my good time fixing it. We decided to keep our very respectable and honest insurance companies out of our fun (interesting how that works, huh? how we dare not use them for the only reason we have them, because it's really more of a pay-out for them in the long run than for us right now). I fixed the engine first because I needed my car to get to school. And I'd never bought matched paint before, so I was a little trepid and took a long time with that.

Here I am, looking very miserable.

And another one, very miserable, but with my brother.

And it happened to be my nephew's half birthday. I got him a baby Nalgene bottle, just like uncle's. Happy Birthday Dallas! cute baby, but look at that beard! amazing.

So the engine took a hit right on the nose, bending the generator pulley, transferring that force into the generator fan, bending it, and busting something in the generator itself. I tore into the engine looking for any other damage, checking the oil cooler, but found nothing else. Here is the crinkled decklid.

Here is the new generator and new pulley, thanks to Erich at German Auto in Santa Maria.

I picked up a hood from Javier, a really cool guy on the Central Coast VW Club Forum , aka javiers_vdubs. Being tan I needed to paint it bahama blue, with a little oxidation. luckily the local napa crew really had their ish together and were a huge help getting the color right. So after sandblasting it and stealing a couple of years from my life through my lungs, I hit it with a rattle can, which I learned really needs to be shaken a lot and often.

And doesn't it look good! all matte and looking like it needs a fresh coat of paint! ha!

I did have to blend it a bit. I used a rubbing compound on the old paint around the hood, and it took a lot of the oxidation off, and I was really surprised! I should have done this before hand!

All in all it took a couple of months before it looked once again like the car I fell in love with, and less like the one I was embarrassed by in the school parking lots.

At some point during all of this, and also during a heavy rain storm, I found the carpet under my rear window to be soaking wet. I looked at the seal on the window, poked it and saw the window move a bit... 'huh' I thought... I poked it again but this time it simply popped completely out, sliding down the decklid and resting gently between the tailpipes. It was still raining.
So I ordered a new seal and with the help of photography student
Seth M. Johnson(pictured below)

who coincidentally helped me do the same exact thing two years earlier for my Baja Bug (also pictured below). Thanks Bro!

12v Starter on 6v flywheel

2007-09-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

Well here's an interesting discovery I would like to share. Some of the gurus might know this, but I haven't read anything on the Samba about it. I've found a way to run a 12 volt starter on a 6 volt flywheel with very little work involved.

This is an alternative to replacing the flywheel (& clearancing the bellhousing) or running a 6 volt starter in a 12 volt conversion. This could also be an alternative for running a 6 volt starter on a 12 volt flywheel (though I don't know if/why someone would need to).

So here's the rundown. I found that the bushing inside the 12v starter gear perfectly fits into the bushing in the 6v starter gear. This allows you to put the larger diameter 6v gear onto the 12v armature axle. why? so that you won't need to change flywheels to change starters, after a 12v conversion.

Now the only reason I even did this is that my 6v starter took a crap, and I had bought a new rebuilt 12v starter that I was going to cannibalize. Otherwise, the 6v starter does really well all juiced up on 12 volts, though it may help to replace the 6v solenoid with a 12v.

First things first. Unless you have more than one 12v starter lying around, you'll need to buy yourself one of those bushings for the 12v starter that fit in the bellhousing. do this before you go tearing into your starter. If you have more than one 12v starter then you're golden. I might even suggest it, so that you don't need to pull out the bushing already in there, which would be difficult with the engine still in the car.

so here's the new rebuilt 12v starter that I got for a killer 55 bones.

First thing you'll need to do is begin disassembling the 6v starter. I don't think you need to take off the solenoid but it may make things easier.

The screws on these things are old! so use the correct screwdriver, or you'll strip it and have to drill it out like I did! Same with the other screws.

Unscrew the top nipple cover, and take out the retaining clip and washers. Then unscrew the two larger screws to take off the end cap. You may need to give the cap a hit with a hammer if it's stubborn.
When you get it of, pull out the brushes that are connected to the case, you can leave the other two on. Then pull of the brush's bracket.

Check out your brushes. If their good, keep 'em around.

Same for the brushes on the case.

Now I read somewhere on the Samba that you can replace these brushes, but they are soldered on, and coated in enamel. I suppose you could replace them, but you'd be harder pressed to find new ones (or some you could make fit) than you would picking up an old starter with decent brushes.

Here is the reason I took on this project. You see the contact point that is all pitted? This picture was taken just after I sanded down the commutator really well, because that contact point, and the one opposite, were severely corroded and I thought the brushes couldn't make contact, leaving me stranded in the parking lots.

This picture was taken the next day, after being stranded again, and clearly there is a short in the armature somewhere, since I had replaced everything except for it.

But back to the project. At this point you should have the cap, bushes, and case all removed, and the armature is still trapped by the top cap/ mounting bracket.

This little bugger had me scratchin' my noggin for a while. But the round piece needs to be tapped down to get the retaining ring off. Then you can slide the gear assembly off the armature axle. (To get the retaining ring back on, slide the round piece on first, then the ring. Use pliers to grip the bottom of the round piece and top of the axle to clip it back over. Start from the side opposite the ring gap.)

