Air-Cooled VW

The hood is in the back, with the engine. To change a hood hinge, you just unbolt the old one and bolt in a new one.

The trunk lid hinge is replaced the same way, but you need someone to hold up the trunk lid while you're doing it so you don't ruin the trunk lid (which you can NOT get new--they broke the stamping die many years ago) or the hinge on the other side.

Check the SAMBA site, but there was more than one color, the Beetle wasn't a Model T.

Under the hood on the backside of the dashboard. If you have a new one already you should be able to match it up easily.

They're on the left-hand side of the transmission. A 17mm Allen wrench fits in them, and they're the only two bolts on the car like that.

All of the lights on the 1972 VW Bug work except for the backup lights and tail lights and I cannot find the fuses for these lights. Anyone know the location of these fuses?

newtest3

ANSWER

Get the "Robert Bentley service manual" for your year car as it has a lot of info in it. You'll be looking at it a lot. It should be the Orange cover for '72.

Not sure if the Super and Standards are in the same place but the '72 Super is under the dash on the drivers side (Left side, US Models). Just above your left knee. The far left fuse (#1) feeds the RIGHT tail light and the #2 fuse feeds the LEFT tail light.

The backup lights are hooked to the coil with an inline fuse if it hasn't been changed yet.

To access the wires you will have to look inside the hood on the other side of the fuse panel. If the fuse's are good i would wiggle the fuses to get a better connection, the contacts will corrode a bit. Make sure all the grounds are tight and clean also. Make sure the bulb contacts aren't crudded over either.

Check out www.thesamba.com for some good information and diagrams. Do a search first before you ask tho as most of the info is already there.

Open the trunk lid. You can see the gas tank, and right above it is a black vertical cover that's held on by at least twenty screws. Take all the screws out and pry this cover off--it's got some kind of a mastic sealing it to keep gas fumes out of the passenger compartment--and you'll see the back of the radio. Now go into the passenger compartment and remove the knobs from the radio; you'll note there are hex nuts holding the radio to the dash. They're not on very tight, and can be removed with needle nose pliers. Take off the two nuts, then go back into the trunk. Unhook all the wiring from the radio and pull it out of the car. And once you've got the radio out, scrape the old mastic off the cover and recaulk it with either butyl caulk (sold mostly as "gutter mastic") or polyurethane caulk (the best brand is Sikaflex Construction Sealant, but PL Premium Polyurethane Door and Window Sealant is also good) to keep the inside of your car from smelling like gas all the time.

Do the easy stuff first... Check your power and ground connectors on the battery. On the body also. Check the starter wires to make sure they are clean and have a good connection. Clean the battery posts and the connectors until they are bright and just unbolt/unscrew the ground strap to the body slightly and wiggle the wires around then retighten. You can still get volts from the battery with dirty connectors but you won't get the AMPS needed for the starter. == Engine running check charging voltage with a digital meter.== If it's below 13.2 VDC then you have a bad voltage regulator or generator. At rest battery is OK at 12.6 VDC (full charge) then you need to install a start assist relay. Get a bosch 30 amp spst relay from a friendly local autoparts store. Pull the wire from the key switch at the starter solenoid and connect it to the relay terminal # 85. Run a wire from terminal 86 to ground. Run a wire from terminal 30 to the heavy starter wire installed on the solenoid. Run a wire from terminal 87 on the relay to the solenoid lug that was originally inhabited by the key switch. I used VW #141951253B rated 12V at 40 A. I've got a better source for the relays you need to do this. In "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive" John Muir discusses using a Ford starter solenoid as a relay. You can get reproductions of Ford starter solenoids at Tractor Supply Co. These carry more amps than foglight relays do. But thinking about this more...I don't think it's any of the stuff we're talking about. I think the starter ITSELF is bad. It happens, especially on a 34-year-old car. Do this: Pull the starter and lift the back seat, so you can get to the battery. Make sure the battery's good--hook your voltmeter to it and be sure you've got at least 12 volts there. Now get about six inches of wire and crimp a push-on connector to each end of it. Push one of them onto the key-switch prong on the solenoid, and think of this as the switch wire. Hook your jumper cables up to the starter--negative on the battery to the mounting-bolt flange, positive to the left-hand bolt on the solenoid (the one you disconnected the battery cable from). Then touch the switch wire to the positive jumper cable clamp. Three things should happen; one definitely will. You are going to get a huge shower of sparks out of the switch wire where it's touching the clamp. It won't hurt anything, so don't freak out. You should see the shaft of the starter motor jump forward swift and smooth. And then you should see the shaft start to spin. What you probably WILL see is the sparks, the shaft move forward in a leisurely fashion if at all, and the motor not turn very fast if it turns at all. If this is the case, you have four choices. You can send http://www.mamotorworks.com $150 for a new one, crawl around in a junkyard for two days looking for one, have a local auto electric shop rebuild the old one for about half the price of a new one, or attempt to clean the old one. If you want to try to clean the old one, get some lithium grease, mineral spirits, electrical contact cleaner, rags and 600 grit sandpaper. You take the end caps off and wash them in mineral spirits, shine up the copper contacts on the "gear" end of the starter shaft with the sandpaper, very carefully (these are very fragile) clean the copper off the carbon brushes with the sandpaper, clean the shaft with the contact cleaner, let everything sit for a few hours to dry out, put the starter back together, pack the small cap at the very rear of the starter with lithium grease, and try the jumper cable and switch wire thing again. It will either work or it won't and it usually works about six times. I have done it when I was too broke to buy a new starter, but it's not really the preferred method--more of a patch. It'll work for about six months to a year and then you gotta rip into it again. My preference? New one if you can afford $150, rebuilt if you can swing that.

