VW Beetle Type 1

Well I've been studing and the long Horn Beetle came to America in 1960's

Sitting in the driver's seat, it's just above your right knee if you reach up under the lower dash panel. It's a small black plastic box connected to a metal bracket . Good luck removing it without busting it.

It is located in the trunk, on the left side. You cant miss it.

Fixing it depends on what the speedometer is doing. Chances are its making a funny noise and the needle is bouncing around. This would be due to a damaged or unlubricated speedometer cable. It is a cable that spins around in a plastic sheath connected to the back or your speedometer and to your transmission. Often times removing it and filling it with graphite powder will solve the problem. If its severely damaged you can replace it with a new one. If the cable isn't the problem you may have to replace the speedometer itself.

=Answer=Wrong again! The original heading to this question was" How do you change the thermostat in a 1998 Volkswagen Beetle". The thermostat is not assessable by any way of removing any under engine shielding and further, trying to give a layman's attempt at defining the molecular thermal expansion reletivness of the thermostat is ridiculous. It is accessible by way of the second response to this question and replaceable by explanation of the second answer to this question as well; and therein should not be dispelled per the last response (Both responses are correct and incorrect). The last editor suggested the procurement of a manual, to assist in changing the thermostat, good advise. However, I have performed this repair myself, with the use of a Volkswagen manual adjunct-ed with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering and went to grad school and completed my masters degree in applied physics. I say this to not sound pretentious, but to give credence to those looking for true advise in both a practical and philosophical sense. By way of their use of syntax, the first response was clearly not jesting, and the last was surely inept at trying resolution. Do as I suggested in the second response to this question and you will find your self literally hand held through the process.

both answers are correct. old beetles were air cooled, new beetles are water cooled. The first answer given was either a joke or hugely ignorant. VW Bugs are air cooled and don't have coolant hoses, thermostat housings, coolant, a temperature gauge, radiator, hose clamps, etc. It is also a potentially catastrophically bad assumption that any thermostat will fail in the open position. All mechanical thermostats have moving parts and can fail in any position. VW Bugs use a tiny accordion looking thermostat that is attached to shutters on the fan shroud. When cold the thermostat pulls the shutters closed to impede the flow of cooling air. When hot the thermostat expands and pushes the shutters open to allow airflow over the engines cooling fins. Changing it is a piece of cake and in fact much easier than the original answer. It's done from the bottom of the engine. It's the only accordian looking thing under the car. You will need to remove a piece of cooling tin on the bottom of the motor to get access to it so in addition to a flashlight and screwdriver bring a 10mm wrench. (Now would also be a good time to get a couple cans of brake clean and use them to clean off the oil and dirt on the bottom of the engine and cooling fins). If you have further questions or need more instruction I strongly recommend you get a used Muir Manual from Amazon and thumb through the section on cooling. In my opinion VW Bugs should have been equiped from the factory with the Muir Manual.

*********Below this line is the original terrible answer************

Replacing a thermostat is a relatively easy task. If your temperature gauge is running way down on the low side and your heater isn't putting out much heat, it's time to replace the thermostat. Here is a description of how to change a thermostat. The exact location of your thermostat may be slightly different but most of them are near the top radiator hose in the top of the engine. The thermostat is normally in a housing which is at the engine end of the top radiator hose. Drain the coolant into a drain pan - toss it down the john - it's the correct way to dispose of it. Take a screwdriver and remove the hose clamp from the top hose where it meets the top of the engine. Get a flashlight and see if you can peek down the hole and see the thermostat. If it is faulty it will be open. Not all thermostat housings are identical but typically it will be held on with two bolts. Remove them. Tap the thermostat housing with a wooden block or a soft faced hammer. It should pop off easily. You can then see the thermostat. Lift it out. Don't sweat the gasket - you are going to replace it anyway. Use a new gasket. Scrape EVERYTHING off both mating surfaces. Use a single edged razor blade. Apply some blue rubber sealant to both sides of the gasket. Then grab it between your fingers and "squeegee" any excess off. You don't need a lot of sealant. Make sure you put the gasket on the right side of the thermostat. The stat will normally fit into a recess in the engine, the gasket goes on top and the housing on top of that. Wipe a bit of blue rubber sealant inside the hose, put it back onto the housing nipple and clamp it back in place. You should probably drain all of the coolant by draining the block but if you can't find the small plug it the side of the engine don't sweat it. You should mix antifreeze and water in a ratio of 50-50 and replace what you drained out with the fresh mix. If you can't get all the replacement mix in while it's cold just warm it up a bit and watch the level drop as the thermostat opens up. Then add mix until it is totally filled. Replace the radiator cap and put a quart or so in the overflow bottle (which you should have drained previously). Mine is on the bottom radiator hose.