Now you have the 6v gear assembly, this is what you're going to put onto the 12v starter.

Go through the same process of disassembling the 12v starter and remove the gear assembly from it also. And if you have another 12v starter do the same thing, it'll be worth it.

Once you have the 12v gear assembly/ies, find a socket or something that closely fits the circumference of the bushing inside the gear and gently tap them out from the inside, there are two of them in there. the rear one may be chipped, both of mine were, it shouldn't be too big of a deal, unless they are both demolished.

Here is the 12v starter bushing being put into the 6v starter bushing. A suspiciously precise fit. I cleaned the inside and out, then added loctite before pressing both in.

If you don't have a second starter, and your bushing are both immaculate, then you might only use one in the gear (though I don't suggest it). The reason you'll need an extra bushing is to put inside the bushing in the bellhouse, which will fit perfectly as well. This will save you the trouble of installing an after-market conversion bushing.

So as you can see here it is a perfect fit. Barely noticeable that one bushing is inside another.

Another consideration I made was that the spiral shaft gears fit together. And of course they did.

Here you can see I pressed an extra bushing into the bushing in the bellhouse. I cleaned and added loctite to this one as well. I add loctite to prevent the bushing from spinning, possibly causing it to come out, or shred to pieces.

Don't forget to re-lube the new bushings!

At this stage you've got your 6v gear assembly with it's new bushings, and so you're just going to re-assemble it onto the 12v starter. Hopefully you remember how it all goes back together. Don't lose the washers/shims that go on the rear of the armature axle, both under the brush bracket and under the nipple cap.

Earlier I was saying that you could possibly use this to put a 6v starter on a 12v flywheel. Well you're just going to remove the bushings from the 12v gear assembly, then put the gear on a 6v starter. It fits perfectly without bushings, but keep it well lubed.

Finally, here is my new rebuilt 12v starter turning over a 6v flywheel. All done without even dropping the engine!

Post Script:
I am interested to know if the after-market bushings might fit inside the gear assembly as well? If not it might be a good new product!

UPDATE (9/2010):
That inner bushing finally disintegrated in my starter sometime this week. It looks like it spun out, maybe I should have used a glue instead of locktite.

Also the inner bushing in the bellhouse is ovaled-out and may go soon too. Both the outer bushings are intact and look unaffected. I'm not sure which one is causing the starter to intermittently go dead, I'm actually thinking the bellhouse bushing, since it would cause the greater lateral movement. But either way it's time for some new ones. I think I'm gonna look to have a new set machined.

I'd post a picture but there's nothing to see, just some flakes of bronze.

But hey, I got nearly three years to the day out of them! pretty stoked about that. I honestly didn't think it'd last more than a year.

Tune-Up

2007-08-17T19:29:00.000-07:00

In June I took a month long vacation in North Carolina with my friend Jon Carpenter (Johnny Rad) and ol' Sugar was cooped up in the garage the whole time. But when I got back she was more than ready to stretch her legs, and started right up! I drover her around a bunch, going surfing and what not, put 500 on her odometer then did an early Tune-Up. I keep a little black book, not of phone numbers but of fill-ups and tune-ups.

Here is the entry for the Tune-Up

8.3.07
odometer: 04540
Timing @ 31º, reset to 30º
Dwell good
Idle @ 800-50rpm (good)
Adjusted valves, all good but #2 was .004" (tight)
Compression:
#1 115psi
#2 112psi
#3 110psi
#4 115psi
Plugs were all good, #3 was black

I was getting a stumble when the engine wasn't hot enough and at high RPM. I thought this might have something to do with the distributor, since it felt like it was missing. I just switched it out for the 009. It didn't fix it but I noticed it less, I also upped the advance @ 31º.

200 miles later I put the 010 back in and set the timing @ 30º. over the next hundred miles the stumble got worse. Tonight I checked the timing and found it at 28º, and after reading up in TheSamba, I bumped up the advance to 33º, I haven't driven it yet, but I bet the stumble will be gone.

I also replaced the generator brushes because every now-and-then the generator light would go, and stay on, and then I'd screw with the brushes and it would go off. Also sometimes the starter would refuse to engage. I would short the terminals and only small sparks would appear. I really have no idea what it was, my best guess is that the battery wasn't being fully charged, but even after I would charge it I just couldn't get the draw I needed out of the battery. Then out of no where it would begin working again, and I could tell because all of the sudden I would get much larger sparks. But when this happens I would be stranded for no less than 20 minutes.

Anyway, I bought the new ones and I think the spring had bottomed out on the brush guides, and I didn't really notice until I put in the new ones, which stuck out a good deal. The old ones were half the size of the new ones!

The spring has so much more leverage on this new brush now!

So I did a full tune-up. tonight I changed the oil and found a lot of metal in it again. Fine dust to small chips and I think all of it ferrous. Of course between the last time and this time, the compression had dropped on all cylinders (except #2, it actually went up, which may have been due to a low battery the first time) and this is probably where the metal is coming from. The compression is still good though, and it is a lot more even than the first time I did it (due to #2). For lack of more interesting subjects I've included these pictures of the pressure gauge and a foot pedal I put together.

