The first time seeing a VW engine out of a car....

[VW Man 53]

Just this month, pulling the motor out of my 74 autostick super, pretty cool stuff, feels like a really big milestone in my relationship with these cars and training to be a mechanic as well, im just wondering the best way to get it back in and fastened to the torque converter when its ready..... ah, ill figure it out.
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You CAN save them all.

[carcass]

I was 13 (1966)-My Uncle called and asked my Dad to come over and help him do something on this little foreign car he had just picked up for $25 (it didn't run)
We went over to his house and he took us out to the garage.
In there was a little gold 58 Bug,and there was something sitting on a creeper under the back end of the odd little vehicle... my instructions were "When we lift,you pull that thing out from under the car"
So, my Dad got on one side,and my Uncle got on the other,and they lifted the rear of this pigeon toed looking little car as high as they could-my uncle said"ok roll it out!"
I grabbed the creeper and pulled the funny looking little motor out from under the car.
They sat the little car back down(which was REALLY pigeon-toed now),and My uncle said "Thanks,that's all I need".
I remember thinking that that was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen (I'd helped my dad pull the motor out of his International Scout a while before that,and THAT was a real pain in the ass compared to this)
I asked my Uncle a few questions about the little motor,and I remember his answer was "I don't know yet,but by the time we do this again,I'll have some answers for you"
A couple of months later we went over there and as they lifted,I rolled it back under the car,and we hung out while my uncle jacked the little thing back up and rolled the floor jack forward until it more or less slid back into place.
Then he installed the 2 nuts and 2 bolts that held the little thing in place,hooked up a few wires,and said"well,here goes-keep your fingers crossed"
He turned the key,and the little thing started right up-My dad told him to shut it off because "it didn't sound right"
My uncle left it running,though,came to the back of the car and gave it a listen....
He said "nope,it's fine-that's how they sound"--I remember my Dad's comment to this day..."Boy,they're a noisy little bastard,aren't they?"-and my Uncles answer was classic-"If they're not noisy like that,they're not going to run long-the valves will burn"
I decided then and there that I was going to start saving my money to get one of these odd little things when I got old enough to drive(hell,even I could afford a $25 car)
I ended up buying an 8 year old 1960 model from the dealer(Porter & Howard) for $500.00 in 1968,and I tinkered with it for about a year before I was old enough to get my license.(learned A LOT about the odd little thing in that year)
And the rest is history,as they say.

Funny thing about my Uncles little '58-he ended up keeping it for about 15 years,restoring it completely,and driving it pretty much every day-he really loved that little car-but here's the "funny" part(which is one of those things you don't laugh about till years later)
My cousin(his daughter)brought her kids over one day,and while the adults were sitting in the house visiting,the grand kids(4 and 5 years old) were "playing" in the garage(where the little Gold Bug lived)
After ten or 15 minutes,my Uncle went out to the garage to check on the little "darlings" ,and found that they'd been "playing" in the little Bug.
The unfortunate part was that they had gotten a hack saw off his workbench,and decided to "play" with it by sawing into the steering wheel ,the seat backs,the dash grab handle,and just about anything else in a Bug that can be sawed on with a hacksaw...

Amazingly enough,those kids are still alive today...
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Bug-unrestored 62 Ragtop/Anthracite/My Driver for 22 years
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Bus-Restored 67 Deluxe Walk Thru/29 years in the family

[Beetlebaum]

When my clutch went, I removed my engine--I was surprised at how big it was. I thought it would have been much smaller. It was so weird-looking. Now, I just can't wait to NOT see it out of the car!
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1973 Super Beetle
2003 New Beetle
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[NASkeet]

During Easter 1976, whilst on a package holiday in The Gambia [formerly part of British West Africa, which also included the Gold Coast (now known as Ghana), Nigeria and Sierra Leone], I had my first introduction to working on VW air-cooled engines. On a lazy afternoon, when my parents were resting, I went off to explore the grounds of the Atlantic Hotel (of traditional British colonial style; referred to in an early travel guide to The Gambia, dating from the era, when the principal town of Banjul, had been known as Bathurst), where we were staying, wherein I encountered the West German chef, working on the engine of a VW Beetle, he had somehow acquired.

