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Sat Sep 06, 2008 7:46 pm

Those of us that have driven and worked on VWs for any length of time have made some real bonehead mistakes. What were they? They may even prevent other newbees from doing the same. I know that everyone who is a so called vw expert here on Samba must have made some of the most colossal ones. Maybe a problem with and engine you built or other repair job or maybe a dumb driving incident, lets here it.

My story, which is not colossal but more in the bonehead category, involved towing my 1965 beetle. We had just pulled out of the driveway when the passenger side front dropped and I heard a grinding noise. Just like on Herbie I saw my tire roll off into the ditch. I couldn't help but laugh because all I had to do was find a few lug nuts that fell off and put the tire back on and I was on my way, no damage to report.

Another mistake that just about stops my heart when I think of it was when I was moving and had my bug on a car trailer behind a Rider moving truck. We were going about 55mph on I-75 and the trailer came off and was fishtailing all over the road being held only by the safety chains. ':shock:'

ALWAYS MAKE SURE THE BALL IS LOCKED IN THE HITCH ON THE TRAILER!!! And always attach the safety chains. Those things really do work!

Whew! I feel so much better now. ':|'

Dave

Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:15 pm

I towed a '71 bug home (about 40 miles) with
the steering locked. It didn't hurt the bug, but
it bent the crap out of my tow bar pin. :oops:

Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:19 pm

Probably the worst mistake I made was welding a rear fender onto a Ghia that wasn't the best donor metal. It came free with the car when I bought it at the junkyard and it came off of the best Ghia they had at the time aside from mine but it had some rust bubbles in the outer wheel arch. I just took the bubbles off with a grinder and welded it on. Now the outer wheel arch and both lower sections of the fender need to be replaced. I should have held out for a better fender. The decklid and door they gave me also turned out to be junk.

Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:22 am

mistakes?? never. :^o

Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:25 pm

mistakes... selling some parts I shouldn't have......

Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:51 pm

how about not torquing one of the rocker arms and have it fall off on the highway only to die on a set of railroad tracks. I just pushed it to the side of the road and hand tightened them to limp it to my buddy's shop about half a mile a way. Inspected it and torqued and still was able to make it to class in time.

X2 on the wheel coming of (at a low speed)

X2 on the stupid trailer coming off. Went over a rail road crossing and had it pop off the ball and slid under the truck (thank god for safety chains)

this was about ten or so years ago.

Sun Sep 07, 2008 1:27 pm

Cross the safety chains so that they keep the tongue out of the asphalt.
It is the law in WA.

I suppose mine would have been the time I rebuilt the engine on a car that had dropped a valve BAD.
I forgot to clean out the intake manifold.
The customer was standing there when I fired the engine the first time. He heard all the racket.
I had to take the customer home and tear the engine down again.

Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:50 am

attempted to tune some weber 40's - had the neighbor kid watch the engine as i fired it up - the kid yelled "there's fire everywhere!" - luckily nothing caught on fire...massive backfiring from completly wrong timing...no aircleaners on carbs either...

was tuning a solex carb in the garage and went to fire it up not realizing the car was in gear with emergency brake off - luckily a cabinet abosrbed the impact rather than the garage wall

Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:12 am

not adjusting my valves on my first VW ever.

Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:25 pm

towing the bus home and not realizing it blew a rear tire half way there until we got home.

Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:45 pm

Jamming with my ipod earbuds in both ears and forgetting to shift out of third down the road. Didn't notice until the next red light when I went to gear down from 4th...... and it was already in third? :shock:

Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:14 pm

Fired it up after an oil change.

Well, after HALF an oil change.

The drain half, not the fill half. "What's that dash light on for?"

Fortunately the motor wasn't without lube, but I was lucky. I don't want to be on one of those Castol Syntec ads where the engine is run dry until it blows.

Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:15 pm

I have a couple...once I was changing my oil...had the pan under there, lettin' it drain...ran inside to grab a drink. Came back out and added my three quarts of oil...never put the drain plug back in...pretty cool.
Other one..I was replacing a split style swing axle boot...ya know...with all the little screws and washers holding the seam...I thought, man it woudl be easier to slip in on the axle, then screw it all together with it low on the axle...towards the drum ...then once it was seamed up...just slide it up to the trans and secure it with the clamps. It would have worked great if I had the boot on correctly! I had the large opening of the boot towards the drum...what a dumb azz! Theres been other stupid things that I have done too, probably to much to list. Ahh, how 'bout a quick one....forgetting to torque your fly wheel...yep, that sux.

JGW.

Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:48 am

anthracitedub wrote:
Other one..I was replacing a split style swing axle boot...ya know...with all the little screws and washers holding the seam...I thought, man it woudl be easier to slip in on the axle, then screw it all together with it low on the axle...towards the drum ...then once it was seamed up...just slide it up to the trans and secure it with the clamps. It would have worked great if I had the boot on correctly! I had the large opening of the boot towards the drum...what a dumb azz!....

that reminds me when i first got my split bus I removed those rubber boots (they were all tore up anyways) and proceeded to refill my transmission fluid. I was confused about the fluid that constantly pooled under the bus...

Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:07 pm

My brother and I were towing my 65 bug from nashville to LA back in 81. It was about 10 at night and we were a hundred miles from nashville on
I-40 and saw thick white smoke coming from behind the bug (going 65 MPH) one of the wheel nuts spun off and the only reason the wheel didnt spin off into oblivion is because the rear was lowered..

We were stuck all night on the side of the road and half the next day until we found a junkyard 60 miles away that had an axle nut. The moral of the story is do not tighten your axle nut with a pair of channel locks.

Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:11 pm

I bought a post '67 bug once.

Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:57 pm

Bought a '67 bus, checked the oil that day, all was good. Drove it for about three weeks, didn't realize former owner wired the oil and gen lights together to both light from the GEN!!! Or that the bus either burned a boat load of oil, or had a really bad oil leak. I think you can see where this one is going...

On the freeway, 65 MPH, started to hear a grinding noise from the back. As I'm pulling over to check it out, BOOM, big noise from the back and nothing but smoke in my rear view mirror.

I had always heard about "throwing a rod" but this is the first time I ever saw one come through the case!!!! The small amount of oil left was so hot that it was on fire!

Took the Dellortos off of it and sold it for $300 less than I bought it for!! :)

Thu Sep 11, 2008 10:45 pm

Welded all day with a MIG in shorts...Got BAD burn from arc on my legs.

Welding and getting very hot, raised hood....my arm was on fire :?

Putting Volvo seats in Karmann Ghia...looked great but I couldn't fit in the car.

Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:48 am

kfschatz@earthlink.net wrote: Welded all day with a MIG in shorts...Got BAD burn from arc on my legs.

did the same thing in short sleeves once (and only once)...

also was using an angle grinder to cut some tubing and had the tubing clamped between my legs...after carfully untwineing the angle grinder from my jeans I was happy to report that i still had both testicles!

Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:36 pm

when i was real young and just starting on my first bug i used duct tape to patch my choke wire, after it grounded out i learned electricity 101, plus to keep fire ext in car. i can look back and laugh now but that was pretty dumb