The pressure gauge wouldn't fit in the tight spaces, and the hose adapter was too long also, so I bought a pipe fitting which made the hose-to-handle adaption shorter. here it is

I'm much more proud of the foot pedal I made. It is a simple switch connected to the starter that I can put on the ground and press with my foot. I love it because I used a spray paint cap, drilled a hole for the switch and then duct taped it to a heavy metal bearing that perfectly fit the cap (I think the bearing came from a printing press), which makes it bottom heavy and steady. It makes everything so easy. For some reason I only thought to take a picture of the bottom, but you can see it on the floor in the picture above.

sorry, few pictures

2007-04-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a few months since I have updated, in large part due to work and school. So I will compile the few projects that I have done.

Jan 28
On a leisurely drive out to Guadeloupe, just after finishing my wheel, I began to experience a wobble. I kept driving to get a better feel of where it was coming from, to the point that my horn button popped off in the worst of the shaking. Having read horror stories on the Samba where lug nuts could not grip into the surface of recent powder-coat jobs, my mind went to my wheel. I popped off the hubcap and found this.

luckily I caught it in time. Though it may have done damage to the drum... oh well. It was a beautiful day at the beach and I happened to run into another Volkswagen enthusiast, Tom from Santa Maria, a really cool guy out fishing

We talked and I reminded him of the upcoming Meet in the Middle BBQ/Bus Raffle an Najoqui Park.

Feb 18
I took a much needed day off at work for the Meet in the Middle VW BBQ. It was great, lots of cool people. I met up with Steven ("Grasshopper" on Central Coast VW Club) who I had arranged to buy a fuel gauge and two half baked Bosch 010 distributors, really cool guy, but drives water-cooled ; ) I also ran into Tom again and his father, and ate lunch with them and talked, really cool guys, funny too. Of course I am always so goo-goo eyed at these events that I only take the least amount of pictures and of the least cool things. But there are tons of pictures here. In fact I got in one of them!

See? thats my blue bug and Im reaching in the window doing something, maybe fixing my parking brake which broke when I got there. =D Anyway it was a fun event. And I'm looking forward to the next one.

Feb...
While driving, my speedometer cable suddenly broke. I bit the bullet and bought the expensive German one. A week later I install it and no more than a 100 feet later it breaks again. This is one more example of the lesson I have learned that "what is broken is not what's wrong." I reluctantly tore into my speedometer for the mole (6.022 X10²³) time. I found a seized gear, I replaced it with a new gear from my other speedometer, went to Perry's Auto Wrecking to buy an overpriced used cable, and put everything back together, it's still working great.
Around the same time, I decided to do something with my running boards. Instead of painting them I wanted to put new vinyl on them. I drove over to Belluz upholstery and bought some leathery material that came very close to matching the white of my bumpers and wheels. I ground down the rust off the running boards, cut out the material, and used generous amounts of contact cement and well placed clamps. It all came out very well, and it looks great. I thought I had taken pictures while I was doing it but I guess not. This picture is from today and the running board is dirty from driving past flower fields during a rain.

While I'm in this ambiguous time frame I'll add that I fixed up one of the Bosch 010 distributors and put it in. It reduced the flat spot dramatically but its not a miracle worker. I also bought that new fuel gauge from Steven which I installed at the show. My sweet lovin' bug is continually improving.

April 1-8
Worse than the flat spot of my old distributor was the front transaxle mount that was shot dead. The combination of these two formed a tag team worthy of American Gladiators. For a couple of weeks I had planned on using my Spring break to park the bug and dig into the tranny as well. Before doing this I wanted to take a compression test, considering the engine had developed a vibration and there has been metal in the oil twice now.
Cylinder 1: 120
Cylinder 2: 105
Cylinder 3: 125
Cylinder 4: 125

Well I found the offending cylinder. I squirted in oil and did it again.

Cylinder 1: 150
Cylinder 2: 145
Cylinder 3: 150
Cylinder 4: 150

So the rings on #2 are going bad. This makes me hate the guy I bought this engine from, that was his only responsibility and he screwed it up somehow. oh well it will survive a while. Back to the tranny.
I can not come close to explaining how my little "rear hatch" made this project so much easier. Things like clutch cable, engine-to-tranny bolts, starter motor, putting on axle boots, refilling tranny oil, heater ducts; all of these things that would have taken a considerable amount of time each were done in minutes.
In three hours I had the engine out, and the tranny (drum to drum) up on a table. With the engine out, I put on the engine tin that I forgot the last two times to do. While I was taking out the transaxle the front mount fell off in two pieces, it was bad. I spent the rest of the day and half of the next just cleaning the 43 years of buildup, nasty work.
My plan was to fix the oil leak from the side plates by replacing the gaskets, but curiosity had me tearing into the retaining plates also, for more thorough cleaning. For this job I bought: 2 tranny gasket kits, 1 set of axle boots, axle seal kits, gasgacinch, 10 beach towels (from the lost&found at work), 2 cans degreaser, 2 cans brakleen, all three mounts, and a can of black paint.
The side plate nuts would have been finger tight if the gunk had not prevented them from moving, which is why they leaked, and which is good to know. This was a fun project since I'd never really done much with a tranny or axle before. Here are some pictures I took. No real order here, or story, just interesting.

