Air-Cooled VW

This is a two-person job.

Person one goes under the car and looks at the clutch lever on the transmission. Is there a great big wing nut on it, or two 13mm nuts? If you've got the nuts, you loosen the outer one so you can turn the inner one, which adjusts the clutch, before retightening the outer one.


The other person gets in the car and holds the clutch pedal down about half an inch. Then the person underneath tightens or loosens the nut until it's just touching the clutch lever.

Well...it depends.

A Regular Beetle (flat windshield, no slots in the apron under the front bumper, spare tire upright, steel dashboard) has no springs in either end of the suspension.

A Super Beetle (curved windshield, slots in the front apron, spare tire lying flat, plastic dashboard) has McPherson Strut front suspension with springs around the shocks, but no springs in the rear suspension.

My 1976 has a 12 gallon tank.

I'm pretty sure it's the same since they're both T2 (Bay Window)

This would be model years 1972 through 1974 Type 1 Beetles with a 1600 cc engine size.

Nowhere. In fact, there's no such thing as a turnkey VW engine. You can buy a new longblock for about $2300. This gets you no cooling tin, no exhaust, no clutch or flywheel, no ignition, no alternator and no carburetors. So if you buy one you're looking at about 2 days work to get it in the car and running right.

They came stock with a 15 inch diameter wheel with around a 4 to 5 inch width.

Is it Mist or Miss? If it's mist you're talking about, determine if you have somehow come in contact with Herbie or some other Bug with human like emotions and characteristics. If it's Miss as in the engine is not firing on all cylinders the answer is, probably not. Bugs of that age can run on almost no voltage. Unless the belt is so loose that the charging system is not working at all and the battery is completely depleted it won't cause a miss. Look at the ignition system from the points, rotor, Distributor cap and especially the spark plugs and wires. Worst case if you have a serious exhaust valve leak it may appear to be a miss. If you have ruled out the ignition system, get a compression check of all cylinders. Quick check for an exhaust valve leak is to place a crisp dollar bill on the end of the exhaust pipe holding it with your finger at the top of the circular opening firmly. (Don't burn your finger) If you hear the bill slapping the exhaust opening as it gets sucked back by the open exhaust valve then it's time to tear that engine apart before you drop that valve into the engine and cause more serious damage. Water cooled engines can tolerate a valve leak better than air cooled. Bad exhaust valves need almost immediate attention on an air cooled engine.

In the older beetles, the heat is turned on by pulling the small levers between the seats.

Note that the heat in these beetles was never very reliable or effective, many of these old beetles have had the heating system disabled at some point over the years.

1964 VWs don't have VIN numbers, they have engine and chassis numbers.

The engine number is stamped into the engine case just below the generator stand.

The chassis number is in three places. The first is on a data plate somewhere near the spare tire well in front. The second is on a plate in the windshield --it's pretty much straight ahead of your left hand while you're holding the steering wheel. And the third is under the back seat on the tunnel.

BTW, do not be alarmed if the number on the transmission tunnel doesn't match the other two numbers; when they were still importing these cars they were common enough that someone who had a rusted-out chassis would go to the junkyard and buy a Bug someone rolled. It's pretty easy to get the body off the chassis, so you'd put your good body on the good chassis, the rolled body on your rusted-out one and have the now-completely-ruined Bug hauled back to the junkyard.

Gene Berg makes the only one worth putting in your car, but you really do not want one. Let me explain why. First is cost. You buy this in two parts: the transmission conversion for $1644 and the shifter conversion for around $300. Throw in shipping your transmission to California, and you've got well over $2000 in the project. Second is practicality. You want a five-speed so you can go faster, right? Berg's five-speed conversion leaves you with the exact same gear ratio in 5th as you had in 4th on the old transmission. This is a CLOSE RATIO gearbox, good for autocross but no big whoop for everyday driving. He leaves the top gear ratio where VW put it for cooling reasons: if the engine is turning slower than the back wheels, so is the fan. Since the fan is the only thing keeping your engine from becoming a glob of molten metal under the car, slowing it down is Bad. Third is strength. Berg got five gears where four normally go by making the gear plates thinner. Berg does fine work, but I really like the idea of the thicker plates. Stock VW transmissions are about as fragile as anvils, and I'd like to keep it that way. Having said all that, let me tell you what to spend those big bux that are burning a hole in your pocket: a Quaife limited slip differential. You've heard the commercials for the cars that "transfer power from the wheels that slip to the wheels that grip"? That's what a limited slip differential, AKA Positraction, does, and that's what the Quaife does. It puts more power on the ground than the stock differential can. This costs $1200 and it's a much better investment than a five-speed kit. This will make you go a little faster, and it will prepare you for the 1776cc engine that will make you go quite a bit faster.

In the glovebox. My 69 has a lever below the glovebox on the side of the firewall just behind the gas door

My favorite VW oil is 30-weight Shell Rotella T, which is made for old-fashioned hot-running diesels. Our cars are also old-fashioned and hot-running, so it works well.

