Beetle Tips

Background:
The car ran great before it was parked. The battery was dead, you jumped it but still no go. You charged the battery and it now cranks fine.

Symptom:
The engine won’t start. You checked for spark, it seems strong and you have fuel in the tank.

Tip:
There is a separate wiring harness for the fuel injection system under the back seat that runs from the battery to the fuel system relay located just under the rear window. Where the harness connects to the battery the heavy red wire is connected with a ring terminal. The ground wire for the system is a push-on type. Over time, the push-on connector fits loosely onto the negative battery cable. When you put the battery charger on the dead battery, you knocked the terminal off. You will probably find it laying in front of the battery between the battery and the trim panel where you can’t see it. For a temporary repair, squeeze the connector down a little to make better contact on the battery terminal. A permanent repair involves replacing the push-on terminal with a ring terminal. I try to do this on every one I find with the original terminal.

How do you keep the doggone thing tight? None of your wrenches fit on the flats of the mirror bracket that screws into the window frame and on a convertible, you can’t get ANY wrench on the nut without first removing the mirror from the bracket. If you use a standard wrench it will bugger up the trim under the vent window.

Tip:
First of all, it takes a specially bent and especially thin 19mm wrench to remove or tighten the mirror bracket to the door. After modifying a wrench to fit (I would gladly loan you mine if you stop by), remove the mirror from the bracket by first removing the 12mm chrome cap nut. Then remove the mirror bracket from the car with the special wrench. Take the bracket assembly apart and clean corrosion from all the parts. Then reassemble the assembly and when you reassemble the  bracket and mirror, lube the bracket, the shafts, collars, and springs with anti-sieze lube. Don’t get any on the tensioning nuts because you need to Loctite the nuts then tighten them until the mechanisms are appropriately stiff and not loose. Reinstall the bracket on the car with just a bit of anti-sieze compound. It needs to be torqued pretty tight so here is where having the right tool pays off. After you have the bracket on, install the mirror and the tensioning parts with a small amount of anti-sieze lube and Loctite the cap nut. Tighten it just enough to move with a fair amount of effort. Until the Loctite hardens, rotate the mirror only clockwise to avoid backing the tension nut off. I guarantee that your mirror will work just the way it was designed and stay that way!

Background:
The car was running a little sluggish and when it was cold it tended to sputter and pop a little.

Symptom:
Today when you started your car, it popped, started and stalled. Now it starts but stalls immediately and will not stay running. It has good spark and fuel.

Tip:
The main air boot has a number of hoses attached to metal and plastic nipples. Some of these hoses are not clamped down. Over time the rubber gets brittle allowing them to become slightly loose. If the engine should backfire on start up, it can blow one or more of the hoses right off the main air boot. In a way, this is a good thing. It the main air boot and all the hoses were clamped tight, your air flow meter might become damaged by a backfire.

While you are checking for loose hoses on the air boot, check the boot itself. The boots eventually tear due to the rocking motion of the engine. Naturally, they usually tear on the front side where you can’t see the tear. Go figure! Massage the boot to feel how much flexibility remains. If it is very stiff, replace it. New boots are relatively soft and flexible.

Symptom:
The car has always seemed a little shaky and you have had EVERYTHING replaced but now, even with new tires, it STILL shakes at about 45 mph and faster.

Tip:
Have the tires balanced “on the car” to eliminate out of balance conditions. On many cars, the brake drums are out of balance and if only the tires are balanced, the car may still shake. On the car balancing is something of a “lost art”. You may have to search to find a shop that has the equipment and experience to do it. After the balancing, don’t forget to mark the position of the wheel on the brake drum so you don’t upset the balance if you take the wheel off the car.

How do you keep the doggone thing tight? None of your wrenches fit on the flats of the mirror bracket that screws into the window frame and on a convertible, you can’t get ANY wrench on the nut without first removing the mirror from the bracket. If you use a standard wrench it will bugger up the trim under the vent window.

Tip:
First of all, it takes a specially bent and especially thin 19mm wrench to remove or tighten the mirror bracket to the door. After modifying a wrench to fit (I would gladly loan you mine if you stop by), remove the mirror from the bracket by first removing the 12mm chrome cap nut. Then remove the mirror bracket from the car with the special wrench. Take the bracket assembly apart and clean corrosion from all the parts. Then reassemble the assembly and when you reassemble the bracket and mirror, lube the bracket, the shafts, collars, and springs with anti-sieze lube. Don’t get any on the tensioning nuts because you need to Loctite the nuts then tighten them until the mechanisms are appropriately stiff and not loose. Reinstall the bracket on the car with just a bit of anti-sieze compound. It needs to be torqued pretty tight so here is where having the right tool pays off. After you have the bracket on, install the mirror and the tensioning parts with a small amount of anti-sieze lube and Loctite the cap nut. Tighten it just enough to move with a fair amount of effort. Until the Loctite hardens, rotate the mirror only clockwise to avoid backing the tension nut off. I guarantee that your mirror will work just the way it was designed and stay that way!

Tip:
The fuel level is converted to an electrical signal by the fuel tank sending unit which works like a light dimmer. The more fuel in the tank, the more electricity that passes through the sending unit. Over time, fuel causes the resistor bar (which has a strand of wire wrapped around it) to warp. The “wiper contact” then fails to indicate the fuel level in the upper and lower ranges. Even if you replace the sender, the problem comes back in a few months further frustrating you. To cure it, the wiper contact must be adjusted and the bracket creatively bent to increase spring tension on the wiper arm. This is not a do-it-yourself project, If you bring your sending unit in, I will look at it at no charge if you are a Vintage VW member.

Tip:
The seat legs have plastic clips that the seat slides on in the tracks. These often get broken during the process of removing or reinstalling the seat. The front of the seat is also supported by a plastic clip. The plastic clips for the legs are part # 111 881 213 909 (2 required per seat) and the pedestal clip is # 371 881 203 (1 per seat). These are cheap so you might as well order all of them. (Munk’s stocks them).

After you have the clips, you need to slide the seat rearward to remove it. There is a metal leaf spring clip cleverly hidden at the top of the seat pedestal. To remove the clip, slide the seat all the way back to expose the retaining screw and remove the screw. (You can remove the seat by depressing the clip but I’ve pinched my fingers doing it.) Slide the seat forward enough to reach under the seat and slide the clip forward slightly to release it from the pedestal, then you can pull the clip out. Now slide the seat back and remove it. Once it is out, you can cherry the seat tracks and clean the seat legs where the clips fit on. I have seen the seat legs actually worn out where the clips fit on. If yours are OK, install the new clips, apply a thin film of lithium grease to the tracks and slide the seat back on. Unless something is bent or you have had a sleazy restoration, your seat will slide great.

Tip:
There is a tensioning screw that allows an adjustment with a Phillips screw driver. This visor can also be removed to take the pivot pin out of the visor to clean and lubricate the tension clip. This is especially useful if the visor makes a “graunching” sound when you try to move it. It’s a fairly easy fix. If the tension screw does nothing when you tighten or loosen it, too late. You need a new visor.