more than 21.500.000 beetles.

There is a trunk release lever located inside the left side of the glove box. It should have a shinny black handle about 2" long that, when pulled down (forward and down) should release the front hood, enough to then push the button on the hood handle itself, releasing the hood.

In both cases you start by adjusting the brake shoes in as far as they'll go. Get a flashlight and a flat-tip screwdriver, jack the end you'll be working on up, place jackstands and crawl under. Look at the bottom of the brake backing disc and you'll find two holes. There should be but probably aren't rubber plugs in the holes. Stick a screwdriver in the hole and pry against the starwheel you should see inside the hole--pry up on the left-hand one, down on the right-hand one.

At this point, if you're working on a front drum you can remove the tire.

Next, remove the nut that's holding the brake drum on. The front uses what I call a "pinch nut." You loosen an Allen wrench, then use a big crescent wrench to turn it off. The one on the left side of the car is left-hand thread--if the Allen bolt gets loose, they want it to tighten, not loosen. Having a wheel fall off in traffic is bad. Once it's off, jerk the drum toward you just a little--this will free up the inner race of the outer bearing, and the bearing backing plate, so you can remove them from the hub. Then just pull off the drum. Older VWs require you to "stake" the nut in place by bending metal. I've never done it, but lots of people have.

The back is a whole nother story. It is held on by a 36mm nut that is secured with a cotter pin. It must be the correct cotter pin, and new. You get these from a Bug parts place, or from Volkswagen. That nut has 220 lb-ft torque on it when you install it, and it gets tighter as you go along. There are three ways of getting it off. The first is this steel plate thing. There's a hole for a 1/2" breaker bar, a hole for the socket and a place to beat on it with a three-pound sledge. This thing is rough on your bearings and your ears, but it works. The second way requires a three-foot cheater bar--you stand on it and bounce up and down until the nut gives up. This is better for your bearings but hard on your butt if you fall off the bar while you're doing this. The best way is to hit it with an electric torque wrench--the bigger the better. Once you remove the nut, the drum slips off.

The only problem with these ways are getting them torqued back on. They do make a new type of Nut remover. You bolt one part on the wheel with the lug nuts then it has a cam gear like gear on one end and the other end that connects to the Nut, you just turn it with a 3/8 inch wrench and it comes off. The best part is you mount a Torque wrench on to tighten it and about 30 lbs compounds to 225lbs of torque. It also has a gear for the Nut that holds the flywheel on. Also works with 6v or 12v flywheels. Some of the larger Internet Bug parts company's are carrying them now. Awesome!!!!!

They've been making that "new kind of nut remover" for years. It's called a Kymco Torque-Meister and it's about a hundred bucks. I'd buy one if I was running the Baja 500. Otherwise...well, I've GOT tools that will get the nut back on.

I find there are two really good ways of re-torquing the rear axle nut. First is the brute force and ignorance method: flip the 400-lb-ft electric torque wrench to the "install nut" position and cut loose..when the wrench starts struggling to screw the nut on, remove the socket and check to see if the hole in the axle aligns with a castellation on the nut so you can get the cotter pin in; if it does, you're set. The other way is to put a 36mm socket on a 3/4" drive breaker bar and jump up and down on the end of it until a hole and a castellation align. Hold onto the gutter if you decide to do something this crazy.

I use 165/80 R15's on my 68.... But they are getting hard to find.

Search the value at www.nadaguides.com Under the page "Collector Cars"

It should.. I have a 79 1600cc in my 65 beetle.

not at all jack it up disconnect the battery get under the car and you will see that it comes out with 2 bolts and a couple of wires no need to pull the motor

The 2010 Volkswagen CC's turning circle is 35.8 ft..