I put a new gasket on the nose cone, mostly so I could re-torque the bolts incase the bad mount had damaged it at all. I also replaced the main seal, but did not replace the t/o bearing or clutch. I bled and adjusted the brakes.

When I finally pulled it out of the garage the new mounts made such a difference! and it hasn't leaked a drop! But as I pulled mine out, I pulled my moms mustang in to replace the clutch and a disintegrated t/o bearing. I spent 6 hours trying to remove a pilot bearing, and I don't mean prying with a screwdriver. I tried everything from hydraulic extraction, to 4 or 5 fabricated bearing pullers!

and here is my beard after 4 months!

Pattern of All Patience

2007-01-19T23:14:00.000-08:00

So after I vacuumed out my bug, I saw the grill around the speedometer, and the really dirty screen backing them. So I sandblasted and painted them. They look really good now, and it makes such a difference to look at. Its cool how subtleties can do that.

Anyway, with my fuel gauge out, I decided to replace the broken plastic shield. I had the brilliant idea of replacing it with a CD case, I was very proud. The original was about .065" and the CD case was .040" so it was thinner but not by too much. I cut it out like you would cut glass, and it looked really good. In this picture you can only see the edges and the crack in the original, but you get the point.

I should have stopped there, but I wanted to shoot white grease into the wire tube to make the wire move more freely in it. I had to take it apart to get to the tube. Like a litany I repeated "don't break the needle", but like an idiot brute, time and time again, I broke the needle. This time it wasn't so much my fault as it was an unfortunate mistake, though.

Just like my speedometer I wanted to make a new one. I had beads made out of bone, and I knew it was going to be perfect. I ground down to the basic size, then filed and sanded it to within a hundredth of an inch in all dimensions.

I ground out the new center, using my dremel with a mill-like cutter.

A perfect match in depth.

I drilled a very small hole to press the needle into. an incredibly close tolerance hole, I couldn't believe it came out so perfectly.

After some shaping of the needle, it was a perfect fit. I couldn't make that nifty little tail for a counter-weight like the original had, but I offset the hole to achieve the same purpose.

I was meticulous. I was "the pattern of all patience." four hours in the making, and I couldn't have made a mistake if I had tried; everything was coming together perfectly.

I had it. Everything was together. At any point something could have broken, but it hadn't and it was now the last step. To cinch the top of the shaft over the new needle, like a rivet. This had to be done by hitting it with a tapered punch. so I did it.

Perfect. It worked perfectly. but the needle won't move with the wire! I knew the problem, the rivet wasn't pushing down hard enough. This time I ground off the tip of the punch so it would push down the sides more, and hit it.

no change. hit it again. still nothing. one more time. IT BREAKS!!!!! I kinda wanted to laugh.

I really wish I had a picture of it before it broke, because it looked really good.

This was my biggest hang-up from the very beginning. The needle goes over the shaft labeled #2, which has splines to make sure it catches the needle. But the lever labeled #3 rotates freely on that shaft, and only turns the needle by friction, because the needle is pushed down by the mushroomed shaft labeled #1. This was done so the needle could be adjusted, which is necessary. My hang-up is that I had to drill off the edges of the mushroom to take off the original broken needle, so I didn't have as much material in the shaft to mushroom over the new needle! I had originally solved this with a rubber o-ring that would catch the lever, but it wouldn't fit beneath the plate, and so I went along with the original design, which didn't work for me...

I'm keeping the needle, since it is in good shape, and I think at some point I will try again to fix it, we'll see how it goes.

Thermo-Aesthetics

2007-01-18T16:03:00.000-08:00

Well I've just finished the beginning of a long project of painting my wheels. I started with the spare tire. I muscled off the tire, then sandblasted the wheel, using the spiffy new media-blaster I got from santa. Here is what the wheels look like to begin with.

Starting on Thursday Jan. 11, I sandblasted and primed my first wheel.

I'm in love with this sandblaster. Now that I have it I want to sandblast everything. This wheel is down to bare metal.

On the 12th I added a second coat of primer, white this time. and let it dry for 48 hours

Sunday the 14th, 48 hours later, I added color; it's the same as the bumpers, Ivory gloss. I sprayed multiple coats, then let it dry 48 hours. Tuesday the 16th I added the clear gloss coats and let it dry another 48 hours.

Thursday the 18th it was dry and ready to put back on. I muscled on the tire being very mindful of the new paint, but still I managed to chip off a good strip on the front of the wheel, down to the first coat of primer. That really ticked me off, but this wheel is the practice run for the rest of them, being the spare. I'm going to practice painting bare metal, because I've had chipping on my bumpers too. I think it is from not sanding the primer coat before painting, which I didn't think was necessary, but we'll find out with my experiments. Anyway, I patched up the scars so they only look a little lumpy, and then stuck it on. I'll admit I'm not as stoked on it as I first thought I would be. There is just something wrong with the aesthetics.