By "fuel screen" do you mean the one in the tank, or the one in the engine compartment?

There are a couple ways to deal with replacing the one in the engine compartment. A lot of guys recommend replacing both the hoses, plus the filter itself, with one long piece of hose running between the metal fuel line and the carb. These cheap filters have caused a lot of engine fires. If you insist on having one, put it at the front of the car, right where the fuel line comes out of the tank.

To replace the one in the tank you start by emptying the tank.

I believe it's about 2 to 3 psi.

A lot of people are wondering the same thing: what year was my engine built? The simple fact is, in most cases we don't know, for a couple of reasons. First, VW liked to use parts in a range of years. Since we're talking engines, Volkswagen made an engine code AH. That engine was made from 1971 to 1974. Second, VW's demand-prediction abilities were sorely lacking. They'd order 22 million of something, build 20 million cars to put it in, and wind up putting it in next year's models. And third, your engine has probably been rebuilt three times by now. Is an engine that was originally built in 1971, and that was rebuilt in 1979, 1986 and 1997 still a 1971 engine? I think not, but maybe that's just me. I can give you year groups for your engine code, and that's as good as you can get without writing Volkswagen. Credit: John Muir's How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive and sources all over the Internet. For Type I Engines:
Engine Codes 1200 to G1500
Years 1950-1965 Engine Codes FI, HI and HO
Years 1966-1967 Engine Codes HI, BI and H50000001
Years 1968-1970 Engine Code AE
Years 1971-1973 Engine Code AH
Years 1971-1974 Engine Code AK
Year 1974 Engine Code AJ
Years 1975 to end of production For Type II Engines:
Type 2 vehicles used the same engine codes as Type 1 vehicles thru 1970. Engine Code CA
Year 1971 Engine Code CB
Year 1972 Engine Codes CB, CD
Year 1973 Engine Code AW
Year 1974 Engine Code ED
Year 1975 Engine Code GD
Years 1976 to end of production Type III vehicles:
Engine codes 1500T-1600
Years 1961-1967 Engine codes V1600-V0510144
Years 1968-1971 Engine codes V1600-V5000001, U5000001
Years 1972-1973 Type 4 vehicles: These were made from 1968 to 1974. There were two engine codes used throughout the period of manufacture: V 1700 and W 1700.

The firing order on all aircooled VW engines is 1-4-3-2. The word "Zundfolge" stamped on the generator-stand casting means "firing order."

It's in the speedometer.

You need a 13mm wrench, a 10mm wrench, whatever size wrench you need to loosen the accelerator-cable barrel bolt (these vary), a screwdriver, a timing light, some rags, and a sharpened pencil. You also need a gas can and whatever you use to tune the car. Parts: new carb, new carb gasket. Be sure you get a 34mm carb - there are two sizes used on VWs, and the 31mm throat won't fit on your car. While you're at it, go ahead and change the oil, check the belt for tension and wear, etc.

Step 1: unhook the battery. Put the car in gear, set the brakes, chock the wheels and do whatever else it takes to keep the car from moving. Remove the air cleaner.

Step 2: There is a wire coming from the negative side of the coil to two points on the carb. Unhook both.

Step 3: Loosen the hose clamp on the fuel hose and slide it out of the way. Hold the hose in one hand while it's still hooked up and the pencil in the other, point facing the carb. Pull the hose off the carb and IMMEDIATELY, as fast as you possibly can, jam the pointy end of the pencil in the hose to stop the gas from coming out. Loosen the barrel bolt and remove the accelerator cable.

Step 4: Remove both the 13mm nuts holding the carb on, lift it off, drain it into the gas can, and put the new carb and its gasket where the old one was. Bolt the new one in place.

Step 5: hook everything back up. Adjust the valves, then start the car and tune it up.

You will need a 21 mm wrench or socket and a large screwdriver. You will notice two slots on the inner half of the pulley located 180 degrees apart. Insert the screwdriver into the slot to hold the pulley while undoing the 21 mm nut. There are shims located between the pulley halves used to adjust the gap between them which adjusts the belt tension. More shims loosens the belt tension and less shims tightens it up.

Check the fuse for the wipers and make sure the connections are tight. There are actually TWO red lights on the speedo that could come on. One is the Gen light and the other is the oil pressure light. If the Generater light is on, check to make sure the wires are tight on the Gen. Or It may have gone bad. If the Oil Pressure light is on, make sure the wire is connected to sensor or fuse is good. Don't drive it until your sure your getting oil pressure. Disconnect the wire at the sensor and see if it has power with the key on. If you have power then try replacing the sensor.

AS41 is the metal the crankcase is made from. It was used in engines up to 1975--when they changed to fuel injection.

Castrol 30 weight S.A.E.

Single port. It refers to the head.

Open the luggage compartment lid and look on the sidewall right above where the brake pedal would be. It's a little plastic tank with a lid and two hoses coming out the bottom of it.

that means you need more oil. it could also be a sticky lifter or slightly bent push rod or even the tappets out of adjustment

your missing a number but all AE motor were 71 72 &73

That is a model year 1971 through 1973 1600 cc engine.

You need to be seated behind the front seat, move the adjustment leaver to move the seat forward in upwards position, and slide forward. For the back seat lift the bottom seat out, and you'll find two bolts holding the back rest in place. Undo them and your sorted.

easiest place to find is under rear seat on tunnel to check vin + http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/chassisdating.php