Pulley Wobbles
Does the bottom pulley on your upright 1200 - 1600 have the wobbles? Don’t replace it ! It can be straightened. With motor running at idle carefully place two tyre levers behind it (one on each side) and pull them back evenly until they touch the pulley apply some pressure to the inner lip of the pulley and it will straighten up. You must do this with the motor running so be careful. I have done it many times and it really works. The pulley is made out of sheet metal so it will easily bend. CAUTION: do not try this with alloy pulleys.
Rusty bump-stop brackets
There is a problem afflicting the control arms of IRS Beetles and Type 3s which can be difficult to treat - the metal protrusions holding on the rubber bump stops can rust at the base, probably due to moisture trapped against the metal by the rubber. One broke off on me recently and I found it nearly impossible to get in there with an oxy flame. The solution - find another good metal piece. Since I was doing an IRS conversion, I found one on the bump-stop bracket from the old swing-axle set-up. Drill out the spot weld at the base of the new metal piece and the IRS control arm, then attach with a 6-mm nut and bolt. Thoroughly rust-proof it, and it's as good as a brand-new one!
Aid to bleeding brakes
We all know the familiar ritual of bleeding those bleeding brakes: you, the operator, on your back on a cold concrete floor, twist the bleed screw back and forth while dangling a plastic tube into a jam jar and calling out "in - out - in - out ...", while your wife/girlfriend/next-door-neighbour's kid that you've bribed, pumps on the brake pedal in unison with your laboured instructions. There has to be a better way to get the air out, all by yourself, without the bribe and without getting brake fluid all over yourself.
Get hold of a small check valve. I like to use VW parts, so I recommend the small plastic T-piece found on pre-68 Beetle windscreen washers, or the inline check valve between the windscreen washer pump and jets on some water-cooled models. Attach this to the plastic tube which you have customarily attached to the bleed screw, so that the waste brake fluid can pump out the bleed screw, through the check valve and into the glass container. Crack the bleed screw open a fraction, get into the car and in relative comfort, pump the brake pedal as much as you like. The fluid will spurt out the check valve and into the container, but no air will creep back in, because the check valve will stop it. If you're using silicone brake fluid (good move) it can be recycled, so dispense with the jam jar altogether and extend the plastic tube back up to the fluid reservoir. That way the reservoir will never run out of fluid, too. When you're sure there is no more air issuing from the tube, screw the bleed screw closed and move on to the next wheel.
Good location for speakers
Looking for somewhere good to put powerful speakers, but don't want to use the panel behind the back seat? The kick panels underneath the back seat are quite a good spot. Just re-fabricate the original panels in aluminium plate of generous thickness and cut holes for the speakers, as well as the hot air outlets. You'd be surprised how much room there is for a decent-sized speaker, but there is a limitation - the battery is close by and determines the depth of speaker you can squeeze in there. It sounds great - bass sounds can communicate through the area underneath the front seats.
Brake-fluid-level warning light
You can install a combined brake-fluid-level and handbrake warning light into a Beetle or Type 3 using all VW-Audi parts. Get the warning light from a series-2 Kombi. It drops right into the hole on the dash on 1971 and later Beetles and Type 3s. Find a handbrake switch bracket from a series-2 Audi 100 or Audi 80
The Golf reservoir can easily replace the original Beetle one. It fits neatly in the bracket, and all you have to do is extend the holes where the hoses attach. The rest, I think, you can work out yourselves.
Excellent Ignition
The ultimate electronic ignition system for a Beetle, as far as neatness of installation goes, has to be the factory system for 1900 water-cooled Transporters. The distributor drops right into the Beetle crankcase and you get a Hall-effect trigger, the standard VW-Audi control module (same as Holden Camira, by the way), a rev-limiting rotor button and digital idle stabilisation , which is a very nice touch indeed. It all bolts in, looks good and works superbly. If you come across one for sale, I saw it first, just give me a ring, you can get the next one.
When re-packing front wheel bearings, it is important not to have any grease on the surface where the axle seal contacts the hub because this will make the seal slippery and pop out of the hub causing a leak. Also, a drop of Silastic on the end of the speedo cable (where it emerges from the grease cap) will stop water entering the left hand wheel bearings. This also brings to mind another mechanical "Old Wives Tale" (like extractors burning out valves), there is no need to fill the grease cap with grease as this leaves no room expansion when bearings are hot, and, when you think about it, how does grease manage to get from the hub into bearing anyway. A light cover of grease is all that is necessary on the inside of the grease cap and on the stub axle to prevent corrosion
If your Beetle is ever involved in an accident, no matter how small, the majority of the impact is usually absorbed by the bumper bars and in turn the bracket location points. Even after a minor collision, creasing of the body work around the brackets will result. So if you car does suffer front or rear end collision check these areas carefully for creasing particularly after repair work has been carried out. The same checks should also be done when buying a used vehicle.
Most RHD Beetles with the 40 hp style of accelerator pedal and linkage, suffer from a lack of full throttle. The accelerator rod, which runs through the centre of the pedal cluster, bends towards the front of the car. To remedy this, select a large shifter and put it around the rod at position just inboard of the bend in the shaft with the handle in the vertical plane. Now put a large screwdriver or jack handle in the hole in the end of the shifter and twist it clockwise, slightly twisting the shaft back towards the rear of the car. This will counteract the bending forces built up over many years of trying to squeeze the very last from those 40 horses.
When V.W. fitted exhaust manifold nuts with a stainless steel Heli-Coil, they did so because the Heli-Coil acted as a nut lock and being stainless steel, did not seize onto the exhaust stud. Their one fault was that the mild steel 13 mm Hexagonal outer section, would rust away and would round off, when being undone. There is a solution. I have been using stainless steel nuts called "Glen Locks" available from most good Engineering suppliers. Being all stainless they do not rust and having a locking device in them they do not undo as is the case with plain stainless steel nuts.
Have you ever noticed how your car has less groans after washing than before? I have because my Superbug has particularly firm suspension. One way in which I was able to quieten some of these noises was to polish the inside of the door jamb where the rubber seal fits and then to Armourall the rubber itself. This lets the door rubbers move in the door jamb without groaning. This should not be done when your car is coming up for a re-spray because paint will not stick to a previously Armouralled surface unless special precautions are taken.
by Rod Young and Steve Carter