In this picture I Photoshoped the rear wheel, running board, and blinker to match. This should be pretty close to what they will look like. I'm undecided about painting the running board, but I think that is another aesthetics problem.

On to other projects! I finally found the use for my tranny-hatch!! because my transaxle leaks so much gear oil, I have to refill it every now and again. Before, it involved jacking up the car, removing a wheel, climbing under, and squeezing into very tight, oily spaces. but now, I just pop the hatch, and BAM! its done! I am so very stoked.

and I also painted my stick shifter. I did it in a hurry, since my daily driver is useless without it, but it looks good. This was prompted by the rattling noise it made while driving. I had only planned on re-greasing it, but I went a step further and painted it too.

I love you, Sugar..

2006-12-30T19:06:00.000-08:00

Its been a good while since I've updated. There are a number of things that I have done with my bug. Since my last post, I've painted my wiper arms, a project that was prompted by my wiper motor failing. I tore it down and found this reduction gear had stripped.

It was a 6volt motor and it went wild, high on 12 volts, which probably caused the gear to strip, so I bought a 12v conversion armature from aircooled.net. But without a solution for the gear it was useless. I posted a want ad on the central coast forum and Doug Z(?) aka "BoysBug" was cool enough to let me buy a whole assembly from him. He's a good guy with a couple Herbies. This was all in mid-october.

They look good on there and I think the chrome on the blinkers is next. I'm going to do all the rusty trim that I can't afford to replace.

After that I began digging around behind my back seat and, sadly, found lots of corrosion. It is ugly.

I can't afford a proper fix right now, so I hippie fixed it. with some ply and carpet, grabbed from a back alley, I made a cover. and I used some more carpet under the window to insulate it. I was mostly concerned about fumes and sound.

A little insulation

The carpet I found in an alley, stapled to ply.

nice fit.

aesthetics.

It actually quieted it down a lot! and now I have a little access window to my tranny and starter and all that goodness, hopefully one day it will be useful. It is still crappy looking though, but someday I'll do it proper. This was sometime in November.

Early December I was driving home and, just as I turned into my neighborhood, my engine died and I was able rolled all the way to the front of my house. I checked gas. ok. I checked spark to the plug. nope. I checked spark from the coil. nope, but its a new coil. I looked under the dist. cap and didn't notice anything at first, then I saw that the plastic rubbing block had broken off the points. I had an extra set of points and I was rolling again in no time. I should have adjusted my points a long time ago, because the engine responded really well. A friend was at my house when all of this happened, working on his toyota. He told me "you need to get a chevy" I said that if it had been a chevy, I couldn't have done something like that in 20 minutes, like I had.

December 18: I bought new tires for all five. It's good to get that off my mind, but it hurt. They aren't white-walled and I think they are uglier.

Two weeks ago I began grinding my rear bumper to paint it also. I finally put it back on this Tuesday, and it looks mighty fine!

I was thinking about doing something like this..

no, not really... this bus has a stinger... haha... I saw this at the Solvang show.

Next project are my wheels. When they are finished it should look amazing. It will take a long time to finish them all, but it'll get done. I saw these wheels at the Solvang show also, I really liked them...

Feng Shui

2006-10-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

I've really been trying to make my bug look less old and more classic, especially for the neighbors because it tends to give them a little more patience for it. Well my after-market bumpers are getting rusty and I can't afford new ones so I decided to paint the front one to see how it turns out.

I ground off all the rust. what a pain.

Then I rattle-can primed and painted them Ivory gloss.

It looks surprisingly good! It matches the steering wheel and knobs and tray inside. I'm going to do the same to the wheels and rear bumper and what ever else I can so it's all feng shui (googled that ish!). I'll save myself the pain and have the rest media blasted and get new tires for the wheels but first i'll need a little cash so it will have to be put off for a little while.

Seat belts

2006-09-26T21:38:00.001-07:00

I ordered new vintage style three point seat belts at cip1.com for $30 each. They are non-retractable and I wanted to make them retractable by using the belts I already have. I started by cutting off the belt's metal piece.

Here it all is, disassembled. The first time I took it apart the spring unraveled in my face.

The pin goes through the spool and the belt around the pin. I left a little stub where it was stitched together so it couldn't pull through the pin and I wouldn't need to stitch an overlap myself.

Here the pin is through the spool and mount bracket, the black plastic is the spring and it goes on the top of the pin.

The shiny metal piece disengages the lock when the strap is wrapped fully around the spool and it needed a little adjusting. The spool was sticky but with a little white grease spray it retracted really smoothly.

I'll admit that I had to disassemble the whole thing five times on the first belt because it was backwards or I forgot to put the plastic on or both but the second time it went quickly and I only assembled it backwards once.

Well here it is and it looks pretty good all retracted and everything. It was a simple project and only took an hour (because of screw-ups) but I saved at least $100.

