Question 1:
The turn signals on my 1971 bug haven't worked properly since I bought it. I swapped out the bulbs, but that doesn't seem to fix everything. All in all, the details of their behaviour are far to erratic to explain. I decided I should probably swap out the relays before I go and spend a lot of time measuring and thinking. However, neither Muir nor my Haynes guide tell me what kind of relays I need. I suppose I could take the old ones into the parts store and ask them to give me the same ones, but I have a slight suspicion that the previous owner messed it all up (for one thing, some of the relay sockets are empty).
Does anyone know what kind of relays to get? My car is the Aug '71 line, with VIN 1122******.
Question 2:
The same 1971 bug has a funny, tiny "custom" steering wheel in it. This looks funny and makes the car harder to drive. Others would say I don't have an appreciation for art.
Also, there is nothing that operates the horn. Now as far as I know, the horn is operated normally with a button on the steering wheel, right?
If I find a standard steering wheel, how hard is it to get it to work _including horn switch_? Would it be much harder than installing a little switch somewhere, and hooking it straight to some $7 noise-making device? I am all in favour of trying to avoid modifications, but I figure I may prefer abiding by the law as soon as possible.
Question 3:
The steering has some "play" right around "straight ahead". I have discovered that 80% of the freeways in LA have enough of a curve to them that I can drive quite safely, but on the other 20%, this gets a little scary. I've been told that this is probably the steering box. Any work that cannot be done in a driveway in a few hours is outside of my scope. The local VW mechanic says he knows how to fix it, but it might be hard to get a replacement steering box. I suggested that I just order one from JC Whitney's. He says that those units are normally refurbished and may not work any better than the current one. Is he just trying to sell me an expensive replacement part, or is he right and are JC Whitney's steering boxes crap indeed?
Question 4:
Sometimes, I have trouble shifting. Before I moved to California, I learned to drive in The Netherlands in a stick shift Opel, and even drove my mom's Diane around some, so I think I can claim it's not my fault. First of all, the shifting is generally very sloppy. Is it indeed true that this can probably be fixed by replacing the bushing under the stick?
Also, it has trouble going into second gear. Supposedly, this is because the 2nd synchro is worn. Also supposedly, one can get around that by using the 3rd gear synchro. It does indeed help to push the stick to the right first (as if shifting into third) and then to second. However, sometimes that doesn't do the trick. Does anyone have any more tips on how to work around this problem?