If you can't get that, just about any quality 10W30 works great.

It would be best to relocate the fuel filter to under the tank in the front. To keep it away from the hot motor. If you want you can put it right by the driver side rear tire. There is a little part of rubber fuel line that it will fit on.

The only real substantive differences are in the back.

The Beetle engine went from 1300cc to 1500cc in 1967. The 1967 also had the new 12v electrical system, dual circuit brakes (in 1966 and before, all four wheels worked off the same master cylinder--which means if you tear out a brake hose, you lose ALL your hydraulic brakes. In the 1967, if you lose the front hydraulics you still have rear brakes.), and door lock buttons.

In 1968, the bumpers lost their overrider bars and the taillights were redesigned.

The BIG change was in 1969 when VW converted to independent rear suspension. This made the car handle better and be more stable.

The official Volkswagen-and-EPA-sanctioned way to hook this up: this is part of the VW vapor recovery system. In 1973 someone in Washington decided that a good thing to do to cut down air pollution would be to pipe the gas fumes from your tank into a charcoal canister and then into a hose which hooks to your air filter so they can be drawn into the engine and burned. The charcoal canister is in the system so a backfire doesn't cause your car to explode. Laugh not, this has happened.

On to today's situation: You can't get the correct replacement charcoal canisters. You can't get an air cleaner with the right fittings. And you probably don't want to replace the twenty feet of hose that's rotted away with the passage of forty years' time. Your safest action today is to plug the vent lines so your car isn't continually filled with the aroma of gasoline.

Yes. they are interchangeable. There is essentially nothing different between them.

The best oil for a VW Beetle is Shell Rotella T 30-weight. This is oil designed for diesel engines. You probably can't get this in Walmart because they only have multigrade Rotella 15W40 (which you can use as a second option) but Autozone and O'Reilly both have it. And before you ask, you almost certainly can't get this at a truck stop--they have 15W40 Rotella, Chevron Delo, Castrol Tection, and Truck Stop Private Label because all the new truck engines use that oil.

The reason for the 30-weight Rotella is it's made to be used in engines that run very hot in normal operation, like the Detroit Diesel 2-stroke engine series. Volkswagen Bug engines also run very hot in normal operation, so this oil is perfect for them.

2.8 quarts. We usually just add a full 3 quarts. Be sure to clean the filter/screen, and replace all the little gaskets - one per nut (6 total) plus the two big paper gaskets that fit one above and one below the filter/screen. The 6mm bolts are delicate, do not over tighten, or they WILL strip easily.

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The engine holds 2500 ml of oil, or a little over 2.6 quarts. Don't put any more than that in there because the engine has very high startup oil pressure. If you put even a little too much oil in a Bug you will pop the main seal right out of the engine, which causes it to leak. This is why everyone thinks Volkswagens all leak. They don't, unless you make them leak and this is how.

There is. The starter's on the right-hand side of the car. Look between the firewall and the fan shroud on that side, and you'll see a 17mm nut. That's the top nut holding the starter in, and you might need to clamp a pair of vise-grips to the head of the bolt to get the nut off. It is in possibly THE hardest place in the world to maneuver a pair of vise-grips into.

All the beetles are manual via a cable from the back of the speedo meter and connected to the left front wheel. Later model bugs had two piece cables.

All fuses should be 8 amps (white) with the exception of circuits 9 and 10. These circuits should be 16 amps (red). Hope this helps.

also there is a fuse box diagram for a 73 super beetle found on this link (you can find other super beetle fuse box diagrams and wiring diagrams there too)

http://www.vintagebus.com/wiring/bug-73+fuse.jpg

You first need to make sure the crank is fitted with the seven pieces that must be attached to it...number 3 main bearing, a couple of gears and so on.

There are two gears you've got on the crank, correct? One is brass, the other is steel. The brass one is the distributor drive. Ignore it for now. Look at the cam gear (the steel one) from the end of the crank and you'll notice two teeth with dots pressed into their sides. Get your cam and look at its gear with the cam in your hand, and there's one tooth with a dot pressed into it. This one dot on the cam goes between the two dots on the crank. The easiest way to line these up is to put a little dot of paint on the teeth in question, so it's easier to see them.

Your engine case has two sides. One has eight long studs sticking out of it. Take this one and lay it on the table with the cylinder spigots pointing down and studs up. Put the main and cam bearings in the case, and lubricate them with assembly lube. Set the crank in its bearings and rotate it until you see the dots, then set the cam into this gear with the dot on the cam gear between the two dots on the crank gear. Then roll the cam down into place. Next, gently rotate the cam gear a few revolutions. If the one dot on the cam gear always winds up right between the two dots on the crank gear, the cam is in.

Volkswagens hold 2500 milliliters of oil. Since they don't sell it in metric quantities in the US, put in 2.5 quarts and call it good. If you put in too much oil, you'll push out the main seal and you REALLY don't want to have to replace one.

Near computer for FI in the rear luggage area on right side of car.