Fuel Gauge

2006-09-12T19:36:00.000-07:00

My next project was to get the fuel gauge working again. Besides a ridiculous amount of varnish build-up on the bobber pieces, the new gas tank is smaller and the bobber wouldn't rotate all the way down. I needed to shorten the rods to make it work. Once again this idiot brutte broke something. The rod was stuck in the small brass piece and broke off when I tried to pull it out.

The other rod was easy enough to cut. I took an even inch off both rods.

After I scraped off all the varnish I found that the bobber was filled with a lot of gasoline. I poked holes in it and drained the gas, then I plugged the holes and sealed the rim with JB Weld

To fix the piece I broke I needed to make a new one. I bought this brass hammer from ACE Hardware and planned on using some of the handle material but it was hollow with screwdrivers inside. There was still enough material in the head to get what I needed.

I cut the head in half and ground off enough material for it to fit in the chuck of my drill press. I turned and cut it with an assortment of files, shaping it to match the original, taking close measurements.

I cut the three steps at the correct lengths to match the original and then a groove for the o-ring to fit in. A notch was made for a screw to hold the arm in place like the original

And finally a hole needed to be drilled for the rod to be pressed in.

Here it is finished and pressed on to the rod of the bobber.

And here is the whole assembly put together. You can see where the brass piece I made fits in.

This is the piece that screws onto the top of the gas tank. You can see the arm with the screw that fits into the notch of the brass piece I made. The arm pulls or pushes the cable, mechanically moving the needle on the fuel gauge.

And Finally here is the gas gauge. It's pretty accurate after I adjusted it!

Axle boots and Speedometer

2006-09-11T23:45:00.000-07:00

Well since I've been home I've been driving around a lot. There were two immediate things I noticed needed to be taken care of; the speedometer screamed like a banshee, and I left puddles of smelly gear oil from the transaxle every time I parked. I took care of the axle boots first, thinking they were the problem. This picture and brief description is an insult to the four hours I spent cleaning grime and stinky gear oil from the transaxle, axles and cradle horns to prep for the new boots. But there it is, one of the new boots, in all it's glory. Too bad the old boots weren't torn and the leak is coming from the axle plate.

I was really amazed that the old axles weren't torn because they were the original axle boots and 40+ years old.

The speedometer was much more fun. To take it apart the glass cover needed to be pried off. then two screws from the back to take it out of it's case, and this is what's left

From there it split in two parts. Here is the side with the magnet; it was what made all the noise. All I needed to to was disassemble, clean and re-lube and I would have been in business, but I wanted to fart around with the odometer.

Here is the other half with the odometer and gears.

The magnet spins inside this wheel that directly turns the needle and a spring on the other side offers resistance to take the needle back to zero.

I cleaned these too and re-lubed them and then figured out how to reset the odometer. I put it at 300 miles since that is how many I figure I have on the engine.

But I'm an idiot brutte and broke the needle. I wasn't going to throw away a good speedometer for a broken needle so I set out to make one.

I made the bottom one first from really thin sheet metal and the top one was made out of a dentists tool. At first I didn't think about counter balancing it, but when I tested the speedometer it would barely move. I had to grind as much of the underside to make it as thin as possible and on the opposite side I soldered on a large lump to balance it out. The original needle is plastic and smaller and a LOT lighter, but I balanced it out as well as I could and put it in the car.

It's a little off though, especially in the higher range, but it sure looks pretty. The obnoxious whine is also gone.

home

2006-09-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

Well since my last post I have made it home and this is all that happened.

To finish my brakes, I went to Unique Supply in Redlands and picked up front cylinders and a hose. But when I began to reassemble the brake shoes I couldn't find a pin! The smallest and most worthless piece of the whole brake assembly! I wasn't going to drive back down the mountain to get another so I made one from a nail! ha! It looks shabby but it will hold as well as any of the others!

When I left camp I had barely driven the bug a hundred yards and I planned on driving it 100 miles to Pasadena, but I was getting bad vibes before we reached the bottom of the mountain and decided to take it to Wally's mechanic "Jenks" in Fontana. When I saw Jenks shop I was immediately skeptical, it had all the tools you could want but it was a wreck. The dirt yard around the shop was worse, littered with (a lot of) gaskets, retaining pins, old cylinders, brake drums, and brake shoes. In fact the only trash I saw was piled high with beer cans and bottles! There were a bunch of volkswagens and a sand rail. Jenks wasn't there but talking to the other guys I realized they knew there stuff. I left the bug there and resigned myself... A few days later and a few very brief talks with Jenks I got my bug back.. with a hefty bill. Jenks converted it to 12 volt using my alternator and other parts, he adjusted the brakes, put in new shift linkage, put in larger jets, adjusted the carburetor and set the timing. I was surprised what a great job he did. It was the first time I met Jenks and he was far from what I expected after seeing his shop. He was short-spoken and you could tell he really knew his stuff. He gave me a good laugh because after I had paid him and I left to fill up on gas he called me and said that ARCO gas was crap, which is where I was headed. If I'm ever down in Fontana and need work on my VW I'll definitely give Jenks a call!

long time coming

2006-08-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a long time since I've updated this blog and there is so much that I have done to the bug. Today was the first day I drove it, so let me catch up on everything up until now.
June 15th I headed for the Pomona Swap Meet, to buy an engine and whatever else I saw, the next morning. But I saw an add on TheSamba for a 1600 dual port that had a new piston/cylinder kit put on and I drove to Pasedena to check it out. It sounded really strong and I took it back with me. Instead of converting the car to 12 volt I wanted to convert the engine to 6v. So I threw on the generator from my engine, put in the 6v. choke and muscled on the 6v flywheel, setting the end-play along the way.

