Where is the starter in a 1974 Super Beetle?

Answer 1

Stand on the right side of your car with the hood open, right next to the right rear fender, and look between the engine and the firewall. There's a 17mm nut back there; the bolt it's screwed onto is holding the starter in. The next question you have is, "how do I change it?" Very simple. You need a 17mm wrench, a 13mm wrench, probably a set of vise-grips, a jack and jackstands, and a new starter. You may also need a very small bolt--1/4" x 1 is fine. 1. Unhook the battery, jack the car up and put it on jackstands. 2. Use the 17mm wrench to attempt to loosen the nut I just told you about. Either it will loosen or it won't. If it won't, crawl under the car, find the starter and clamp the vise-grips to the top bolthead--it's on top of the starter in a REAL convenient place. Then crawl back out and remove the nut. 3. Crawl back under the car and remove the other 17mm nut, the bendix wire off the solenoid (it pulls off with your fingers) and the starter lead from the battery (13mm nut). Remove the starter with both hands, because if it conks you in the head it's really gonna hurt. 4. If you needed the vise-grips to get the top bolt out, take the top bolt (not the nut!) and the little bolt I told you to get to any welding shop. Stand in front of the guy with the most dirt under his fingernails, hold the starter bolt in one hand sticking straight up and down, lay the little bolt on the big bolthead with its head hanging over the side, and tell the guy "this is the starter bolt out of a Volkswagen, can you weld these two bolts together like this?" Five minutes later he'll be done. The intent of this second bolt is to hit the starter. When it does, the bolt will turn no farther, and you won't need vise-grips ever again. Pay him, thank him nicely and return home. 5. As they say in the books, "installation is the reverse of removal."