Not having any axle stands, he had supported the car body, on two overturned, empty, 45 gallon oil drums, enabling him to remove the engine. Stopping to chat for a while, I ended up assisting him, in cleaning the exterior of the engine with paraffin (aka kerosene in North American parlance), by means of an old paint brush; a lesson which was to prove useful in 1983, when I removed our very oily VW Type 2 engine. Although they were built in both Nigeria and South Africa, I can only recall seeing that one air-cooled VW, during my stay in The Gambia. Most vehicles, were either Peugeot cars and pickups (built in West Africa), Landrover and Toyota Landcruiser, plus the increasingly popular, small and medium-sized Japanese trucks.
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Regards.

Nigel A. Skeet

Independent tutor (semi-retired) of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.

Much modified, RHD 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan, with the World's only decent, cross-over-arm, SWF pantograph rear-window wiper

Onetime member, plus former Technical Editor & Editor of Transporter Talk magazine
Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club (Great Britain)

http://www.vwt2oc.net

[Big Bill]

First time was in 1977, I had purchased a 66 Bug that was stuck in 4th gear. I had worked on American engines for quite a few years, but this little air cooled car really caught my attention it was so simple but so efficient. Pulled to engine and the trans. and only had to remove the cover for the hockey stick to repair the stuck in 4th problem, I was hooked. Still to this today I am amazed at these wonderful cars.

[NASkeet]

[Dampcamper]

September of 1974, I had driven my '57 bus from Yakima WA to Spokane, then South to Lewiston, Idaho to visit friends, my first road trip in it. Driving West towards Walla Walla and going up Alpowa Grade (a miniature version of The Grapevine) I had to downshift to second. This was, after all, a 36 Hp van on a long-a** grade. There was a loud noise followed by a lot of clanking - the engine was still running, but I was slowing down in a hurry. I killed the engine and got to the shoulder, rolled backwards to a wider spot and blocked the van. I had Mr. Muir's "Idiot Manual" and went through the steps, decided it was the clutch so I went to work. Never did this before but it was pretty simple on that old of a van. Blocked the engine up on a milk crate and some boards, unbolted the bumper, then the rear tin, then the engine. With the help of a couple of folks who'd stopped to see if I was OK, we rolled the van forward (uphill). There it sat, a 36 Hp VW engine. MY engine! It wasn't quite like the big black monolith and the apes in 2001 Space Odyssey, but almost. Oooh, oooh! Cue the music!
The pressure plate had disintegrated and took the throwout bearing with it. Hitched a ride into town where my friend took me to an auto parts store that actually had a VW pressure plate, disc and throwout bearing. Friend drove me back up, we put it together and back in. It was way cool, actually working on my own car and fixing it on the side of the road!
And 39 years later, I still get to do that kind of thing with my '71 daily driver van. Not a lot, just enough to keep my skills up. Funny thing is, that 1957 van seemed so OLD. Now I'm driving a 42-year old car. It's pretty beat, it's coming up on half-a-million miles (and about the tenth engine, I imagine...) but she just wants a little love and she'll keep on going. I told my grandkids that the first one who gets a socket set can have the van - after she turns half a million. I've almost got my '82 Diesel Westy "escape pod" finished on the restoration.
I turned 60 so I finally bought AAA, I got tired of having to do EVERYTHING by myself. Out in the rain. Now I'll get all fat and lazy.
Old hippies and old hippy vans...

[drs1023]

When my daughter was around 8, (she's now in her 40's) she walked into the house and her mother started ranting about the grease in her long blond hair and her filthy little hands. I heard my daughter say to her that it was OK - that she was just "slicking up" the new main bearings for my VW engine.

[KTPhil]

I was about 10 and an older neighborhood kid had the engine out of his Bug and on the bench. I was just starting to be interested in cars but just American V-8s, so that "thing" on the bench didn't look at ALL like an engine and I informed him he was wrong. He tried to get it started but it wouldn't, so I felt I proved myself right!

[Dr OnHolliday]

About 1961, I watched my dad rebuild his 1960 Porsche Continental with an Isky cam (close enuff?)
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1965 Type 1 sunroof Baja / about 70k miles on self-rebuilt '74 1600 and counting / SP heads and aftermarket valve keepers / non-doghouse shroud with external cooler and filter / 1.5 qt extended sump / Weber 32/36 DFAV progressive carb / 009 dist with Pertronix / 1.25 ratio rockers and ball adjusters / 1.5" stainless steel J-pipes and carbon steel baja exhaust