You can see the tools I bought to set the end-play, torque the flywheel and align the clutch. I've done it before without them but let me just say it was soooo much easier with them.

This all done over a few weeks, taking time in the evening and my days off to work on it and also waiting for parts to come in the mail. I prepped the engine bay and put in new seals and such.

With some help from friends we popped in the engine and I connected all the wires and such.

Then I put in a new gas tank and flushed the fuel line. It was a good thing too because this is the rust that came out of the filler hole when I just set the tank upside down!

Having put in the generator, the carb had to come off and other things moved around so all the settings were off, and the accelerator cable had broken so I couldn't give it gas while I turned it over. I got it started eventually and it sounded like crap and was running really rough and hot. what changed? I had to list them, starting with the most obvious:
-12v-6v
-dirty gas maybe blocking a jet?
-timing
-elevation

Thinking I had covered all the electrical bases I started with cleaning the jets, which were clean, though it wasn't a bad idea because as the first gas was pumped into the carb the gas filter got really dirty.
I messed around with the timing a bunch. I changed the points and condenser and put on the new coil. But I wasn't feeling it.
At 6000' I should retard the timing a bit and also the fuel mixture would become rich. But I already messed around with the timing and the engine was running hot, indication of running lean.
Of course the most obvious answer is usually correct, and even though I thought I had converted all the electrical to 6 there was a fuel cut-off solenoid that needed 12 volts and was only getting supplied 6. When I tested it on 6 volts the foot would retract most of the way, but it was my only solution so I cut off the foot and started the engine up. With a few tweaks it was running really well.

When I was dead-ended on the engine I would work on brakes and axle seals. I put on the GR-2 shocks from Gert and new brake hoses and slave cylinders. I replaced the rear axle bearings and Mr. Woooo (Jason Liou) made a really cool tigers-eye necklace out of the old bearing for me and I hung it on my mirror.

I put in new axle seals and new brake pads. I had to do one of the axle seals at least seven times because it kept leaking and it was the last thing I did today before I drove the car. I think it still leaks a little but people have lived with worse and I'm on crunch time since camp is ending one week from now.
I haven't yet finished the brakes since I haven't received my full order of parts and was missing a brake cylinder and hoses for the front, but the e-brake worked and thats how I stopped while driving around camp. Seeing the poor bug in that garage for two months half stripped of drive-train and dignity was really depressing, and I would really lose motivation easily while working on it, just giving up sometimes. But after driving it around today and getting it out of the garage I was refilled once more with hope. so tonight I rolled her back in the garage, promising she would be back on her feet as soon as I could finish her front brakes. I tore out the cylinders and hoses and prepared for the new ones I'll pick up on Monday, Aug. 21.
When I finished I jumped on the electrical. The headlights and running lights turned on. The blinkers wouldn't work but when I by-passed the blinker they lit up like a christmas tree. Seeing how little more work that needs to be done until it can be driven gave me a lot of confidence that it would be driving home.
There is only one problem I see; the generator isn't generating. I put on a new voltage regulator and I will try polarizing the generator but if that doesn't work then I will just take my time going home, stopping at service stations along the way to have the battery charged. No biggie.

Split

2006-07-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

7.4.06
Well today I finally got the case split and it wasn't easy. I was able to beat three of the cylinders off and then we (help from friends) took a pipe wrench to the last cylinder (here is the good part and the answer to why the engine wouldn't turn over) but the piston was so seized into the cylinder that instead of just the cylinder it spun the piston too and turned the rod over three times until it broke.

If you've ever wondered how tough these rods are, there is your answer! Look at that!

The inside of the cylinder and the pistons were badly rusted together and the reason why my engine wouldn't turn over.

Everything else looked acceptable to run. The bearings were a little scuffed and the lifters were mostly flat but the crank turned freely and the cam looked decent.

The bottom of the case had a lot of really thick sludge; a lot more than what I pulled out of the oil. The inside of the case was just really dirty and most of the steel parts were really rusty.

The distributor is still stuck in the case and I'm trying not to break it. The shaft is definitely rusted in but the distributor should pull out anyway. I won't use a pipe wrench on this one, I promise.

What I learned from the tear-down was that the engine was seized because of rust in the cylinders, the distributor was also badly rusted and that there was an extreme/unacceptable amount of crap in the engine. It's a bit of a disappointing conclusion because there is a chance that I could have gotten the engine to turn over with a lot of WD-40 and patience and maybe have gotten it to run, BUT I don't regret tearing down. The engine was old enough that it needed an overhaul anyway; there was so much crap in/on that engine that I would never have relied on it as a daily driver and finally the oil was completely saturated with gasoline. However, I do regret ruining the case because it was the original engine and had matching serial numbers for the car but that also means that I would have had to rebuild the engine myself and I don't want to spend the time or anxiety doing that again.

