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Tue Oct 21, 2003 8:51 am

Okay, I can't take it any longer.

That silly little 1" pipe that sticks out of the shroud in front of the breather - what does it actually do? I haven't found any reference to it the the Bentley book, or anywhere else.

I thought it must have something to do with the breather, but it is just bolted into the solid part of the breather stand.

Somebody rescue my sanity :crazyeyes:

Tony

Tue Oct 21, 2003 9:27 am

That's the rear engine hanger for '68 and earlier (swing-axle) vehicles.

They had a big metal thing there to mount it to:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/scrapbook/66t34/07152003/engine.jpg

Tue Oct 21, 2003 9:27 am

I think is was used an an engine mounting point on the swing-axle models. It is not used for anything on the IRS models that I know of; it just sits there on my 1970 Squareback.

Tue Oct 21, 2003 1:05 pm

Hey, thanks guys. That makes some sense.

Now I just wonder why they kept putting them on IRS cars. I guess it makes a nice handle.

Tue Oct 21, 2003 4:21 pm

Because VW kept on producing swing axle type3s for other countries. By leaving it there, VW didn't have to either remove or add it when they were building the cars. For them, the added expense was cheaper than the labor or inventory problem it would have caused, especially since the bolt still had to be there.

Wed Oct 22, 2003 9:23 am

Here's another dumb question to ask- how do you take it off? I have a '67 fastback body I want to mate to the '69 squareback pan and engine I have, and the two don't share engine mounts.

Wed Oct 22, 2003 9:35 am

I just man handled it and it came right off. They are just spot welded on and if you a larger drill bit and take a couple of thousandths deep (Not drill through) it will pop right off.

Wed Oct 22, 2003 4:54 pm

It has a 13mm bolt head (8mm bolt) inside that tube. You might want to temporarily install it when you do your IRS conversion. It will help align the engine and trans, and allow you to get a measurement for your new eginine hanger mounts. I had to do this on my 65 Notch when I converted it to IRS. I just left it in place, and added some modified Squareback mounts that were welded to the body. It came out looking pretty good when I was done. Others have used the bumper brackets to hold a set of mounts to hold the engine hanger. VW Trends even showed using late bug trans mounts (bolted to the body) and angle iron clips to hang the engine on. I tried this method at first, but within a year the mounts started to split. I hope this helps.