VW help

Welcome to the asyl... group. Please note that we here only care for the aircooled stuff. Our sibling group is for the watercooled VW vehicles. (blah.blah.blah.vw.watercooled)

Glad to have you on board. Care to share any interesting stories from your aircooled experiences? :)

Jan

Thanks Jan..I have lots of Aircooled stories..especially the IDIOT who went to engine school..rebuilt his 1st bug engine and wondered why it made so much noise...then he noticed the main bearings still on his work bench...that was just one story.. Howie

OUCH... lol

Jan

Hot Bug...Bug in my bay leaking gas from rusted out tank...gas is flowing into center shop drain...not too bad but !! IDIOT from across shop comes walking towards me and my leaky bug and flips his cig into center drain..guess what ? NO explosions but a burning center drain and a trail of flame heading for my bay bug...you had never seen so many guys push a bug out of the shop with flames following..we did get fire out...I have more IDIOT stories Howie

.........Are you originally from Watertown? I live in the Binghamton area but was born in Gouverneur and still have a few relatives in your area.

Native of Staten Island but spent most my life in the North Country...1966-1999, Sackets Harbor area. Now retired and live in Idaho. Worked on VW's 25 years or so. Also Porsch and Audi a little. Specialized in aircools.. Howie

keep em coming :) I at least am enjoying them, it's a relief to hear that someone else has had their share of problems like I have :D

Jan

Hi, I was wondering if you could help me out? I have a 69 bug with an adjustable front beam, ball joint suspension. The front suspension has no travel in it. I mean, I can jump up and down on it and it won't move. It has shortened shocks. Even with the shocks disconnected it won't budge. The car has been like this for the past 17 years when we put an adjustable beam and Karmin Ghia disk brakes on it. It is not drastically lowered either. The trailing arms have a slight upward slope. When you jack up the front end the tires stay in place for a moment then drop down sort of jerky. With the car on the ground you can pull up on the front end and it will stay up until you push it back down. What's going on? Ball joints?, Needle bearings in tubes? Thanks, D.J.

I would say the torsion bars in the axle beam need adjusting.

Another whopper....in shop, a swamp buggy hydro plane being worked on..has bug engine and a airplane prop...IDIOT starts it up in shop...oh no! Big ladder comes flying off wall and goes thru a car windshield..and work orders and everything else is flying around..then the thing accelerates with the IDIOT on board and smashed thru overhead door and plows thru snow and into the woods...yep, we had a few shade tree mechanics in the shop...I have a few more stories.. Howie

LOL I got a nice visual out of that one :)

Howbout this.... a friend I know... (yea, right) who rebuilt a VW engine, 88 slip ins and "hot" cam etc.. went out for the first test drive... "it runs a little rough... hmm.. I better give it more gas so it will settle down, maybe it'll break in faster".

Break it did. 2 blocks away, when the engine seized.

This... friend o'mine (grin) coasted the bug back to the parking lot where he had installed (and rebuilt) the engine, only to find an unopened can of oil and *the drain plug* on the groud, next to his tools.

Jan

Another..This same idiot..changed the oil in a bug..customer picked up car and left..Idiot comes running..I forgot to put the oil back in....we tracked down the customer and she was lucky because she only drove a block and parked it to do some business..we found it and filled it with oil..was OK!! Another story, VW Bus parked aimed at open overhead door...Mechinick reaches in to start..it started ok in 1st gear and went out the door driverless..lucky 1st gear, was able to chase it down and get in to stop..

Have seen that done...

haha what a sight it must have been...

Back when I still drove bugs in the winter, (we get plenty of ice and snow) I'd sometimes get tuck in a snowbank (hehe) and routinely leave the engine running, gear in 1st or reverse, and let the tires slip... then I'd step out and push the car back on the road. And quickly run to the driver's seat to hit the brake pedal in time before the car gets stuck in the opposite bank :P

Jan

I adjusted the front end up as high as I could get it (about an inch higher than before). Same problem. Stiff as a brick.

Have done that..I lived in Snow Country many years (Watertown NY)..One night coming home from work..dark out and snowing and blowing (Lake Ontario Squall) after driving 10 miles head out DS window and left hand as a wiper..I turned right and THUMP!!! my bug was atop a snow drift rocking back and forth..I rocked in the seat and finally it slid off front ways and I went home...Another...coming to a stop sign end of my road.. slightly down hill stop...packed snow on road..touched the brakes and the bug spun around and the rear ended up in a ditch...nose sticking up in the air...had studded snows and with the weight all in the ass end the bug just crawled right out...