July 16 is the Pamona Swap Meet and I will buy an engine there and what ever else I need. I will order my brake and axle things from aircooled.net. I trust them because they are very honest in their description of their products and tell you "what" "why" and "how" and they won't sell crap and if they do they'll tell you.

I've spent so much time tearing at the brakes and engine that I haven't spent much time in the driver seat getting comfortable or cleaning it up. I still have all the old magazines and papers and books in there. The interesting thing is that they are all dated from 1989... more food for thought.

Sugar

2006-07-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

7.2
By now I've ruined the case. The pistons are seized in the cylinders and I'm not able to get the cylinders off even after breaking all the fins and generally beating them to ruin. I gave up trying to get the cylinders off and just began prying at the case with a screwdriver (go ahead and cringe) but since the cylinders won't come off the two sides of the case won't split either (but I had to try).

So the case is ruined and my only incentive is to see the inside and learn what can happen to an air-cooled flat four that has been neglected like an ugly child. Sometimes you wish that the previous owner of your VW were standing close by so you could slap them a good one.

6.29
Tonight I put the engine up on a table and began to tear down taking pictures along the way to remember how things go. First I took off the exhaust (thankfully without trouble), then the shroud and generator, the carb and manifold and finally the tins. Tearing down goes quickly and you have to have patience and remember put the screws and nuts back where they should go so they're not lost, or to put them in baggies but I didn't have so much patience and only half of them made it. I need to keep a box of baggies on the desk top.

One thing I noticed while tearing down was the mass amount of sand and dirt under the generator stand/oil filler. Also that the oil cap says "OEL", I guess that is German for oil. I'm not concluding that this car was shipped from Europe but there is also that loop for a hook that was forged on the bumper maybe to secure to while shipping(?) Maybe all VW oil caps say "OEL," I have no idea, but so far this has been a mysterious little bug. Looking at the heads and the pistons I'm beginning to see why the oil smelled like gasoline.

6.26
I disconnected the heater cables and then loosened the engine mounting nuts. With a little help from some friends we dropped the engine and pulled it out from under the car.

I also unbolted the starter and I will have it tested (though I'll probably need a new one). What I noticed is that the flywheel, clutch and throw-out bearing are new and the clutch even says "Made In Japan". It got me thinking about the history of this bug.

6.24
Today I tore into the brakes and axles. The rear brake drums were a real pain to get off but with a little leverage and a grunt I got them off. The brake shoes didn't seem so bad (except for seizing on the drums) and I might have been able to use them again but I'd rather take care of all my brake and axle issues at one time. The boots on the slave cylinders were torn so they will also need to be replaced and a rear axle bearing is stuck so I will replace both rear bearings. While I have everything torn apart I will clean up the backing plates and paint them, replace the brake hoses, clean up the axles and paint them, replace the axle boots and put on the GR-2 shocks I bought from Gert (he really just gave them to me, he's cool). I began disconnecting the wires to the engine so I can drop it. It's been pretty greasy, but I'm getting things done.

6.17
After pulling the plugs and shooting WD-40 in the holes and letting it sit over night, I tried turning over the engine by hand and then in gear by turning the wheels but still couldn't. This afternoon I drained my oil and found a surprise that may help answer why the engine is seized; it looks like someone took a fistful of dirt and threw it into the oil filler. Here is the sludge that came out with the oil, and there is just as much around the cap and screen.

There was so much of it that when I unscrewed the oil drain plug nothing came out, I had to take off the plate to drain the oil. The sludge is thick too and you can tell that it was dirt because there is sand and small pieces of grass. The oil was heavily saturated with gasoline which could mean a broken ring(s), explaining why it is seized, or it could be a bad fuel pump. I think it is a bad fuel pump because there was no visible metal in the oil, but we will see.

6.15.06
I bought the Beetle on Saturday, June tenth and, along with some help from Wally Wirick, towed it up to UCLA Uni Camp. All the numbers (pan, body, and engine) say that it was made June 1964 but it has been mismatched with parts from later models. I will order a "Birth Certificate" for the bug and see what it can tell me.

Today I began troubleshooting the bug. I put in the new battery but without keys I had to hot wire it. The headlights turned on and one running light but no signals. I didn't bother with the brake lights because I already know they need work. I tried to start it but I got nothing. I went to the engine and tried to turn it over by hand and couldn't do that either. Without a jack or any proper tools I can't do very much. I will try jacking up a tire and turning it while in gear to get the engine to turn over, but I'm not so sure about the transaxle either. The engine won't turn over and it can be anything between a little rust to a piece of piston jamming the gears. I will drain the oil and if I see any silver then I will drop the engine, but if it's clean I will do my best to get it started. Not only did I make nearly no progress today but the progress I did make was learning how much more work this Bug is going to take to get it on the road.