Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[norustplease]

In spite of saying earlier last year that three cars was too many, I have acquired a third car. A beetle. The logic is that it is something that I can use as a Spring/Summer daily locally, since my modern car is racking up mileage.
It is a 1973 Superbeetle, so has most of the useful bells and whistles that can be found on more modern cars.
Picture to follow.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid

[norustplease]

It is bright yellow, having been resprayed about twenty years ago when it has had a fairly extensive restoration for which I have had all of the invoices etc. It has spent most of its time in Lancs and Cumbria and post restoration, has had hardly any use whatsoever. The list of MOT's shows as little as 10 miles between tests some years, so the low mileage is believeable. (36,200).
So a few jobs to do, electrifying the ludicrous VW windscreen washer system for starters (relies on spare tyre pressure as standard).

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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid

[Ray White]

I like it. So much nicer than the later 'retro' cars that in my opinion are not real Beetles at all.

Most people think that the story began with Adolf Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche ... but the truth is that the real story pre dates Hitler's rise to power in 1933. The original design can be attributed to a Hungarian engineer by the name of Joseph Ganz who was producing a somewhat heavier version of the car. people were soon calling it the "beetle" because of it's shape. It was Ganz who had the original idea for a "volks wagen"...or people's car.

Hitler took an interest in the car and wanted it mass produced...but from his point of view there was a problem; Ganz was a Jewish immigrant...so Ferdinand Porsche was recruited ...and the rest, as they say, is history. 21 million sales can't be wrong.!

What is less well known is that poor Mr Ganz was persecuted by the Gestapo to the point that he had to flee his home. He eventually settled in Australia where he spent the rest of his life trying to be recognised as the rightful patent owner of the VW Beetle.

Ganz may have been forgotten, but his dream came true in ways he could never have imagined.

[norustplease]

Yes, I have read about the origins of the design. Apparently its survival after the war was facilitated by the British Army setting up production
and ordering a large number of cars, it didnt resume German management until around 1948.
I have always had a soft spot for these cars, quite fun to drive and with spares backup as good as, for example, UK cars such as MM 1000 or MG cars.

This is the third Beetle that has passed through the family, plus an ex Dutch army Trekker that was based on a Karman Ghia floorpan with a VW1500 engine and which needed a full restoration.



Now resident at a villa somewhere on the Spanish coast, I believe.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid

[Ray White]

You may be aware that it was a British Army officer, Major Ivan Hirst, who is credited with saving the VW plant in Wolfsburg and kick starting car production after the War. He secured a much needed order for 20,000 cars from the British Military in the occupied zone.

[norustplease]

Just deleted the duplicate post that has appeared again uninvited.

Carried on with re-commissioning the Beetle, in spite of the cold temperatures. We now have electric pumped windscreen washers, an oil change and a clean out of the oil bath airfilter. A new oil fiiller cap to prevent the disintegrating cork seal dropping into the sump and a bit of a clean up under the engine cover..
Pulled out the radio cassette player yesterday, that mysteriously lights up and shows the appropriate tell tales when tuned, but doesn't emit as much as a hiss. I had a look to see if there was anything disconnected such as a wire to the speakers, but the car appears to have connections integrated into the loom with nothing obviously missing. So I assume a fault.
I may buy a period radio and wire it back to some new speakers elsewhere in the car, for the meantime the old unit remains, filling the hole in the dash.

Hopefully some decent weather soon so that I can start driving. Need to amend my profile as well.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid

[norustplease]

Driving the Beetle has revealed some clutch slip, and with the biting point right at the top of travel, even with the stipulated amount of free play on the pedal, it appears to be time for a change. If I lived somewhere flat with no hills, I probably wouldn't have noticed for the moment, but around here in the Pennine foothills, virtually every route has at least one steep hill, including the road in both directions from home.
So clutch kit has arrived and I have revised online my engine removal techniques. I did do this years ago on my Trekker, which was essentially a Karmann Ghia floorpan with a jeep type body. However, that had a removable rear cill as far as I can remember, so didn't need all the malarky of jacking everything at the back end, up in the air.
So next Wednesday is clutch day, when a friend is available to assist. I will let you know how we get on.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid

[alastairq]

The Rear engined Skodas [Estelle, Rapid, MB, S100/110, etc]could all have their clutches changed without resort to jacking the vehicle up...Simply by removing the rear panel [make plugs for the lighting wiring...or risk having to rematch the colours..?}....then, using a trolley jack for simplicity, undo the rear tubular crossmember tube from the chassis, disconnect the engine from the gearbox, and pull.
A roadside job, if ever there was one??
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Dellow Mk2, 1951 built, reg 1952.
Fiat 126 BIS
Cannon special [1996 registered. Built in 1950's]
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Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.

[badhuis]

[Ray White]

Maybe there is something of interest in the following:

https://www.jbugs.com/air-cooled-vw-clutch-troubleshooting-guide-19501979.html

[JC T ONE]

Great to see a VW and proper 70ies colour too

Enjoy

Jens Christian
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http://www.eurods.eu/wp/index.html

[norustplease]

As noted previously, driving the Beetle in recent weeks had indicated that it was possible to make the clutch slip under load at high revs, eg on a steep hill.
Clutch day dawned. I had taken the precaution of also buying a gearbox mainshaft seal in case there was any seepage. Hoiking the back end of the car up enough to get the trolley jack under was facilitated by means of a pair of extending car ramps, and the engine was stabilised with the jack under the sump. Out in 30 minutes most of the videos online said. Well it took us about two hours. Disconnections were straightforward, but finding and accessing the four bolts that hold the engine to the bellhousing took forever and one forgets how tiring it is at age 73 crawling under a car.
Well, with the engine freed and perched on the trolley jack, we wound up the ramps until we could withdraw it and plonk it onto the garage floor. Three things were immediately obvious.
* The bellhousing had a film of oil throughout.
* The left hand heat exchanger had a large hole in it.
* Flywheel seemed to have what appeared to be black grease in places, albeit not on the clutch facing, but mainly on the drillings from the engine side and around the edge of the recess in which the clutch plate sat. The plate itself did not seem particularly oily, but was very glazed and shiny on the linings.. What was this? Probably a combination of engine oil and dust from the clutch facing said the online experts. So the clutch probably only worked when right at the top of its release point which explains the high biting point, and only slipped under severe provocation.
So, a pause whilst a couple of new heat exchangers were ordered and then fitted. The operating linkages were freed off and levers, etc. salvaged from the old units and fitted.
At this point I began to wonder what else could sensibly be replaced whilst the engine was out, and came up with a list:
Fuel line, rubber, not fitted with a clip at the engine end, and almost certainly not of the latest ethylene resistance.
Clean off and paint rear suspension and driveshafts.
Replace missing rubber blanking plugs in brake backplates.
Investigate condition of rear crank oil seal by removing flywheel.
The latter revealed plenty of evidence of oil spraying out by centrifugal force from the crankshaft oil seal housing. So new oil seal ordered plus fitting tool.
The failed oil seals are not a total surprise. Even though the car genuinely seems to have relatively low mileage, that in itself means lengthy periods of non use, meaning that the seals, which are both well above sump and gearbox oil levels when stationary, will not have been lubricated or conditioned and may well have dried out.
So where are we now?
All seals have been renewed, and the engine, flywheel and bellhousing cleaned up, but I await a torque multiplier tool to enable me to reach the 254 ft lbs needed for the central nut on the flywheel, allowing me to assemble the clutch The engine is still sat on the floor with a cloth over it.. Until that arrives, the car sits with its rear in the air in an undignified fashion. I am filling in the time doing the other jobs. Watch this space!

_________________
1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid

[norustplease]

Torque multiplier received and used, so we are hopefully, almost ready to reinstall.
_________________
1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1973 VW Beetle 1303L
Boring Suzuki SX Hybrid

[Ray White]

[alastairq]