There are no sensors on pre '78 Carb Beetles. There is an "idle cutoff switch" that shuts off the fuel flow so the car won't run when turning the car off. The car will either run or not. The Solenoid MIGHT have a weak internal spring that won't stay open all the way but that is really rare. It is probably a vacuum leak. When the car warms up, every thing expands slightly and it might be sucking air and making it too lean. Using CAUTION, spray some starting fluid or Carb cleaner around the outside of the carb, intake bellows, and at the area at the head and intake. Just spray it a little bit at a time, If it starts to idle fast then you have a vacuum leak. Some times the plug for a vacuum port will come off on the carb so just take a hard look at any thing that might look wrong. Try spraying the Carb cleaner IN the carb and get it cleaned up too. You'd be surprised how dirty it can get sometimes. If anything it may be time to rebuild the carb. You did adjust the valves right? The early beetles are real sensitive for valve adjustment.

Buy a rust free replacement. Remove the car body. Cut away the old framehead. Weld in the new unit using TIG or MIG. If you've never done this before have it done professionally.

if it is the original vw beetle all you have to do is move the seat as far forward as possible then your seat is off of the tracks. on the newer bettles i do not know how to remove the seats.

I've got 3 Chilton's manuals from over the years, some are better than others:

"Chilton's Repair & Tune-Up Guide for the Volkswagen 1949-1971", first published in 1971, sixth printing 1973

This one is hard bound, with thick stiff pages, and has incredibly detailed and well shaded hand drawn exploded parts views and cutaway views at just about every turn, right down to individual washers, with every part labelled.

"Chilton's Repair & Tune-Up Guide Volkswagen 1949-1971", first published in 1971, revised in 1974, thirty-fifth printing 1994

This one is paperback, slightly smaller than the first, with slightly less durable pages. The exploded views have been shrunk a little, and are harder to make out. The ink is much darker, so a lot of the subtle shading in the drawings is missing.

"Chilton Volkswagen Air-Cooled 1949-1969 Repair Manual", Copyright 1997,2007 (your guess as to what printing, doesn't say)

Larger than the first two, paperback, and the pages are practically newsprint. The exploded views have been replaced by black and white pictures which don't have a tenth the detail of the exploded parts views in the other two.

It depends on whether you've got a stock crank pulley or one with degrees printed on it.

The first thing you do is set the valves. Then look at the crank pulley. If it's stock there's a notch in it. Some people put white paint in this notch to make it easier to see.

Next, get a timing light and a 10mm nutdriver. Hook up the timing light and start the engine. Hold the distributor in your left hand, loosen the distributor clamp and point the timing light at the crank pulley. Pull the trigger on the timing light and look at the pulley.

Stock pulley: notch pointing at the seam in the engine case. (If you have three notches on the pulley, use the one to the right.)

Degree wheel pulley: "5" mark to the left of the 0 line pointing at the seam in the case.

Slowly turn the distributor until the mark lands where it's supposed to.

Now for the important part: grab onto the throttle lever on the carb and pull it toward you as hard as you can. If the engine doesn't lose RPMs before it accelerates, you're done. If it does, turn the distributor just a tiny bit and try it again.

Once you're done, tighten the distributor clamp and call it a day.

Jack up the driver's side rear of the car. Support the unit with a jackstand, cars falling on you could really screw up your day. Get under car and look for the clutch release lever, it'll have a cable from the front of the car with a wingnut on the end and will be on a shaft coming out from the bell housing. Have friend measure the clutch pedal at rest with a ruler placed on the floor so that as one depresses the clutch pedal to the feeling of resistance one can measure the distance. This is known as free play. Too tight and you'll kill the throwout bearing or burn up the clutch plate. Too loose and you won't be able to shift without grinding gears. Back under car, if pedal is too tight (ie: not enough free play) twist the wingnut on the cable counter clockwise to set the free play to 1/2 to 3/4" . Reverse if too loose. Turn 3 complete revolutions and recheck free play.

3.5mm

10 gallons.