'71 VW Super Beetle Baja 2.0 Project

It’s been two years almost to the day since I stopped writing in here. Not a whole lot has been done on the cars since then. The wife, stepson and I moved into a new house on Long Island and that has obviously been taking up a lot of time. On the VW front, I’ve still got Wilson and for the first time this weekend it failed to start. It’s shooting gas out of one of the braided fuel lines I replaced a couple years back. Time to do it properly with the American 5/16 inch stuff.

It was loads of fun driving it back and forth to work last year, and it never left me stranded. I eventually replaced the rotting tires and bent rims with some 5.5in. stock-look wheels and I got a great deal on a set of fairly wide tires from Wholesale Tire Warehouse, which are rubbing just a little bit on the front fenders. It wasn’t long after that though that I took it off the road, so I really haven’t gotten to drive on those much, and I don’t think I actually drove on them to work. Perhaps I did though. By last fall, the idle on the car was getting a little choppy, and the front end seemed a little loose. I figured I’d take it off the road since I needed to take care of both those things, along with replacing/repairing the heater boxes which were making the exhaust incredibly loud. They are completely rusted where the muffler meets the heater box piping.So last fall I think it was, my friend Jim and I made the trip up to NH to bring back the Fasty, which is now sitting in my garage. This weekend I finally got around to jacking it up and replacing the front fuel lines, which we found out were broken when we tried to put gas in the car to start it. The fuel lines had been routed incorrectly, and I think the fuel delivery was actually going backward which was I think what was causing the issue where the RPM of the engine would pick up so slowly when the accelerator was pushed. It would take like 15 seconds for the engine to gain speed. Anyway, the fuel lines are now correctly routed, and the fuel pump is now mounted back in its proper location instead of on the front fork of the pan.

This is the key to my 71 Squareback, as given to me by the previous owner. The keycode is 46 M010

Here is the key upside-down (my last name is Clow).

What are the odds?

I still can’t see how people drive over 70mph in these cars. I have a feeling I should really go through the car again, and I will do that as soon as I get back from NH next week. I don’t know how much the tires and wheels are having to do with the way the car handles, or the amount which it gets blown around in the wind. I think one of my first purchases should be new wheels and tires, and I’m opting right now for the 15×5.5 wheels so that I can get a slightly wider tire on the car. Hopefully that will aid in handling and also provide a little more stability when cornering or when driving in the wind. The last couple days have seen gusts up to 40mph, so it has been a little difficult keeping a straight track. It’s supposed to calm down today though. I sort of wish I didn’t have to rely on the car for another day. Actually, I can’t really believe it’s only another day. I really want to go through the whole thing again, tune-up, oil change, seals replaced, transmission mount fixed, etc. I guess it can wait until I get back from NH.

The trouble with UNIX is that one careless move as root can destroy so much. That’s what happened to this month’s diary. Oops. So basically I’m going to try to remember what’s been going on so I can keep track of this very busy couple of weeks.

A few months ago Tire Rack had a great deal on a set of Pirellis that I had on my Jetta. They were $50 each, so I figured I’d buy them, have them shipped up to my parents in NH (I have no space in my apartment for tires) and have them put on before winter. I made the appointment for a Saturday & took the drive up with my stepson. My wife had school on the Saturday, so we ended up taking two cars for Columbus Day weekend to get the tires done, check out the foliage and visit with my parents. Rather than take two cars back, I decided to leave the Jetta there for the week and take a train up the following week when I started my vacation. This meant I would be relying on Wilson as my daily driver for the shortened work week after Columbus Day. Scary stuff. The car passed inspection last Thursday, the 9th, and I found out I had a broken transmission mount — something that is next to impossible to get for an automatic transmission. Other than that, the brakes needed a little adjustment, and the car has been just fine for the past few days. I have noticed it’s pretty loud, and I’m sure it would feel a lot more stable with wider tires and new rims (all balanced), but overall I’ve really enjoyed driving it back and forth to work. Today was the first water-tightness test as last night we had a driving rain and today winds are up to 50mph. I didn’t know what I’d find when I got in the car today, but the interior was totally dry. Lucky me. I have no idea if the same would be true if I were driving in the rain, as I have that rust spot in the rear fender well, but I guess I’ll eventually find out. Next week I plan to finally replace the door seals with the new German ones I picked up from ISP West. But maybe I should save them if the car is staying dry as-is?

