Comments on: Buying A Fixer Upper Air Cooled Volkswagen

By: Kurt

Kurt — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:24:48 +0000

Another cause for the problems you all describe could be the rubber boots on the intake manifold leaking air and leaning out your air fuel mixture. they can be changed without pulling the engine but I pulled the engine any way and wound up rebuilding the whole engine. Go figure.

By: knich

knich — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 01:44:40 +0000

I have a 1969 beetle and I cleaned the carburetor out and adjusted the timing. It starts and runs for a couple of seconds but after that it backfires and dies what do I do?

By: rferg

rferg — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:02:43 +0000

I have a 1970 Beetle and I have changed the ignition coil, plugs, and unless I hold the pedal down some what my bug sputters out….What do I do????

By: Roy Crosier

Roy Crosier — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 01:28:41 +0000

Two more tips for all owners:

Never “clean” and regap the spark plugs. REPLACE THEM! If they are platinum plugs do not use a metal gauge but a plastic one. If you have platinum plugs you should loosen them and torque them back every tune-up interval. If you don’t they may weld themselves to the head and that is a major headache that requires helicoil brand tools and inserts to fix.

If you own an aircooled, YOU MUST LEARN HOW TO ADJUST VALVES!!
Its not that difficult using some of the books that are out there. Have
any machinist show you how much “drag” a feeler gauge should have
so you get the feel of it. You can do this with any item that needs measured
in the machine shop, you don’t have to have your valves or VW there!!

By: Roy Crosier

Roy Crosier — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 01:24:04 +0000

Dorene:
You probably need new, quality, spark plug wires with new resistor ends on them where they plug into the spark plug. If you have replaced the distributor cap, you should have also replaced the rotor under the cap with the same brand as the cap.

By: Roy Crosier

Roy Crosier — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 01:21:43 +0000

Read my former posts about failure to idle. 95% of the time it is the electric solenoid cut-off valve that has failed. The purpose of the solenoid is to kill the engine when you turn off the key by choking the gasoline off in the carburetor. A quick fix is to remove the little wire, unscrew the solenoid, cut off the brass stem that has an aluminum plunger at the end. Throw away the plunger and screw the solenoid back in and reconnect the wire. You will now have to kill the engine by turning off the switch and then keeping the car in gear and letting out the clutch. This will buy you time until you can find and afford the new solenoid. To test the solenoid before surgery, turn off the key, disconnect the wire, unscrew the unit, reconnect the wire, have someone turn on the key (NOT START THE ENGINE!!) then touch the threads of the solenoid against the body of the carburetor or anything metal that is grounded. The solenoid should click and the plunger should retract. As I said, 95% of the time you will find it does not work. This was a major weak point on the pre-1975 models.

By: Billy Bishop

Billy Bishop — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 20:45:10 +0000

Have a 74 beetle w/rebuilt carb. runs excellent,but when stopping at light ect. the engine willnot idle/dies every time. made all kinds of adjustments. to no avail.

By: tonyvw

tonyvw — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:43:07 +0000

vw is a reallove story
i have thru the years had a lot of different makes of cars but the only one i spoke about was my first one a 1963 6 volt beetle oh my God what fun we had in that car i then owned 3 beetles after the 63 so i held on to a live long promose i made myself 3 years ago i got a 72 1200 orange beetle which i stroed down to the last nut and bolt and rebuilt it all again
boy am i proud of my vw am looking foreword to this summer to take my baby to all the
summer shows so i say to anyone who are starting out to restore a vw enjoy ever moment of
oily hands and skint knockels its well worth it and just like this web no matter where you go you will allways find members of the vw family who are allways willing to help
i am a member of eircooled in ireland we have a site on the web
keep the bugs on the road

By: 67 Type-1

67 Type-1 — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 15:55:32 +0000

To own a VW,is to love a VW.
Just like the ads used to say,”It’s not a car,It’s a Volkswagen.”
(o\_|_/o)

By: Ivan Nino

Ivan Nino — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 01:02:11 +0000

I have a mexican bug here in the US, (please dont ask me how I brought it here) The issue is that Im trying to do a tune up on the car but my mexican bug will not work with any OBD scanner, it has a 3 connection scanner. I tried several mechanics and even an import specialist but the only thing they told me is that I have to take it to Mexico for repair! Any suggestions? thanks