A couple weeks ago I saw an ad for a 71 Squareback on the Samba. The car was up in NH, a few miles away from my parents’ house, so my dad went to take a look at it. It was in pretty rough shape, but he eventually talked the guy into selling that car plus a pretty decent fastback for a great price. I finally got to look at them this weekend. The Squareback had been converted to dual (stock) carbs, but the Fastback still had its fuel injection. My dad got the Fastback started, but there is a pretty bad knocking sound coming from the engine, so I’m cautious about what kind of shape it’s in. The battery pan is completely rusted through on the Fastback as well, but other than that it’s very solid. The Square’s front end is completely rusted through in a bunch of places — on each side of the spare tire well, above the fenders, etc. The wiring has been shredded in many places by someone who was maybe trying to fix it, and the pans are shot. Overall, a good candidate for a parts car. I already have a few people who want various parts off it, so it will be going to a good cause. As for the Fastback, I think the plan will be to repair the battery tray for a temporary fix, then rebuild the engine next summer and drive it up to Hershey for the 2004 get-together along with Wilson.

After breaking down on the side of the road the other night, I got pushed home by a kind towtruck driver who took pity on me as I was pushing the car back home. Something’s going on with the electrical system, but I can’t seem to track it down. The generator light stays on when I’m trying to start the car. It happened about a week ago, but after double-checking some connections in the engine compartment and the under the back seat, everything seemed fine. I had to work yesterday (Saturday), but today I had some time this afternoon to go and take care of some of the electrical stuff I knew was bad, and hopefully by process of elimination I’m getting closer to the problem. I started with the battery ground strap, which was in pretty bad shape. After that, I started working on the connections at the voltage regulator, which were an absolute mess as well. Someone had “fixed” one of the wires by twisting it around a hole and had then taped it into place. I took a round connector from the electrical connection kit I got today and soldered it to the wire, then properly attached it to the regulator with a screw. While I was there, I made sure all the other connections were solid. It was then that I discovered what could possibly have been my fuel pump relay problem. The cable from the relay behind the back seat to the battery positive terminal cable was almost sheared off at the battery side. It could hardly have been carrying any load at all it was so bad. I have to find a connector big enough to go through the bolt on the battery terminal now, and I’ll see if that corrects the fuel pump issue where it’s on all the time. Mind you, I’m not too confident withe the condition of the positive battery connector either, but the car seems to be getting plenty of juice, so I’m not quite as concerned about that for now. When I broke down the other night and realized that one of the starter cables was off and reattached it, it was disconnected a day later. So today I also went through those cables looking for corrosion and tried to tighten up the loose connections. One of the connectors, the one that goes on the top of the starter solenoid, came apart in my hands when I pulled it off the solenoid. It had been cut, and loosely taped together with some electrical tape. I took the boot off the old connector, cut and stripped the wire, then soldered a new female connector onto it. After that, I pushed the boot up and reconnected it. I’m having a hard time reading the electrical diagram on occasion, and I think this wire is only for the diagnostic computer hookup, so it wasn’t really vital anyway.

I guess I didn’t mention that the night after I broke down at the gas station, I broke down on the side of the road a few blocks from my in-laws? Well, this is the current problem, the one I’ve described above. I just went back and realized I hadn’t mentioned that. That night, which I believe was Thursday, I replaced the other headlight as well as the rear taillight and decided to drive Wilson home. He wouldn’t have anything to do with that, and conked out on the side of the road. It really should serve me a lesson. I knew there was a lot more work to be done on him, but I just wanted to get to drive him home for a night. I suppose I could’ve broken down a long way from home, and it would’ve been towtruck time again, but luckily I hadn’t gotten far. As much as I want to enjoy driving this time of year, I am trying to be patient and if worse comes to worse, I will have to just wait through the winter. I still have two months or so to figure out what the problem is before it’s turned in for hibernation. I’m still thinking I might actually get a garage here at the apartment over the winter as we only have a few months left on our lease. It might not be a bad investment. The car would be protected for the winter and it would be out of the way if it’s another snowy and icy winter. On the other hand, it would be close by if we got a nice day and I wanted to do some work on it. I guess I’ll wait and see how everything goes.

OK, I just got an e-mail from Jim Adney to the Type 3 list where he mentioned that it’s possible that I have a 1972 wiring harness even though I have a 1971 model car. He’s totally right, and that explains why I was having such a hard time reading the electrical diagrams. The Bentley is actually wrong, as I have a July car and it says that the 1972 wiring harness started with August 1971 cars. I just looked over the diagram a bit and all the wires that I saw today are there. Very good to know that hopefully my next visit with Wilson won’t be quite so frustrating! Actually, the more I think about it, the more I’m realizing that the car not starting at all is so much more preferable to it starting once in a while and then conking out. At least now I stand a better chance of feeling the problem has been fixed once I locate it.